Thank You Carnival Committee

Our Broadband has been down, as has the phone.

I have been car-less, phone-less and internet-less over the past few days, and feel, just a little, that I have been transported back to a Trelawnyd of years gone by….

When the word “blog” was a mere spelling mistake!

So please forgive the hiatus…

Yesterday an impressive looking box arrived on the doorstep. Inside were a small collection of tiny English oak saplings, a leftovers present from Trelawnyd’s Carnival committee, who had obtained a whole wood of these little trees as part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.

(The Woodland Trust donated literally thousands of these saplings to ensure that scores of Golden Jubilee woodlands would be planted up all over the UK)

The Flower Show Committee, of which I am Chair, supported the re-emergence of the Carnival wholeheartedly and made a donation towards their expenses last year. Subsequently they have supported The Flower Show’s wish to plant some British saplings in the “bald spots” of the Churchyard by presenting us with some of their own saplings

It’s good natured mutual support.

That’s what community should be all about in my book.

You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

The oak saplings are tiny and delicate so I have just planted them in my own allotment in order for them to become a little more robust.

Only when they can fend for themselves so to speak, will I transfer them to their final resting place in the old graveyard.

Shiver Me Timbers

Sometimes I think I do live in a kind of rural pantomime.

This morning the RFWF roared past the cottage in his red landrover

He was leaning out of the window with a big grin and looked remarkably like Robert Newton from Treasure Island

"I have found you a ram!" he called out

( I wouldn't have been surprised if he would have added 

"me hearties!!!" whilst waving his cutlass out of the window.

 

I would love to be a "bit of a character"

Not "mad enough to be termed an eccentric"

But mad enough to be seen as "interesting,"

  and different.

It will never happen because I think I am just too bland

But I am working on it.

Years ago, when I was a bank clerk, I recall serving  a rather unkempt lady who we the Nat West Bank staff helpfully described as "nutty as Marathon bar"

(It was renamed Snickers years later btw)

I remember her withdrawing a couple of hundred pounds from her account, which she carefully counted in front of me and then , with slow deliberation, she lifted her blouse and stuffed the 40 five pound notes around the circumference of her bra

As she finished she suddenly thought of something , then retrieving one  crumpled five pound note she asked me for one bag of mixed silver

"Do you know where I am going to put that?" she cackled

"I hesitate to ask" I remember saying

And with a smile she started to feed the coins into a Remembrance collection tin on the bank's counter

After an age, she took all of the plastic poppies out of the tray and went around the bank presenting all of the waiting customers and staff with a flower each.

Eccentric or mentally ill?

who knows..

But I recall she made for a more interesting morning on a drab Welsh morning in Rhyl in 1980

Autumn In The Village

A Brace of Wild Ducks left on a gate

Bonc Terrace above Chapel Street

Sign Outside the Village Hall

The Church ( during Sunday Service- they were singing the hymns when I was there)

The old Chapel (which was a market Hall in 1700)

A lazy blog today.

A walk and a few photos

Rare blue skies

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Short post as I am ust a little jaded

Up late watching The Walking Dead (twice) my fault!

then woken up at 5am as Chris couldn't sleep and was reading the news on his ipad

I am back to work on night shift tonight after a whole month away from intensive care (I had holiday time to take)so if I don't get some quality REM sleep, my eyeballs are going to resemble two fried eggs in a bucket of blood if I am not careful.

So I have a plan

Chris kindly is going to do the shopping,

I am going to walk the dogs

Then I am going back to bed.

Don't expect a great deal from me for most of the day

Poncho

I am changing my image

A poncho on the field?

waddu think?

"Yo! Morse!"

Pittsburgh A lovely city

This blogging thing cracks me up.

I post a throwaway post outlining a somewhat nauseating segment about anal sacs and

BAM!

43 COMMENTS RIGHT OFF!

I think we have all found our level.

Anyway it may surprise you to read that I can be rather squeamish especially when eye and finger injuries are concerned.

Of course I am generally not at work.

I was taught many years ago, when you are faced with something unpalatable on the ward

SQUINT A LITTLE AND ALWAYS BREATH THROUGH YOUR MOUTH.

It works.

Try It.

Many years ago I had the opportunity to go to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania on some work experience. As an observer I arranged to see the acute spinal injury care within several health care facilities around the city and in one slightly surreal moment I found myself in the ER of a huge teaching hospital watching the massively complicated multidisciplinary care of a guy who had sustained multiple gunshots injuries in a drive by shooting.

I have never seen so much gore in my life, and politely kept well out of the way until my guide, a doctor wanted to point out to me one of the more juiciest gunshot wounds in the minutest detail.

I declined with a smile and for some reason, in way of explanation I actually said to a hushed room

"No thank you..I'm English*!"

Yes.....I can be a real pussy!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* btw
I used to get the bus every morning from my lodgings in the old Polish quarter of Pittsburgh into the city centre and the passengers,(predominantly black service workers) got used to this slightly gauche Brit fumbling about with his dollar bills at the ready. and used to call out hellos when I got on.
They were not used to meeting many English people and used to refer to me as "Morse" which always tickled me greatly ( the tv detective was popular there in 1991)

Did I or didn't I?

Halloween is over, thank the lord.

My carved pumpkin (Our one and only tribute to Jamie Lee Curtis), has been placed on the field for the geese to "de-brain" and the cheapo sweets I bought ready to palm off on any little bugger who ventured towards chez "Bwthyn-y-llan" last night, have been left uneaten in the bowl in the kitchen.

It was bloody cold and wet last night.so no kid with half a brain would have ventured out dressed like zombie.......mind you if they did have half a brain...they would actually BE a zombie.....

never mind.

It is a day for small, jobs.

I've made butternut squash soup,prepared  a casserole, planted out bulbs and cleaned windows......oh and I have given William's anal glands a cracking good squeeze on the kitchen table, which was the high point of the day for him and a rather unpleasant low point one for me!

Incidentally I found instructions just how to do this delightful job on the net

I really should have worn gloves!

Then I went out and picked the last of the raspberries!

The Question remains.....

Did I wash my hands between Jobs?

do you know what?

I can't quite remember

It's my age

Eat Your Heart out Tony Blair

You can tell that the standing  Women's Institute speaker in the above photo is in fact me, mainly because she has a large gravy stain all down her front!

Today I know I have have "made it!"

My life is now complete!

I have given my first talk to an appreciative group of the Rhyl WI

I must admit everyone seemed to enjoy  my brief lecture, and even the lady with the hearing aid seemed to keep up with me, though I am sure I babbled on a little quickly for her.
Perhaps they were being rather polite
as the talk subject
" a history of the gay hotspots of South Yorkshire"
 could have been just a little racy for them !
anyhow
Weaver Of Grass 

you were mentioned!!!!

I left before they sang Jerusalem

It would have made me cry

ps I was joking about the "hotspots"