In-Laws

MIL fighting the terriers

My father died way back in 1990 (apparently he was telling a joke at the breakfast table) and my mother died in 2002 (probably after having a sneaky fag on the fire escape of her nursing home)  Relationships with them, I must admit were somewhat tempestuous throughout my late teens and early adult life, but before they died, I was lucky enough to resolve many of those cracked and knotty issues laid down during my salad days.

Of course I have inherited a couple of parent in-laws since then. 

And I am lucky enough to be blessed with having good relationships with both 

They are nice people. 

FIL "pointing"

If you really think about it,getting to know your partner's parents is a totally artificial experience.

Initially they aren't friends, they are perfect strangers,  and are ageing adults that  only have one other person in common with you. Your relationships with them could be fraught with history issues, conflict of attitudes , competitive urges and insecurities, or you could be lucky enough to become friends with two people who are actually responsible with the hairy-arsed despot that you have ended up sharing your life with.

I am lucky enough to be in the "hairy-arse" camp.

Having in-laws, in my experience is an easy and enjoyable sort of job. Neither camp possess any of the normal psychological baggage that is a child and parent relationship, so we can buffer and bookend our mutual loved one in the middle,so to speak

We are something separate. 

Thank the Lord that we get on.....

off to bed for an hour....working tonight!

St Asaph

Heartbreaking floods have affected nearby St Asaph terribly

One elderly woman has been killed and hundreds have had to leave their homes

My Eldest sister's son has a garage business in the town which is now under feet of dirty water
See video 
my nephew's garage is on the far left of the photo

and there's me banging on about a couple of guinea fowl

so sad

Constants

We have been lucky. 

Only a few miles East but 600 feet above the flood plain near St Asaph, The village is safe from the floods which seem to be taking taking priority in the National News.

The land has taken a battering, and on a tiny domestic level so have a few of the animals, as this year has been the wettest and the most miserable on record.

Yesterday, I noticed that the guinea fowl looked miserable and cowed against the rain. Unlike the other animals, they alone have braved the elements 24/7 without any respite, and after a summer and autumn where they have been drenched and cold most days, the poor birds were looking tired, and out of condition.

I mentioned to my FIL (father-in-law) that I was worried about the male guinea, Hughie the most, as he looked the weakest. and although both birds made it to their roosting tree last night, I worried about their future as yet another dreadful and blustery night lashed the field.

This morning both birds had gone.

I walked the Churchyard and the field at dawn and found two telltale patches of speckled feathers. Obviously Hughie, had been unable to roost effectively in the rainstorm last night and  the had been taken from the ground, sometime during the night. His mate Ivy, who looked fitter and healthier than he did was no where to be seen, a fact I thought surprising.

Idly, I wondered if she had come down off her tree, (which she had been safe from predators for several years now ) to be with Hughie at the end. Perhaps  loyalty to her mate had been her last in-vain gesture.

The dog fox would have taken both birds, without even a pause.

We are lucky here. We have had no floods, no evacuation from our home and none of the Nation's news teams clogging up the wet roads in order to report on a local interest story..... There has been no drama to really talk about....

All we have had is just to sad little patches of feathers marking the death of a couple of semi wild birds who sat as constant security guards over a small wet field in our corner of Wales for a few short years.

I know it sounds stupid, but before I packed up my FIL to take him down to the station for his long trip back home, I stopped briefly in the rain and shed just one tear for two old loyal birds who couldn't cope with yet another wet , cold and miserable season

The Poseidon Adventure (on land)

It's all looking very much like a scene from one of those 1970 disaster movies.

The field is sodden.Everywhere is flooding and I must look like a butch Shelley Winters in my delightfully masculine plastic waterproof pantaloons!

Great pools of water lie on the surface of the grass sorry mud, and several of the coops in the Ukrainian village ( sorry Ukrainian "willage") are lying on unsuitably waterlogged marshland.

The Field at Dawn this morning

I moved two houses to more suitable positions yesterday and am about to brave the Somme-like conditions to shift a couple more before I make the menfolk their breakfasts.(visions of Doris Day anyone?)

The birds won't be let out for a while this morning...around 7am I heard the gate clatter in it's lock and looked out of the window to see a huge dog fox standing in the mid ground, just beyond the stone wall.

He had jumped the gate!

That was one big bugger I can tell you.

I "hissed" at him and he fled before the ewes stomped their way into view 

Another threat to add to mother nature's brickbats
hey ho

An Early Christmas

Christmas Dinner Hysteria has arrived early at Bwthyn-y-llan

I have already burnt the pork crackling

Albert has managed to squish two paws already into a dish of stuffing.

and f*ck knows where I've put the honey covered parsnips 

Father -in-law has been promised a home cooked, home "grown" pig dinner with ALL the trimmings

and a full pork dinner with all the trotters he will receive

Now where's me gin ?

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Postscript  ( written two and a half hours later)

The pork, as it turned out was absolutely lovely.... a real tribute to number 12 and number 21 who we culled last winter!

strangely enough there was plenty of apple, sage and onion stuffing left over!
strange that! 

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pps I am not known for my acting ability

Useless Little Buggers

Yesterday I collected a young Rhode Island Red from a woman I know in Prestatyn. She has now been installed with Annie, the lonely Marran, and the two are getting on as well as Cameron and Clegg did during those first few Honeymoon days of the coalition!

When I got home, another poultry keeper I know was parked next to the field. I spied a small cardboard box on the passenger seat and couldn't miss the "can you just?"  expression on their face.

Five useless, but decorative little pekins have now joined the field population

Happy Days

The only problem when you have to "kill the dead. and fear the living" is that there is seldom much good news.But at least Carol has been found alive and has been given the Rhett Butler treatment by all round good guy, the redneck asperger, Daryl.

hey ho.....I suspect the producers of The Walking Dead won't go a bundle on my recent suggestion of a bit of a lighter episode once in a while?

When It's Your Own................

Yesterday I went with my sister-in-law and my twin sister to visit eldest sister in hospital.

Luckily we negotiated the only clear part of the gridlocked A55 during another reported "wettest day of the year", leaving behind a semi flooded field, some miserable looking wet hens and 8 hysterically happy Indian runner ducks paddling in the downpour.

Even though I have been a nurse nearly thirty years, my experience with private health care has been minimal, so I was intrigued to see what a private hospital actually looked and felt like, albeit from the perspective of a visitor.

Apart from the slightly claustrophobic feel of the building, the spacious single rooms and the state of the art free coffee machine in the foyer, the unit was exactly what I expected. 

Prim reception staff in their executive uniforms, cheerful non- harassed nurses and doilies on the tea trays  gave the hospital the look of a mid range modern hotel and when we found our somewhat pale and shattered patient, who was now feeling the more uncomfortable side effects of a major orthopaedic operation, I was so glad that she had oped for the private route.

Now don't get me wrong, the nhs, (an organisation I have been a part of for most of my adult life) does provide a good standard of care in most areas of it's primary health care provision. and in the areas I have had direct experience of ( namely spinal Injuries in Sheffield and Intensive care in Wales) the quality of care has been second to non. BUT ( and there IS a but here) when I saw the usual "bon vivre" missing from my sister's face I was so glad that she wasn't crammed into a busy hospital bay of six beds over seen by one overworked staff nurse and a physiotherapist who had three hip replacement patients to assess before lunch.

Do you get where I am coming from?
Course you do

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Father in law will be arriving in a few hours and "operation dog snot removal" has now been completed to my satisfaction.

A casserole is cooking , I am just off to buy some flowers for the table (and will pick up a couple of coop mates for the lonely Annie when I do so)

and I have just polished the cottage coal dust from the woodwork in the sitting room, leaving the sweet faint smell of wax around the house!

The place looks lovely

oh

apart from a sudden pile of mouse body parts which have been regurgitated in the centre of the lounge carpet..............

I give up