491 and Puking Dogs versus puking Children

Bloggers can be as self effacing as Mother Theresa when it comes to their readers, but generally the truth remains that we all are quite flattered when we notice our readership avatars increasing in number.

My followers now number a smidgen over 490. Of course only a fraction of these characters actually call in regularly to read the exploits of an over-the-hill poultry owner, but I am shallow enough to be giddy as a kipper when I finally reach my 500th follower?

I guess that we all need to be listened to in this strange game of life .

And bloggers being for the most part more mature than your average computer geek means that we are perhaps just that little more attentive to each other .

Generally it is a medium of good manners

(I DID say generally Thomas)

Anyhow today's post is a kind of thankful one.

Last night around 5am I was woken by some heavy breathing and the sound of retching.

It was George, who in Chris' absence had sneaked up to rest his head on the pillows.

A quick retch

A brief throw up of something unimanagable 

A smack of the lips and then back to sleep

Dogs are so much easier than children.

No wailing

No tears

No need for soothing words and a washing up bowl splashed liberally with dettol.

Just a brief pat on the head

And the disguesting job of cleaning up that corner of the duvet

When you finally wake up properly three hours later!
Oh and yes you can leave them unsupervised in a cold kitchen for a couple of hours if the need arises

Happy Birthday Joanne

Not everyone in the village has the rugged "Lee Marvin" good looks of the RFWF
As most of the village grey hairs would attest to, we are not overly blessed with Trelawnyd characters that possess Hollywood good looks, though affable despot Jason IS sporting a new Tom Cruise "Mission Impossible" haircut!
Having said this, there is one local pin up gal that still seems to possess the skill to turn the head of any red blooded male at the driving wheel of any passing tractor, and that gal is the delightful Joanne whose birthday it is today!
It would be ungallant of me to mention exactly which Birthday celebration it is, suffice to say that Joanne still has many many years of Zumba marathons left under her belt.
Here is a portrait of  her taken during her "Dynasty" period....the cameraman who snapped the shot was no other than Patrick John Anston , 5th Earl of Lichfield.
Who says we are all country bumpkins?

QI? What do you think?

I have just re read my latest ( and now deleted ) post detailing a tea bag incident in the Jacob's Ladder cafe this morning.
Apart from the phase "I like my coffee as strong as Montserrat Cabelle's knicker elastic" which I thought was a particulary delightful line,
The whole thing was as interesting as thrush.
Gawd, I need to stop writing shit

Life Of Pi

I was not a fan of 3D ( i generally find that it confuses the senses )but I must admit that I am now

I doubt I will ever experience such a pure cinematic event as LIFE OF PI again, for it is truly an innovative,wonderfully crafted and intensely beautiful Work of art rather than just a mere movie. A movie which depicts the amazing physical and spiritual survival journey of a young ship wrecked Indian student.

I went with an open mind and I was totally and utterly moved by the sheer overwhelming nature of it all

Eric the "lucky"

Blogger seems to be playing up at the moment
My blog template has gone to shit
Here is a video I took today of Eric the tiny bantam cockerel who had just been attacked by what I suspect was a sparrow hawk
It took off his tail feathers....
Forgive my babbling narration

Home Alone

Now with Chris being away so often, I guess a couple of you may be wondering just what I get up to when home alone

well here are a few examples of today's treats :-

x 2 !!!!!!

then

Miranda (The Dinner Party episode)

Chris detests her

This episode was hilarious

Then the Anglo-Irish

Monster/comedy/horror film

Grabbers

Which was a cracking watch

Just stopped for a dog wee stop, blog moment and a cuppa

Then I intend to day dream to some epic music

(I mentally play scenes from the movie which I have planned in my head)

Chris hates this kind of thing too

Then I think I will have another

 a phonecall to friends

as I sit in front of the fire in my underpants and

t shirt

Yes a border line mentally ill/geek

and why not?

Oh I will watch the new first episode of Borgen
(a cracking Danish Political drama)

Beach Morning

Chris is away for most of the week, so again it's me and the animals and a bout of prolonged rain.
Before the bad weather closed in, I took the opportunity for a beach walk this morning

It never fails to surprise me that the Beach at Prestatyn is always so deserted
Although the town is really only a stones throw from the promenade, very few of the recorded 18 thousand population seem to make the effort to enjoy the miles of sand and sea .

Very odd.

Anyhow, the dogs enjoyed the gallop. Their obvious joy always makes me smile

Prestatyn Beach. just 2.5 miles away from Trelawnyd

Bright button eyed George

William

Meg in need of a haircut

George off the Ground

Shame

The other night I had an interesting conversation with a friend about the notion of shame.
It was on the back of a situation when one of his neighbours, high on drink or/and drugs had a fist fight with another woman in the street, and even though police were called, and all of the other neighbours had been involved, the self limiting emotion of public shame was not enough to limit this antisocial behaviour to something more "manageable"
Shame is only an effective boundary marker , when you feel you are a part of a community that you effectively care about. That community may be family and peer based (the "new" mini communities of the new age) or it could mean the community in which you live.
Unfortunately, the wider definition of the word "community" no longer exists for many of us, and without having a respected audience for bad behaviour, shame and the feelings of being ashamed are rapidly disappearing.
There is perhaps still something to be said for that knowing, tight-lipped shake of the head by the local battle axe senior, when your front room net curtains had been left to go grey.

The other day I found bottles of beer that had been left on the church wall. I knew who had left them, I had seen the culprits downing them in the street the night before, so like an over-the-hill, self proclaimed super hero, I picked them up and lobbed them over a nearby privet hedge back into the garden where the "drinkers" hailed from.
Would the owners of the bottles be shamed by my passive aggressive antics?
Of course they wouldn't
but it did give me a brief moment of satisfaction