Victims of the Recession

The new girls in their tempory run

Yesterday a rather sullen poultry owner called John called at the cottage
His five tame hens ( 2 warrens and 3 delicate silkies) needed a new home. The credit crunch and the recession that we hear about every single day has visited his home with a vengeance and through no fault of his own, he has had to up sticks and move to where the work is.
North Wales is a pretty place to live.
But like many rural areas, jobs are not two-a-penny.
I Felt very sorry for the chap.
His birds were beautifully cared for and healthy and before he left, I made sure that his warrens had rings on their legs, so that if he or his wife visited again ( he said they would like to) he would be able to recognise his own hens amid the main flock.
I have read that due to this bloody awful recession we now find ourselves in, animal abandonment and cruelty is at an all time high.
At least these five have found their way to the Trelawnyd safe haven thanks to their caring owner

The weather has closed in again....this rain is seriously pissing me off

Llanasa WI

When you're ready

They were a lovely audience

Only one lady fell asleep

Thank you
You was class

Birdy Coonan Was Right

'What a story......'

My favourite film of all time is ALL ABOUT EVE. In my dreams I live a life where wisecracking one liners, waspish divas and suave villains are the order of the day.

It's a common day dream of middle aged old queens.

As a favour to animal helper Pat ( who is high up on the Women's Institute hierarchy table) I am giving a talk to the Llanasa WI branch this evening.

The subject will be " blogging" in general and " Going Gently" more specifically 

and as usual I have left my preparation rather late in the day.

As I was bucketing water into the ducks' paddling pool this morning I stopped briefly to go through a rough version of my introdction, and the animals, who at that time are not used to me even farting once let alone spouting a whole pile of 'prose' in their direction, all stopped what they were doing to listen carefully to what I was up to.

I had just covered my " blogging as therapy " line when I caught sight of the Ewes  giving me a quizzical stare and all I could think of was Thelma Ritter's famous one liner in All About Eve, which perhaps sums me up more than any other

WHAT A STORY!.....EVERYTHING BUT THE BLOODHOUNDS SNAPPING AT HER REAR END

For Cro

Cro asked me to post a video of other parts of the village, so that he could get a mental picture of the place a little more. I made the mistake of trying to take a few clips this afternoon as I waited for the dog groomer to do her thing.
Forgive the poor quality film making, I was trying to hold an armful of flower show schedules, two dogs as well as trying to fend off 'French' comments ( why French?)  from affable despot Jason who caught me filming down Chapel street!

Yes, not known for my sparkling delivery

                                                 

10 km in Llandudno

Chris( centre) starting the race with 600 fellow health freaks

Chris at the half way point

We had no major mishaps.....a bit of pre run nerves and a quick wee in the back of the berlingo, and Chris was off with the best of them...As you can see the weather was not kind, but he managed the 10 km distance in a very respectable 1 hour 1 minute.

10k

Be Prepared

Chris is taking part in his first 10k run today.
I will post a few photos a bit later
However the weather is atrocious
so I am just preparing a few things

Extra Warm Jacket (tick)
Flask of warming hot coffee( tick)
Thermal gloves and scarf and blogger sent handwarmers ( check)
Lip salve for chapped lips,( check)
Energy boosting nibbles (check)
mobile phone (check)
Wet wipes (check)
Toilet paper! (Check)
Mini radio (check)

RIGHT, THAT'S ME ALL SET

Dunno what Chris is up to.

A Lonely Day?

Chris always asks me if I have heard from anyone during the day
my stock answer is " no not really..".
But the truth of the matter can be quite different.
The weather yesterday was fine but cold. and so before the expected cold front clash hits home, I spent most of my time cleaning out poultry houses. It was a case of making hay when the sun shone...and so I thought I had spent much of the day totally devoid of human contact
On reflection I couldn't be more wrong.
"D" rang and left some good news she had found her cat! ( she had asked me to have a look around the field to see if the little sod had got himself lost. ) She sounded light and rather thankful.
That was yesterday morning.
The RFWF sped past waving a pudgy hand out of his landrover and yelled something unintelligible whilst cackling like loon (I  counted that as a humorous contact- he is sounding ( and looking )more and more like an old pirate every day.
Gentleman Ralph's wife slowed her car to ask me how my cold was getting on and Mr B walked over as I had my head in the goose house for a chat and to buy some eggs.
Mrs X (the lady with memory problems) rang to thank me for the eggs I dropped off to her and repeated the same message she had left twice before. I promised to call today, she sounded brighter too.
Mrs F stopped for a chat as I interrupted my work to walk the dogs as did Mr M, who walked with me down high street with his two mutts when I was on my way home. We were stopped by "gay Gordon" ( a nickname which stems purely from his ever cheerful demeanour BTW) who always delights in making a fuss of the dogs.
Farmer Basil, Graham the sheep , Mr J and Mrs Trellis all said hello as I pass them on the way home and before the light faded on the field a chap called John popped in to ask if I could re home some warrens and a couple of silkies... He "heard through the grapevine" that I may be able to help.
We chatted for an age before I had to go and pick up Chris from the station....
As usual he asked me
" have you seen anyone today?"
And as usual I replied ..................
" no, .......not really!"

Not a soul in sight

" Get'im"

George willing the hens to run for it

We have two postmen in the village that tend to work opposite to each other. One is a round faced postie who likes his grub and another is a round faced postie that likes his dogs. Both are cheerful kinds of souls that have learnt over the years not to stick their fingers through our letter box.

They know jolly well that the dogs enjoy a brief game of tug of war with the post.It's a little constant that brightens up their day.

Yesterday, I wasn't firing on one cylinder let alone all of them, and so I forgot to shut the back door when I was catching up with some serious nose blowing and spluttering The dogs had spotted my mistake and knowing jolly well that the postie was due, they all laid in wait for him to arrive.

The first thing I really knew what was going on was when I heard the 'clink' of the garden gate. The Postman , seeing the open door had just reached out to lay the letters on the floor when the dogs woofed a collective and very excited  ' GET HIM!' Woof.

Of course it was all done in jest, but  he was not privy to the rules of the game, and as I rushed into the kitchen ,the postie was legging it down the path with the  pack of terriers  baying joyfully at his heels.

It was a round faced postman that liked dogs that was on duty....and I can honestly say that I have never seen such a big man move so fast before in my life!

He reached the second gate within three seconds and slammed it shut behind him after he shot through it like a rat up a drainpipe. He then did what all men do when they feel slightly embarrassed, he laughed , went all nonchalant like and said " I'm not frightened of them, I know they wouldn't hurt me"

The dogs were all milling around,jumping up for a head rub by that time and I tried to help in save face a bit by saying that no one should take a chance with a dog that they didn't know.

" I'll have to put this all down on my risk assessment form" the postman said cheerfully when he got his breath back

" do you know I have to make a risk assessment out about every dog at every house on my round from next week ?" He added

" you may be a busy man" I told him