Old People And Pets

Yesterday was Bright and warm, unlike today which is cold and damp, and I was glad of having the berlingo as I called over to the RFWF's farm with some flowers for his family. The funeral service will be held on Tuesday at the large marble church in nearby Bodelwyddan ( go on pronounce that one) I suspect a large number of fellow red faced Welsh Farmers will be attending and our tiny church here in Trelawnyd just cannot cater for a large congregation.....especially if the weather is somewhat "difficult"

Another funeral to attend...it's the way of the world when you have older friends I suppose....I am reminded of what one of the youngest  and shall we say, less sensitive of my colleagues said to me yesterday morning... She said "Knowing Old people is a bit like keeping pets...you don't have them for very long"
Out of the mouth of babes.

Later this week I am off to London to see best friend Nuala. it has been a long standing arrangement which could not have come at a better time. It will be therapeutic to have a change of scene for a day or so.

Anyway, this morning, I let the new birds out of their run in order to join the main flock. I am not a lover of ' fluffy hens' I prefer a more bog standard sort of bird. but the silkies, I must admit are striking looking birds.....

The RFWF would have disliked these frou-frou characters too....

Perhaps some of his no nonsense approach to life has rubbed off on me after all

The R.F.W.F

I was busy at work last night.
It was not until around 4am when I fell into conversation with another nurse as both of us were drawing up medications at the nurses station.
She is a farmer's wife who lives five miles or so from Trelawnyd
And she told me how sorry she was to hear that my friend , the Red Faced Welsh Farmer had died yesterday.
I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about...all day on Monday I had not ventured far from home because of the looming night shift  and so I had not seen anyone from the village .
In this case, bad news had not  travelled very fast at all.
I couldn't quite believe what she was saying.

If you could have caught me in Sheffield's All Bar One a few year's ago and stated that in 2013 I would count an elderly,flamboyantly argumentative old pirate of a Welsh Farmer as one of my friends, I would have told you to stick your crisp Chardonnay where the sun doesn't shine.
After all, what on earth would a prissy middle aged gay nurse possibly have in common with a rough and ready, gun toting animal farmer from the Welsh hills?

But a valued friend, he did indeed become

And over the years, he developed into a bit of a fairy Godfather in a tweed cap, when I needed a willing hand with this and that.
His stories were always long, meandering and entertaining
His temper was legendary
And his kindnesses to me and to a score of others from Trelawnyd and beyond, were many and varied.
I shall miss him dearly....
They don't make men quite like him anymore

His real name was,in fact
John Lloyd-Ellis

The RFWF at last years Jubilee 

Middle Aged Dogs

 

Middle Aged Dogs

Are just like middle aged people

They have some difficulty in getting up in the mornings

A Gladys Catch Up

It's Sunday morning and I am lying in bed fully clothed. I have not been able to shift this cold of mine and felt so full of snot yesterday that I had to forgo the invite to a wine tasting dinner party last night which was a real pisser.....I have not been out of the house to anything that required a proper wash for an absolute age!
Anyhow....I have been catching up with some of my blog comments today. Hello to Carol Ellis...who left a note saying that she lives in the next village to us....always nice to hear from locals......but I have to warn her.....with organising the open day this year and with the flower show looming, I do have an annoying tendency to conscript helpers and participants...so be warned

One of the other comments noted that Auntie Gladys had not had a mention in a while, and I must apologise for that, mainly because I have not seen her in a week or so, because of my cold.
Winter colds and old people are a bit like red mite in chicken coops.......left unchecked they can run riot and cause untold damage.....
Mind you the old gal looks sprightly enough......I saw her standing at the bus stop yesterday morning in her distinctive little red coat. She was chatting to Gay Gordon and was on her way to Rhyl, six miles away for a morning's shop.
I beeped the car horn, knowing full well that she wouldn't know on earth was making such a racket, but I noticed that she waved in my general direction like the Queen Mother after a pink gin.....

Below is a brief article I found from the Flintshire Chronicle printed a few years ago now....it was a story written about Gladys..... Thought you would find it interesting

Trelawnyd resident recalls decades of Flintshire village life
May 26 2011 by Francesca Elliott, Flintshire Chronicle

ONE of Trelawnyd’s most treasured residents has shared her memories of decades of village life.
Born in 1919 in Pantymwyn, Gladys Jones, now known to all as Auntie Gladys, went to school in Gwernaffield, leaving at the age of 14.
“When I was 16 I went to Gwrn Castle in Llanasa to be head housemaid,” she said.
“Major Bates lived there with his wife. They really looked after the village.

“They held parties for the poorer children and they were very good to us, we had the same food as they were eating in the dining room and when I married my husband at the Castle they gave us a present of £50, which was a huge amount in those days.”
Gladys added: “When the war started we had to leave. I went to work in the kitchens making the dinners for the girls in the Land Army.
“I worked in Rhydymwyn, St Asaph, Holywell and Mold. I loved it.
“There were 56 girls in the Land Army around here and when the war finished we walked into Chester for a night out to celebrate, then walked back at five in the morning. Everyone was a bit drunk – it was great!”
Once Gladys’s husband, Robert – known as Bob Railway – was demobbed from the Army the couple moved to Trelawnyd, where Gladys has been a stalwart of the community ever since.
By the late 1940s she was a leading member of the Trelawnyd Welfare Committee, which was set up after the war to support poor families and pensioners in the area.
The committee evolved into the Trelawnyd Flower Show committee in the 1970s, which still exists to raise money for local projects in the village and support the memorial hall.
Bob also worked at the Point of Ayr Colliery.
At the age of 92, Gladys is still an active and integral part of the fundraising team for the show, going from door to door around the village selling hundreds of raffle tickets.
Despite all of her happy memories of the village, Gladys has had her share of tragedy, losing her daughter Edwina in a traffic accident when she was just 16.
“When I lost my daughter I thought I would never get over it,” she said.
“I remember the day perfectly, it was March 19, frosty beyond words.
“I called into the shop on the way back from feeding our lambs and the milkman asked me how Edwina was. I thought it was a funny thing to say as he had never asked before. Then my brother-in-law and a policeman came to the house, both crying. I knew then that something had happened to her.”
Decades later Gladys is a grandmother to her other daughter Reenie’s two sons, and attributes her longevity to good food, early nights and keeping busy.
She is well-known for her cooking throughout the area and has often providing refreshments for the award-winning Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir.
A stickler for tradition, Gladys continues to do as little work as possible on a Sunday – even preparing her vegetables for her Sunday roast a day early.
“When I was young the children didn’t even kick a stone on the street on a Sunday, it was disrespectful,” she said.
“The village has changed quite a bit, there are a lot more houses now, but less people, and not as many people like to get involved with things.”
If you would like to meet Gladys and taste her famous scones, visit the Trelawnyd Flower Show at the village memorial hall from 2.30pm on Saturday, August 13.

The ULBs

Saturday is usually a bit of a lazy blog day.

It is, unfortunately, still a day of work for Chris, the academic

Who has been holed up in his office with a whole plethora of research work to do.

I, on the other hand have made a bread and butter pudding, done some shopping for a sick neighbour

( a loaf of bread, a paper and 2 snickers bars!)

And have just returned from a walk with the dogs.

Seeing that is is indeed a lazy blogging day

I shall leave you with an update on those awkward little bantams that were left with me a couple of months ago.

I nicknamed them the ULBs

Or

(Useless little buggers)

as they are no real use to me whatsoever

But there is something rather spunky and sweet about them

Judge for yourself 

Mr Dixon Is Back

It's back tonight!

The final part of who will survive in post apocalypse Atlanta

Will asperger Daryl ever hold hands with abused mom Carol

Then tell her " I'm gay'"

will Hershel ever get proper rehab for his amputated foot?

Will anyone realise that Beth is 27 and not 17?

And will anyone else even bother to utter those famous words

"Where's Carl?"

And before any of you say it

I KNOW I'M 51!

But deep down , I am a burger munching, sad teenager

Who lives a fantasy existence in his rubbish strewn bedroom!

Gotta go!

Mom's calling me for dinner

Next Time I'll Lock The Door

Being a cat amongst a household of rambuncious terriers cannot be an easy job

But after nearly six years Albert has managed to maintain an existence which is practically stress free, injury free and thankfully totaly devoid of the rather stomach churning dog habits of adminstering agood bottom lick.

This morning , as I was sat on the loo reading the BBC news on my Ipad, I could hear the dogs galloping around the cottage. Dogs cannot have intelligent horseplay, it is just part of their genetic make up. Once a chase has started , they seem to put on their idiot heads, they throw any good sense out of the window and they turn effively into hairy , uncoordinated morons.

Cats on the other hand can enjoy a good romp, but know instinctively when to draw the line, their control is a product of quiet self serving intelligence.

The chase went up and down the stairs all the time I was reading all about that amazing meteor shower in the Urals and by the time I was catching up with the Oscar Pistorius affair Albert shot into the bathroom and jumped silently into the bath, where he sat quietly and still as a statue.

The dogs then all burst in victorious in the presumption that they had cornered the cat in the smallest of rooms. They were all goo goo eyed like excited babies, but suddenly all calmed down when Albert was no where to be seen. Not one of the three, thought to look inside the bath, where Albert was sitting, silently licking his paws.

Deflated, the dogs thundered off to recheck the other rooms of the cottage, and after a reasonable and relaxing moment of peace Albert climbed out of the bath and walked over to offer me a face rub.

His expression said it all

"Suckers!"

He was thinking

Things I Have Never Done

Last night I read with some interest Angola Tom's Wild West adventures on A HIPPO ON THE LAWN. His latest blog entry outlines what only can be described as a brawl between himself  and a shop customer and reading the blow by blow details I realised that at the age of 51 I have never actually had a proper fight with ANYONE.
Now sure I have had my fair share of lively disagreements in my time:-
(Many years ago I actually had an animated few words with the RFWF which on reflection could have resulted to my hasty admission to the local A&E)
But , the limits to my testosterone has kept my aggression to  the shouting kind as well as the odd flounce.

This whole subject has gotten me to thinking.
What other things have I never done or experienced after living on this planet for over half a century?
( and I am thinking experiences that I wish I had done)

1. I have never walked up Snowdon ( which is at 3,500 feet is the highest mountain in Wales)
   As a native Welshman this is a terrible omission on my part.

2. I have never walked out of the sea in blue budgie smugglers like Danial Craig from CASINO
    ROYALE

3. I have never made a quiche Lorraine without it having a soggy bottom

4. I have never climbed a ladder any higher than the sixth rung

5. I have never owned a car with a clean interior

6. I have never finished off an attacking zombie hoard with technically impressive brain shots

7. I have never caught a fish on a line

8. I have never owned a proper suit

9. I have never eaten a meal without dribbling something where it shouldn't go.

10. I have never miked a cow or been on a jury

What I have done!

I have seen 4 babies born

I have sipped cocktails in a swanky New York piano bar overlooking the Manhattan Skyline

I have hand reared three goslings to goosehood

I have had my fat arse filmed during a TV documentary

I have chased a psychiatric patient around York Minster

I have walked a bride to be down the aisle

I have been mugged

I have caused 3 minor car accidents

I had had 4 serious girlfriends ! ( a long time ago!)

I have had three serious boyfriends

I nearly chocked  to death on a mint imperial