Eggy Ducklings

Things remain a little insular here

I am still acting a bit like an over active Mother hen

I am not complaining....

No more fox attacks......( touch wood)

As yet!

Thought I would post a duckling update.

unfortunately one little chap died suddenly a few days ago

But these two are doing well

Enjoy

Sue Bates from Work

I went into work today to deliver eggs.......a staff nurse called Sue was on duty ( she's a cheerful sort of soul) 

She caught me drinking a cup of coffee in the sitting room with a " I loved your blog about William stuck in the bath" comment...

" I always read your blog before I go to sleep" she added.... So I thought I would big her up before I went to bed this evening....

Thanks sue....... You always make me Larf at work so

Keep on reading

X

Ps forgive the illustration...... I didn't have a " sue" photo 

Light Pollution

Now you don't really need to know this, but we generally sleep with the curtains open. When you are a middle aged man, there is method in this madness, for the glow from the street lamp in the lane, illuminates the room adequately enough for you to negotiate the pit falls of the " middle of the night trip to the bog"

Of course, I  innately now know the set up.......get up, turn right, two steps, turn right again......four steps, feel around the door, turn right...walk forward  six steps, feel for toilet seat and sit down with a sigh ( yes I always sit down to pee in the night......it's safer) but having a bit of light shining through the window , does allow a person to at least see which dog has sneaked into your warm spot after you have grappled with the old prostate.

Having said all this, I am now a firm believer that the village street lights should be turned off  in the wee small hours. Ok leave them on until midnight, so that the final die hards at The Crown can find their way home, but turn them off until say five thirty or six, so that the early risers can back their cars out safely for that morning commute to work.

I am beginning to hate light pollution....

mind you.....Living with someone who wakes early doesn't help either, as on a daily basis, Chris will be wide awake around four or four  thirty only to check email or read the news on his iPad. Now even though he is, for the most part silent, the sudden flash of screen light is often enough to drag me out of a  Russell Crowe based dream and into the land of the early morning undead...and as you all must know by know by now

I JUST FUCKING WELL DON'T DOOOOOO MORNINGS!

And so, what is the solution? 

Turn off the street lights......close the curtains, position a weak torch next to the bed so that " pee runs" remain safe and wear a Joan Collins eye mask the rest of the time....

There, job done! Simples!

Ps couldnt find a photo of Trelawnyd in the dark...so you will have to be content with the above

Trelawnyd in bright sunshine

Pps. Chris had an excuse to be awake at 4am this morning ... North Wales experienced a small earthquake......me and dogs slept though it

Going Gently

When I started writing Going Gently , way back in December 2005, all I wanted to achieve was a sort of diary that would chronicle a lifestyle change between city and countryside. Over the years, almost everything has been immortalised in this strange non place which is the Internet, the interesting,the sad, the happy and for the most part, the mundane.

Having a " tablet" means that little moments can be captured when they occur, so to speak, and so the above photo was " captured" just before bed last night.

It's been a tiring holiday weekend, the fox attack on Friday has ment that in between sorting out practical anti fox measures ( a local gamekeeper!) I have spent much of my time acting like a worried sheep dog.

Last night, I was wet and cold and knackered after a third day " keeping an eye on things"

Perhaps animals sense that sort of thing, for Albert sat on the back of my chair all night long, with a supportive paw balanced sweetly on my shoulder

Sunday?

I have only just noticed that today's post has been posted under yesterday's date........ I think that this is very  bizarre as I wrote it this morning, when I was on " Fox watch" on the field.......

I was sick of sitting in the rain.. And so I drove the berlingo onto the grass, and sat there, watching the hens like an over the hill detective on surveillance in one of those 1970 cop shows......

( note the touch  of authenticity......coffee cups on the dash board) 

The Boston Strangle Hold

mick Mc Manus, who died last week at the age of 91

The appeal of this blog entry, will, I am sure be limited to those Uk bloggers of a certain age. As a child growing up in the drab brown- ness off the 1970s,  I think I will always remember 4pm on a Saturday afternoon.....for that was the time that itv's World Of Sport televised three bouts of " professional" wrestling.

Never staged but always rigged, the wrestling delighted a whole generation of working class grannies across the nation. Politeness flew out of the window, as knitting was put down, denture fixative was strengthened and the air turned blue as favourite blue eyed, slightly overweight boys were bounced, kicked and flattened into apparent unconsciousness by ugly middle aged men who looked like your dad.

Mick Mc Manus, Jackie Pallo, Kendo Nagasaki and Pat Roach, these were names that tripped off the tongue back then.....men that were as good at acting as they were at wrestling...... It was staple of British life forty years ago... Before the nanny tv bosses decided that the whole thing was too common for the ever growing sophistication of the general public....

Things were somehow simpler back then. 

Yesterday was another country.....was it not?

High Profile

I am acting just like one of those community police chappies today, in so much as I have "upped" my public visibility by some 90% and now can be seen lurking on all four corners of the field like some pervert around a 1970s BBC TV studio.

If the fox returns it may well be today or tomorrow, so with the dogs stationed on one side of the field and me and  my trusty radio on the other...We have the place covered.

Mandy's mother from next door has stationed herself on their verandah as lookout, but at nearly 89 I think her heart cannot quite take the strain as several times I am sure she has mistaken William's red- brown coat for the pelt of a fox.

Thank goodness she doesn't have a gun.

However, in true Mexican dirt poor villager style, I have looked into the possibility of hiring some guns so to speak......lets hope Steve Mc Queen turns up in his denims.....

It's hot today, and I am wearing my unflattering sun hat as I catch up with " paperwork" on the grass, in between painting and repairing coops

I have a newsletter to write on behalf of the community council and after church this afternoon I want to photograph the vicar with Bingley.... I will post it later if I get the chance.....

Anyhow back to fox watch....apologies if I have not caught up with blog reading and replies.... My priorities are somewhat poultry based at the mo

A Nothing Much Happened Day

It's a nothing much happened day

So far it is.

The field has been strimmed of all of its ground cover

And a portable radio has been positioned next to the old pig house

Welsh talk radio is the channel of choice

Foxes don't like human voices.

Auntie Gladys is her summer dress has tied a bag of scones to the front door

And my neighbours bought me a flowering houseplant from the garden centre as a gift

They said I looked a bit glum.

Meirion Ellis buzzed the lane in his new electric buggy

"It can do 8 miles an hour!" He announced proudly then added

" I've already gone to Llanasa and back on it" 

I tell him that's faster than the old berlingo

It's warm and sunny and the dogs, on sentry duty,

get head rubbed by Albert as they try and fall asleep.

We have lunch outside with a tablecloth!

After which gentleman farmer Ralph stops by with some useful advice

I do some shopping for Trevor who is still a bit shaky after is recent knee replacement

He has a thing for custard tarts

 I have got sunburned

yes it's a nothing much happened day today