" Just Nipping Out"

There is a running joke at the cottage that I am always " Nipping Out"
This morning I have nipped out to the field, nipped out to deliver eggs, nipped out to pop some bird antibiotic to a friend and nipped out to walk the dogs along the old railway line at Dyserth
" if I didn't know you better, I would think that you you're having an affair" Chris will often say

Then he will look me up and down, shake his head and say

" who would have you?"

I will leave you today with a little video, which I thought strangely melancholy. Although I am not a churchgoer, the single bell calling the small congregation to church here in the village is strangely evocative of times gone by.
The church's future in the village is numbered., like it is in most towns and villages in the Uk......it is a inevitable shame. I thought this sad thought this morning as the Storm clouds drifted in again from the west and Mrs Trellis hurried down the church path, clutching her hat to her head as the winds whistled in the trees.

Hinterland

Richard Harrington as Tom Mathias

Well, I am impressed. Wales has finally produced a good, film noir-ish tv detective series.
Filmed in two versions, the totally Welsh Hinterland was aired last year on s4c ( the Welsh equivalent of channel 4) and it proved to be such a critical and popular success that the mainly English version of the same  episodes started to air this evening.
With its brooding scenery ( centred around the Mid Wales town of Aberystwyth) , the occasional subtitles over a sing song language and it's  sombre look at police work by a troubled leading character ( Tom Mathias- a cop with a dark past) , I am not surprised that s4c has already sold the series to Scandinavian TV.
It's Wallender with sheep!

A surreal Moment

 

 Sometimes you just have to post a sneaky blog photo

Look closely and you can see Chris lying on the couch in MY superman onesie

And sitting on  his head, and looking at her reflection in the glass of the cupboard doors is

Winifred

Surreal?

Oh yes!
Welcome to my world

A Bantam Weight moggy Rules the Roost

Bring it on......

 What did the  1970's Hulk Bill Bixby used to say?
It was something like
" don't get me angry...you wouldn't like me when I'm angry"
It was still dark this morning when the loud pitched growling started in the kitchen.
So with a heavy heart I schlepped downstairs in my long johns to see what carnage was going on.
This time Albert had unearthed the remains of a roast chicken which had been wrapped up in foil on top of the cooker. He had dropped the carcass on the floor and was busy stripping the bones while the four dogs sat carefully in a line just out of claw reach.
Small as he is, Albert has no problem holding his own against the cottage canines.

Winifred, was the first dog to break ranks. Confident she had bulk on her side , she put a couple of heavy footsteps  towards the chicken before Albert whipped around and boxed her face  with three lightening like slaps.
He must have used claws, for Wiinnie not only galloped out of the kitchen but she bolted up the stairs to safety.
26 kilo Bulldog 0. skinny 4 kilo wide eyed moggy with a duff leg..1

It's another stormy day here. flintshire has already had two flood warnings as the storm surge lashes the coast. 600 feet above the coastal plain, Trelawnyd is safe enough, but the ground remains terribly saturated in the sodden Ukrainian village.

 The wet and grotty weather has kept Albert inside this morning.....and thankfully it was only half an hour later when they had kissed and made up.

Finding Pennington Gap and the incredible Eldad Hagar

Don't you just love the internet?
I have uploaded " google maps" on the old ipad recently and have enjoyed flitting around the globe taking snapshot views of various places of interest at random......the activity reminds me of the times I used to go to the reference library in Prestatyn as a boy......I would pick a heavy encyclopedia and open a page at random...........learning something completely new would be a real and delightful treat.
Now Google Maps has a gadget that can drop a pin . The pin literally " pinpoints" a place on the map, a place that you can zoom in on , and bingo.....you are looking at a place you have never seen before.......it's the map equivalent of picking an unknown page in that reference book.
A few days ago I closed my eyes and dropped the map pin on the globe......out of all the places it could fall, it managed to fall on a small town in Virginia by the name of Pennington Gap.
Now, perhaps it's just me, but I have been ever slightly obsessed with Pennington Gap ever since.
I have gone on street view and have taken a drive through the town. I have looked in the shop windows, tried ( and failed) to see what was playing in the local cinema and got a sense of the place's slightly run down feel.....it reminds me of a slightly faded Welsh town, surrounded by hills, cut off from the rest of the world....
Am I alone in playing this slightly asperger game with myself? Perhaps I am  , but
I would love it if someone from the Pennington will read this ( via google) and leave me a comment!... My obsession would have come full circle.....
Another idle internet obsession I have  is YouTube
I especially love to indulge in the emotional romp that is the work of the incredible odd sounding Eldad Hagar . Eldad is an amateur dog rescuer, who collects strays around Los Angeles, and he employs a gentle and incredibly effective method of gaining the dogs' trust before capture. Of course the videos have the ability to melt the heart of even the most cynical of nasty bastards, after all they are designed to raise money for the local animal shelter, but after a hard day, they do have the ability to lift one's spirits, albeit through a veil of tears.....and make you appreciate the good things in life.

Enjoy this video and I bet you shed a few when you see little Monty sat safely on that car seat.........

Sherlock

Well, Sherlock is back....the multilayered  love story between Holmes and Watson continues energetically c/o Mark Gatiss' clever  screenplay, and the jaunty chemistry between Freeman and Cumberbatch....and although it is , in essence, a frothy bit of light entertainment, the whole romp is an absolute delight to watch.
Series 3 got off to a cracking start.........complete with a screaming Mrs Hudson,an appearance by Sherlock and Mycroft's suburban parents, a terrorist threat complete with  a plot to blow up Big  Ben and even an appearance by John Watson's new big hearted fiancé Mary.....
The series gets better and better
It will  fill the gap quite nicely before The Walking Dead returns.......
Enjoy

My Secret Santa

Now, I know I risk sounding rather ungrateful here, but I have to admit that I have never had a " good" pressie from work's secret Santa.

It is such a regular anticlimax, that I no longer look for my gift when I go to work over the Christmas period.

Last night some bright spark " found" my pressie and in front of the other staff proudly brought it out for its official unveiling 

Now I may be many thinks to many people......but I am not..... ( and I repeat) am not a person who would EVER be seen dead in a cheaply made, all in one , superman themed , red and blue baby grow

Having said that, there is one person, not a million miles away from me, that HAS taken a shine to the offending piece of clothing

He has been wearing it all morning

Wonders never cease

2013

Like any year 2013 has seen its fair share of comings and goings in the village.
The phrase " They don't make them like that anymore" was uttered more than once, I can tell you after we lost John Lloyd- Ellis ( aka " The Red Faced Welsh Farmer" ) in Feburary and Sylvia Evans in the summer.
The RFWF always reminded me of a scruffy and harder Brian Blessed. Big in voice and big in heart, he was the marmite of Trelawnyd. you either liked him or loathed him...... I was lucky for I liked him and after a shaky start ( we had a huge row over some water containers) we became good friends.
I still miss seeing his red landrover careering around Trelawnyd, with his fat red face grinning through its open window....and I miss his vocal tirades at the  community Council meetings where he gave the local counsellors a run for their money.
Trelawnyd is a much quieter and less colourful place without him.

The R F W F

Sylvia Evans was equally colourful in her own indomitable way A local matriarch, champion cake bake provider and village ' organizer', I got to know her when I joined the most elite of all village committees, which Was and IS The Trelawnyd Flower Show Committee.
Now Sylvia kept a tight rein over the committee, and presided over meetings around  Auntie Glad's kitchen table with , I am sure, a diastolic blood pressure of way over 100 and a very firm hand.Think of a more polite Agnes Brown from tv's Mrs Brown's Boys.....and you will understand where I am coming from. The flower Shows, under her captainship were always successful, and energetic affairs
I miss her dearly.

Sylvia Evans

It has not been all gloom and doom losses in the village however. Winifred arrived like  a whirlwind and in a relitively short time has dovetailed rather neatly into life in a tiny welsh cottage and on the field nearly forty " refugee" birds took up residence amid more unwanted ducks, hens and a disabled wild rabbit called Mary, who has gone from strength to strength in her neat little warm hutch by the field gate.

Winnie

What will 2014 bring?
More of the same no doubt.
Watch this space
Happy New Year x