Going Gently

Walking Dead. Episode 10

Daryl & Beth....." Happy days...matching outfits"

Well after the fall of the prison , The Walking Dead wisely returned to its disaster movie roots and concentrated a whole episode on the eclectic bunch of survivors in zombie infested Georgia.
Of course in true Star Trek fashion the prison red shirts are eaten ( including some of the minor child characters) but five separate groups weave their way along the railroad tracks towards a new destiny.

Carol is back, as is baby Judith...and fledgling psychopath Lizzy ( who almost smothered the baby to save herself and her sister) is suddenly making things a whole lot more interesting.
Maggie and Glen's separation is nicely observed, Daryl is interestingly retreating back into his asbergers shell and Beth has finally stopped singing and has started to act.

Still great fun... Team prison is now up to 18 souls!

Carol's back and not a child in the house is washed

Bitch Peace

This is an exceedingly rare photograph

Meg, the old Welsh terrier has never taken to any other bitch

She has spent the better part of nine years, posturing and snapping at any female.

She has initiated numerous fights

She has bitten through a succession of leads when transferring aggression

And she has spent many a stress-filled evening making sure she remains top bitch in the eyes of alpha male me.

That is until today.

Today she sought out and curled up with the benign Winifred on the hearth rug

And stayed there, with her skinny little face resting on Winnie's fat biceps

For an hour or two.

It's not huge news in the great scheme of things

But

It certainly made my day

Modern Parents : a discussion

There is one phenomenon that truly irritates me and that is the powerfully insular way some modern parents view ( and expect everyone else to view) their wonderful little darlings.
It's as though the children and the children's behaviour is the centre of everything that is Holy.
Life is child dominated
Child is king.
And the rest of the world can go f@ck itself.

Yesterday, on the way back from the vets, I listened to a radio 4 discussion between a Scandinavian psychologist and a prickly British Child " expert"
The Scandinavian was bemoaning his country's liberal attitude to child rearing, stating that Swedish teens now have the largest drop out rate from school in Europe and worrying high levels of suicide and self harm especially in young girls.
He quoted many other surprising facts about the disenchanted Nordic youth before suggesting that " making your child into a Prince or Princess at an early age " wasn't doing them any favours"
He concluded that children that are told and treated as though they are the most important people in the world have huge problems adjusting when the real world informs them that they are in fact, normal.
Of course, there is more at play here, there always is, but I did find the general premise interesting.

I came from a home where both parents never praised or applauded anything we did, so an occasional crumb of congratulation and adulation would have worked wonders on my shy eleven year old psychi....Now....I am in total agreement that children should be praised, nurtured, supported, loved and most importantly not criticised when they are growing up
But what I do not agree with, is the overwhelming way that some nuclear families allow and indeed cultivate the myth that their child rules all, and the rest of society ( and community) can go hang.

The Swedish psychologist ( who incidentally had six kids) concluded that kids nowadays often think that they are brighter, more talented, and more popular than reality would dictate...so they often come down with a bang when realisation hits.....on reflection....my slightly unhappy childhood might have
given me an uneven start......but when I did eventually find out that I wasn't as bad and as useless as I originally thought I was, life took on a rather different and more rosy hue!
The only way was up!

Mr Right

I didn't get him a Valentine's day card

He sent me a Marks & Spencer's one

With

From ~~Mrs Right~~

Inside.....

( I guess Marks and Spencer's haven't yet got their heads

Around Mr & Mr Valentine's Day Cards )

I made amends

And stopped any further sulking by making a banana loaf with custard this afternoon.

I am spent up this morning,

Had to take William to the vets regarding his skin irritation

£ 75 and not even the George Clooney vet to make goo goo eyes at

Pah!

Blustery and exceedingly wet here today
I've lost 7 followers in a week
Perhaps I'm talking about the weather too much!

Underwear Malfunction

Now I only realised my " underwear" mistake when I got changed into my uniform at work.
I had left my thermal long johns on....the ones I wear on the field with the holes in the gusset.
By midnight on the claustrophobic High Dependency unit , I was grossly overheated.
My colleague, a round faced happy soul called Greta, suggested that I change into a couple of pairs of hospital paper pants but I said I couldn't stand the " rustling"
And so after rooting around for some surgical scissors , I disappeared behind the nurses station, delved down into my uniform pants and cut the legs off my long johns with a flourish
Greta then pulled the separated legs out of my uniform and I continued the shift, cool, and comfortable and sweat free.

Elias Jones & William Morris Remembered

Now bare with this one

It's a bit of a slog

But, I hope it makes for an interesting read

In the corner of the churchyard, overlooking the Ukrainian village is a nondescript Victorian gravestone. It is the resting place of Elias Jones, who was only 44 when he died. His widow Margaret died in 1929 at the age of 83 and is buried with him.The inscriptions on the gravestone are all in Welsh.
The family lived in Bonc terrace, which is the row of cottages up High Street.and their story would have been lost to me and indeed to Going Gently's sister blog http://trelawnydhistory.blogspot.co.uk
If it wasn't for Ceri Watson, Elias' great great grand daughter, who contacted me after reading my village history blog.
Ceri , who lives in England, wanted me to chase up a surviving relative of hers in Trelawnyd and after I had done so, she sent me details of her great grandfather , a miner who died in a local mine accident in 1890.

Ceri also sent me this photo which was taken outside Bonc Terrace around the 1920s. it shows Margaret Jones ( her great grandmother) Margaret's son Edward Hughes Jones , his daughter
Myfanwy and her son Tecwyn.. I think the photo is delightful
The story of Elias' death was documented in the local newspaper, and I think it is worth adding the text here....the fact that over 2000 mourners turned up at the Church for Elias' and his fellow miner
William Morris' funeral literally boggles the mind, given the fact that the capacity of theChurch is only around a hundred.

FLINTSHIRE OBSERVER 15/5/1890

GRONANT

SHOCKING ACCIDENT – TWO MEN KILLED

About 12.30 p.m. on Thursday last ,Elias Jones age 44 years, of Newmarket [now Trelawnyd] ,and William Morris age 32 years, of Stabian ,Newmarket,were employed at the Derwynne shaft at Talacre and Gronant Mines, getting timber up out of the shaft ,and were in a cage made for the purpose and which was hanging on a new hemp rope worked by a hand-winch. Thos. Roberts, of Prestatyn, was stationed in a level in the shaft for the purpose of signaling to the men on the surface ,and as he was in the act of speaking to the two deceased men who were about 10 yards lower than he was, the rope without any warning or visible cause broke and they both fell a distance of 50 yards to the bottom of the shaft.

When help arrived Elias Jones was found terribly mangled and dead, William Morris was not much mangled but died directly the rescue men reached.

William Davies Esq. opened an inquest at the Crown Inn, Newmarket, on Saturday and simply took evidence of identification and adjourned the inquest until 11am on Saturday next, at the Red Lion Inn, LLansa , for the attendance of Dr C.N. Foster, the Inspector of Mines, who wrote to say he was
not well enough to go underground before the end of this week

Elias Jones leaves a widow and 5 children , and William Morris was a widower and leaves two young children orphans. The funeral took place at Newmarket Churchyard on Sunday afternoon [May 11th] ,when nearly two thousand people from the surrounding neighbourhood attended the funeral as a mark of sympathy , and a collection was made at the entrance of the churchyard for the widow and the orphans. The service at the graves was conducted by the rector, Rev. E Davies

The next week The Flintshire Observer devoted almost 3 columns to the inquest, including a plea for a public subscription to be set up and a poem (in Welsh) dedicated to the 2 men. Here are some extracts

“Captain Henry Ellis [ one of 3 men representing the Talacre and Gronant Lead Mine,+ solicitor] said he was the underground agent of the mine and had been employed there ten years. He could not, of his own knowledge ,say how the accident had occurred. The rope produced was used in the Derwen shaft and was attached to a stage and to a winch at the top for the purpose of lowering men into the shaft. The deceased men were working on the stage when the accident happened, they were taking out the old pit work…… the first he heard of the accident was about 12.30 pm, on Thursday 8th, when Thomas Roberts told him that he was afraid that two men had fallen down the pit, and he had arranged for assistance to go to the deceased. There were two ropes and two winches used – one for drawing out the pitwork ,and the other for raising or lowering his men at work. ….. the broken rope was bought in January last , and first used in April, but as a guy rope ,no weight being attached to it. It was first used to take out pit work four days before the accident occurred ,and was in good condition then… the stage on which the men worked measured 4ft by 3ft and was hung by chains from each corner four yards long, and attached to an iron ring above, to which the rope was fastened. … for first three days they were taking out pumps.. shaft was not timbered.. after the rope was lowered down the shaft the first day ,it was not wound up again. The rope broke at a point about eight feet above the iron ring to which it was attached.”

It was established that the pumps would have weighed 12-15 cwt, the stage and 2 men about 2cwt- the rope was made to hold 28cwt.

They had been blasting some castings 6 or 9 yards from the shaft, but at that point the rope was 70 yards down the shaft – the men would have climbed out of the shaft via ladders whilst this was taking place and the rope hanging down.

It was possible that the rope had struck the irons, but this was unknown.

Peter Evans, miner, said he had thought the rope was alright for the job, and knot properly made . he had been working on the stage himself and had trusted his own life to it. He had seen some pumps oscillating in the shaft as they were being drawn up, but he did not know if any stones had gone down the shaft since this particular rope had been used, or if any pumps had hit the rope – had they done so it would have damaged it. It was possible for the pump to hit the rope, if allowed to do so. The rope had not struck against a sharp edged rock as it was being drawn into the lodge, the recess was from 2 -3 yards high.

The Verdict “ the unanimous verdict of the jury is that the deaths of Elias Jones and William Morris occurred by the breaking of the rope, but there is not sufficient evidence to show how this took place.”