The Queen's Speech

The Queen & Charles on our mantle

I have never written a speech before.
I have written a couple of eulogies .
I have written presentations
And once I wrote a somewhat overblown lecture on blogging for the Llanasa Women's Institute,
But I have never written a speech .
I was discussing this fact with a few fellow nurses last night at work who asked me what I was going to say at the wedding., I told them that I had absolutely no idea
Perhaps those that have done it at their own ceremonies could give me a couple of pointers?
I'd be very grateful
Anyhow
My best friend will be saying a few words, as will Chris' brother, so I feel it only right that Chris or I is able to thank the guests for coming.
Chris is the obvious choice for the speech, as he is an old hand at presentations, but strangely he has refused to take the lead and has left  the job to me.
I don't mind too much as I take after my father when it come to these kind of things.
He would have made a speech at the opening of a Fridge door.

Luckily we have a dear friend who will be giving a reading at the wedding itself. He is a delightful old queen with a penchant for theatre and expensive Italian suits and I hope he doesnt mind that we have chosen a more " personal to us" wedding reading rather than the usual slightly bilious dirge that could have been spouted
This is our reading...what do you think?


How falling in love is like owning a dog by Taylor Mali

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.
Love doesn’t like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.
Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.
Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don’t you ever do that again!
Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you’re all wound up and can’t move.
But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.
Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

Goose Feet

Jo, this morning,braving the snow
 note Russell the gander and Camilla sitting in the lurid purple paddling pool
Jo is the gentlest of all the geese, she always looks as though she's smiling


If I was a bird, I am sure I'd be a land locked goose for a goose out of water is an incredibly clumsy creature.
Chris watched me trying to get my socks on the morning then laughed when he saw me trying to force two feet into one trouser leg hole.
" I've never met such an ungainly individual " he said with all of the insight of being a seni professional dancer in his teenage years.
I don't think Chris has ever fallen over by accident......ever!
I have fallen over twice today already
and it's only 10.30 in the morning........
Walking geese are always tripping over things. I think it's a product of not being able to see their feet.
I can see my feet and I still went arse over tit....
TWICE

I blame the snow.......

P
The South West view from the village
Ps
Animal update:-
Winnie is now more or less walking normally..though is playing ultra diva when asked to sleep in her usual crate
Phyllis Diller is back to normal after her recent cat attack
Bingley has needed his individual portion of car food today to fight away the cold.


Cleaning The Church

W/E 18th January....Mr J Gray

The vicar's bought a new Vacuume Hoover .
I don't like it.
It's one of those skinny little things that has no substance to it.
I feel like an over weight girl pushing around a child's toy hoover when I'm vacuuming inbetween the pews.
For It doesn't feel quite real.
I've gone over the carpets, polished the woodwork and buffed up the brass plates.
It doesn't take long.
The Church, strangely enough always seems devoid of any dust.
After I had done, I employed my secret weapon when it comes to proving to all that the cleaning has indeed been completed
I ran up and down the aisle blasting my own bottle of FEBREEZE into every four corners of the church.
I even gave the Vicar's vestments a quick squirt
Ooh matron!

A Limping Dog

Having lost two dogs to devastating neurological conditions , I am just a little jumpy when one of the pack exhibits the mildest of limps. The day before yesterday Winnie showed clear signs of a bad limp. She wouldn't weigh bear on her left rear foot, and was reluctant to go for a walk or even climb onto her favourite arm chair to sleep.


She even seemed reluctant to play when Albert made a bee line for her on the living room carpet after a morning's hunting!
Yesterday I rested her, and today on her 6 am walk the limp does seem a little better, but I still wouldn't allow her to bolt up the stairs for her usual lie in on the bed for fear of causing her more problems,
Now Bulldogs are creatures of habit, and without her usual treat Winnie started to bark is a kind of pathetic " I want my lie in" kind of way, so before Chris left for work, he caught me, in my pyjamas lifting Winnie onto the couch where I joined her for a "lie in" before dawn.
" I've seen it all" he said raising his Roger Moore eyebrow just a little as Winnie and I snuggled down under a blanket.
By 7.45 William, Meg and Albert had squeezed themselves onto the sofa with us
Only George, remained spread eagled on the duvet upstairs.
The entire  double bed all to himself


"And The Winner is........."

As always the bloggers of this small world have done me proud........I am sure to conscript you all to enter the novelty vegetable photo competition at this year's flower show in August
Thank all of you for joining in with the fun


The finalists are

Appalled that Chris told the neighbor about the fanny stain on the duvet, John was speechless.
Shit, I think I just sat on your Scotch egg.
John and Dr. Chris's reactions to the zombie apocalypse. 
Jon: "Yes, I swear! I can get 4 scotch eggs in my mouth at once!

Chris: "am I really going to marry this clown?"
Chris had just discovered the dangers of letting John plan the menu for the wedding breakfast - three courses of Scotch Egg would certainly test the laying powers of the Ukrainian Village.
Chris, Don't tell me you're going to sing Let it go from Frozen the entire journey"!
And the winner is............
( overly long dramatic pause)

Sue Tooze!
Congratulations Sue......send me your address ( to jgsheffield@hotmail.com)
Your prize will be in the post
Xxxxxx

Competition

A recent selfie of the fiancé and I

There is a prize for the person who gives me the best photo caption!
The winner will be picked in 23 hours 

Scum II

There was much talk of scum in my previous post
And so I have been reminded of a quote from one of my favourite 
Fïlm musicals
" My Best Friend's Wedding"
Julianne Potter: But that doesn't excuse any of it. I'm pond scum. Well, lower actually. I'm like the - the fungus that feeds on pond scum. 
Michael O'Neill: Lower. The pus that infects the mucous... that cruds up the fungus... that feeds on the pond scum. On the other hand, thank you... for loving me that much. That way, it's - it's pretty flattering. 
Julianne Potter: Except it makes me fungus.

Scum

The dogs ( Albert is somewhere in there ) after their early morning walk lie in

Early morning and late night walks are mostly uneventful affairs. Having said this is it is common for us to get a glimpse of one of the many badgers that criss cross the field on a regular basis.
Last night a large badger sow trotted off with the body of a black Orpington  which I had left out at the bottom of the field. The Orpington had collapsed rather theatrically after strenuously laying an egg yesterday morning and even though I generally have a love/ hate relationship with the Badgers, I always recycle deaths from the Ukrainian village in this pragmatic way.

Strangely enough, I noted this clip of news on the BBC website yesterday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-30795071
"Two men who attempted to injure and kill badgers from a sett in Flintshire have avoided a prison sentence.
Leighton Shiers, 19, and William Chrystal, 24, of Liverpool, pleaded guilty earlier this month.
They were arrested after being discovered by police at a field in Trelawnyd, near Holywell, last April. 
Shiers and Chrystal were ordered to complete 160 hours of unpaid work and pay £300 costs each at Flintshire Magistrates' court on Tuesday.
The defendants were arrested and terrier dogs were seized along with a Land Rover, shovels and a a GPS locator collar, which is worn by dogs sent underground to find badgers.
Three other people at the scene ran off and have not been traced.
The pair's mobile phones were seized and showed images of terriers at a badger dig with injuries to the face and others appearing to attack a badger."
 

Photos taken from the convicted men's phone

This sort of behaviour makes me sick to my stomach.
Not only can I not understand the pleasure a person gets digging a wild animal out of its den in order to kill it, but why on earth would anyone decent put their own pet terriers in harms way putting them up against a creature that could snap a foreleg in one bite?
These men are scum