Not Even Toast..........

Sunday morning is a time for The Archers omnibus and lunch preparation . Chris is doing something in the Church in Dyserth, William, Winnie , George and Albert are still sleeping in bed and only Meg is downstairs keeping me company. 

She's not well today. She's had the runs overnight and is off her food today. I tried her with the dry toast test this morning and she politely ignored my offering which is a worry.

( Our old breeder always told us that as long as a dog eats dry toast when off their food there is no major things to worry about!)

At eleven , as the Church bell started to ring we had our walk around the village as usual but it was clear that Meg's usual exuberence was noticably absent even though it was warm and sunny

We stopped outside the Ebeneezer Chapel and listened to the tiny congregation belting out their hymns in Welsh before heading home.

I could hear them singing, their natural harmony wafting after me as we working ambled slowly down Chapel Street towards the green.

Ebeneezer Chapel

Chris is working incredibly hard at the moment. Too hard. He was away most of last week and will be away most of the next so I am beginning to feel a little like a war widow.. 

I think that we may go and see a rubbishy disaster movie at the cinema this afternoon

Young Cameron has been busy designing this year's Flower Show poster and posted me his draft just yesterday. He's done a grand job

If anyone would like to start to send me their photo entries 

For the NOVELTY VEGETABLE COMPETITION 

please do

My email is jgsheffield@hotmail.com

Have a good Sunday!

Sweetie

I am not a lover of over familiar people who use the pet names " lurvie" or  " darling" when they address me in public. The regional " up north" references of " me duck" and " love"  never bother me too much as they seem perfectly natural , but its the upclose and too personal " sweetie" that I cannot abide.....
The weigh in lady at fat club calls me " sweetie"
I was going to say something to her at my initial weighing moment, but I was too embarrassed when she told me my weight,
She was very nice to me and dropped her voice so that everyone in the room couldn't hear., so I thought it churlish to pull her up on her " sweetie greetings!"
Today she rolled her eyes theatrically when I stepped on the scales
" 10 pounds loss SWEETIE" she yelled " GIMMIE A HIGH FIVE!"
I got lost in the moment and high fived her without thinking!
I also high fived the leader and the lady waiting behind me.....
I got all giddy!

A Bad Death

I noted with some sadness that the former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy died following what his family described as an "alcohol related hemorrhage." I hope that his cause of death wasn't a ruptured oesophageal varice, but unfortunately I suspect that  it was.
This depresses me greatly as Charles Kennedy always struck me as a sweet natured and principled politician.
I have only seen one death from a ruptured oesophageal varice and I never want the experience again. It was a 45 year old woman who had been brought into hospital with acute liver failure, and unbeknownst to me as a junior student nurse, her cirrhotic liver had caused a back up of blood to the blood vessels feeding from the junction of her stomach and windpipe
As I helped the charge nurse slide the woman from trolley to bed, she gave a little cough. She then said something like " oh no" very quietly and suddenly the entire bed was filled with blood. She coughed again and what I can only describe as a tidal wave of blood erupted from her mouth and I just stood there opened mouthed as the woman literally bled to death in front of me.
It all happened within, what seemed like ,a couple of seconds.
Another experienced nurse raced over with a morphine syringe as the alarm bells went off and the arrest team was called and she dragged  some spare sheets and blankets from a nearby bed and threw them at me
" put them on the floor around the bed" she hissed quickly and then I understood.
The bedclothes were to dam the blood from spreading across the ward floor.
There was nothing we could do.
I was soaked in blood by the time the charge nurse told me to clean up and get a cup of tea and
I remember stripping into pair of  borrowed theatre scrubs in the staff toilets, sobbing in shock.
The poor, poor woman and poor Charles Kennedy, they both deserved better than that

A Break In The Shade

I've been strimming the field today. It's a backbreaking job especially in hot weather. The animals all congregate by the field gate, in the cool shade. From there they can watch  the lane, keeping an eye out for people to scare.

I sat down to eat an orange with my back against the old church wall.....and promptly fell asleep

I only woke up when Islwyn's brother stopped his landrover by the gate to ask me if we wanted an old piano!

Albert at his usual place next to Winnie

The dogs on guard

Meg day dreaming, watched by Bingley

Albert and the Ukrainian Village Hens

The Lane Down The Hill

The lane down to the village....today

At some stage the road which is our existence here in the village will take another turn. Like the lane down the side of The Gop , we will turn around the next corner and instead of venturing down High Street, we will be off to pastures new.
I have known this for a long time now.......such is the life of a successful academic.
I am not playing games when I share this, there is no hidden news waiting in the wings, no new University City where we are off to tomorrow, but in the fairly near future the Prof will need to move onwards and upwards and with a full heart I will be by his side.
I am ok with this.....I have known it ever since we moved to Trelawnyd ten years ago. Then I moved from a Northern City into a village without knowing anyone and I surprised myself that I could forge a new life and a whole new way of looking at things so easily.....I adapted when I thought I never would
..So its a case of I have done it once......I can do it again.
That is very liberating.
Hey ho

Flower Show News...more tits please Rachel

I won't go into details but the Flower Show Committee has agreed on the following new changes to our 43 rd Show

• The Official Opener of the Show has now been chosen given the fact that the vicar has declined the job! After an unanimous vote ( with me abstaining) it has been agreed that Professor Burton will be opening the Show this year. I skyped The Prof with the news informing him that he can sit at his own table with cakes and tea all afternoon......unsurprisingly he has agreed
• We are having sandwiches in addition to cakes for refreshments! ( it took 30 minutes to discuss this!)
• Committee Member Terry has challenged me to a " cook off" in the quiche, boiled fruit cake, bread loaf and novelty vegetable classes!....he is still smarting because I whoooped his arse last year.
• At Auntie Glad's insistence she WILL be having her stall and raffle this year!
• It was UNANIMOUSLY agreed that the BLOGGER PHOTO COMPETITION FOR BEST NOVELTY VEGETABLE be run again this year as it was so popular in the last show.
• 
  
  
  
  
  Rachel's award winning tits from last year's show
  
  
  See link
  
  
  http://disasterfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/i-will-pass-on-blog-news-mr-butler-our.html

A Committee Of Twelve

The scones have been made and are on the side in Auntie Glad's back larder ready to be buttered for tonight is our First Flower Show Committee Meeting of 2015. This year's show is my ninth and Auntie Gladys' 43rd . It is also my second year totally in charge .
The show committee used to be ruled somewhat by protocol and regulations and in years gone by what the Show Secretary said,  WENT. Today, I would like to say,  I have somewhat of a more relaxed and fun view of role, and the meetings around Auntie Glad's table are noisy, lively and generally good natured affairs.
Our committee consists of 12 Trelawnyd souls.
We have John F who is the laid back Committee Treasurer, who with his white beard and ruddy face looks every inch the sailor that he is. Carol, who lives down our lane, is a favourite muse of our resident " teddy boy "vegetable judge who always insists that she accompanies him on judging day' provides the committee with it's glamour and animal helper Pat, who is a stalwart of the local Women's Institute gives the group some backbone.
Derek and Heulwen from High Street , know everything about the competition and can run the show themselves without any help from me and Ann and Terry, a couple who are always laughing with natural good humour, give the committee it's warmth and fun.
Village matriarch Irene, rolls up her sleeves and works as a long as hard as I have ever done over the Show Weekend and the quiet and diffident Julie from Bron Haul, who has spent many years as a cook, looks as though she will be acting as cookery judge this year for the very first time.
Cameron, our teenage boffin who is in the middle of his GCEs at the moment , is our final associate member. He is responsible for the committee's technical and computer support and designs our publicity posters and is a regular contributor to the show's cookery section.
And so we have twelve.
And Last week , I have put out some more posters around Trelawnyd canvassing for new members
As a group, I feel we need to be welcoming and not inclusive after all new blood keeps the traditional show going
Does it not?

Some of the committee at last year's show

Birthday Girl

There's another birthday in the cottage today as Meg is ten today.
With milky eyes, increasing weight loss, and  occasional incontinence,  Meg seems to be fadingvery fast  in front of our eyes.
She had one of her vague fits last night, the first one in well over 18 months, and is at times very restless and bothered with things.
Yet, in the quiet of the early morning. She climbed up into my lap wanting to see, what I found so fascinating on the ipad

My old birthday girl