Flower Show Committee .....The Final Meal

Tonight the entire flower Show committee ( minus Trendy Carol) meet up for a final bun fight .

We are all going to the village pub for a meal . 

We are all going to have a real night out and bugger the expense !!!!

So It's me, Heulwen ( gentle co treasurer )   Derek  ( very manly) , Ann ( all heart) , Terry ( sarcastic bugger, sailor John ( voice of reason) , Mandy ( backstage supporter) , Pat ( animal helper and multiple trophy winner ) , Daphne and Meirion, matriarch Irene ( hey ho), helper Mo,

It'll be great fun...I will post photos tomorrow xx

Skyscraper Shite

I have seldom seen an action film which is totally devoid of tension as Skyscraper ? It's truly abysmal. I only went because my sister loves Dwayne Johnson, who plays a one legged, humourless version of Bruce Willis' yippeekiay motherfucker hero from DieHard.

Irwin Allen way back in 1974 did it so much better

Tits up

I've just listened to a podcast of Trump's NATO press conference.
Bloody Hell!
What's wrong with journalists ? They are not usually shy at coming forward in calling a spade a spade
Why didn't any one of them finally say " you're talking shite Trump!" 
I have honestly never heard such a car crash of a press conference EVER
Lies, dreadful grammar, filibustering , forgetting Wales was a part of the UK , banging on about hardbrexit, that was only half of it.
You have to admire the man........the whole carnival went tits up and he walked away as if it was a triumph !

Ghost Village

I couldn't settle last night.
I don't watch football and I already spent much of the day baking in readiness for my sister Ann's open garden day on Sunday, so It was time to get out of the cottage to do something else constructive and useful.
Trelawnyd was a ghost town after 7pm -The Croatia game was on so everyone but me was glued to their TV sets like limpets- so unseen I ambled my way up to the village green with a broom and hoe to remove a ton of weeds from the lavender paths.
It was gentle and untaxing work. ( I listened to The Archers and podcasts of I'm sorry I haven't a clue as I cleared and tidied) and to be honest I enjoyed the time out in the cool evening air.
I think I'll organise another village 1 hour tidy up enterprise for next month.
I'll provide the cream cakes and tea again

In a decade I've supported and eventually ran the village flower show, held four Open allotment/ village fete days, cleaned the Church more times that I care to remember,  was an active member of the community council ( and brief member of the new Community Association) supported the conservation group , lectured at the friendship group, held two six week a how to look after chicken courses at the village hall. Sang carols at the village carol service every Christmas, attended 13 funerals ( and catered for two funeral teas) and picked up the affable despot's girls from school whenever needed. I've sent flowers to unhappy villagers and have received gifts of flowers and cakes and scones in return. I have let my more practical farmer type friends to supervise pig culling and fence erecting and I have eaten some dreadful meals at Mrs Trellis' dinner table and have been helped out of several scrapes by a village elder called Islwyn.
I have attended and enjoyed  10 male voice choir summer concerts,delivered a thousand eggs to forty houses,  gave a lesson on blogging etiquette to the village school children and have developed a village history blog that has been archived by the National Library of Wales.
I've done my bit

But I shall also miss paying things back to a village I have called home for the past twelve years.

.

Stalkers baring Scotch Eggs

Friendly Mr and Mrs C

There has been much debate here on the ethics of the occasional blog stalker.
Looney tunes? Possible obsessive behaviour? Bunny boilers? Potential friends?
You can look at it from both sides of the spectrum , but it must be odd to regularly read about the generally banal and occasionally amusing life of a scruffy Welsh homosexual without feeling that you perhaps know him in one small way.
A one way friendship so to speak.

This morning one such stalker appeared baring gifts
One glimpse of a Waitrose scotch egg, settled any worries about a potential bunny boiler.
People that are mad as badgers don't shop at Waitrose!

As it turned out my main stalker was Mrs C. Mr C was friendly and affable as could be, but he didn't really know me from Adam, yet over a cup of tea and Mary continually throwing herself into his arms, he good naturedly joined in with his wife's friend. A friend she had never met before.
I was glad to hear that I don't bore Mrs C. And it was nice for her to see that the village I talk about with do much colour actually exists.
They seemed tickled that Trendy Carol floated past the lane window as we sat there.
She was wearing something delicious and sported a straw sun hat.
I wondered if it was possibly like someone going to Disneyland for the first time and bumping into a plastic looking Micky Mouse and being disappointed ?

For me , I enjoyed their visit...
I was flattered

Lunch

Note the Basil and tomatos, my nod to healthy eating! 

The Haunting Of The Internet

Maddie, William, George and Meg

Evan Williams from Shropshire sent me the above photo last week. He found it on the internet when he was researching something to do with dog behaviour. It was the banner photo of a webpage I had no knowledge of.
Evan Emailed me the link thinking that I would enjoy the frolicking Terrier shot. He had no idea that the dogs in the photo were indeed mine and that the photo was taken by me too.....albeit one from ten years ago now.
How strange.
How strange that our work, our photographs and our ideas can be all be " out there"  forever and a day almost without us knowing or remembering .

Heather

The back entrance to Action Ward was through the old front door entrance then turn sharp left 

Into the male dorm 

Today I've been clearing out old cupboards in the living room  and I found an old photo of me and several staff and patients from Acton Ward at the West Cheshire Hospital from my student nurse days. We were all  posing uncomfortably at a table in a cafe near the Delamere Forest . Four of us were raising tea cups , as if they were cocktail glasses.
I had thick brown hair and looked gauche
Even now, 34 years later I can't show the photo here....which is a shame

She'd been in hospital 16 years,
Ever since she was just 17
And she was still unfit to be discharged home
She had been living on action ward for a decade

Her name  was Heather and she wore a purple home knitted cardigan and too much plastic jewellery , the kind little girls wear when they are 5
Her hair was short brown and she had bald spots from rubbing her head on the ward walls.
I was told she was schizo- affective whatever that meant
All I knew was that she a "nasty piece of work"

She was unpredictable, emotionally labile and at times very unsettling  to talk to
I was 21 years old and she had slapped me twice already during the first week of my 12 week placement .
She had slapped me very hard too.
It felt a baptism of fire and I was frightened

One morning she cornered me in the vast  ward kitchen when I was stirring a large metal container full of porridge .
There were no alarm bells back in 1984' you just yelled if you needed help
Heather lent back against the door and purred like a cat
"What would you do if I slapped you again ? "She taunted, confident in her position of power

It was now or never I thought grimly
And I lifted the porridge  covered ladle slowly out of its tin and wagged it until the slops fell on the floor
" Come near me again......... and I'll whack you very hard with this" I told her seriously
And we looked at each other for an absolute age

Finally, Heather smiled and waved a hand encrusted with plastic rings like Henry the VIII at the Royal Court
"you'll do " she sang out with a smile

And she never EVER slapped me again

Bra Straps and a PS

The lowest point of this week was the finding out that I had left several kitchen paper towels in the washing machine.
I know it's not the greatest trauma of the century
Baby faced schoolboys are trapped in a flooded Thai cave for gawd's sake and the economy is just about to take a brexit nosedive and I have knelt on the kitchen floor weeping at a pile of paper mache that has infiltrated my smalls.
It's funny what gets on your tits when you least expect it.

I turned a corner after that.
I turned a corner after reading a testament to the NHS turning 70 soon after.
On Facebook and in the press there were accolades galore but one comment from an old patient of mine ( who later became a friend) brought me up by my bra straps
" the NHS is 70" he wrote " and you have been a nurse for exactly half that time how fucking fantastic is that?......thank you" 

Little things can bring you down
A little kindness can bring you back up again 

Ps.
Just got back from colwyn bay beach where Mary and I shared a Mr Whippy
Very funny situation as I was collecting the dogs for a wee when home when  a large RV crept past the cottage very slowly...
I waved thinking they had gone the wrong way and pointed to Trevor's drive suggesting they could turn around but the lady passenger popped out of her seat and walked over
" I read your blog and just wanted to see where you lived" she said somewhat breathlessly
" We're not stalkers!" her attractive husband sang out helpfully from the drivers seat
And moments later they were gone, leaving me smiling broadly
I hope they didn't notice that I had spilled coffee all down my forth best walking dead t shirt
Hey ho
Apologies but I never even asked your name so surprising was the visit
Please comment below if you read this, make yourself known !