"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action "

It was Blanche duBois that famously banged on about the "kindness of strangers" was it not?
Well I've never wafted my perspiring body around a humid New Orleans' apartment in my underwear  but I'm often known for posting a little something about the kindness of people.

This afternoon I delivered my shittily iced cake to Bridget who is co ordinating the carnival bakes.
Her cakes would put Nadia Hussain's to shame ,
As I left she gave me a small carrier bag. " Open It when you get home" she told me.
The gift was wrapped in pink tissue paper
It was a photo frame

She had printed up the famous " Terriers of Trelawnyd " photo and had it framed for me

marooned

Shit piping but the cake will be good

My nephew collected Bluebell for her full service this morning so I am effectively marooned for the day in the village.
Not that I mind.
The garden is overgrown and battered due to the rain recently and is in need of some attention as is the field which now resembles a jungle . Affable despot Jason and his big boys power tools will be helping me sort that out one evening soon

Trendy Carol ( sporting a motif t shirt, jeans and a nice leather jacket) called round to collect Mary for a play gallop with her Welsh terrier Seren.
She's offered to take Winnie too but the big girl is flat out on the couch.

I've promised to make two cakes for Bridget's tea tent for tomorrow's carnival too.
I'll do those later.( see above a postdated photo)
Fuck I've just realised that I've got no jam....I will go and bum some from Animal Helper Pat. She always has a well stocked larder

Dr Barnsley has just rode up the lane on his bike. He always seems to be in first gear, with feet pushing the peddles like Billyo , but never seems to get anywhere fast...

Lots of teenage school kids have been passing the cottage all morning . They seem to be on some sort of orienteering event.

Every little group of them have bid me a greeting when they passed the garden.

The youth of today eh?

Carnival

More pressing things to publicise 

Hiding In The Wings

It's been a week since George was put down and strange as it would seem for an old sentimental queen I haven't cried or felt sorry myself since

It was his time to go

Old dogs have no fear of death, they just soldier on until they fall over.

This morning I had a wobble

It was in the middle of chasing my tail; booking bluebell in for her service, sorting out new job admin, mentoring Sams volunteers and making sure my fast talking financial advisor doesn't forget me!

I had just finished eating 2  eggs on dry toast

as I downed my only coffee bucket of the day

and without thinking I popped the eggy detritus covered plate on the floor by the table leg

Only he wasn't there

There was no scraping of old nails on lino

No quiet black art deco shaped shadow morphing out from under the table

No paced enjoyment of an everyday treat

The bright yellow yolk smears remained untouched

crumbs and crusts  still cluttering the plate

And the knife stab of realisation was as painful as a real wounding

Thirteen years is a long time to have a constant companion

Even one who always hid away in the wings

But the stab lasted but a mere moment so there is no need to tell me you love me

as Stevie Nicks belted out on Sunday

"Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Don't stop, it'll soon be here
It'll be here, better than before
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone"

Pallet and South Africa in Gwaenysgor

Luckily I am camoflagued by the delightful and more photogenic Hattie
I was more impressed by these two songs
I hope you enjoy them

You Raise Me Up

A bit ragged around the edges but it's fun to sing
I'll post a few more videos below this one when they arrive

The School Concert

Our Choir

We are all kids at heart
We all need vindication
Validation
And we all have the need to please, even though we may think that we are grown ups in a grown up world .

My sister,brother in law and sister in law came to watch our " concert" tonight as did many of the other choir member's relatives
And it was lovely for Me to see them there.
Even though my husband should have been proudly watching me from the wings
Or so I thought albeit briefly.
I hope Jamie with his 1940s RAF moustache was proud of us too and I'm pleased to admit that we only made one mistake when we followed the loudest bass when he veered "off piste" during one of the choruses

One of the Altos caught me drinking out of my water bottle just before the particularly hard Gregorian Chant piece  and she raised her eyebrows to see what I was gulping
" Pimms !" I told her conspiratorially  " want some?"
She nodded eagerly

I'll post a video of some of the performance tomorrow

Choir Practice and a Choking Cock!

one of the songs we will be singing tonight, ours is a little more upbeat

It's the choir's summer concert tonight at Gwaenysgor's Village Hall
The concert is open to the families of the choir and is a very informal affair
There will be food and I am sure a few gins smuggled into various of the soprano's water flasks

I have been practicing my weaker songs in Bluebell this morning. The car CD is the only thing that will play Choirmaster Jamie's singalong cd.
I caused a few raised eyebrows in Marks & Spencer's car park around eleven when I had to stop to master a particularly knotty bit of NKOSI SIKELEL' I AFRIKA 
I fucked up Finlandia on the A55 near Caerwys but gave a particularly rousing performance of
You Raise Me UP negotiating the Abergele roundabout

"Ufelise lintoa le matsoenyeho!" 

Try saying that with your teeth in- let alone sing the bugger!

I am on holiday today and for the first time since last autumn I am not working any of it.
I have a great deal to do and already this morning have been side tracked into practicing singing, dropping flowers off to Boffin Cameron's Mum for co walking the dogs when I was away and performing a somewhat hurried Heimlich manoeuvre on one of the cockerels after he had tried to stuff an over large piece of weightwatchers bread into his crop.
(a message to anyone who may need to know this, if your chicken chokes on a piece of bread or indeed has an impacted crop just grab the little sod firmly by the feet and swing him in a wide arc, preferably at armpit height.
centrifugal force will do the rest believe me!