Spring Cleaning

The Sooty cupboards are now empty and the mortuary type black plastic rubbish bags are in growing lines outside the backdoor.
Papers have been read and filed
Christmas decorations of happier times wiped clean and boxed.
It's therapy time for the old and the unused.
Old photographs will be posted away tomorrow.
I buffed the silver teapot my mother gave to me when she was drunk until it gleamed
And the Virgin Mary sent to me by Charles in the south of France has been dusted.
I'm not religious but I can't quite place her in the unwanted bin...it wouldn't seem right.
Twelve shelves in two faded green cupboards
57 years of someone's life
School reports, nursing certificates, and a graceful Staffordshire flatback greyhound bought from a Lincolnshire antique shop one romantic Sunday.
I polished him and placed him in the window
A Garfield with sooty eyes still smelling very slightly of 1980s perfume
Old pens, a screwdriver with a Scotty dog bitten handle
A pebble in the shape of a heart
£3.42 in change
16 old batteries
A cheap vase my grandmother once held, I saved that....
I could go on ..........
But I haven't the time

A Herd Of Fat Ponies

My pony is the rear one

 My sisters and I glazed our little fat ponies at pottery today. Mine should turn out a pleasing Art Deco earthenware green.
He will be ready next week
My sisters made heart shaped bowls while I messily fashioned a new cat bowl for Albert ( complete with his name on it !!!!)
Before class I went to the funeral of my Ally mcBeal patient. The dogs sat in Bluebell as I sat in the back row of the crematorium and I cuddled them when we went for a walk after the service.
The last time I sat on the back row of a crem was at my father in laws funeral and it was hard to have the reminder
I never wanted to sit in the cheap seats ever again

I fell asleep in the cottage arm chair when I got home and bloody well missed Choir which annoyed me
I woke up with clay in my beard, with it splattered on my trousers and with it dotted on the bridge of my spectacles

Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered for your touch

Fanny-arsing

I'm watching the National Holocaust Memorial and cried buckets when the survivors of several world holocausts lit candles for the dead.
I've been pissed off on this day of reflection,
A day not to be selfishly pissed off I guess
I shouted at the irritating little man who uses his bad tempered husky type dogs pull him up the Dyserth Walkway on a skateboard.
As usual he made a big drama  play of telling them to be be good boys as they lunged to snarl at Mary and the crouching Dorothy and this morning I told him in no uncertain terms to
" Stop FANNY- ARSING ABOUT and move on!!" 
( For those that don't know, someone who is "fanny ars[e]ing about" is someone who is making a silly meal out of something)
The man started to argue but stopped when I waved him off with Benedict  Cumberbatch waft " Be off with you!!" 
What was I thinking?
I also had a bit of a falling out with my dog insurers on the phone and told two chattering women off in the cinema for talking......TWICE!!!
Like I said I've been out of sorts today.
I know why....but that's not for here

The film 1917 was an inspired choice of movie today.
A simple story of how two young soldiers infiltrate enemy lines in order to stop a foolhardy and suicidal British attack on the German forces was made into a first rate cinematic experience by its technical genius .
You will be simply blown away with the cinematography which gives the feel that the entire film was shot in just one long continuous take.
It's a revelation to watch Roger Deakins work on screen as at every step the soldiers make the camera is there swooping in and around the action with the agility of a hummingbird.
The visuals literally take your breath away.
From the visceral horror of no man's land, the audience " lives" the major set pieces with the actors. And so we are all trapped in an underground bunker,running scared in a burning and devastated Belgium town and are inserted into a crowd of soldiers who are listening to a melancholic prayer/song before they are sent over the top.

It's truly magnificent to watch.....and the wonderful cinematography is supported admirably by the film's editing by Lee Smith and its truly epic score by Thomas Newman
Go and see it on the big screen , you will be blown away
And don't fanny-arse around either!!!!!!

Sorry Wrong Number

It's been a quiet day.
Got up at 8 ish and walked the dogs, then we all went back to bed until 11...
Avocado on sourbread toast for breakfast
Then the beach with Dorothy and Mary.
Winnie is now too old for a sand walk
I didn't speak to anyone until 6 pm when I rang my friend Nigel for a natter
The village was dark and cold just now after Mary and I ventured out with a thank you letter to post
The letter was addressed to the manager of the building society who employed the wonderfully professional ( and heavily made up ) Leanne . The woman who after much pouting and computer effort sorted out my mortgage for me.
Her wonderful false eyelashes, which battered away like two pairs of butterfly wings always reminded me of Betty Boop's
She went beyond the usual hoops such works go to, in order for me to secure the cottage

I was reminded to send the thank you letter of praise after Friday morning's coffee and text break at work. Worrying that Dorothy was a bit loose in the bowel department I texted Paul , the sexy bearded dog walker with the following message

" Can you let me know if Dorothy has the shits today? She's already left a bloody skid mark on the bedsheets!" 

Only I didn't send the message to the " Hound"  hotel !!!
Oh nooooo..........
I sent it to Lianne at the Halifax  building society

Fair doos
Lianne was plucky enough to text me right back

" I will ask around the office for you but I don't think she will own up to anything as embarrassing!" 

How Lovely

Do you remember me telling you about the patient I " Ally mc Beal "danced with ?
Her relatives brought me in a gift organised by her today
Gin, proper tonic and a load of lovely fresh lemons with a covering hand written card

Dream Dinners

Yesterday I was sent a copy of a newspaper cutting from 1998
It was from the Sheffield Star 

What are your answers ??

Who would be on your guest list?

What would be your ideal venue?

What food would you serve?

What music would you play?

Who would you have doing the washing up?

Anyone you would not invite?

God I Looked young!

Damp

The cyclamens I planted out  atop the garden wall are struggling to bloom in their water soaked pots and everything outside looks a sad and wet brown/green
This winter has been consistently damp  and depressing and today's day off ( sandwiched between long work days) has found me pottering.
I had half arranged to catch up with Jason the affable despot at the pub, but what  I think I need more is some soup making, a long hot bath and a few telephone calls and so we've made a raincheck until the next pub quiz night.
From the kitchen window I can see Albert braving the drizzle as he sits quietly watching a mole hill growing in the graveyard.
He's got a thing about the moles since their recent and rather surprising arrival at St Michael's.
The evening mist shrouded the village in an anti social blanket as dusk fell
And the smell of spiced butternut squash filled the kitchen

Ally

A little while ago a patient asked me if I had a bucket list of my own

They died a day after our conversation 

" I want to have the confidence to be able to dance spontantiously in public" 

I told her

"Like they did on Ally McBeal" 

She replied

Understanding perfectly 

and we both did a version of this silly dance

In her sideroom

Me in my uniform and she in her pyjamas