Night shift 1.31 am

Well it stops me from eating on night shift

Twittering

Blogging is much more labour intensive than instagram and twitter

I've just realised .......#dumbbastard
This I what I would have twittered today

• I must be getting used to lockdown because I now realise that The Archers are now not on a Friday night.# duh
• The aquilegia are flowering in the front garden and I've only just noticed....it's not like I have been away on holiday or anything.#pissboringcomment
• I've just bought myself an expensive new wallet on line.....what possessed me ? I think I have been watching too many reruns of Sex and The City ....#who do I think I am ?# Fucking Carrie Bradshaw...# Sarah Jessica Parker #silly money
• Someone I kind of know told me they found me attractive yesterday...I don't really believe them#postdivorceblues
• What am I missing most at this moment of the lockdown ? An empty cinema and a good afternoon film #irony#I lovethestoryhouse
• Our Hospice has just had a gift from a local school PPE visors # thankyou Ysgol Y Creuddyn #really???#REALLY????
• Trump allows some Florida beaches to open #arsehole
• I made myself a fruit salad for my supper tonight as the more than welcomed food parcels from  the village have played havoc with my underware waistlines #fatbastard
• Was going to record PhamtomofTheOpera on tv last night but realised I had already seen it on Broadway # gayboyshowoff
• Big up to Vikrim who sorted my life insurance out whilst he was working from home today# aviva good service #bad compnnection# hetoldmetostaysafe
• Caught Winnie showing walkers down the lane her " poorly" leg but was in fact showing them the wrong one! #fatbastarddramaqueen

What would your twitter comment and # follow up be today!!!!!!??????

Friday Thoughts

Trelawnyd  has a what's app support group that is coordinating the work of the street wardens who are caring for the elderly and the needy of the village during lockdown.
The group is run by Velvet Voiced Linda who clearly knows, quite naturally, just how to organise and manage an eclectic collection of people and from what I can see, apart from some expected challenges the group,is functioning well.
A separate warden social group has been started , which is more of a chit chat group between villagers and the Affable despot Jason, can often be found here posting humourous  and often ribald videos that entertain the troops.
Last night I watched a discussion develop between several of the village women .
Each one recounted how they came to live here, whether through birth or by accident or design and their thoughts made for rather moving reading...so to Wendy the Gop, Tracy Soup, Bunty, Well Street Bridget thank you for a good read....texting words and feelings is such a powerful thing as we all remain on our own miniature Cottage islands.
The clap for the key workers came loud and strong last night with air horns, saucepan bashing and Cameron the boffin's drumming adding to the din and it looks as though we will have a further three " claps" yet before lockdown is reviewed
Next week I'm going to ask if I can ring the Church bell
Our sister village of Gwaenysgor rang their Church bell last night and we can't be outdone

I am lucky.
I am back at work tonight and am working day shifts next week.
My uniform is ironed already

Mrs Thomas Has A Funeral

Mrs Thomas was an old farmer's wife
For the past couple of years she has been resident in a local residential home ( where I nursed her last year) but before that she lived in Bryn Rodyn Farm on the outskirts of the village.
She had a sing song Welsh voice, a bad tempered red terrier called Barney and made loaf after loaf of bara brith for one of my allotment open days , the big one that raised a thousand quid in two hours!
She was well known and well respected by the older members of the village community.

Well it was her funeral today.

I say Funeral , fairly loosely as all you are " allowed" nowadays is  12 mourners and an outside service of sorts, and so as a mark of respect I stood in my field with the ponies as the Minister led he family into the graveyard, the little knots of people separate from each other by the required six feet.
It looked like no Funeral I was used to.
The minister had a fine, strong voice and I could almost hear every word of the bilingual service from  a hundred yards away and as I stood the ponies congregated around blowing down their noses at me.
I turned and for a few moments exhaled loudly as they inhaled our noses touching.
It's always a magical moment when ponies do that.
A breathing hello between two species.

Everyday now in lockdown the Churchyard cockerels fly over the wall to have a brief meal of old cat food. They come because the dogs are all over at Trendy Carol's and there is no hysteria over their visit.

It's been a warm , blue sky day today

A Change Of Scene

Look very closely the second photo enlargement will tell all 

East of Trelawnyd you will find a low wide valley filled with a patchwork of fields, farms and occasional houses. I took Mary Eastwards on London Road then turned north behind Basil the farmer's fields towards the back of Gop Hill . Trelawnyd lies sheltered at the Southern aspect of the hill
In one of the fields I spied a tinyfigure and as I squinted to see who it was I thought I saw a faint billow of a pashmina in the breeze.
I waved and the figure waved back hurrying down the green meadow like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music 
and I was sure I heard " Darling John is that you?" above the chirping of the hedge sparrows .
Chic Eleanor and I  chatted for a while our faces meeting between a two metre gap in the hawthorn but then had to wave our goodbyes after Jo, Ian and "Eleven"walked towards us in a fit of frantic barks.
"Eleven" is my collective name for the couple's whippets, as I never remember their names. Eleven refers to the number of legs the three dogs own between them

chic Eleanor having a Jane Austin moment

This afternoon I have weeded the front garden, read a bit with my head on both bulldogs as they sunbathed , oh and arranged my latest cushion , a handmade yellow crotchet cushion from my sister. She made it to fit in with my new yellow living room.

Janet's cushion on the right

I'm going back to work on three nights on Friday

Body In A Bed

I wake early.
It's the warm light of April coupled with the fact that the cottage faces South with her head in the sun that does it.
I never think about closing the curtains.
I only do that when I am on night shifts

I started to wake around 6 am and rolled over against a large immovable warm body.
My queen sized bed , effectively cut down into half a single
For a split second I flashed to a memory of a couple of years ago when it was normal to have a warm body in my bed and for that split second I believed it to be so again.

Muscle and sensory memories flashed forward then back like a large wave on a beach.

Then Winnie , lying full length like a massive tan sausage roll smacked her gums like a canine Popeye and reality took back over as it quietly always does at times like this

Like the cat walking through the bead curtain scene in Amelie
It broke my heart for a split second

Can You See Lyndi's Charlie?

Lyndi sans charlie

It was Zoom choir tonight and Heulwen and Hattie and I shared some schoolboy humour when we all introduced ourselves tonight
One delightful chorister called Lyndi has a certain resemblance to the actress Margaret Rutherford in more ways than just looks and as we all have a want to do, she introduced us all to her very hairy dog lying at her feet.
His name is Charlie
As always the start of choir, is a bit of a bunfight and as we all waved I called out to Hattie if
She had seen Lyndi's Charlie yet?
The look on a few faces was well worth the Victoria Wood moment 

On Guard

I got the negative result of the local health board email this morning.
My bestie down in London laughed
" You will have to give all that donated food back now " she quipped
With the generally mild symptoms I have experienced I am somewhat disappointed I didn't have the mild version of the virus , so Im back to square one
Mary and I went out for a long walk in the cold sun
She's in season and is suddenly very feisty indeed
She has been guarding the cottage like a lioness