Hot

The pace of the holiday has matched the pace of the mini heatwave and slowly I have cleared out my new bike shed and re organised the garden shed which now has neat lines of gleaming garden tools in it as well as a newly buffed up mower.
Not content with the outside sheds, I made a start on some unsorted bedroom cupboards and cleared out a load of shite as well as carrier bags of old books and photographs all of which I have therapeutically thrown into the bin.
I bumped into Mrs Trellis when I was returning Jason's power cleaner and both agreed to attend the photo session of the Street Wardens which looks as though it's happening on Sunday evening
Mrs Trellis is buying a computer soon , so impressed she is with on line shopping.

Trendy Carol ( in a baseball hat inspired ensemble today!!) stopped to chat as the lone cockerel stopped by for his tea as he made his way back to the Churchyard.
I feel for the bird who looks and acts incredibly lonely
I caught him yesterday standing on the Church wall listening to the crowing of a cockerel at the livery stables only 1000 yards away.
So near but so far away.

The bulldogs have spent their day with nipples against cold shady concrete

Thunderstorms are on the way 

Documenting The Present

This photo can be seen on my sister blog http://trelawnydhistory.blogspot.com/
It features all of Trelawnyd volunteer Wartime force and was taken outside the memorial Hall
I like the fact things are documented
I've suggested that we organise a socially distant " Group " photograph of the Street Warden initiative organised by Velvet Voiced Linda from Well Street
Ok it may be a bit like herding cats 
But I think something that has worked so effectively should be documented and celebrated
I've put the request out on the Warden's App and Cameron has agreed to take the photo!

Siri.....what day is it today?
Oh it's Thursday already is it? Bloody hell.."..
I'm sat at the kitchen looking at my list boxes
Seventeen ticked off already!!!
I will drain my bucket of coffee soon and will go and clear out the shed
Eighteen ticks by lunchtime!

It's a lovely day,

I will leave you with a short tribute to Margarita Pracatan who died yesterday

The Great British Sewing Bee

Well with a few crikey and Crumbs  comments the lovely, slightly gauche , 1940s Claire won the Sewing Bee.
She wasn't a hugger
She didn't shout or cry or  emote very much,
She just kept prodding her specs and got on with the job

But her mum loved her so very much and her best friends were people from work that respected her

Serendipity and Bluebell

I thought I would share a story with you today.
Well, to be honest Going Gently is all about stories...but this one is true and is one I couldn't quite share at the time it happened.

I'm sat in a park in St Asaph.
St Asaph is the " city" where I was born.
The cathedral bell has just rung a sombre 9 am and I'm sipping coffee at a picnic table.
The sun is shining!
The city, is infact the size of a large village and I'm here waiting for Bluebell to have her brakes repaired at a nearby garage

My story starts two years ago.
I was in a very bad place. My husband had just left me ...I had no job
He had taken the car we both used and so I was reliant on friends like jason who loaned me their cars to catch up on the basics .
More importantly I had no money.
No money which to buy a car and certainly no money to pay a solicitor

My solicitor is based in St Asaph
Right next to the cathedral
I remember the day when I saw her for the first time.
She was full of  very Welsh sympathy, had an elasticaed waist on her pants and offered constant cups of coffee....
Welsh sympathy often means repeating the word " Bechod!" In a supportive way

Anyhow, I digress.

She informed me that the divorce could cost me a small fortune and I remember thinking at the time how the fuck was I going to afford that as well as financing a new car which I so desperately  needed.
It was a very bleak day indeed!

Then serendipity reared her fortunate head, as she has done so many times for me these last couple of years!
I returned home after that first consultation to a phone message...a phone message from a solicitor's firm in Manchester. A solicitor that specialised in PPI
I had requested a PPI review several months before and had totally forgotten about it, but the message was real
" you have a claim  mr Gray " it said " several in fact going back into the 1990s!"
Even the clerk sounded excited
I rang back and told her I would kiss her on the lips if what she said was true
She told me it was true with a titter!

That money paid for Bluebell
Outright!!!
It also got me onto my feet

Bluebell was my saviour. Under her steam I found a crappy job which boosted my self worth and with her I managed to sort out vet runs for poorly dogs, solicitor meetings and my independence.
Bluebell and serendipity have been good friends to me
I won't forget either of them x
Ever x

Bluebell sleeping in the shade of the church elms today

Covid Snake and Talking Heads!

As lockdown draws to a slow end the vicar has started a bit of local art in the shape of a multicoloured covid snake .The village children and indeed everyone have been asked to add to the snake by decorating a pebble and laying it towards the Church.
I laid mine a few minutes ago ...
Well why not?

I've ticked six boxes from my list today. Fitted in a beach bike ride, Mary's trip to the groomers, the clearing of the drive of weeds, a collection of a load of plants from Meirion Jones's prize winning garden and just managed to join in with the last few songs of Zoom choir before settling down to a much looked forward to Alan Bennett on BBC 1

Beneath the chintz , and the cardigans and the perms and the brown furniture, Alan Bennett's Talking Heads , ventured into the darker side of the life of  the  1980s Northern middle aged, with studies tinged with the effects of mental illness, loneliness, sexual abuse and exploitation, grief and alcohol abuse.
His humour shines through quite wonderfully though and cushions the monologues and the protagonists lack of awareness of their own motivations.
A Lady Of Letters is perhaps one of his most uplifting pieces. Originally performed by the powerhouse Patricia Routledge , this is an up to date study of a lonely and mentally ill woman who communicates with a world through an obsession with writing letters and has the wonderful Imelda Staunton in the lead role. Staunton excels in this initially tragic tale and unlike Routledge she plays her character more unsympathetically.....so when, Irene ,eventually finds some unexpected happiness she breaks your heart in it's telling .

The second monologue is a new piece with a rather dowdy looking Sarah Lancashire in the lead. This is an all together different bleak study and has at its core a mother's incestuous feelings for her 15 year old son, a monologue that would never have been aired back in the 1980s
This was a harder piece to sit through, given the subject matter, but Lancashire gives Gwen a tragic depth as her character  decends into mental illness

Bennett is the king of the monologue that is a god given fact  , and there is 10 in the series to enjoy , most of them  centred around middle aged women with little to do.
Perhaps that fact dates Bennett somewhat......which is a shame.

Lists

Horse post repair!!!

My first day of holiday was today
At 9am I sat at the kitchen table and made my list for the week
A to do list
The first hour, I sipped at my bucket of coffee and made four list headings which I added words to when they entered my head. This took two hours, three cups of coffee ,one play for today, downloaded from radio 4 and a nasty moment when Albert knocked the hind leg off my pottery horse!!!
I was pleased as punch with my lists when finished even though it wasn't comprehensive

Finance.                Home.                  People.                 Misc.

Registration.         Clear drive.          Nando.                 Mary haircut
Bills.                     Back Garden.       Polly.                    Strim Field
(Numerous.           Car brakes.          Gorgeous Dave.   Daily bike rides
Lines re                 Paint Hall.            Eleanor                Paint bookcase
different bills).      Lino in bathrm.    Ben/Ruth.            Start making Chess set
Sell old bike.         Clear shed.           Colin                   Box set BroadChurch and Killing Eve                     
                              Clean garden shed.                           Sell unwanted crap
                              Paint back of cottage                        Get Grandfather clock working
                              Repair gutter.                                    Flowers          

Each line has a box drawn after it and by the end of the morning I had already ticked six off, which included selling my ex husband's bike which he had left unclaimed in the kitchen shed for the past two years!
The money paid for my nursing reregistration, Mary's Haircut and a new pair of shoes for me!!!!
Result!!!
I met my Uruguay friend Nando and had tea and long chats in the grounds of the hotel he runs.
Spanish speakers swear in a musical way , especially when they say fuck .....( which is pronounced Fook)
It makes me giggle

I bought flowers for the cottage and was home by seven
I ticked off three more boxes after I'd got through the door

I love ticking those boxes !!!

A Head On A Shoulder

I grew up with parents that never showed physical affection
I was never hugged as a child.
I remember one moment at my grandmother's funeral where my mother rested her head onto my father's shoulder
The gesture was slightly awkward and just that little bit sad in its rarity

The recent photo of Prince Charles and William was anything but awkward
It is warm and comfortable and with Charles in the subservient role, it is rather a moving study of father and son.
A father who has finally found a way to show his feelings

Buddy

I've taken the dogs to the beach
Had turkey salad
And Cut the lawn

I also revisited this short movie from the Netherlands, which is a very nuanced study of a gay relationship that is almost over.

I had a HIV test  20 months ago

I did it alone