“ For the days that drag our souls into dreary circles “

 

Wales, like Seattle, is well known for its somewhat wet climate.

It has rained heavily every day here for the past ten days or so, and everything is muddy and wet and slimy. My friend’s ponies have been brought down from their treacherously wet and steep field on the Gop to graze on my field in the safety of flat ground.

It’s nice to see them feeding, the steam rising off their bodies in the wet

This muggy feeling in itself is exhausting and I find myself longing for a dry garden path and some weak sun on my face. 

A gift of a book showing a collection of Andrew Wyeth paintings lifted the gloom nicely today 

I lit the fire too, just after breakfast

Old Welsh Cottages get cold quickly if left unchecked.

I FaceTimed my friend Ruth who sent me some scotch eggs then spoke to a lady called Lydia from the office of National Statistics Wales who interviewed me about how I felt about Covid 

One of the questions was about eating enough which was sobering 

She told me that I get a ten pound voucher for helping out, it’s sad that everyone needs to be paid for helping out 

My personal lockdown finishes on Thursday. 

So it was lovely of my niece in law and great niece to FaceTime me this afternoon with a magic show 

Thank god for FaceTime 

I will leave you with a bit of Ella and the sublime My Funny Valentine 

    

Nice Day

 

It’s been a nicer day today.

I Cleared the old knitting bag in the living room and found lots of old wool and knitting needles needing a new home, so I passed them onto Karen at the still house near the village pond who is big in the village WI  . We had a lovely chat , distanced by 20 yards .

Mary rubbed herself into a muddy puddle as we caught up 

This afternoon , I read lots of old journals written in the 1990s ....Tons of things I didn’t remember 

Lord.........

I’ve planned a silly zoom quiz on a Thursday 

Anyone else that wants to join in just let me know your emails 

It’s been fun to organise 

I was supposed to work today so the dog walker came, but not the usual sexy bearded one  we are all used to  . The young girl  that stood in couldn’t cope with Dorothy and brought her back within 5 minutes 

Dorothy lay flat chested on the floor when they returned grinning hopefully

Bless her.

Hey ho

Sheffield Central Library 1992

 

When I lived in Sheffield, in those early days, when I was single.

I would sometimes find myself with nothing to do on a day off from work.

My favourite place to go was to the Art Deco grandeur of the Central Library, where I would select a few reference books and sit at one of the square and worn desks to read and to watch people.

I was once asked out on a date by a student in a scruffy green jumper there

He left a note with his telephone number on a slip of paper on my desk as he walked by.

I rang the number 

He was cute.

I was reminded today of the library, and the desks and of a young woman crying over her studies. 

Even though she had her back to me, I could tell that she was crying. The hunch of her back, the frantic search for a tissue in her satchel. The sudden flop of her head to one side to rest on her palm.

I watched her for a while .

Four desks back and a little to her right.

I wasn’t the only person to notice

To my left another young woman was watching and we briefly glanced at each other, an audience of two to someone else’s misery.

The second woman, I presumed was Muslim as she wore a hijab.

In between glances of our books, we kept an eye on the crying woman and it was only a few moments later when a third person, a youngish man with a pencil behind his ear noticed the distressed woman and from his desk a couple in front of her, he turned and asked her if she was alright. 

The Muslim woman and I couldn’t hear what was said so I wasn’t really surprised when she got up and walked up to the girl and knelt down beside her and three strangers carried on a conversation, I could only guess about.

The Muslim woman put her hand supportively into the curve of the woman’s back and there was much nodding with the man in front smiling gently . his head turned.

Eventually the crying woman stood up with a tissue to her face and with the Muslim woman’s hand still around her they walked up the aisle passed me.

“ Can you watch my things?  “ the Muslim woman said to me as they passed “ We are going for a coffee

I nodded and said “Sure” 

And I did. 

I never got to know what the problem was and why the girl was so distressed.

The muslin woman eventually returned and when I asked if everything was alright, diplomatically said

she’s ok now” 

I didnt ask anything else but did say “ You were very kind” to which the Muslim woman said something thing like” noom” 

And I felt I had just been part of something so small but something potentially rather special.

Sleeping Mary and Quiz

Watching tv tonight

It’s a wild stormy night and the electric has been off twice

It’s not food on my shirt it’s bulldog slobber

I’ve organised a silly quiz for thursday 8pm GMT

Anyone interested give me your email 

Connery

 

Today’s film treat was a largely unknown but rather entertaining Space Western called OUTLAND.

Made in 1980 it was a kind of remake of the classic High Noon with a mining space station on  Jupiter a Moon standing in for the town of Hadleyville.

The film has Sean Connery in the famous Gary Cooper role with Frances Sternhagen playing his surprising ally in the altered Katy Jurado role, and the whole film is a refreshing twist on the “ sheriff with no friends storyline.  

I liked the late Connery in this homage. He underplayed the quiet hero type very well and his scenes with Sternhagen as the foul mouthed over-the-hill station doctor in need of redemption have a rather moving power about them 

Skid Marks on The Duvet

 

Five days to go

And I’ve morphed into a cross between Bridget Jones and a sweaty wombat 

A wombat with a five day old T shirt on.

It’s not a pretty sight.

I FaceTimed a friend yesterday who asked me when I had eaten avocados

That was 2 days previously.

If I put the t shirt in hot water, I’d make soup! 

It’s time to get a grip

I need a bath, a shave and a change of clothes 

I did wash the pots this morning, only because I had run out of spoons

But the only person I’ve seen today is the postman 

He’s the cheerful one that either calls  me “ Bud “ or “ John” depending on his mood

Today he asked me if I was ill

“Track and Trace “ I told him in way of explanation

He looked at my odd socks, grey tracksuit bottoms ( the ones with the paint stains) and nodded Sympathetically 

“I ve seen a few of you the last few weeks” he said

“ Some people never get out of their pyjamas “

I’m didn’t tell him I don’t own pyjamas

I had a pot noodle for breakfast, I found it at the back of the cupboard next to my emergency flour reserves.

The jigsaw still lies half finished on the kitchen table and I’ve only just finished the Julie Walters autobiography 

My friend David told me that I had let myself go yesterday when we talked on zoom.

You look like Joan Crawford in Baby Jane” he confided and when I admitted at not brushing my teeth for two days concluded that I was a very poor example of a homosexual male and that I should be ashamed of myself 

I flipped him the finger and had another coconut macaroon, the last of the ones Hattie Delivered the other day...

I decided to get a “ruddy grip Ruby” and thought to myself what Thora Hird would have done at this moment of personal crisis 

Yes, she would have had a strip wash at the sink, spat and cleaned her glasses and put on a fresh pair of pants, there was no space for slatterns in Thora’s world.

So....I ve ran a bath and filled it with some Imperial leather Polynesian Moonlight bubble bath 

The T shirt has been discarded into a very large pile of To do washing 

And Dorothy’s skid mark has been buffed from the corner of the duvet

Well I hope it was Dorothy’s 

Poo

 

Lockdown has brought the worst out of the anxiety ridden Dorothy 

as the neurotic bulldog hates change and now follows me everywhere I go 

This is her when I went to the loo

At least she Is looking in the opposite direction. 

She’s a brittle girl

Candle Overload

Last night I put a request on the village what’s app group

I didn’t  need food or pet stuff or logs

No

I needed what all good homosexual middle aged men need when they are isolating with flatulent bulldogs

in a very small cottage

Yes,I put a request out for.......

Scented candles!!!!!

The great and the good of Trelawnyd (Nick&Linda, Bunty,Tracey Manchester, Heulwen,Mrs Trellis etc) jumped to the challenge and now I have a whole shopsworth of candles to play with over the next few days

“ The place will look like a friggin Church,” one wag told me when I showed him the collection and was suitable moved when I showed him the other kind donations ...namely homemade soup, sweets, biscuits, a jigsaw, baguettes and butter, flowers all left on the kitchen wall

I will leave you with wonderfully light video....it will bring a smile to any face

She’s having a blast!