A Final Sausage

 

The Welsh lockdown starts at midnight

Lucky I’ve already done a big shop this week.

I made a small turkey lasagne for supper tonight, and as I was doing so I found several left over cocktail sausages hidden away on the fridge shelf. 

I gave the dogs the sausages with their tea and kept one aside

I know I’m a bit of a show girl but I thought it apt that I tearfully planted it with Winnie’s ashes that had already been scattered on the flower beds

She would have loved that

Tired Thoughts

Almost finished nights, just waiting for day staff to stagger on duty, all blearily eyed.

I am now off for three whole days!

I have just been sharing with my colleagues how Eba, my old cleaning lady in Sheffield , used to mutter “ dirty boys......dirty boys” under her breath when she was scrubbing our bathroom 

( I have no idea where that nugget of memory came from, but I have to accept it was just a product of over tiredness) 

It got everyone laughing anyhow.

The village is collecting homemade Christmas decorations in order to decorate the village green on Wednesday. I will join in before Next week’s night shifts.

Animal helper Pat dropped off a Bara Brith covered in silver foil yesterday, and Rosemary and German Bernard from the far side of the village did the same with bottles of jam and chutney.

I’m having a walk later this morning with friends including Chic Eleanor. 

We’ve planned a proper coffee on Colwyn Bay Beach.

Eleanor predicted the amble will be “ glorious” 

My Sunday trip to see Nu is definitely off .....😭

I haven’t seen her for nearly a year.

The vet called, Winnie’s ashes were there to be collected.

I thought this odd as I had not originally requested any , but I collected them anyway.

When I got home, I found that my sister had left a planter and some primula plants for her so in the rain I sprinkled the old girl around the front garden 

As Albert watched wide eyed from under the holly bush near the front door

baba Yetu

 It’s just two years since I joined the choir

But we have not sung properly together for going on ten months now.

I am missing it so.

When the choir “ got” a song, and when I say “ got” I mean when we nailed it, Jamie our 1940’s  RAF moustached choir master would often encourage us to to leave the circle in which we sing to experience the harmonies from another perspective .  

“ Walk around and listen” he would say and although I often find physical movement within choir embarrassing , when I finally did so, I was always amazed by how beautiful we could sound

Just thirty people , most of us with no experience in music.

All singing quite beautifully together

I’m finding Tuesday zoom choir meetings somewhat difficult. Singing alone in the kitchen, to a prerecorded track isn’t the same as choir and again my natural ability to become easily embarrassed can take over from the raw confidence singing within a group can give you.

I miss the solidarity of being part of a whole.

I miss the psychological boost of endorphins when my natural shyness starts to disappear in melody

Does that make sense?

I miss those voices around me. 

I miss being enveloped in the magic of the noise we can make

I miss those acoustics of the village hall that makes us sound so much better than we are

This song, Baba Yetu is the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili 

I would love for us to sing it when we meet up, again, properly.

A Thought

What day is it?

Who knows 

This video  really pleased me 

 Why do you think that is so?

Answers on a postcard

A Pig In A Condom

 

I got up and walked the dogs at 8am.

It was grey and humourless outside so we went back to bed until 1 am

Then I walked the dogs for their long walk and fed them and we returned to bed again

I didn’t say it was going to be an interesting post. 

I was just dozing off when my work what’s app group pinged .

Apparently the Welsh Government has given a 500£ One off Thank You payment to care home workers for their battle against covid but workers in hospices were exempt from this gesture of goodwill  

The hospice management team thought this unfair and today matched that thank you for all front line staff

A nice and timely thought 

If anyone reading this think that this payment is not deserved they could have seen an overly sweaty me being pulled out of a plastic PPE overall by two support workers after a twelve hour shift

I looked like a melting pig in a condom 

Terrier

 London is in lockdown 

My planned visit to see Nu on Sunday looks like it may be off.

That’s broken my heart just a little.

I fell asleep before choir tonight and only managed the last few minutes 

But I did manage to frame by latest bit of art

A terrier’s face

Have Yourself.......

I finished night shift at 8am yesterday morning, today I have off and tomorrow I am back on nights for three.

No wonder I woke up this morning without a clue what day it was .

Last night I joined the Trelawnyd Women’s Institute  for their Christmas Concert.

Now it wasn’t a Sherry fuelled sing song with Bunty and Pippa leading a much spirited Can Can sort of do. Ma Manly with daughter Kelda had booked a bona fide Scottish Folksinger Iona Fyfe to perform which proved to be a cracking idea.

I really enjoyed it 

There was lots of chatter before the main event. Gwawr from Bron Haul sat with her new baby Jack , Cameron’s mum looked every inch like a Downton Abbey character , surrounded as she was with expensive looking oil paintings and Village leader Ian looked rather dapper in his cottage study.

I did notice that Margaret from Erw Wen didnt quite get her iPad straight so we could only see her nostrils for most of the evening.

The concert itself was sweet. Iona Fyfe has a lovely ballad hugging voice and her remit was to keep things light which was an ok decision but it was her atmospheric Christmas songs that made the most impression 

Her rendition of “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” backed by villagers swaying gently in front of their fires and Christmas trees proved to be an incredibly moving experience.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas ,

Let your heart be light
From now on
Our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yule-tide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be miles away

Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Traditions

 We all have silly traditions when it comes to Christmas.

It’s the time of year where memories float forward into psychi again, like an ebbing tide ,

and traditions visited again, gives you a sense of time and place and person and emotion.

I have only one full day off before being back on night duty on Wednesday, and so after a sleep I thought I’d hang the Christmas cards already delivered around the living room

My tradition is to fill every wall in the room.

It’s not a big tradition , but like all mini obsessions, it’s pleasing when it’s completed.

I’m three quarters completed so far.

The bad tempered postman dropped off a delivery of cards this afternoon, sending Dorothy into a mild state of low anxiety. 

Albert has not moved from his new position in the bedroom window seat. 

He was carefully watching Trendy Carol pass when I last saw him 

She has a new bright orange puffer jacket .