Rhymes

 I had a dream about my grandmother last night.

She was reciting a rhyme, one that she taught me as a child.

When I woke I remembered it, in its entirety 

Has anyone heard this before? 

I went to my grandmother's garden

I went to my grandmother's garden,

and I found an Irish Farthing,

I gave it to my mother,

who bought a little brother,

The brother was so cross,

We put him on a hoss,

the horse was such a dandy,

we gave him a glass of brandy,

the brandy was too strong,

we put it in a pond,

the pond was too deep,

we put it on a heap,

the heap was too high,

we put it in a pie,

the pie was too little ,

we put it in a kettle,

the kettle had a spout ,

and they all jumped out! 

What rhyme do you remember?

While I remember my fraternal grandmother used to sing this 

Chins Up

Not long to go! Chins up

Just caught up with boris 

 

Spring

 

I couldn’t quite believe the blue of the sky this afternoon. The temperature and feeling around the village was springlike and after a short sleep Mary and I went out to post letters.

Today is the first day of Bridget’s foodbank and the telephone box on Well Street was filled

The younger children are back in school and their squeals at playtime made Trelawnyd come alive ago

The chapel and Christine and Bryn’s old house is up for sale.

It doesn’t look as though it was originally built in 1700. 

Once a corn and wheat market hall , then later a chapel, I wonder what it’s next resurrection will be 

Ruth Corker Burks

 https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/short-cuts/acts-of-love-YHscwjqeVlO/

This link is a small gift 

I’m sorry that many of you may not be able to access it, given where you are in the world. But for the ones that can....it is a little gem of a broadcast.

Start your listen at 18.43 minutes in.

You want to listen to the story of a single mom in 1980s mid America

It is the height of the aids pandemic and Ruth Corker Burks finds Jimmy a patient dying of AIDS in a local hospital. 

He is fast approaching death and is shunned by his family and the nursing staff. 

Only she in a wonderfully moving act of compassion enters his room and his last moments of life.

I listened to this podcast on the way to work last night and had to stop the car for a few moments to process the power of it..

Please give it a go and tell me what you think

Finlay

 

This is Finlay

My very first Welsh Terrier.

In one way he was the son I never had and as my first dog he broke my heart more than any animal had a right to. I was sent the photograph this morning.

And I felt emotional at the kitchen table when I saw it, right in the middle of an entertaining and stimulating three hour zoom lecture titled “ Wind in Film” 

I was so glad that during one discussion group no one seemed heard me fart very loudly as I forced out a cough..having said my box went green.......so they might have done....

A Freudian slip, perhaps given the lecture subject.

I very much enjoyed the analysis of the clips we watched together

I do so miss talking about film with people who see more than just basic entertainment 

It sounds snobby 

But I do.

Anyhow I’m doing an extra night shift tonight to cover sickness and as we are quiet I may get the opportunity to catch up with film studies homework. 

Hattie has booked Mary in for a cuddle this afternoon. 

I think I will have avocado and egg on toast for a late brunch

A Little Night Music

What does it make you feel 

 

Three Weeks

 Do you remember the Monty Python sketch what have the Romans ever done for us ? 

Well in the same vein I’m going to ask

What has the lockdown ever done for me? 

I’ve decorated the cottage living room, bought new chairs, carpet and The Trendy blue sofa as well as a new desk 

My sister has redesigned and rejuvenated the gardens front and back.

I’ve read a score of new books

I’ve rekindled friendships on what’s app video

I have spring cleaned the whole cottage..twice

Re booted my finances and ordered all my paperwork 

And have sorted all my old photographs and keepsakes into files and books

I have learned to sing via zoom

I have zoomed weekly for film lectures 

I have gay quizzed weekly on zoom 

I have cooked and painted on zoom

Zoom is here to stay.

I have been supported by villagers old and new

And have been the recipient of kindness often daily.

I have been able to lend Mary out for cuddles and doggy therapy .

I have watched too much tiktok videos and have walked on the beach

I have been grateful for work and the discipline of getting up in the morning.

I have almost finished my art wall and I have reintroduced plants back into the cottage.

Three weeks to go

Where have you been all my life Jackie Weaver?

The mysterious “P” in my last post commentated thus

“ Just wondering if any Trelawnyd online meetings can be as entertaining ala Handforth Parish Council and Jackie Weaver. John?”

Well P, first let me explain the above video for those not aware of it. This video is part of a local council meeting in the North of England where old beefs and fall outs between the counsellors came to a head when a local council official , the placid and wonderfully patient Jackie Weaver was sent in to trouble shoot the Egos. 

In Wales, we in the villages of Gwaenysgor & Trelawnyd have an officially elected Community Council which are responsible for generally local and small scale affairs. I was part of this council a few years ago now, when the village was “ run” predominantly by a phalanx of middle aged, white heterosexual men.

My appointment was a small step towards diversity back then  and today I am glad to say that there are several women and younger men on the committee, but back then there was only one delightful troublemaker amid the serious old school members.

The troublemaker was a character I used to blog about a lot in the early days of Going Gently , and that was the Red Faced Welsh Farmer.

The RFWF could be described thus

“ Think of the classic actor Robert Newton in full pirate voice aka Long John Silver but dressed in an ancient tweed hat, grubby tweed jacket and cardigan and driving an old red Land Rover, with the driver’s window forever open” 

He looked and sounded every inch a farmer pretending to be a pirate.

Now the RFWF was famous for his temper and his no nonsense approach to everything village based. If he liked you , he would bend over backward to help you in anything you asked of him and after a shaky start ( we had a row over a large blue water butt of all things) he proved a godsend when I needed an expert hand constructing my pig pens and eventually taking them to be slaughtered. 

But if he didn’t like you,( and he would be first to say that there were several on the then community council  committee he hated) he was a right old bugger and at every meeting amid the boring crap of building requests and road sign issues, he would challenge the group decision making with points of order, mischievous shenanigans, secret taping of discussions and challenges to the ineffective clerk who, I am sure had to take a Valium before each meeting in order to cope.

It was great fun watching him take the floor. Throw out his conspiracy theories and shout  and bellow over his deafness which made things even more complicated and much more entertaining.

I now realise that I adored the old pirate’s chutzpah and his devilment and his cunning and when he died, I wasn’t surprised that the huge marble church at Bodelwyddan was filled to standing room by hundreds of Welsh farmer types in their black funeral coats standing shoulder to shoulder.

They don’t make them like that anymore