Neighbours

I have a set of neighbours who are not particularly neighbourly

They are noisy and in my mind inconsiderate of others , so we don’t speak anymore….well ever since I complained to them by note that their five dogs had yapped continuously for a couple of hours in the garden one afternoon without supervision or let up

Today is blissful. 

There is no noise from next door. No constant sawing of wood. No barking. No yelling at the darling CHARLIE!!!  for barking so much. 

It’s silent and my back door is open wide , sucking in the peace and quiet into the cottage.

And it’s bliss

Am I turning into one of those strange neighbours that yell at people in the street? 

You know the ones you used to poke fun of when you were a kid. 

The old fart who lives alone and who spoils your fun on sunny afternoons when kicking a ball in the street feels like the ideal pastime?

Perhaps I am.I know my aforementioned neighbours think I’m unreasonable but I have been a neighbour to many over the years and even if I do say so myself , I’ve been a good one. 

Ok I once frightened my old lady neighbour half to death in Walkley Sheffield after I caught a black cat in my kitchen and threw it into her pond after it had terrorised my two kittens for weeks.

It wasn’t the fact that I three the cat into her pond that was the problem I think, it was more that I was just wearing a pair a rather shabby boxer shorts at the time that upset her.

I made it up to her years later when I found her in the garden unconscious after a fall and I went to hospital with her in the ambulance.

I sold that tiny terraced house to a very small postman person who wasn’t a patch on me….I was told after he had moved in.

My neighbour John in Hillsborough Sheffield, is still one of my best friends now and I still miss sitting in my neat tidy garden sharing a bottle of wine with him on a summers’ evening. 

Funny that the builder who has just bought that house for his son, has recently left me a comment on Going Gently .saying it is now in safe hands. 

Funny how small the world feels sometimes.

Back to today, it’s the blackbird calls that fill the air as they challenge each other over a mate. Then it’s the sound of rain on leaves, the faraway roar of a plane heading for Liverpool airport and the sound of Dorothy snoring 

And Im happy at that

Bluebells & John Kahu

 

It’s a Bluebell day today.This morning I took the famous Vauxhall in for her tyre changes and waited for her to be ready in the fabulous Jacob’s Ladder cafe in St Asaph where I had a bacon sandwich and too much lovely coffee.

There is something therapeutic when you have to wait for something like a car service, just to be forced to wait allows your mind to wander and to think properly and without other activity or interruption. 

This afternoon I went to Bodnant to see the great swathes of real bluebells and it was lovely to revisit them even though the gardens always remind me of being married as it was a regular haunt of ours.

I wish I had taken one or all of the dogs with me as you never feel alone with a dog beside you. 

I won’t make that mistake again.

For the first time in a long while,  I felt quite  lonely today.

It’s that time of year I guess

I bought sushi for tea and treated myself to new chopsticks from the kitchen shop in Llandudno and when I got finally got home there were some on line flowers waiting for me in the letter box

They were sent from a blog follower Jon D who referred to himself as a “proud Hawaiian” 

He referred to me as John Kahu 

Apparently  Kahu is Hawaiian for an animal guardian or nurse

Timely flowers Jon

Thank you

Tonight’s old film on show

Union Flag

 

It wasn’t as busy at work as expected so I came home early and went to the TCA Hall meeting instead.

nice to see Bunty joining on the committee, she will be an asset.

Came home and put my coronation decorations up

I’m one big fat Royalist Bitch

Moving Forward

I watched bees entering and leaving an old badger sett this morning down Gypsy Lane

They looked like miniature spaceships visiting their mothership.

I sat for an age watching them until Dorothy started her I’m bored antics forcing us to move on.

She cannot abide standing still

It’s a lovely day today and a reflective one again….

Dorothy has the right idea…..it’s always good to move on.

I listened to Devipravaha again as I straightened the cottage

And opened up the windows to spring

A few more jobs after my bucket of coffee then I will drop the dogs off at Trendy Carol’s before going to work on overtime. The money from my extra shifts will be banked in my savings account in order to pay my college fees.

It feels nice that out of our group the three of us more mature students that have gravitated together are the three that are moving on for further training. 

We even get a cap and gown when we finish Donna whispered as we left our classroom

And that does mean a great deal when I think of it

The vets

 The vet detected a slight heart murmur in Roger but told me not to be concerned with it

I’m not….

He was also so captivated with him, he brought two of the vet nurses into the consultation room to meet him 

“ This is a delightful dog “ the vet said lifting Roger’s chin with a finger and Roger wagged his tail and stood on hind legs to sniff faces and lick noses.

“ He’s a superb  boy you should show him “ he added 

The nurses crowded round cooing and I beamed like a proud dad at the nativity play as they tickled and hugged him. 

Roger lapped it up and trotted on tip toe 

Tonight, at college  I’ve passed my main final practical assessment in my counselling course alongside my three besties…the feedback from my tutor was lovely and very gratefully received 

Even at 61, I still need positive feedback 

The Drop That Contained The Sea

Special little moments just happen.

They often catch you unawares.

That sneak under your radar, 

When you are least expecting them.

And they can brighten you heart, when you so need it.

This morning had such a moment.

The sun shining, Roger acting as co pilot his nose in the wind, we drove the seventeen miles up to the vets for his pre op assessment along wide country roads of bright spring green. 

I had bought the CD of Christopher Tin’s piece The Drop That Contained The Sea which is a collection of commissioned works for chorus and orchestra centred about water in all of its forms.

I have enjoyed one of its pieces Waloyo Yamoni before, but have never listened to the entire piece before.

Each of the ten pieces is sung in a different language, and they explore different vocal traditions so diverse it’s breathtaking. African languages Xhosa and Lango are featured alongside Bulgarian, old Norse, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Mongolian and Portuguese.

And this morning we listened to it for the first time

Beautiful .

It’s good to be alive today.

May

 

The seasons seem to be hurrying along this year after a bloody awful winter. 

It’s May already and the start of the month means that my Montana Clematis is in flower again.

It covers the garden gate arch with pretty pink flowers and suddenly the back garden is transported back in to a secret garden again. Private and enclosed as it was always designed to be.

We’ve had too many bank holidays , I’m sick of them

A Turd On The Picnic Rug

Bulldogs have no inhibitions.

It’s one of their less charming of traits

They are not self conscious about anything, unlike Welsh Terriers who will back into a bush in order to have a poo whilst on a walk and who will hesitate politely when offered a morsel of food from a stranger.

Years ago you may remember that Winnie held up the traffic on the  village zebra crossing at school pick up time in order to have her bowels well and truly opened and was well known for stealing food out of people’s hands if allowed.

She once stole a Farley’s rusk from the bottom shelf of a baby pram in the churchyard and even forced her entire head into an old lady’s handbag in order to retrieve a discarded polo mint.   

One time she even went missing when I had a British telecom workman in and I found her sitting in the passenger seat of his van eating a packet of cheese and onion crisps.

Anyhow, back to this morning and on our morning walk Dorothy spied a group of people preparing a picnic breakfast at the Dyserth Walkway and before I could stop her , had ambled over.  

Now before I get berated for not controlling my bulldog here, in my defence, the woman who had just laid one of those tartan, plastic backed picnic rugs on the ground,  did welcome Dorothy over with a “Well hello beautiful , are you coming to say hi ?”and being a sociable sort Dorothy nonchalantly  walked across the rug to say hello.

I could already see that there was no food on the rug, only a selection of crockery mugs and a Basket so I walked on giving the group a proud smile as they crooned and patted over a smiling Dorothy.

The ooohhhs and arrhhhhs of welcome suddenly changed however to embarrassed laughter, a shriek !! and a panicked no no no no !!!! and I turned quickly to see Dorothy squatting manfully in the the centre of the rug where she was in the final process of laying  a very large industrial sized Steaming turd.

She smiled encouragingly to all as it plopped onto the rug like a bucketful of wet cement 

 

The shame