Going Gently

Update 2

I’m in between jobs and have an hour and a half window before we set the hall up for the show. There’s a children’s activity day booked in the hall today and they finish at 3pm

That means we have to set up the whole show in three hours

The exhibits start coming in at 6pm

Yesterday we has 220 exhibits entered

By some good fortune today, we have now have just over 400 total

How good is that?

As I’ve been , baking, and cooking, and constructing novelty vegetable animals and making up hamper prizes, a busy line of villagers has called my name over the kitchen wall in order to drop entry forms in or to donate to the raffle hamper.

To date we have 220 exhibits booked in!!!!!!!?and enough food to make two luxury food hampers .

Roger has got so excited at the number of visitors he’s bounced himself stupid saying hello to everyone and now is laid out on the carpet with his tongue flopped out and his legs jumping at dreams of multiple cuddles with happy strangers.

He’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever owned

Deadline for entries is noon tomorrow

I’m overwhelmed with the support for such a little show

Thank you to blogger Meanqueen too for her support, your gift was generous and gratefully received

Building Up For The Show

It was humid and barmy last night and I sat on the patio for two hours towards dusk sipping some Spanish Sherry, a friend gave me as a gift to remember Barcelona by.

The Sherry was decanted into what looked like a small Kilner jar and was smuggled in from Spain in hand luggage .

I felt rather pissed when I got up to receive Flower Show entries from Animal Helper Pat and Sue T from London Road.

The Chinese lanterns cheered the wet patio up between showers

Agapanthus, always a showy bloom

The dogs left me though and filled the trendy blue sofa in the living room.

Today I’m baking my “ Against Terry” items for the flower Show

Terry should be doing the same

Auntie Glad and her scones

We are incredibly competitive and have been going head to head in the baking class since 2010

Ideally I should be making my scones fresh the morning I needed them like auntie Glad used to do… mind you she once made 70 scones in one morning before the flower show when she was in her early 90s without drawing sweat. I’m making 5 for my challenge against Terry and I’m sweating cobs!

We are going head to head in the quiche, scones and fruit cake .

The cut off point for entries is Friday morning and I’ve already received 140 so far including a single bloom from Bethan from Byron Street who had to be talked into sacrificing one of her beloved blue agapanthus.

Terry and I at the last flower Show four years ago

Other People’s Lives

I don’t get a lot of rest in Flower Show week.

It’s my second night shift at work and I’ve had broken sleep.

Di from Choir dropped off two jars of jam to be entered as she is away on Friday.

I’ve always relaxed the rules for the benefit of more entries, and am happy to put exhibits in for absent supporters.

I dropped off a cake tin too.

One of the Going Gently characters had asked for it last week and I bumbled into her kitchen like a tubby teenager not initially realizing that she had been crying.

She busied herself inside the pan cupboard and wiped her eyes with her apron.

And I pretended I hadn’t noticed

We talked about the death of Mad Organist of Father Timothy’s recent death ( He was the vicar of nearby Dyserth) and of the Flower Show, of Singing in the Rain and the fact some scrote had stolen two planters of busylizzies that had been donated by the TCA from London road.

As I turned to go I asked her gently if she was alright.

And she nodded bravely through a watery smile

“I will be” she said quietly

After The Rain (feat. Rachael Wooding & Tom Deering) (Live)

It’s Yorkshire day today

So says Gabby Roslyn on radio 2 this morning.

I was driving home from work and she was banging on about nothing

She didn’t have much of substance to say about God,’s Own Country

I think I know parts of Yorkshire well.

I lived in York between 1986 and 1989

Then Sheffield between 1989 and 2006

I miss the counties very much

York was my equivalent time to a young man’s university days

But I grew up in Sheffield…..

In so many ways

Ghosts and Bones

Next to the Memorial Hall and just across Chapel Street is the old Ebenezer Chapel.

The chapel and chapel house which makes up the building total used to be a market hall and dates from 1700.

The building has been bought by a property developer in the hope of making a quick buck. We understand that he’s planning to change the whole building into seven apartments which to me seems rather excessive given the limited amount of parking space there is in the village centre.

Affable Despot Jason lives next to the proposed build and his garden will be potentially overlooked by many of these flats and I reminded him on Saturday of the Ghost of John Wynne, a story he already knew very well.

Now John Wynne was responsible for the growth and development of Trelawnyd around 1700

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trelawnyd and it is thought that his remains were indeed buried under the floor of the Chapel itself.

A sobering thought for any developer to deal with me thinks, especially as he was obviously unaware of such a tale before he bought the building.

The figure of a man in a long coat, who is thought to be the Ghost of John Wynne has been seen by several locals, including the Randa girls and Graham the sheep when he was a teenager.