Cayuga Val and Cayuga Pete.

Some animals are natural comics.

It's just part of their make up.

I always think it's a product of confidence and security.

For nervous animals cannot ever be funny!

Mind you overly nervous humans never make me laugh much either

The council workman who was cutting the grass in the old graveyard ,brought the American Cayuga ducks back  to the field this morning. They'd slipped under the gap in the gate and had taken themselves off to watch what he was doing 

" funny buggers" he said as they waddled back over with their heads help high " they have been following me up and down , talking at me all morning" 

They had clearly amused him.

Since they arrived, the Cayugas have proved themselves to be delightfully robust and curious duo .Less flighty than the hysterical runners, they seem to actively seek out anything new that is going on and will walk towards it with keen  amused little eyes, and with their heads cocked to one side 

The grass cutter was right when he said they were chatting to him, as everything they do seems to be punctuated with a low level muttering .

They almost sound as though they are giving a running commentary to everything witnessed.

Happy and chatty!

They remind me of a couple from the village who seem to find amusement and pleasure in most things that they experience

I have therefore named the Cayugas Val and Peter

Peter and Val

Incidentally when I got home after night duty this morning I received an email from val.

It made me smile somewhat, as the Cayugas make me smile.

It said..

Hi John

I hoped to catch you round the village to apologise for zooming past you in the car the other day. We were chatting when we saw you and totally failed to realise that you were at the bus stop when we merrily sailed past. We always forget about that stop as we rarely see anyone there. As always, there were cars behind us so we couldn't back up when we realised half a mile down the road. Peter said sh*t, I should have stopped, I agreed, he couldn't stop, and then we had a minor domestic going into Gwaenysgor....

We will be more vigilant in future!

Val and Peter x

Hey ho

Back In The Habit

Old friend Nia ( with son George) on her last visit to Wales

I don't really believe in old phrase " out of sight out of mind" especially when it comes to old friends who live away, but I do have to concede when you have important people who live away with busy lives to contend with, things do have a habit of slipping somewhat.
Straight male friends are especially bad at keeping in touch.....it's a bloke thing!
I miss my close friends from years ago.
Of  course I have new friends here, and I am certainly friendly with a lot more people than ever I was with in Yorkshire, but there is something missing, just a little.
Put simply old friends have history with me, especially as they were my " urban family".
A fairly new concept, coined in the 1990s for single, city living Bridget Jones' types.
The other morning, more by luck than design, I sorted out Skype on the old iPad and suddenly was transported to a Sydney suburb , where  old friend Nia was sipping a Crisp white on a damp Australian evening.
We had a lovely chat  and seeing her made all the difference .
The years just melted away.
It made my day.

Fired up, I have now organised a Yorkshire visit in Oct. An old friend ( the Zara wearing Bel Ami- a man with more swish than a pair of net curtains) will be appearing as a Camp Nazi in a local production of allo allo, ( like you do) and so I shall pop over to see the production, then will hopefully catch up with another friend Mike and then Jane the day after.
I'll get them all to agree to Skype me.to finalise details
There's something so vital in " seeing" a friendly face
I think that they remind you, so much, of what you are missing
Don't you think?

Radio 4 Dramas

I love the BBC

Specifically I love Radio 4 dramas

I am sure they are the best in the world.

All week, as I have been cooking, I have listened to the remarkable
Police drama " Craven , Family Man"
Starring Maxine Peake as DCI Sue Craven
Dovetailed for just 15 minutes at the end of Women's Hour 
This story of a seemingly normal family man killing his three children
in a North Lancashire town has been as compelling as any Hollywood film I have seen in a long time.

Radio 4 's 15 minute ( a day) drama Craven

Today I have been listening to a re run of a 1959 production

Of Paul Temple and The Conrad Case as I have completed a load of baking as

chris has recouped on the couch after a heavy week .

The adventures of  Temple and his sherry drinking sidekick wife Steve 

have been a remarkably entertaining listen 

Thank goodness for iplayer.

If you can listen to these two dramas do so

You won't be disappointed

Hats off to the BBC

But..is it art?

One day I would love to have a large formal garden

With herbaceous borders and neat lawns

And in it I would love a piece of art

Just the one.

I adore this living piece of art

It's The Whirling Dervish at Shambelie House 

In New Abby, Scotland.

It's strangely mystic, beautiful and totally adorable

It's just one thing on my fantasy wish list

The others?

Well....I want

An Outbuilding.....a house with a set of out buildings

An Airedale terrier

An aga ( and lessons to use it)

A jersey cow with gentle eyes ,

To be an extra in an important film,

I would like to go to the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games 

Extraordinary

Last night a dog rescue home in Manchester was set on fire by a teenage arsonist. Over 60 dogs died in the blaze while 150 were saved but it is  the amazing reaction by locals through word of mouth and social media which is truly remarkable.
Hundreds of people turned up outside the dogs home with mountains of blankets, food, and supplies within an hour of the fire starting while others brought offers of re homing the survivors
It is thought that over a million pounds worth of donations will be received in the first 24 hours after the fire

The Great British Public lending a hand

There is something incredibly powerful that is unleashed within humans when dogs are in peril.

Bliss

Chris is working away

I have shared 2 pizzas and half a scotch egg with the dogs

And have watched 5 episodes of series 4 of The Walking Dead

Bliss

O2

A comment left on yesterday's blog by Should Fish More brought back some bittersweet memories for me. He described a neighbour of his who was completing some chores whilst being connected to a cylinder of home oxygen and the picture he painted reminded me of what always seemed to happen on my day off from Ward management  in the early 2000's.

Then my mother was still alive. 

In failing health, she had been admitted to a care home in Prestatyn, where she proved to be a rather  challenging client. A long term chain smoker who suffered from COPD , she spent her days balancing her waking hours between nebuliser oxygen and crafty fag breaks, breaks the home staff or her visitors would have to take her outside for. 

Every week I would drive over from Sheffield to take her out for a couple of hours. And every week I would " borrow" a four foot oxygen tank and a spare wheelchair from work which I would bundle in the back of our tiny Nissan mica  usually with the help of one of the ward staff who I roped in to help with the heavy lifting 

After driving the 100 miles to Wales , I would get my mother parked in the passenger seat ( on a selection of incontinence pads) , plug her up to the oxygen and off we would go for our usual trip out.

Now where do you think we went to...on these little jaunts of ours?

A local botanical gardens?

A tea room perhaps?

Llandudno sea front even?

No.....our weekly outings took the same pattern every time.
Week in....week out

A trip to Sainsbury's 

And a visit to the car park on Prestatyn's Promenade.

It was my mother's choice.

In Sainsbury's , she would dictate to me a list of her wants from the supermarket.

I would then go in to shop whilst she would sit in the car and smoke as many fags as was humanly possible for someone to smoke when their oxygen had been removed!

( For the sake of public safety I would insist the oxygen cylinder would be switched off when the fags were out!)
In between cigarettes, she would spend the time doing crosswords and drinking a double gin and tonic which I had provided in a plastic cup.the gin and most of the cigarettes would be gone by the time I had finished.

(To this day, I still get a little pang when I see any of the following items when Wandering around  
Sainsbury's when out doing the weekly shop)
I loved my mother despite all that happened between us...but I have to be honest, I didn't like her very much

Crossword magazines

Strawberry tarts,

Miniature gin bottles

Small boxes of tissues

Lambet and Butler cigarettes 

Cough sweets 

Individual raspberry trifles

Her shopping list seldom ever changed.

After shopping, we would drive around for a bit, then we would buy fish and chips ( with mushy peas) and we would eat them in the car in the car park by the sea. 

My mother wouldn't eat much of hers and would often cough her peas all around the car  when a breathless coughing fit ensued . (Chris would be finding them all week in the foot wells on his way to work.) but she enjoyed what she ate as long as it was smothered in salt and vinegar .

This routine went on for sometime before her sudden death in 2002

We never had any deep conversations in that car with the massive oxygen tank in it

There was no final sharing of emotion

There was no final last words

There was no major emotional romping

My mother was just not the sort

There was just fish and chips and mushy peas

And a large handful of cigarette butts in a usually pristine and empty ashtray.

To do...........

Real life often gets in the way of real life, don't you think?

I am sat at the kitchen table trying to find a new fridge on line

The old one has given up the ghost and I am in the process of trying to prise open the freezer door
With a bread knife
It's a work in progress which I have taken  some time out from
Real life jobs can be bleeding irritating
There is a mouse that needs catching in the living room
( we saw it last night bouncing around the draught excluder)
And Chris had nominated me to help a neighbour sort out his car insurance on line this morning
( which was kind)
The neighbour is 90, so part of me wants to say
Why the hell bother?
But I will dutifully go around after I deliver eggs, walk the dogs and water pat- the- animal helper's
tomatoes......she's still away on a cruise !
But first I need another coffee
So I make one
And I sit with my friend, my blog,
Thinking of all of those other mindless little jobs that I need to chase up today

Call in to see my sister to see if I can borrow her chimney sweep brushes ( sweeping the chimney is a thankless autumn job)
Clear the weeds from the lane against the cottage as Mrs X commented just how scruffy the place is looking
Post a job reference I wrote for a friend,
Scrub the bathtub within an inch of it's life after giving Winnie a much needed fanny bath this morning
Real life......we all experience it's charm
Anyhow
The dogs have not stirred from bed yet... So I have a couple of minutes  yet to find a fridge
Last night's mouse must be dead as Albert is happily dozing  amid the canines
I took this photo to prove it

Now.......

 What's next?