Everything Vintage

Everyday I try and do a " power walk" up the hill lane next to the Gop and around what we villagers call " The Marian" . I usually do this alone as all of the dogs but William are past marching in the heat of a summer's day.
Towards the top of the Hill, high up over Trelawnyd ,sits an estate cottage. For some reason it shrieks 1940 to me , although the cottage is much older.
It is, pure vintage.......and vintage , apparently is the word du jour at the moment.

The Professor sees " vintage" as tat.
I see vintage as " lived in"
The truth, I suspect is somewhere in between.
I'm in the middle of carpet washing this morning and am not getting much done and my last visitor was a hiker and her friend after some eggs, more or less walked into the front door as I was clearing out the log burner.
"Your living room looks like a 1950s film set" the woman chirped up pointing at our vintage lamp and the pre war bookcase.
" vintage is in" I informed her proudly

Old jugs lie everywhere

The pans I use the most are two enamelled pots from the 1940s

Vintage linen in the hall 

Untidy bookcases in the living room and bedroom

Home Fires

 With Downton on hold, itv has decided to bring out the Women's Institute doing their bit in a strangely over populated Wartime English Village. Think of a poor man's MRS MINIVER crossed with a vintage Mary Berry front parlour tea party and bingo you have HOME FIRES down to a tee.
Its bollocks. But its safe, sweet natured, undemanding bollocks.
We have Samantha Bond sparring over the leadership of the WI with frosty knickers- with -a-heart Lady Cameron ( Franchesca Annis) whilst in the background a lesbian Liverpudlian, beautiful farmer girl , nutty butcher's wife and other assorted WI members make jam for the war effort!

Hats off to actress Claire Rushbrook who steals the show as the lumpy battered wife Pat Simms, as the ten million viewers sit and enjoy this pile of tosh every Sunday night, for it is her and not the general village population down in the shelters that the great British public are rooting for.

Smiles and Tears

I have spent most of the morning sorting out carpet cleaners and appropriate food for a knackered old 

Welsh terrier. 

Get one right and I may save money and energy on the other

Anyhow

When I got back the 96 year old " Scone Fairy" had been

as a jar of homemade black currant jam was left tied to the front door knob.

*

Some people smile and laugh when all they want to do is to frown or cry.
Whilst others frown and cry when all they want to do is to smile and laugh.
I met both sorts yesterday and both tugged at my heart just a little.

My friend from the otherside of the village has a group of aged sheep as well as a massive gaggle of hens and with a heavy heart she had to make the decision that the ewes had to be put down. The animals had been housed in a spare stable, safe and comfortable and all together and my friend laughed and smiled as she told me that the deed was to be done this morning.
She smiled and laughed but her eyes didn't sparkle at all

The other friend was Bob's wife, who had hit that dreadful void in grief where the adrenalin which pumps after you have to deal with a death, starts to subside alongside generalised support from friends and family. She called around on a pretext , but needed to talk about how she was feeling.
The tears flowed, as no smile could stop them

People seem to be ashamed of sadness......I think this comes from the fact that miserable people tend to get of everyone's tits!
Now when I say miserable people, I don't mean people who are battling terrible upsets like my two friends above, I mean those unhappy, blood sapping people that are just unhappy with their lot.....and we all know them. Mean spirited, self centred and exhausting.... They give genuinely sad people a bad name

My friends like most people I like are generous of spirit and it was sad to see them so unhappy and lost.

" Groan"

I had a hangover this morning.
A case of too much champagne during the Queen Honour celebrations.
I think I am too old for hangovers. When I was a young nurse, hangovers and early starts went together like  Oscar Pistorious and lying. You just got on and pushed through the tiredness and the nausea, breathed through your mouth and survived by mainlining paracetamol and eating powdered egg from the breakfast trolley.
I also remember oxygen at 8 litres a minute via a facemask often helped with a thundering hangover and on my very early days I was known to very occasionally wash a sleeping patient with an oxygen mask IN SITU
But them were the old days.........

Whats your hangover cure?
I'll make a list...I don't intend to have another

BEM Praise

The family surround the B E M tonight

How lovely

Amateur Dram Lives

Last night we attended a somewhat bizarre but entertaining night in the village Hall. " A Casserole of Comedy" was advertised as a night of humorous sketches performed by the Rhyl Parish Players to raise funds for Trelawnyd Church Funds and over sixty locals turned up at the door.
The Flower Show tables were covered with white tablecloths and were set up in lazy rows in front of the stage and as we sat down we were immediately served with small glasses of sherry by the church ladies.
The usual faces were all there. Auntie Gladys in her finest wool jacket, Irene from the Flower Show, Old Islwyn Thomas, Gaynor the Mad Organist, Mrs Trellis ......all seemed to enjoy little sketches even though some were truly awful and so unfunny it hurt.
My favourite moment was an oddball unfunny " heist" scene where four members of bank staff were supposedly locked in the vault by a robber. One moment, one of the characters shouted that her husband was in a coma and a voice piped up behind me " isnt he the lucky one!"
There was coffee and tea AND biscuits at half time, and a raffle and everything was typical parish council  fare which, as it turned out, was oddly sweet and comforting.

One of the sketches which was reproduced 

Lady night!

British Empire Medal!

What has my sister Ann got in common with Lenny Henry, Kevin Spacey, Eddie Redmayne and Van Morrision?
Answers on a postcard?
Well....I Will tell you..........for she, they and only 1000 other people from this nation have been given an award IN THE 2015 QUEENS BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST,
How bloody amazing is that ?
Ann has been awarded THE BRITISH EMPIRE MEDAL for services to her community of Prestatyn and for her charity work and I think it's a wonderful tribute to all of her hard work over decades of community support.

Ann Walkden Williams BEM ( left)

Fan- fucking-tastic!

Bush Envy

I was just leaving the field gate with a bowl of eggs when a woman I know vaguely who was walking her dog chirped up and said " Haven't you got a lovely bush!"
She wasn't referring to my " down below garden area" , thank the lord, but my bargain from woolies
Ceanosus in our front garden