LIKE A DUCK TO WATER....

...and no-one sees those little webbed feet under that sparkly water, 'flippering' away frantically to keep that calm eiderdown of unflustered feathers so cool, calm, and collected, water off a duck's back above the parapet?

I just love it, and adore it.  And having 'reinvented' the floor-plan now for the 2012 Itton Village Show over the last few weeks, 'tucked up with teddy' on A Sicky with my cat at The Funny Farm, I have learned SO much about how this beautiful village show ticks, and the people within it.
And that's been such an enjoyable time for me.
Without a doubt, that level of research can only benefit the future of The Village Show, to determine what's good, what's popular, and which wheels need to be reinvented, or conveniently 'fall off'.

And whilst Trousers and I had valuable Oil in our tank, feeding the Rayburn with cooking fuel, and hot washing-up water (!) for kind of free, it made sense to put all that to good use, and bake as many fairy cakes, summer fruit tarts and (unfortunately!) a few sponge 'Frisbies'(?!) for The Show, and fill our freezer with them.  (I've not had 150 Fairies in my Freezer before, and never quite that much flour, sugar and butter all over my kitchen walls?!)

Anyway... Medina and I had a meeting AT The Village Hall this afternoon, and thankfully, every inch of my new Show Layout worked an absolute treat, from paper to reality.
And the two of us positioned the Showbenches, mapped out our new Raffle Table, and visually positioned all of our Trophies and funky new Certificates, took new measurements, and had totally new breakthrough Epic moments (which almost entirely belonged to Medina!)

It was SO lovely to be able to do that in an empty Village Hall, just now beginning to imagine 'the real thing' in 8 weeks' time, and to start properly getting excited about staging it 'for real'.

There's a lot to be done yet at home behind the scenes, and many many Raffle Prizes to be sourced from the locale, if we can persuade anyone to help us out in that direction.

I'll pass on your good wishes for a speedy recovery to my cat too?  She has one hell of a sore throat today....

My Apologies....

I have been such a poorly girl lately? and Trousers will tell you that I just 'don't do' being ill, in whatever shape or form, Boys'n'Girls, so it's kind of nice to feel marginally better for now, and be here catching up with you all.

I am truly amazed to see how many of you are reading my blog from every corner of the world now (in whatever language you speak.....:you must be completely Bonkers?) but I'm still incredibly pleased that you are, and I adore that you are.... So Thank You.X

My friend Medina, and I, are forging forwards with huge excitement now, with only 8 weeks, and counting, putting together the totally new 2012 Itton Village Show for Sunday Bank Holiday end of August.

It was a 'ruddy good job' Children, that Wellie measured The Village Hall so accurately a few months back, making a Foot by Foot Floor Plan, because at the last 'shout', (read: AGM) I learned that it wasn't permissable to have tables now where they were last year, because of Elf'n'Safety'n'Fire'n'Stuff, and consequently, have had to totally 'rethink' the entire layout of the whole Show, since The Show first happened 20 or so years ago.
Exactly Right and Proper for safety of Jo Public, and I haven't a problem there, but not particularly 'helpful' for a girl in The Village trying to keep the Marmite & Lemon Curd Scones separate in her first true year of organising it, from the.........

Actually, I DO so love A Challenge?
And because I felt so unwell again last night, I sat at our kitchen table, and completely 're-invented' the layout of the entire Itton Village Show floor-plan/show benches, foot by foot, with a mug of Hot Chocolate or fifteen.

Then I focussed my attentions on collating exactly 'who entered what' in the show last year...
And as I sit here in front of you right now, I am the perfect candidate for THE BLACK CHAIR in the 2012 Mastermind Challenge, and my chosen subject is:...the 2011 Itton Village Show.

Keep Well, Keep Safe, and see you next time.X

Are YOU having a good Jubilee Weekend Children?

 Welcome to Itton Village Hall's very own Jubilee Celebrations: ,,,,,,and the 'Dibley' Dancers ..... are OFF!  The sole purpose of this 'game' was dancing with a red, white or blue balloon between you and your partner.  You then had to 'change partners', without losing contact with the balloon, (and not chucking your keys into the centre of the dancefloor, because that's an entirely different game Children?) I absolutely promise you that Andrew and Bruce had a balloon between them, but I am SO going to have to get that photo onto the front of our next Parish Magazine for a 'Guess The Caption' Competition?!

Wellie, Medina, Trousers and Tractor Man were sat in the wings, watching all of The Wrinkly Games, shoulders shaking uncontrollably, and tears just streaming down our faces. 
We momentarily thought we were 'in with the crowd' when faced with a Jubilee Quiz Sheet, but no.... we were once again thwarted, as the quiz master himself had failed to do adequate research, which meant getting more than a handful of the answers remotely correct was an impossibility.

We had SUCH a giggle, but prolly, in truth, for all the wrong reasons - and for that Children, I humbly apologise.  Not.X

 Like I know what I'm doing in my Pretty Productive Kitchen Garden?  This is Wellie's first Smug Trug of the year.  I know, it's dead pathetic isn't it?!  but by golly it tasted good.

And then there's an early harvest of Japanese overwintering onions and garlics, because they're as ready as they're going to be/starting to bolt/need to clear them for replanting the ground now.

 Just a few words here isn't remotely enough to tell you the story of the Nuthatch family in my garden right now, as there are six babies, squeaking all over the place, getting themselves into all sorts of trouble flying into BC's greenhouse, getting 'patted' by her, because she doesn't know what else to do with them, and being told firmly by me that she must LEAVE it darling, which she does?
Extraordinary.  They are SO tame, I can pass them in the garden within a few feet, and they just ignore me.  Ordinarily, I'd find that quite upsetting, but it's an absolute honour to me in wildlife-terms.  I spent absolute Quality Time this morning photographing one fledgling Nutty, who'd surprisingly decided to have Forty Winks on the rusty-old-arbour by the birdbath.  Kept tucking its' head under its' wing, motionless for ages, and then reawakening for a while.
Luckily, my photos were in focus, and a posibility for entering into The Itton Village Show end-August maybe.

 The new hardwood Birdtable Trousers made me has been a huge hit with my Funny Farm Feathered Friends, but an even more huge hit with Wellie, because she adores her garden birds.

So THANK YOU Trousers.
Wellie's been planting 'like a mad thing' this weekend, as it's only a fortnight today that she opens up her garden to Jo Public once again?  I must be NUTS Children!
X

I Apologise.... I'm Having Way Too Much Fun?

M and I had a rather lovely Itton Village Show meeting this afternoon in The Funny Farm Garden, (with only 13 weeks to go now, time does fly when you're having fun Children?)  It was SO appreciated in 'The Minutes of The Meeting' that Wellie and Medina had coloured in every single copy of the hundreds of front and back covers of The Show Schedule 'by hand', with grown-up crayons, and that we'd emailed/phoned each other virtually every day to see who had 'coloured in' the most Flobalobs that day?..... I might even treat my Mother to a copy so that she can appreciate how very much both my maternal and paternal grandfathers taught me so fantastically well?
I know M and I shouldn't have this much fun at our age?..... BUT WE JUST ARE.... Okay?
And Wellie was a little bit upset about something yesterday, so M brought me A Pig Biscuit On A Stick, because I'm HogMother to her Three Piglets........ and expertly she advised me that I could 'bite its ears off' and pretend that it was Trousers? I started by biting its' ears off,.... and kind of got 'carried away' Children?
I can't remember what time I emailed her, but later that evening, I broke the news to her that The Pig On A Stick was well and truly dead Angel?

With my not very good computer skills, I've purposely not spoken about the previous photos, in order not to lose this beautiful photo within the blog that I love?  And to bring you heartfelt speaks about the photo, because no words on this page will ever describe how Mum and Baby suffered for the absolute MINUTES that they were parted from each other, and I'm not magnificent, because it was just 'opening a gate' for me to encourage baby back to Mum......And whilst that took what seemed like a lifetime to happen for them, it was something that I was able to do for the two of them, because I happened to just be there.

I LOVE where I live with an absolute passion, and I've never felt that before now.
Isn't that lovely?X

Wherever you are, be inspired and make the best of what you enjoy.
My Love.
Wellie
X

Don't You Just LOVE Life?

Trousers is the person that we all have to thank for even viewing these kittens, because without his Private Dick/PI skills, we wouldn't be aware that they were even there in the first place?
He is TOP Banana when it comes to Observation, and never misses a trick.

Having told our very special friends, and invited them round to see them, the Mum Cat had decided to move them from underneath the oil tank, and we were all completely 'gutted' then to be looking at an empty space last evening.  So Wellie went out there on A Mission today to locate where Mum had moved them to...and Phew! it was only 'feet away', vocally given away by the squeaking of Stripey Kitten, who'd lost the map to The Milking Machine, bless her cotton paws.X

Now THIS is what I also call 'A Result'?:
My lovely friend Medina came over this afternoon to view the kittens, and we were walking around The Funny Farm with a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio each, sharing stories of how our crops were growing in our greenhouses, picking wild garlic, spring onions, lamenting that not a sodding Asparagus has bothered to do much yet? and 'itching' to get planting all of our Serbian/Borlotti, French and Runner Beans, and just how all of that is beautifully coming together for our veg plots and Village Show at the end of August.

I'd shared with her previously my tears about the fact that this Ewe had struggled so badly to give birth to her dead baby, and how I'd stayed with her for over an hour until I found help.

And then I told her about how the fleece of the still-born had been tied to an 'abandoned' lamb of another, and that we were all hoping she'd take to it instead?
Look closely now.....  Neat Trick in the Lambing World: This lamb has the fleece of the still-born-lamb tied to it, and thankfully, finally, this Ewe has accepted this one as her own instead.  I've been SO on their case, watching them since the tragic birth episode, and every time I see these two together now, I just have to smile deep inside for the both of them.X

Already so soon, I'm booking myself onto a How To Deliver A Dodgy Lamb Course next year?
And it's NOTHING to do with 'Cooking Badly'.....  How I just completely, once again, cried laughing all over my non-waterproof Mascara there M?!
You think I'm joking, but there's a Vet in the Raglan area who does courses in how to deliver lambs in whatevver guise they present themselves from the birthing Ewe.  And I am ON it my friends....Never a dull moment for Your Auntie Wellie, and I can't think of a better way to spend £25, because handbags are just a waste of time?.X

Next time, I might treat you to a sneaky preview of what I'm growing to eat in our Kitchen Garden?
And remind me to feed back to you some of the lovely comments about our new Show Schedule for 2012.
For now, love you and leave you.
In the meantime, give 5 minutes of your time to someone that you care about, and give them a big hug.X

Heave A Sigh of Sadness & Breathe in A Breath of Hope?

You know when you wake up some days and you feel brilliant? and others when your whole world has just collapsed around you?  Or maybe you've never been there....
Well that happened to the person who jumped from our local Chepstow Bridge the other week, to their death.

There, but for the grace of God go all of us, and I'm not here to spread gloom or doom to bring your world crashing down, but everyone is A Very Valuable 'Someone' to me, and if you feel able to be of ANY help to anyone that you know who could do with 5 minutes of your valuable time, physically, emotionally or mentally - would you go have a chat or a cuddle with that person this week?

It's impossible to describe to you the emotion of The Bouquets of Flowers along the bridge growing in strength each and every day now, but you can tell that they were truly, truly loved by everyone that knew them.
And I hope that the people they've left behind will find comfort in knowing that at least.

X

Go On... Get Growing!

Trousers told me that I'd not written properly on the blog since about 10th April... SO! Dead 'tardy' with the blog updates, for which I humbly apologise, but I've been busy growing our veg, Dahlias, Gladdies,  and a multitude of annual flowers from seed as well, because I thought I might just open our garden up again this year.
The above photo isn't a 'tenth' of what's growing in the other greenhouses as well, and I'm 'rather proud of myself' to admit to you, that I've somewhat inspired my friend Medina, to 'Get Going/Growing/Sowing'.....?!

Instead of raising funds for The Village Hall specifically, as I did last June, I thought it'd be nice to open the garden to raise funds for our Village Show, so that Medina and I don't feel quite so guilty about 'speculating to accumulate'.  A phrase that my father was fond of, and one that I'm incredibly fond of myself.

Of course, your own food doesn't happen to 'grow itself'.  AND I've got my friend Emma's Veg to grow in her Kitchen Garden this year too, which I didn't 'this time last year'..... and the two of us are having an enormous amount of fun....I'm therefore trying to grow what her kitchen requires, as well as my own, AND possibly for The Show end August, if I can get my act together.

 I've been true to my word this year, and labelled every single sodding tomato plant.  Every year up until now, I only label one of them in the tray, and then get them all muggled up when I water and pot them on.  So "well done wellie.X"
And I'm about to pot all of these Pot Marigolds around the sink up to sell at Saturday's Coffee Morning in the Village Hall for some extra cash to go towards the cost of compost and seeds now? Because both are WAY more expensive than they used to be when no-one bothered to Get Growing?.  Just DON'T get me 'started' on the price of seeds now, okay?!

 I dig up the Autumn Raspberry canes when they're 'annoying me' because I can easily sell them locally....  And in case you have no idea what the crop is to the right of the buckets.... it's Sorrel, which you just can't buy for culinary use these days.
I'm hoping to get a Restaurant Chef or two interested locally.
And my favourite Irish Chef, Denis Cotter, has a gorgeous Fritter recipe that makes good use of it in my own kitchen.X

Trousers completely excelled himself today: Knowing that my friend M was coming round this afternoon, he made a cake, AND he made some bread in the bread machine.
Unfortunately, the Lectricity 'tripped', and sent the bread machine into chaos, the resulting loaf ending up like a house brick that resembled a crumpet.  So I gave it to the birdies....
I'm half-expecting a carpet of dead birds underneath the mangle in the morning on account of the fact that the loaf was too heavy for them to take flight once they'd had a nibble?

DEAD 'CITING NEWS:  Mrs. Batman's Babies have hatched in The Draughty Dutch Greenhouse, on one of the shelves of the green metal cabinets that my Dad gave me.
I have tried and tried and tried to take photos, but the nest is right at the back of the shelf, and my photographic expertise isn't 'up to it', I'm sad to say....
but take my word for it, there are tiny-wee golden beaks and fluffy little bodies in there that just warm the cockles of my heart.

Catch You Later....X
Wellie