Part 2 ...the puppy dog tale

......now where was I?

Ah yes that infernal draw ticket....first prize ...a sheepdog puppy!

Now come on...lets be realistic here...the last thing we need is a puppy ...of any description! Poor old Kim tried to persuade us very hard to change our minds recently by being caught a number of times in a compromising position with Frazer the toy boy from up the road. Two injections finished her dreams of providing us with a Christmas litter.....shudder!

As soon as I realised what the first prize was I passed the comment ...'now that would be just our luck wouldn't it ..to win a puppy! Hells teeth and buckets of blood...I will slit my wrists or your throat if we win it!'

Back home ...time passed and as I was putting plates to warm and generally getting ready to feed six hungry mouths the phone rang ...quite common in this household...I heard Nigel answer it and waited a moment for the call...'Moth..er .....its for you...hooooooo!' Nothing ...so I carried on oblivious, I noticed him coming into the dining room looking for his glasses and a pen. He did have a slip of paper in his hand though......

I called them all to the table and wondered at the shifty expressions that were passing between them ....'Whats up?' ......stoney silence was the reply!
'Well somebody had better tell me what's going on!'
Nobody could look me straight in the face..as they busied themselves over the vegetable dishes...hang on a minute........... that telephone call has caused this visible unrest...you can see where my mind was suddenly going.........

'OH NO! We've won that berludy puppy havent we?????!'

One effervescent shepherdess all over the ceiling ...I went off the planet! I was fit to be tied!!
I told them I would leave ! I suggested asking for the cash alternative! I threatened HIM with physical violence...'no change there then!' was the caustic reply. I was DISTRAUGHT!

Its not that I dont LIKE puppies, or dogs ...I love them ...and cats and sheep and cows and rabbits... I was brought up to love animals and have always had a houseful ever since I could remember...perhaps that is why I seem to be just 'OD'd' on animals. I have said for the last couple of years ...NO MORE! I dont mean NOT EVER...just let me have a break..Pleeeeeeze! A break from ailing babies in boxes by the fire, bottles, tubes, vet bills...you name it ..I've nursed it! Kittens, puppies, lambs, calves, chicks, goslings, ducklings....I've got qualifications in animal health care!!! I'm far better with animals than people when it comes to nursing skills!

They worked out strategies of caring for a puppy...they tried appealing to my new found 'granny' status ....'Toby would 'lurve' a puppy to play with!' Granny was not for persuading ...'If you think a puppy is necessary in Toby's formative years ...have it at your house then!' Knowing full well that even a bunch of flowers can make their tiny house bulge at the seams! They kept this relentless pressure up all through the meal ...how I didn't pour beef casserole or boiling custard over the lot of them I shall never know!

As I cleared up afterwards I was still seething as husband made arrangements to return to Builth wells after work on Tuesday....I noticed they removed all sharp instruments from my vicinity.

I had to telephone a friend and as I did so I just did 1471 ...I dont know why...I just did!
Funny ...I know that number ...and it sure as hell isnt Builth Wells....ITS ELDEST SON's MOBILE.. he who is sitting there as bold as brass reading the paper.....realisation quickly dawned...........LET ME AT HIM!! A judgment indeed for once saying he hadn't got much of a sense of humour...hoist with my own wotsit!!

Physical violence did indeed break out ...many slaps were administered to what ever bare flesh a mad woman could find...hysterical laughter and much shrieking followed and bad language....an awful lot of that!!!

I woz had...well and truly!

I dont know who won the puppy ...but whoever it was I wish them many years of doggy happiness...I am just so glad it wasn't me!

A family day out!

A few years ago we decided to go to The Winter Fair at The Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells, little did we realise then that it was to become an annual event, for us as a family as well as the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society! We set off on Monday in rain and fog to travel the 50 miles down to Builth Wells, first time with a baby seat ...with a baby in it of course! The journey was grey and uneventful but as soon as we rounded the corner and went into the car park high on the quarried hillside above the showground the sun came out...it was beautiful.

We had decided that unlike previous years when we had little foresight or planning in our forays into the midst ..this year ...with a baby to think about we would be a tad more organised. We donned our water proof, weatherproof, wind proof gear including scarves, hats and gloves...we have been here before....we have frozen to the spot on previous occasions believe me! So suitably clad we headed for the farthest point as yet unladen to wend our way back through the huge buildings, halls, display rings and trade stalls so by the end of the afternoon we would be quite near to the exit and the car park.

Within half an hour we realised we were somewhat overdressed for the day ...it was warm...very warm. Cups of scalding hot tea added to the overall glow! Layers were removed and hung on the back of the pushchair...gloves shoved into pockets...scarves into bags. So different from the year it was so cold we had to find a stall to buy gloves from as a matter of dire urgency! The whole atmosphere is Christmas crossed with the Carnival feeling of an agricultural show. The animals are all preened and petted before being taken into the ring. Farming friends meet and greet each other as though they haven't met for years...perhaps it was the last market in Dollgellau or Weshpool or perhaps like us this has become an annual day out. Strangely enough we always meet the same people here as well......ah well great minds etc

I love the antique sellers hall with the old linens hanging pristine white, the china glinting under the lights and the beautiful old jewellery in the wooden cases all with such stories that could be told. One year I fell in love with a pair of Staffordshire spaniels....I next saw them comimg out of a Morphy Richards kettle box on Christmas Day. I keep looking at the Moorcroft china ...but somehow I doubt any of that will reappear on Christmas morn! The old tools are oiled and polished, copper saucepans piled up on each other, earthenware steins, old cutlery, beads and bottle stops.

The food hall is an amazing mass of bodies and smells as everyone gathers around tasting cheeses, chutneys, wines, whiskeys, curries, cawl, ice cream and waffles. Its like a huge party everyone clutching paper cups of something or other as they move on to the next stall clutching a bag of goodies to take home. I tasted cassis liquer one minute, mulled cider the next and Tracey passed me apple and blackberry wine with a hint of cinnamon and ginger that was delicious.....our bags were soon filled. Neil appeared..'Try this curry mum...' Nigel popped up...'have you tried this ....'

The trade stalls and shopping halls had to be explored for Christmas shopping ...books, cushions, clothes, toys...I had to find the man on the pure wool stall ...I bought a lovely blanket for the baby from him last year...I appliqued some frogs and flowers onto it ...Toby loves to stroke the patterns and I wanted to tell him that it washes like a dream...much betther than I ever imagined...I found him ...he was so pleased I had returned...especially when I bought another blanket.

The band played Christmas music in the winter sun and mince pies were on sale in The National Trust pavilion. I found a new handbag, a replacement for 'the black hole' which is virtually worn out...well its done some miles...my handbags always do! The men inspected the farming machinery as we found the cookery and floristry halls. The Souk was filled with far eastern fabrics, shoes, soaps, rugs and clothes ...at the summer show it houses goats!

The animal halls were vibrant with noise and the smells of sawdust, we laughed at Toby's face as we introduced him to his first close up view of cows, sheep, pigs and sheepdogs...his eyes were like saucers, his chubby hands reached out into the wool of a tame sheep and grandad exclaimed with glee.......'Natural shepherd this boy...can tell quality sheep when he sees one!' I saw grandad buying some draw tickets .....mmmm ...that's odd I thought!

By 4;30 we were exhausted and decided to head for home. I knew we had a pushchair for something .....where's the baby...he's not in the chair thats for sure!

Home ...back across the moors, hills and wooded valleys to a casserole that had been simmering away all day. The log burner lit we were soon unpacking and admiring our purchases...Christmas shopping? No problem...done and dusted!!

However just rewind a moment .....himself buying a draw ticket? First prize was a sheepdog puppy....I went berserk at the thought and threatened dire consequences should we have a winning ticket...........anyway as I was dishing the meal up.....the phone rang................

Mother lays the law down!

Write 50,000 words in a month? Not a hope ...I doubt I will manage 500! I would have loved a bash at it though and will be watching those that are taking part with envy ...and support of course!!! Good luck ladies ...go... go... go!!!

We had our 'street' party on Saturday night...the catering is down to a fine art now ...always the same menu, but we know what we are doing now..so its basically stress free. A large beef stew with at least 75 dumplings, sausages...dozens of 'em, a vegetarian curry and every house does a pudding....no problems! The fireworks were OK, the mulled wine flowed and was kept warm in the fire embers.

Youngest son had invited four friends along ...they've been before ....G says they dont need asking twice! They have some cans of lager or cider 'hidden' in our trailer so they dont get into the adult supplies. Not enough to get them in a state ...just a few so they feel part of it. I have always let my boys try alcohol at home and at 'do's' such as this so they know what they do and dont like, and the side effects ...before they get out in public! My laying down the law includes 'should you feel sick ..stay outside on the garden bench ...neither me nor my Persian rug 'do' vomit!' OK?

Then I watched them ....they all played 'Star Wars' with the little ones that had been allowed to stay up for the event....they didn't care...these sixteen year old boys normally quite aloof and oh so cool.....with light up swords and goodness knows what all shrieking and running around with six year olds .....so gentle with them as well. I dont know who enjoyed it the most.

Unfortunately I missed the mulled wine completely and was quite happy with some plain soft red......I can remember the curry ....I can remember the red wine ...I can remember laughing because my feet were hot ....and 'frothy'! I swerved down the track to our house for a loo stop and to check the dog was OK after the fireworks. Couldn't find the dog! Searched round the house ...she is not allowed upstairs. Strange lump in our bed? One dog right under the quilt ...and refusing to come out! I can remember sitting on the bed laughing helplessly at her and me! I cant remember another thing!

......Later...much later Nigel tried valiantly to remove my waterproof windproof zipped up jacket....apparently I got quite aggressive at not being allowed to sleep in my coat. I had however managed to take my shoes and socks off...well my feet were sooooo hot! The dog wouldnt move and positioned herself between us...he gave up rather than upset her...and slept elsewhere!

The boys sat around the fire discussing education, politics, Christmas commercialism and social reform with the adults......somehow I think it will be me getting the 'talking to' before the next street party!

The last word has to go to one of the sixteen year olds cocooned in sleeping bags next morning on the lounge floor as I teetered in with a tray of tea and toast for them...wishing I could just go back to bed......'Good job you weren't feeling sick Mrs P otherwise it would have been a night on the garden bench for you!' I gave him a black look and muttered those inevitable words...'smart a*se!' and went back to bed with much tittering following me.........

Meanwhile back at the sheep ...Fergal a lovely young gentleman ...quite a 'toy boy' in fact arrived from Wales! Unfortunately 'blue tongue' restrictions are in force in England but not in Wales..so Fergal is here and cant go home until the restrictions are lifted..despite the fact that his home is only about 10 miles away! Red tape and agriculture ...again! I just feel so sorry for farmers trying to make a living in agriculture ...because the bottom line is...they cant!

For Small Cross One

They all shouted Hi!

Boys and their toys ...and dogs

It seems an age since I have been in here ....October 20th ...the day Bodran descended on her turquoise steed....since when I had to go back to the mundane routine of working, cooking cleaning and little or no time for blogging!

Last weekend saw us on the trail of new wheels for him! We left home at some ungodly hour and by lunchtime we had trailed around numerous forecourts in three counties....Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys, it was a gloomy grey day and the highspots for me included coffee in De Greys in Ludlow where I also spent a fortune in the Castle bookshop .....all those books mentioned on the forums and elsewhere...they were all there!

Things were getting dire ..not a suitable chariot, or rather one in our price range, anywhere. The atmosphere was getting tense, I started to feel ill on the journey from Llandrindod Wells to Newtown...that is one road I shall not be travelling on again..ever! Desperate for weak tea we stopped in Newtown in the hope I was going to find my 'sea legs' again to get home. I never grew out of travel sickness as a child and its getting worse as I get older...think I had better invest in a horse!

'Just two more garages' he pleaded .....by this time I couldn't care less I just want to get home and dusk is falling. On the very last forecourt only 25 miles from home ...he found it! The new love of his life!

On Friday I had to take a day off to enable him to fetch the 'green godess' as it is now referred to. The sun shone, it was a beautiful day and so we just had to take the monster for a spin....down through Clun..(of course) to Knighton where we had lunch...at least I could eat this time! The weather was unbelievable and the colours of the wooded hills against the pure blue sky were amazing. An old man sat on a bench outside the church reading in the sun ...remember it is November!!!

Well I can heave a sigh of relief as he will now leave my car alone and not tke it off road anymore!

Meanwhile ...at home ...the dogs!

I dont think I have ever inflicted our dogs on you ...well here they are!

Kim ...is looking guilty on the left as well she should ...she has been caught red handed in a compromising position with the toy boy from up the road..TWICE this week!

Skye in the middle is Kim's daughter ...as you can tell ...a real 'in yer face' type..still very puppyish at three years old!

Aunty Lucy is the spaniel modelling for Staffordshire potteries ...an adorable dog...she mothered all Kim's pups because Kim really wasn't bothered. Unfortunately despite 3 attempts she has not been able to have her own litter....I expect if the toy boy from up the road was to get in....dont go there!

I think Skye is just having to show off ...that isn't what was left of the postman ...honest!

All three have been trained to a very high standard by Mid Wales Gundog Society and husband of course. They do look a rather smart outfit when they are out working which they will be doing this week...travelling in the 'green godess' of course

One Zany Lady!

Firstly I have to set the scene....there I am sitting in the waiting area of Kwik Fit...its cold and I am not a happy bunny having to be in this place again within a week, the gold plated exhaust we had to have fitted last week is coming adrift and the car was back to sounding like a tank. I am reading Jodi a Picoult book Vanishing Act which I am finding rather tedious which is a surprise because I usually enjoy her books. There..ruined the reputation of Kwik Fit Fitters and Jodi Picoult in the first paragraph...sorry. Anyway ...I have a new mobile phone..the old one lost its ringer which became a bit of a disaster really. So there I am ...reading and cold when music starts to play and thinking to myself 'well at least they have a decent taste in music' ...it was Nessun Dorma...suddenly I realise its my phone and I have to rummage in the 'black hole' (my handbag..the family call it that because stuff goes in there and is never seen again) duly find phone and expect to be conversing with No. 2 son who is in the midst of a crisis...lost car keys ...but surprise surprise...its Bodran! 'Lovely day...I'm popping down for a walk...I'm leaving now...coming by scooter!' Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! We do not exactly live close! Bodran lives in the top part of North Wales and we live on the border half way down!

After a quick dash to the local bakery to get something to feed this intrepid explorer when she arrives I sat in the sun and had another wrestle with Vanishing Act...worrying like crazy about this woman and her dainty turquoise scooter tangling with the traffic on the very fast roads that lead up to North Wales! No need to have worried ...she came the scenic way ...even taking time out to wander across the Long Mountain to find the hamlet of Rowley! After a quick lunch we were off yomping round my patch....we met the 27 year old cow in the Dingle who was most perturbed she wasn't being allowed a session with the new guy on the block. A small herd of black glossy ladies and offspring stood nonchalantly around the gate like teenage girls at a dance waiting for the boys to arrive. I introduced Bodran to potato stores cut into the hillside and she overdosed on the old trees especially the black poplars that stand with their feet in the stream.

On we went up the dingle to the cottage at the top where time stopped about thirty years ago and if you peek through the window the battered teapot is on the table..waiting sadly for the old couple to come back for tea. Silence, except for a trickling stream and two mad women cackling away. Upwards along a sheep track to the top of the hill where two wind carved pine trees lean at impossible angles. The views are amazing and wonder of wonders Cader Idris was there on the horizon. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen that view this year...but it was there, blue with misty distance, under an unbelievably blue sky. On we went, now on top of the world, way above the woods into a different landscape of fields and moors and almost without warning we had arrived in a forgotten village. A cottage stand boarded against the elements, another is tired of waiting and is slowly going back to the earth, a tree growing out of the back kitchen roof. All the enclosures visible, what were once neat hedges have all grown upward into trees, laburnum and damson, hawthorn and holly.

More potato stores and a privy in the shape of a snail shell...needless to say it had to be tried for size! It would have had a roof at one time but the way it was constructed probably no need for a door. It was sheltered from the prevailing wind...the imagination ran riot!

Onward past the ancient holly forests with all the trees tagged and catalogued...everything is tagged these days, cows, sheep ...holly trees! Skeletal concrete posts stand out amongst the trees ...remnant of when this inhospitable area was a prison farm. The track is stoned and worn from feet coming from the old cottages to the chapel, they carried lanterns that would bob along in the dark. Around a corner and partially hidden is the chapel and grave yard that featured in the Mary Webb novel Gone to Earth, when it was called God's Little Mountain. The film was made here as well..the first film ever to be shot in glorious technicolour. We wandered around the graveyard and read sad tombstones of very young children...probably a measles or diptheria outbreak.

A quick gallop down the spooky hill looking down on the green depths of the pool and back to the centre of the mine workings, the blacksmiths shop, the managers office, the Count House ...then along the old railway line through the woods and back to home. A quick cuppa as my visitor from afar put on layer after layer after layer to keep out the chill of the Denbigh moors...and off she went phut phutting up the track! I made her promise to ring me when she reached home...and she did and we sat and looked at each other as France and Argentina battled it out on the Tv and my husband shook his head and muttered 'Mad...completely barking mad...the lot of you!' Absolutely.... but hell..its good fun!

Note to the other purple people who wanted to do a similar walk ....it will be arranged and will take in another forgotten village as well...hands up whose coming!

Wipso...thanks!

CAJ...hi ...I can see you checking me on this one!!!

Wednesday 17th October

This 'holiday' is fast disappearing and next week it will be back to normality, it has been lovely to just plan my days and do things on my own for probably the first time in 29 years, not that I regret any of the time spent with my boys ..we have certainly had some adventures to remember! Yesterday morning it was back to the archives, searching for a murder and subsequent hanging...still haven't found it .....but what I did find certainly gave me a bit of a giggle and made me wonder about today's punishments for offending....are we going soft or wot?

(the spelling and words are from 1686...no offence meant)

In the records for the Assizes at Shrewsbury in 1686 are the following:

'Sir Edward Acton and Henry Mytton esq. on complaint of the Churchwardens and overseers of the poor at Munslow that Mary Adney was with child by George Mason, who has absconded, and that she is likely to be chargeable to the Parish, ordered her to be removed to Diddlebury. The Court confirms the first order and she and the bastard now born are to be sent to Bitterley.'

'John Rogers and Edward Draper to be arrested and proceeded against before a JP for the throwing down of a chimney and roof of the house of Hugh Edwards, a poor inhabitant of Weston Rhyn who had about 5 years since been allowed to build himself a little house upon the waste, he, his wife and children have had to lie under a hedge.'

One for Bodran here......' Richard Vaughan of Dudleston be fined 6d for keeping a greyhound without qualification'

'Sarah Matthews, deserted by her husband and likely to become burdensome to Westbury parish to be removed to her settlement at St. Leonards, Bridgnorth.'

'Thomas Price, Francis Morris and Thomas Rogers to lie in prison until they give security to the parishes of Tenbury, More and Ratlinghope respectively for the charges of their bastard children'

'Scotch Pedlars......Scotchmen carrying packs be proceeded against as such....All pedlars and petty chapmen wandering abroad shall be by the constable, being assisted by the Minister and one other from that Parish, be stript naked from the middle upward and be openly whipt until his or her body be bloody and be forthwith sent from this Parish to the place of their birth if known, if not to the place he or she has served for the space of a year'

'Robert Walker and Samuel Watkiss to be whipt in the usual place in Salop on Saturday between 12 and 2, also Joan Turner, now five weeks after her delivery, afterwards.'

In 1695 the whippings continued......

' Alice Cooper and Sarah Jones convicted of stealing linen be whipt immediately'

' Anne Foster guilty of felony to be burnt in the hand and to find security for good behaviour or be committed for that time'

So there you go....no Social Security pay outs for incomers to the parish, an indeterminate prison sentence for Child Support defaulters, whippings every Saturday...even if only 5 weeks after giving birth! And what about the poor old scottish pedlars?

Finally there is one here for DEFRA......this one had me really roaring!

4 February 1748

'Cattle distemper: An order: No cattle that have not been in possession for 40 days be brought into this County: No Irish hides be brought into this County.'

So how is it that in 1748 at the begining of an outbreak of 'cattle distemper' measures were immmediately put on the movement of cattle to contain the disease...yet in 2001 with all the benefits of modern communication ......I'll say no more!!

Its quite strange to see that any murders are simply in there with the cattle distemper orders, mending of bridges, absent husbands, whippings and the like.

There was a great discussion about the rights of burial of Roman Catholics in woollen rather than linen.....that caused some real unrest, sort of on the scale of a political scandal today!

The hours had sped with me engrossed in the trials and tribulations of life in the late 1600's and early 1700's and it was soon time to dash to Lydham to collect Mountainear and off to Clun for a very leisurely afternoon in Clun having a really good nose...down side streets, over hedges at geese in back gardens, old houses, quirky shops, alms houses, the Church and graveyard, the school, a lovely tea shop...we never found The Hurst though...a well guarded secret apparently, but we did find John Osborne's grave.

We also found these two rather nice gentlemen, Joe Weale and Billy Cantle.....just the sort of men we like...didn't have a lot to say!

So there you go Mountainear ...over to you