Born free

 The apprentice and I went for a stroll this evening, its well worn trail, he knows the way, so he ran most of it.

 Its 2.2 miles, with some tricky bits

 through ancient woodland, I didn't see much of the apprentice, save for his heels for almost the entire walk/run.

 Where there was the possibility of Trolls he waited, better to be safe than sorry,

 but for the most part he legged it, ignoring the scenery, he had something else on his mind.

 This tree.

 Being the competitive type I managed to get in front at the end

but only so I could give him a push.

Same old story

Shock news. Lorry driver fails to deliver ordered items to Rock HQ. As unbeleiveable as England's performance in the world cup I know, but yes a lorry driver failed in his duty. It was the same old saga yesterday when lazy arsed lorry driver sat in lay-by looking at page three eating a Bombay bad boy pot noodle rather than drive the half mile down the lane to The Oracles farm yard where he was to drop off our new fridge freezer. This was after me having spoken to the courier company, made sure that they would not be driving anything larger than a 7.5 ton lorry, made it quite clear that they had a turning space, that they only had to drop the fridge freezer with our neighbour, there was no need to battle up our dirt track, fit the new appliance or re-cycle the old one, and most importantly made sure that the transport manager knew that we had used this courier company before and and their 7.5 tonner made is safely in and out again.
 Now all he had to do was drive, which is the major part of his job description, and find us. Having epic failed on that and once he was bored of looking at Chantelle in her g string and her opinion on the Kurds expansion plans in Northern Iraq, Steve the driver (and he really was called Steve, I have the text message to prove it) lobbed his empty Golden Wonder container into the hedge, took a bite of his Yorkie and departed with our much needed white (well gun metal grey) good.
Day two of saga, much different. After a discussion with the transport manager as to the error of their ways fridge freezer MkII was sent and its arrival time between 7 am and 11 am could not have been more difficult to manage. Chances are that new driver would arrive at the same time as Bin Lorry, other courier delivering sports kit, or me going to drop the apprentice at play school were high and of course happened. As little t was greeting his peers I got a call saying that the lorry was in our yard. I phoned my beautiful and oh so patient wife to meet me with the trailer and away I went only to find on arrival an empty yard. No lorry and no giant box containing fridge freezer. MBAOSPW arrived with trailer in tow. Quick conflab we decided that new driver, called Ian, had followed the sat nav and was in a farm yard, but not the right one. We knew where that one would be so soon we were with a rather confused Ian who was in a little Luton Box van who could have driven all the way to our house, apparently the transport manager was loathe to let him use the normal 7.5 tonner (much to Ian's disgust) as he wanted this job over with. Ian was insistent that he come to the house but as I was equally keen to get the job done before I was too much later for work so we wrestled the massively heavy carton onto the trailer and waved goodbye to Ian who was looking forward to getting back to his proper lorry.
Back at base the newest piece of was put in place without dismantling it or the cottage and the transport manager phoned to see if I was happy now. Clearly I am. This bit of kit is a vital part of next weeks plan when three little pigs (now big) get turned into a years supply of sausage, pork and bacon.

Against all odds

Mrs Hardy has been AWOL for a while, appearing fleetingly and then disappearing we know not where. A week ago she turned up with three chicks in tow. Given the vermin cats, birds of prey and foxes being partial to poultry the odds of survival are not good. However a week on all three are still breathing and this morning they were up to extraordinary antics. I could hear them but not see them, not until one flew from the cottage roof. Somehow they had got up by the chimney and even more surprising flew, not fell, flew down to land by mum. Fingers crossed they continue to thrive.

UXG MLS

This is Alana our only non exploded goat

 trapped in a sunbeam by a severe case MLS

or Melted Leg Syndrome. Its only temporary, by nightfall she will be up marauding the smallholding as usual.

Rush hour

Paid work sent me to the farthest reach of the Red Kite empire today and as luck would have it the Local Authority decided to spend its entire road rebuilding budget along the main A road I had to travel. Not only that they decided to shut the only main road across the mountain, close it at the only A road junction between the mountain and valley and then put four separate traffic light controlled road works along the only arterial route left. The journey took an hour longer than it should and the thought of the return leg in rush hour traffic was far from appealing. A bit of local knowledge came into play and while it meant traversing roads only just wide enough for Gerry, the views were spectacular and I had the 18 mile route all to myself.

I also remembered that along this long and lonely road was a massive standing stone and having always intended to return one day with a camera so today was that day.

The last time I was at Maen Llia this informative perspex effigy wasn't but for once it was in keeping with the area and told those that didn't know that the standing stone just across the way was around 4000 years old and its reason for being has been lost in time.

But it is still massively impressive, dominating the barren landscape and visible from the end of the valley silhouetted against the skyline.

Its festooned with lichens and evidently sheep like to walk around it admiring man's achievements.

Apparently Maen Llia wakes up on Midsummers eve (not long now) and walks down the slope for a refreshing drink from the mountain stream just out of sight.

It might not, but its shadow does reach all the way to the stream.

So after several minutes pondering our ancestors talent for moving large slabs of rock I boarded Gerry and we headed back to a different civilisation. 

Happy Fathers Day

 Early doors saw the apprentice keeping a close eye on yours truly while my beautiful and oh so patient wife laboured away in the kitchen making the breakfast of choice, the full English. the cause of this lavish attention was Fathers Day.

 I am lucky enough to have my hands full with the apprentice and rug rat MkII while he who cannot be named serves his Queen and country and our only girl works in front line social work in the second city. So I am a lucky Dad. I compensated mine for having me by sending a bottle of a brilliant single malt.

The two younger ones dragged me kicking and screaming back to the chicken restaurant where I had chicken with no spiders as a treat.

Happy Fathers Day everyone who is one.

Do you want fries with that?

It being Father's Day tomorrow and my birthday a long while back I was taken out for a treat by our lovely daughter. First off was a trip to the cinema which has changed a bit, the old flea pit has been replaced by a 8 screen 3D experience with a bar, cafe, pick and mix icecream hot dog stand and a sound system that rivals Concords afterburners in volume, all built on the site of the old cattle market where you could go and tickle calf and pigs noses for free, ah well progress eh?.
 The film of choice was a Tom Cruise offering, a sort of remake of Groundhog Day meets Saving Private Ryan meets Aliens meets Officer and a Gentleman. The cinema was practically empty so why two elderly folk chose to sit behind me just as the film started and discuss the merits of world cup M and M's while taking forever to open the packet was a mystery.
Film over we went for something to eat. Something exotic in the several new restaurants built where you used to be able to watch farming types chase escaping poultry.
The picture above is real, an actual meal, or rather a tasty starter, deep fried Tarantula, Chilli Dip and salad. personally I think they overdid the cucumber but thats just me being picky. It tasted better than it looked (how could it not) the legs were a tad crunchy while the yellow puss like juice of the rear end was a bit eggy.
Thankfully this was not my starter, but it was eaten by a friend of mine who is currently in Cambodia, he is really embedding with the locals and avoiding the Golden M. I sent him a reply that there are nicer things available on the menu like broken glass and six inch nails.
Me, back in Blighty, I went for Chicken and Chips.
 I know what I like.

Happy days

Snoopy is settling in well at Rock HQ and seems to have fallen for Apollo.