The Framers Forum

It's a toast - "And Saint David"

St David's Day tomorrow and I'll not be here 'til about 22:30 'cause I'm singing at our choir's St David's Day concert.

So to all members - 'specially the Welsh ones - Happy St David's day.

(Click the link for the 2007 photos - see if you can spot me belting it out!)

Well, what can I say - quite a few Welsh peeps here and no reply to my toast - gutted isn't it - look you - boyo.

Well, we have Global members here - so here is (probably and IMHO) the best Welsh Male Voice Choir there is singing a Zulu song - with more trad stuff above to click on.

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/m ... enina.html

Playin' catch-up here, John. Belated St. David's Day greetings to you!

Pity about the roaring silence! I put it down to cutural homogenisation (but then I would! )

And a belated toast from me, too.

I think we missed St David's Day entirely with all that was going on.

It's been a bad week this week and I've done no work - our dog died on Wednesday after a long illness. She's the one in my avatar. I'm hoping today will be the first proper day back at work.

Sorry to hear about your dog Mike

I totally forgot about St. Davids day and was photographing a wedding in Suffolk. I noticed a guest wearing a daffodil buttonhole and the penny dropped.

Needless to say, a quick bit of horticulture with the trusty Leatherman in the hotel garden saw me suitably attired for the day.

Now to the rugby..............

Thanks, Gary.

Mike, I'm so very sad to hear of the departure of your beloved companion. ((((Mike & Family))))

Thanks Áine.

The house does seem rather empty without her - even the two remaining dogs can't fill the void.

Tomorrow we're going to look at donkeys so that should help to cheer us up.

Know the feeling. When I lost my beloved Amadán on St Patrick's Night 2002 (car...), I was completely devastated. A couple of weeks later, a friend of my aunt-in-law brought me to see her friend's cat and litter of 5-day-old kittens. Meeting new little beings just reinforced the enduring quality of life to me, and two from the litter are now part of my little furry family. The puisín in my current avatar - Danú - is one of them. She is a really gentle, kindly soul, and much like Amadán in nature. I like to believe that he sent her to me...

Donkeys have a marvellously benign quality about them. I'm sure that the visit will be comforting to ye. Are you just visiting, or are you hoping to adopt one?

dear welshframer

i am sooo sorry to hear about your dog and then to hear that he is the one in your avatar!! he is so adorable. u must be gutted. u just want to cuddle him/her.

Mike, Condolences from the far west, too. We had to send Tiger (in my avatar) on his last journey just before the spring fair. At the risk of sounding a soppy old sod, I burst into tears in the Vets when told he had a terminal tumour. When you've spent a decade & a half with them, pets are a huge part of your life, they are as close to family as you can get without blood ties.

Spit wrote:...pets are a huge part of your life, they are as close to family as you can get without blood ties.

I feel soul ties to my darlings...

I was never a pet person until I met Pat - she used to run an animal sanctuary and when I came on the scene had three donkeys - here's two of them - knackered after a day's Donkey riding - with my daughter, taken about 14 years ago.

(God I feel old)




Ha - woof hounds - Malick and Dublin (Dublin's the grey one - Malick, if he looked up, his nose would be shoulder-height)

Also had a cat - Sammy - thick-furred ginger Tom who looked 'chocolate box' and mean at the same time. Used to walk under the dogs with his tail tickling their tummys like a dodgem car - funny.

Fruit trees in the garden now - Sammy, who we lost a couple of years ago, aged 20+ is a plum.

Know how you guys who have had recent losses feel - have dug a few graves blinded by tears.

Not small ones either!

Wolfhounds are fabulous dogs. It's such a travesty that their typical life expectancy is so incredibly short. Feeling for you, John.

when i met suzi she had a Wolfhound cross Old English Sheepdog, (he was ten when he went) and I had an old english sheepdog. since then our houses have been filled with one, two or three at some times rescued Old English's.... and currently "deefer", who I think is from another planet, loosely based on a hyena, but mrs P is fond of him
Deefer, now about 16, is having a "rest" from the misery of being bullied for his whole life by "dulux dogs" (who can be big selfish nasty buggers that dont grow up ever) since charlie, his last tormentor, passed away a year ago.
The house smells better these days But in the winter these pair were unbeatable for keeping yer feet warm on


here's charlie and number two son ten years ago. This is the "Dad, the dog's sitting on the remote again" scenario.

Must have very big feet, Kev?

And where do you insert them?

yes i have , and, er, carefully, between the dogs

hey, that would be a scary pair of slippers (remember the boots in the Justice Zone in red dwarf, anybody?)

Ours lasted between 10-12 years, way above average.

If Pat ever has a mind, she can blow you away with pet tales.

Dublin was clever - always looking for new ways to steal food - Pat would be stuffing a chicken or something - Dublin would poke her head around the door - snif sniff - hmmmm chicken, my favourite - a bit of nudging (woof hounds show affection/grovel for food by headbutting you)

"Oh - bugger off Dublin" Dublin dejectedly lopes off through the back door in to the garden.

Suddenly all hell breaks loose - Dublin is barking and howling (ever heard a wolfhound howl?) and flinging herself against the garden fence - dashing back towards the open kitchen door - howling and barking some more - Pat appears and Dublin rushes off barking as if keen to show little Johhny who has fallen down the well - or something.

Pat goes out and the millisecond she puts Dublin's hind legs closer to the kitchen door than she is - Dublin's done a nifty one-eighty and has the whole chicken down her neck before Pat has the 'oh' out in 'Uh-Oh!"

Greedy slag used to get the chicken carcass anyway - and that was a sight to behold I can tell you - gone in about 20 seconds - she obviously preffered a bit more meat, and uncooked.

Malick was prety thick - when he peed he used to lift the wrong leg and pee all over the right one.