A FEW years ago I spent a week in Glan Clwyd Hospital, Bodelwyddan, recovering from an urgent operation for appendicitis.
Although I was in agonising pain I was encouraged by the nursing staff to walk around the ward for exercise.
I spent a lot of time, as did other patients, sitting by a large picture window admiring the hospital gardens and the farmland in the distance.
The hospital gardens were a joy to behold: delightfully landscaped, they were a mass of colour and the flower beds were a credit to the gardeners.
Looking through the windows to the middle distance I could see flat meadows with their lush green grass, obviously belonging to the nearby farmstead.
Grazing in the meadows were some handsome white cattle.
Other visitors were also admiring the cattle. I overheard one lady saying: “Aren't they lovely and white? They're Chevrolets, you know.”
I smiled silently to myself. As an ex-farmer I could have told her they were Charolais cattle: a Chevrolet is a motor car.
The cattle then strolled in line towards the farmyard. The same know-all lady advised: “Oh look! They're going in to be milked.”
I didn't like to say anything but I was tempted to tell her she’'ll have a job to get milk from them; they were a load of bullocks!
Michael Owen wrote...
Hello Russell, Just read your two posts, the cattle around Glan Clwyd and the lamb in Cefn. I have been wandering around the Daily Post's blogs and I picked on you to post a reply be cause I know the Cefn and Marli areas well. About twenty years ago I drove a minibus around all that area taking schoolkids into school in St Asaph, and I also did the Cefn bus service (twice a week) for around five years. I got to know a lot of people from around there, and, sometimes, a thirty something big strapping young farmer comes up to me and says something like "You don't remember me, do you?" I always reply, "Yes, I do. But I remember you as a fifteen year old lad" --- and that's true, I do. Pleased to have written to one of the Post's bloggers. I'm one myself, although I did'nt know I was until last Wednesday when I first saw the paper. I'm Mike Owen, I had my photo under the heading "Bank Robber" underneath the Farming blog hreadline.
Posted by: Michael Owen | January 27, 2007 1:39 PM