Tales of Home

Cheers Petty. I know its hard.

Sorry to hear Figgy. Our two dogs are very much a part of the family and can't imagine them just not being around the house.

yep I do feel a loss of her presence. Even when she wasn't near me I knew she was around somewhere.

Im so sorry for you Figgles That stings. When I lost my boy I read quotes from people on Facebook reciting things like " Between hello and goodbye there was love", well, yes, there was of course, I loved my cat but, the anger in me rose up & I cried "but why my cat" and how I hated God and all my neighbours and anyone else that got in my way. We all love our pets and we should know what to say but I dont think we ever do, but I am sorry !!

Went to Battle Abbey today with my daughter, we took our dogs as they were allowed everywhere even in the cafe. Goody I thought Across the field from the Abbey there is a metal arrow fired into the earth representing where Harold met his end. Its a large enough arrow, at least 10ft tall and such a simple "monument" really struck home to me. I could see and hear all the shouting, yelling, screaming, horses pounding and neighing, armour and chain mail clanking, the uproar and horror of it all just because on a sunny day in April I saw this tall arrow silently piercing the ground. We could have walked up to it but we had looked and walked a lot and the dogs were getting knackered and the arrow was a fair way off.

this is a stock photo but this next one is one I took from the walls of the Abbey.



Its there, you just have to keep zooming in tho I suspect Harold wouldnt have found it funny, "" oh yeah ! I can see it alright ! I got a bloody arrow in me eye !""

Dogs don't often tire before humans, unless it was a hot day?

I like the simple monument.

My dog is the black one, my daughter has the brown one. Mine is a collie X corgi and the corgi bit won, he has tiny legs. He does get tired quickly sometimes and isnt as fast as his pal and yes, today was very warm indeed we spent 3 hours wandering round this place and I knew my dog wouldnt get to the arrow and back unless we got the car LOL

It was quite warm here today so doggies were very warm. No doggy pics but did see this little one...

awww those doggies look so happy

That little brown dog is the cutest thing. Almost a cartoon rendition of a dog.

The pandemic caused many of the classic venues in Harlem, all running on a shoestring, to close. So the musicians have been dispersed to little places around the neighborhood, including mine. Here's a trio of musicians, with the trumpet player perhaps past his prime but still full of style, doing what these old jazz masters do: invite the next generation up to perform. The total seating capacity of this place just a few blocks from my place is maybe 25. Welcome to dinner and drinks in Harlem.

Just bought a property about a 40 minute drive from where we live. 6 acres with a small house. Wife's daughter is going to rent it off us and look after the horses. Plan is to move their once we retire. At least 10 or 15 years away.

Sounds like a good plan. My parents did the same.

But...once you get truly old you need to be walking distance from everything. After you reach 80 you'll want to look for a place in town. My parents are around 90 and can't really function much longer where they are. I'd rather they move close to a grocery and pharmacy.

I have had the same conversation with my wife. It's always been a dream of hers. Dreams sometimes come true.
Still got the house we live in now. See what shape I'm in later in life.
I can always stay here and she can live with her horses.
Her daughter is going to build a house on the property with her partner and she's a carer so should be OK.

All fits together nicely then.  

We had a visitor in our back garden yesterday

Is it, uh.. eating another of its own kind?

I think it was a pigeon it had caught (the colour contrast on the camera makes the feathers look darker than they were), I live a couple of miles from a wetland nature reserve and some extensive woodlands so birds of prey aren't uncommon to see, though never had one land this close by before (it's a Kestrel I think?). I had just gone in the kitchen and saw it outside...it had already eaten whatever it could by this point leaving us the feathers to clear up...I suppose it was breakfast time for us both lol...

Walked right past a deer yesterday as well, and see foxes almost every night walking to work lots of nature around if you just stop to watch/listen...

About six or seven years ago an owl must have flown into our kitchen window overnight whilst hunting, it left a huge imprint of its face/wings feathers across the window

How did it leave an imprint? Was it wet?

{ Congratulations to the staff and pupils of my old school, Dunoon Grammar on being crowned 'Worlds Best School for Community Collaboration'. Well done folks!

'Dame Emma Thompson congratulates UK’s Dunoon Grammar School on winning inaugural World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration

The five World’s Best School Prizes, founded this year by T4 Education in collaboration with Accenture and American Express, are the world’s most prestigious education prizes and see winning schools share $250,000

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2800101370122438&__tn__=F

Dame Emma Thompson said:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=639416294380548&__tn__=F

“Hello, Dunoon Grammar and all who sail in you. You have won the World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration from T4 Education. And you’ve put Dunoon Grammar School into a kind of global recognition moment. The spotlight’s on you, small as we know rural community in Scotland. It’s the most extraordinary achievement. It actually made me cry when I heard about it. We’re so thrilled for you, and so proud of you, and I hope you all just feel, well, on top of the world because at this moment in time that’s where you are.”


Emma Thompson has a particular interest as she lives here a lot of the year, well hereabouts- like most famous folk who live round here ( theres a susprising amount) we locals tend not to say where exactly so they get some peace and quiet! But nice to see her taking interest and being involved in the local stuff.}}

That was nice of her.

What has the school been doing to win this?

{{ A wide variety of community based stuff- putting on shows for old folk, taking food and stuff to the needy in the community, helping to create new green spaces, cleaning beaches that sort of thing, even going overseas to places like Malawi, Ghana and Costa Rica to help build new schools and hospitals.
The idea is to make the kids feel like they are a valuable part of the community and show that if they want to and put in the effort, they really can change things for the better.
Theyve been oneof the driving foces behind the 'Dunoon Project' a plan to rejuvinate the area as a place for tourists to come again with a cable car system, and mountain bike trails and other stuff making use of the environment- https://www.thedunoonproject.org.uk/ }}

Farmer Dave has made it into global news!

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/washaway-beach-erosion-washington

It's a story fit for a movie. Probably Hollywoodified, with Dave hurling rocks at the sea during a dramatic storm and shouting into the wind "You shall never have my beach!" Rude veggies only hinted at for sensitive viewers, but not left out completely to still remain a sense of historic accuracy. But my, what a hero's tale.

{ Came across a photo of the Coylet Inn, on Loch Eck near here from 1905.



This it today, and I think the starkest thing is what a difference trees make. Since 1905 the hills have become part of the Forestry Commission and the lower slopes are completely covered -



It very much softens the landscape of Scotland, in the first one you can see just how rugged and harsh a landscape the highlands are, and why almost no one actually lives there. }}