1 EAGLETON NOTES: The Last Summer Visitors

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Saturday 7 September 2019

The Last Summer Visitors

Yesterday my last visitors of the summer left. Summer is over so anyone hereafter is an autumn or winter visitor. In a couple of hours I am off on the ferry to Glasgow for my 16-week review for my drugs trial. It is a great privilege to be on a drugs trial for many reasons: you may get lucky (as I have) and see a huge improvement in the cancer indicators, and it gives you an insight into to the billions  spent on development and trials to see if they work and enable worldwide licensing.

I have known my last visitors since the '70s but they left the Island a few years ago (daughter many years ago). So they spent the days meeting friends and re-visiting places and the evenings allowing me to enjoy their company.

MV Loch Seaforth berthing with my visitors on board

A quiet moment on The Minch with the Mainland visible under a lowering sky

Walking in a very strong wind to Dalmore on the West Side of Lewis

Photographing the waves - we all used to play on this beach together with our families

A peaty river, glorious heather and some sun at Traigh Mhor, Tolsta

A moment when a shower threatened - the beach is a mile long

You don't have to photograph 'big'

After we left (having missed the showers) we left as a shower swept across Broad Bay
 Traigh Mhor is below us on the other side of the sheep

34 comments:

  1. It looks almost hospitable. Good luck in Glasgow. Remember it's the hospital you want and not the NCP.

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    1. Adrian, 'hospitable' can be a relative term where the weather is concerned, Adrian. Yesterday when I left Lewis the weather was warm (13℃) and windless so the midges were providing the 'hospitality'.

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  2. Beautiful sky in those photos.
    Good luck with your review.

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    1. JayCee, we are fortunate to have huge skies here which can be magnificent but, unfortunately, can also provide horizon to horizon greyness.

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  3. Sounds like "the Last of the Summer Wine"

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    1. Born and Bread, oddly this last week I was at the Last Of the Summer Wine lunch (the lunch club for retired employees from the Islands' Council).

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  4. It looks beautiful there. So much sky! I hope all goes well for you in Glasgow.

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    1. Jules, apart from the remote beauty of the Islands themselves a great deal of the beauty of living here is the Big Skies. Thanks for your good wishes.

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  5. Thank you for the wonderful photos. I miss living near the sea. Best wishes for a positive review.

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    1. Regina, I've always lived fairly near the sea both here and in New Zealand so just can't imagine living 'inland'.

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  6. Beautiful views. We've been having the "same kind of skies" here, really - just not half as photogenic where I live as with your wide open spaces... Wishing you all the best for your hospital review!

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    1. Thank you, Monica. Cities and towns have their own beauty but, unfortunately, there is always something to get in the way of the sky.

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  7. Beautiful seascapes. "Lowering sky" is poetic.
    Prayers all is good with the trials.

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    1. Thank you, Maywyn. 'Lowering' is a word my Mother used and it's stuck with me when I see a certain forbidding sky.

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  8. Nice to get out and do things with old friends who rally want to be there.

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  9. As almost everybody else has written in their comments before me, these are great skies! I hooe the good results you've been having so far keep coming.

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    1. Thank you, Meike. I know you share my love of big skies.

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  10. I know I am not being original in saying this, but I love your photos. I do. And the sea looks so clean, and such wonderful colours. And so does the sky..... I am very glad too that your drugs trials are helping,you seem to have wonderful doctors.

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    1. Jenny, I am fortunate to be looked after by a wonderful team of doctors and nurses. Indeed I have been with the lead contact nurse at Ayr Hospital since 2006. It is a brilliant system. It was she who put me forward for the trial. Thank you for the compliment about the photos.

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  11. Looks wonderful. I thought how much I'd like to be there with The Dog on the beach and then I saw the sheep. Later in one of your replies there was the midges. Hmmm, perhaps we are as well of here in Lancashire in the rain this am. All the best with your review and safe return home.

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    1. Potty, the sheep are fenced off from the beach where many dogs are exercised. This year we have had relatively few midgy days: largely due to the fact that it's been a windy summer.

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  12. I love all of these photos, there's so much of sky, sea and plants, so little of cars, roads and buildings.

    It's 13 degrees in Sydney tonight and we are freezing 😊

    I hope the review goes well!

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    1. Kylie, as you will have gathered, I love sky, sea and plants. It's 12℃ near Glasgow this evening. We've got the heating on! Two days and two scans down: review tomorrow.

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  13. I love that it looks so quiet, heavenly to me. x

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    1. It's as near heaven as one can get in my book, Kay.

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  14. I hope everything came up roses in your results, Graham.

    Lovely photos...thanks for sharing...take good care. :)

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  15. I would imagine you would have visitors all year round with that beautiful scenery (not sure about the wind)

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    1. Diane, I do get visitors all year round but this year summer has been pretty constant visitors.

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  16. Miss you and that place every day! Thanks for the virtual pick-me-up!

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    1. Aw shucks, Marcheline. I'm happy that you are duly 'picked up'.

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  17. Thanks for the lovely reminders of Lewis, Graham but especially the shot of the ferry terminal at night. To me it looks forlorn in the night lights but I guess that is me projecting my feelings upon leaving that terminal. I'm glad I didn't have to do it in the dark. Good luck with your tests!!

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    1. Thanks, Pauline. The tests went well. I'm not used to seeing the terminal at night because when I get the ferry at 6am on a winter morning I don't leave the comfort of my warm car.

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