How's that for an inventive title?
Good afternoon, on this windy, dull, wet, 11ºC Sunday afternoon on the Isle of Lewis. Apart from to feed the birds I've not been out of the house today so the weather is irrelevant except to the extent that almost everyone feels more cheerful when the sun is shining.
It's three weeks since I opened a blog of mine or anyone else's to read, write or do anything in Blogland. I'm pretty sure that must be the longest period of 'non-attendance' since I started blogging in 2007.
During the three weeks I developed a kidney infection and then had yet another few days in hospital pre-sepsis whilst they sorted things out. Given the inevitably of that happening again and again the consultant has embarked on a regime of preventative antibiotics. Here's hoping.
My visitors of two months have now departed and I'm back to being in the state of being single that I have become very used to over the last 20 years or so.
You would think that with three weeks 'off' I'd have a hundred ideas about which to blog. If nothing else I could take a leaf out of YP's blog and show you more of the wonderful island on which I live. Or I could write about National Simplicity Day. Or I could just use what little imagination I have.
Monday morning.
As it was I didn't even manage to finish the introduction and post just to let you know that I'm back. Well I am. But I have to be in town to pick up a friend who's car is going in for repair, That's at 9am. So I'm saying 'Hello' and I'll be back later. However, with thanks to Rachel for waking me up again, I shall post some photos from the last three weeks.
The first is my son's new tent. It has no poles! It's just kept up by inflated tubes. I was amazed. He, Carol and Brodie spent a weekend in the sun at one of Lewis's many beaches.
Welcome back. Your post sounds chipper despite the prognosis reported at the start. That beach scene looks exactly how I would want a weekend at a beach to look; space and nature (not all umbrellas and sunbeds). And your garden is simply amazing, such colour and variety; an artwork.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tigger, particularly for your complement on my garden. I have to say that sunny weekends on Lewis are not as frequent as many would like. Then, of course, when you get a still, warm day you can be plagued by midges.
DeleteWelcome back Graham. It is good to see you here again and sounding like your usual cheerful self. I am sorry to hear that you have been unwell and hope that things will be back on an even keel.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have been having a great family time. That is one cute little boy.
Thank you JayCee. I'm just always grateful when the 'attack' is caught pre-sepsis. It's when it turns into sepsis that the fun starts. I'm acutely aware how fortunate I am.
DeleteI could watch birds flapping in shallow water for hours. We've had a round plant pot tray in the garden for a long time, but yesterday when the sun came out, watching them queueing and fighting to get in, I put a bigger one down - about 15 inches across. Just counted 12 in at the same time, all frantically flapping away and then flying like overloaded bombers trying to get back in the air.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Tasker, it's very therapeutic watching them all enjoying themselves and getting essential grooming at the same time.
DeleteIt is good to see you back in the blogosphere, Graham! For the last few nights in bed, I have been thinking of you... no, nothing like YP's imaginative humour would probably comment on, but because I have started to read the St. Kilda book your friend wrote. So far, I find it a good read. But even better is the fact that I can now read longer without my eyes tiring so quickly!
ReplyDeleteHopefully, the antibiotics help. It must be so frustrating ending up in hospital over and over again, even though you are always treated very well and are generally an optimistic person.
Love the picture with your pond, and what a snazzy tent your son has! Brodie is already 3 1/2? You'll post pictures of his graduation before we know it!
Thank you, Meike. I'm so glad that your eyes are improving. It's a sobering thought that I'll be nearly 100 when he graduates. No wonder I prefer a nice comfy bed to camping mattresses now.
DeleteGlad you are back Sir.
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly, Andrea.
DeleteWelcome back!
ReplyDeleteSorry to read you were in hospital. Prayers the new medicines make your life happier.
That's a lot of birds splashing around! What fun it must be to watch them.
Within a day or two of wondering where you are, your posts appear. It is almost like a natural blog pace that has developed where some folks post often while others have spaces between.
Thank you, Maywyn. The new medicine should keep me out of hospital and if that happens I'll certainly find life easier but even in hospital I look at it as a rest from day to day life and time to do interminable cross-words.
DeleteGood to see you back. I hope they get the your health back to normal.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Red.
DeleteSo good to have you back. Was hoping your absence was not due to any health problem & am glad to know you've taken care of the kidney infection. Am familiar with the problem...my family. I'm living now for ten years with only one kidney and have been very, very fortunate. Miss the two koi ponds we put in ourselves at two different homes. Just absolutely love your photo today. I'm saving it along with another of your photos of poppies. Thank you for sharing. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your photograph comments, Regina. I'm sorry to hear that you've lost a kidney. I think that I have been very fortunate in that they 'rebuilt' the damaged end where the stent goes in but the kidney was, otherwise, healthy. My pond is rather smaller than I think yours will have been. My goldfish are nearly a foot long now (they started off at a few inches) but if the original 5 had survived I don't think the pond would have supported them all.
DeleteThanks for posting today and for the photos. Glad to hear all is well now.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rachel. And thanks for the encouragement.
DeleteWelcome back, Graham. I have no doubt that you are filled with great ideas for a whole new series of posts to make us think, cogitate, research, maybe even fulminate. I will look forward to them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, David. Oh dear. No pressure on me then!
DeleteIt’s good to see you back in Blogland.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bob.
DeleteIt's good to see you back again, Graham. I'm sorry to hear you've been unwell.
ReplyDeleteThat is a fabulous tent, and an even better campsite. X
Thanks, Jules. I've never bee a great camper fan although I used occasionally to camp along the river in the Borrowdale Valley in the 60s and I have camped when the family were young with a large family tent that used to rake 2 hours to erect (on a good day). I also camped around South Island New Zealand on one 'holiday' with a friend when I lived in New Zealand. I might have developed a better liking for it if I'd had a tent based on the system of Gaz's.
DeleteGlad you are back again Graham, and I hope the new antibiotics will prevent too many hospital visits in the future.
ReplyDeleteI love the goose beside your pond!
Take care, Mxx
Thanks, Margaret. I wondered if anyone would comment on the goose. She was a present from a friend many many moons ago just after the pond was built.
DeleteI noticed your extended absence. Glad you are back and ok.
ReplyDeleteI cant imagine a tent without poles but the technology in camping gear is always evolving
Thank you, Kylie. I shall be catching up in Blogland now that I'm back. Some people enjoy putting up tents. For me it's just a chore.
DeleteI wonder if the fish think it's a bit of a cheek using their home as a bath; or maybe they just enjoy the company. Welcome back.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your welcome. Oddly enough, Cro, the fish seem to completely ignore the birds that have a bath but can disappear to the bottom if a seagull flies over (with good reason I should add).
Deleteoh no, I hope you are on the mend now Graham. But anyway you're not missing much in the internet world, life is plodding on day after day just the same old same old but I'm betting you enjoyed having the little guy there visiting, children bring so much positive energy our way when they are around.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I shall wander around Blogland later when I've been to town and done all my messages. Children certainly liven things up.
DeleteWelcome back. Doesn't sound too good having to live on antibiotics but it's the living that's important.
ReplyDeleteThat's some tent. In the absence of the resident fourth former I will had it's also some blow job.
Good to see you back "on blog" again :) and also able to spend some time with family. Nice to see a photo of Brodie. Your garden looks amazing, and it seems the birds think so too!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Monica. I'm fortunate to have a great many birds in the garden although this year the variety is not great.
DeleteAdd my Welcome back Graham to those who previously commented. YOU have been missed and sorry to read about the health issues, but good to read that you did not have a more serious condition develop. That's a nasty one which afflicted my late mother, sorry to say. The tent looks like it would be more comfortable than a pole tent and your grandson is a cute tyke. The simplest toys somehow entertain more than the elaborate ones.
ReplyDeleteThank you Beatrice. I'm sorry to hear that your late mother had the same problem. It can be very unpleasant. The tent is certainly comfortable but to me erecting a pole tent is not the fun that many people find it. To me the joy is using the tent not erecting it so this one is ideal. Brodie is certainly able to turn on the charm when he feels like it (which, fortunately, is a lot of the time).
DeleteHi Beatrice. Just to let you know that I have now managed to get to the stage I've got to on other occasions with Wordpress blogs. Yours is the only Wordpress blog I've managed to sign into for a long time despite having two Wordpress accounts. Your blog is telling me that my identity doesn't exist or has been deleted. So I'm afraid it looks like I can read but no longer comment.
DeleteHi Graham, thanks for the heads-up to let me know your experience in trying to comment on my blog. It is in Blogger, not Wordpress, so perhaps that is part of the issue? I had inadvertently signed out of my blog earlier today, but have since corrected that error and not sure if this was part of the issue you experienced or not.
DeleteBeatrice, I had a major brain fart and I owe you a thousand (well, perhaps a hundred) apologies. For some reason I got you confused with another blogger who comments on my blog. I have written you a note of abject apology.
DeleteLooking back in the cold light of this morning makes me feel that my brain has serious issues of concentration at the moment. Fortunately the only thing to have taken a big knock is my self-confidence and my credibility. Assuming, that is that you can forgive me.
We all have those moments, Graham, hopefully not too often.
DeleteAnd it's great to have you back, Graham. Also you brought a note so you're let off the hook!! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you're doing well..keep taking good care. :)
Thank you, Lee. I only ever played hookie from school on one occasion that I can recall and I have no idea how I got away with it. It's good to be back amongst my blogfriends.
DeleteSo glad you are back, Graham, still smiling and as positive as ever. I do hope the new regime of antibiotics keeps you safe in the future.
ReplyDeleteGaz' tent is most impressive, not that my bones appreciate camping but I think I'd make an exception to rest a while beside that beach. What a beautiful spot! And he has so many others equally beautiful to choose from right on his doorstep.
Lovely to see wee Brodie, he sure has grown. Did he enjoy the camping? Isn't it wonderful how children can play for hours with the same favourite toy even when they have so many to choose from?
The birds bathing is a delightful sight. Is that orange plant in the background montbrecia. I remember seeing so much of it in Ireland but not on the island. It caught my eye as I sat gazing at your view.
Pauline, Brodie loves doing anything with his Dad and Mum (bearing in mind his Dad is away for 2 months at a time - thank heaven for WhatsApp Video etc). He even goes for long bike rides on his little bike around the Castle Grounds with his Mum and Dad on theirs.
DeleteI do have orange mombretia in the garden although I think what you can see there is the taller crocosmia Lucifer. They have apparently altered the name from mombretia to crocosmia although everyone I know still calls the uncultivated one mombretia and the taller South African one introduced here crocosmia.
What a beautiful little grandson you have! My grandson loved his 'helter skelter'. I actually don't remember what they are called here, but he had one as well. The look on your grandson's face reminded me of William's fascination. He is 10 now and in middle school. It goes so quickly!
ReplyDeleteDebby, life goes so very quickly as you say. We need to treasure what we have when we have it.
DeleteOh, welcome back. So sorry to read of another bout of sepsis 😟 Your garden is looking amazing - is that a small flock of starling?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jayne. It was a flock of starlings. They have been plentiful this year with their bullying and squabbling.
DeleteHey GB,
ReplyDeleteI just left a nice long comment on here ... or tried to ... and got some error message saying I couldn't. Trying again. In shorthand, in case it gets canned again. Glad you're well again, glad you're back, awesome photos, love the birds, great tent, come by my blog because I have also been away and am now back. Sort of. HUGS!
Marcheline, coincidence upon coincidence. I've just visited your blog (before I saw this comment). I've been out all day and I've got and AGM this evening but I'll try and catch up later if I'm still awake.
DeleteWhat a big boy Brodie has become and after the COVID lockdown period, it's nice to see him in your house playing with his helter skelter. How brave Gaz and Carol were to set up the new tent beside that beach. It is a wonder it did not take off in the wind, becoming a blue UFO!
ReplyDeleteFortunately YP they chose (the advantage of being flexible) the weekend particularly because the weather was looking good. However it did have the disadvantage that the midges were also enjoying the warmth and lack of wind.
Delete