Lady's Mantle

I have been getting rid of this plant in the garden thinking that it was a weed.  Silly me.  It's Lady's Mantle (Alchmeilla) and a very hardy perennial well suited to life in my salt-laden windy garden.

Gosh

Well there's a surprise!

Thankful Thursday

I may well have posted these photos before.  Then again I may not have done so.  Unfortunately memory is not one of my strong points.  In fact I can't even remember what my strong points are or were.  However as this is about being thankful I will explain the relevance of the two photos.  The mountain or hill is The Clisham.  It's a Corbett at 799 m or 2621 ft.  This photo was taken in 2004 which is the last time I climbed anything significant.  Recently I have been feeling a bit sad that I am unlikely ever to be able to climb such a hill again.  Actually I probably could climb up it with some difficulty but I would be unlikely to be able to get down again.  Why?  Well if I tell you that I sometimes get comments on the noise my knee sometimes makes when I walk across a room you'll get the picture.  This is not a 'poor me' post.  I can get on perfectly well with my knee as it is and I'm not in significant pain most of the time.  But it does have its limitations.

However this is a Thankful Thursday post and looking back at all I've done and all the hills I've walked I am very thankful that I had those experiences.  There are a great many people who have never been able to walk at all; many who have been injured and cannot walk now; many who are just getting older.

Yes.  I am very thankful.

Gaz, laid back as ever, just ready for a stroll up The Clisham having climbed Mont Blanc a few weeks previously.

On top of The Clishsm

A Most Unusual War Memorial

Yesterday Anna, a visiting friend, and I went over to the Callanish Standing Stones because it was something she had wanted to do at the Summer Solstice.  This was not, I would add, for any of the ritualistic or other reasons that many had gathered to see the solstice at the Stones but simply something she wished to do. 

At Garynahine just before we arrived in Callanish I happened to notice behind some trees and shrubs what looked like a model of a Cormorant.  Having stopped the car and investigated I discovered a fairly new and very unusual War Memorial: