Art v Reality?

When my visitors mentioned in the last post were here I, of course, took lots of photos. I have only used a few but it was quite interesting to see several which formed part of a long sequence of Joshua running along a ridge above me at Garry Sands. Straight out of the camera they looked like the first two with dark foregrounds and were, I though, quite 'arty' and I liked them. However with a little tweak, they became visual records of a moment in time and little more.

What thinkest thou?

 

Visitors

After my October visit to my brother and sister-in-law (blog posts still to come) my God-daughter, partner and their 4-year old came up to see me from the other side of darkest Manchester. I apologise for mentioning the name of That Place which is at the other end of the Lancashire Road to the fair city of my birth.

It really was great to see them even though, for various reasons including the English schools half-term only being a week long, their visit was short.

They were fortunate with the ferries and young Joshua even enjoyed the ferry journeys. 

The weather wasn't too bad either (for Lewis) and we got to see beaches and the Arnol Blackhouse and the Garenin Blackhouse village. Everyone was disappointed, though, to find that we couldn't go inside the blackhouses at either place because they were closed. 

However the beaches and the Callanish Standing Stones were open! So was the Callanish Visitor Centre where we had a very enjoyable lunch.

I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and so, I think did my visitors. 

Haste ye back!

At Garry Sands - Traigh Ghearradha - Stacs and pools (full of little fish)

Sand is interesting

Chasing a ball is even more interesting

Traigh Mhor

Over The Rainbow

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Twenty Years On

On 3 November 1998 an event of great significance to me (if not in the greater scheme of things) occurred: I was operated upon for prostate cancer and had my prostate removed. At that time it was an operation involving major surgery and a long stay in hospital. Now it is possible to have it removed by keyhole surgery.

It happened as a result of my GP asking a consultant urologist to examine me and perform a biopsy despite the fact that I had no evidence of prostate problems never mind prostate cancer. Indeed to all intents and purposes I was as fit as a fiddle and felt great. The only problem was that I knew that I had cancer. I just had no idea what sort or where in my body it was. 

The rest of the story is history and I have been treated ever since as a result of the cancer cells that had already escaped into my body before the operation.

Those decisions by the medical profession as well as their skills have given me 20 wonderful years. For the most part they have been amongst the best years of my life and include a decade of a whole different life in New Zealand.

So today I shall raise a glass and toast the dozens of people in the medical profession, together with many other people, who have been instrumental in not only keeping me alive all these years but also enabling me to have a great quality of life.

Thank you one and all.