Hope it's a good/better week for everyone.
Terrible news about the big fires, Annette. Dreadful to hear that some are set by wicked people. Awful Cousin is everything terrible: which adjective would you like? You can choose from pushy, rude, overbearing, noisy, inattentive, selfish, talkative, boring, morbid, and demanding. And those are just off the top of my head!
Diane: Hope the project is going well. Still thinking of you daily, and your dear brother.
We went to see sis-in-law yesterday as I said, and her two grandchildren were watching the Olympics round up on TV - they are quite interested. They are both primary school age still. We admired her garden as she has had some landscaping done, although its only small, and of course my OH has put up sturdy and HIGH fences to keep Bonnie in, when she visits. She also showed off her new sofas, which are very nice, but we didn't tell her that my OH has had a bad back and it has not been helped by his bringing them home for her in the car....
My holiday in October is also a coincidence, as with all this talk of cruising, and we have never been on a cruise, but this year for the first time I persuaded my OH that he will not be ill on a big ship and so we are off to tour the Eastern Mediterranean, just for a week. Whoopie! I'm really looking forward to it.
Upsetting to read that a satellite tagged hen harrier juvie is "missing" from an area in the Highlands managed for grouse shooting. Same area where 8 tagged eagles have "vanished". See:
www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37107652
Here is Alan's link to the petition to ban driven grouse shooting which often leads to the deliberate illegal killing of protected birds of prey including Hen Harriers:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125003
I saw that story about the missing hen harrier, Nature Lover. Makes you fume! I was already more than infuriated to read about the Eagles, previously.
Have already signed the petition to ban grouse shooting, long ago. Its certainly had a lot of signatures, now.
EDIT: Thanks for posting....
NEW BLOG from Chris on the Blog Page - Rowan appears to have left on migration already!
Thanks Linda.
Lindybird said: Fascinated by Mary's tales of cruising, and the good ship Arcadia - what a coincidence, Mary, as I photographed that ship in the Canaries a few years ago: we were in Lanzarote in the Autumn and walked down to the harbour where Arcadia was parked. We stood on the harbour for quite a while,and watched. You may even have walked past me, as they were ferrying people off so that they could walk into the town of Playa Blanca! (Of course, you may not have stopped there, as some ships only go to Tenerife before going on to Madiera). Will have to go off and look at my photos to work out which year it was, it was around that time you mention.
Fascinated by Mary's tales of cruising, and the good ship Arcadia - what a coincidence, Mary, as I photographed that ship in the Canaries a few years ago: we were in Lanzarote in the Autumn and walked down to the harbour where Arcadia was parked. We stood on the harbour for quite a while,and watched. You may even have walked past me, as they were ferrying people off so that they could walk into the town of Playa Blanca! (Of course, you may not have stopped there, as some ships only go to Tenerife before going on to Madiera). Will have to go off and look at my photos to work out which year it was, it was around that time you mention.
Linda - It was November 2008 and we did visit Lanzarote, but we docked in Arrecife. I always remember it as we had taken a walk through the town, then decided to get a taxi to Costa Teguise, as although we had been to Lanzarote before a couple of times, we had never went there, so thought we would check it out.
We had a nice lunch, then went to find a taxi to take us back to Arrecife, couldn't find one..... we were beginning to panic after a while, then OH decided to phone for one, it took ages to come, you can imagine how we felt thinking we weren't going to make it back to the port, because one thing for sure is that the ship never waits for anyone (well not unless you are on a ships tour)!
It is interesting that you said Arcadia was docked at Playa Banca, as we had been before on Aurora in 2004 and we had to tender into to Playa Blanca, which was really nice, we liked it a LOT better than Costa Teguise. So they must have built a new dock in Playa Blanca.
Nature Lover - Really BAD news about the Hen Harrier, I hope they find out what happened to it.
EJ's Memorial Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023
DIANE/ANETTE We lived in Shetland for 2 years (93-95) . My OH was the manager of Sumburgh Airport. To begin with we lived at the South end in rented accommodation, then finally we managed to buy our own house on the outskirts of Lerwick. In the summer months it doesn't really get dark, but it is a totally different story in winter when it doesn't get light till about 1000 and by 3 in the afternoon it is starting to get dark again. Shetland people call midsummer "Simmer Dim" and it was a standing joke that visitors would stand outside at midnight reading a newspaper. I remember that OHs family visited us at Mosstodloch (they lived near Oxford) and they couldn't believe how late it stayed light, and this was a lot further south than Shetland.
OG Do hope you are feeling better soon. Sorry you weren't able to enjoy most of your hols.
ANNETTE Those fires look horrific. So glad they have got the fire raiser. There must be something far wrong with him.
Mary: We love Playa Blanca - we have visited every corner of the island, and enjoy touring it, but by far the best resort to stay in, is Playa Blanca - only a small town really, built up from being a tiny fishing port as a lot of them are. We always recommend to people to stay near to the front rather than on the hillside behind, because you can literally walk out from your hotel onto the promenade, which is now a couple of miles long and all flat, all the way along - a boon to those not able to take steps and slopes. Here are some of my rather old pics:
-- That is just the ferry leaving for the next island!
One of the views, with the promenade nearing the Marina end, on the right of picture.
Taken in around 2006, on a cloudy day:
EDIT: We saw the Arcadia anchored off Playa Blanca, as although it has a modern jetty with constant ferries between the islands, the cruise ships do indeed use tenders to ferry their passengers ashore.
dibnlib: Thanks for interesting info on living that far North! Hard to believe.... but then, when we visit our Eldest in St. Albans, I swear it goes dark much earlier in the evenings at all times of year, than for us in NW England.
We met a couple in our local Garden Centre whom we knew, a few months ago. They said "We're off to Lanzarote and we're a bit worried as we don't know anything about it!" We asked where they were headed for, and they said Playa Blanca. "Rest assured," I said "If you are staying there, you will love it!"
When my OH met them a few weeks later and asked how they had enjoyed their week, they said "As soon as we got home we booked a fortnight in the winter, straight away - we loved it!"