Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 27 August 2023

After lunch our guide said we were going on a bear hunt!!!!!! Another “wee walk”!!! We had to follow these signs!!!!!

Hercules was a real bear who belonged to a wrestler who used to be on TV. He was on Uist filming a commercial and escaped!!! He was on the loose for 6 weeks until he was recaptured in the woods where we were walking. Here he is!!!!

When he eventually died, he was buried here.

The views when we came out of the woods were beautiful.

We then caught the ferry over to Harris. The “ferry terminal” was in the middle of nowhere!! Here is the view of it as we were departing!!

We drove up through Harris and Lewis to our hotel in Stornoway.

Oh dear!  I delved into last week's thread in error, and posted this:

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Clare Bailey said:

yesterday's beastie

I sent him off to my fwend, who fancies himself as an expert on this 'n that, and waited on the phone while he opened it, and he exclaimed "Oh, that's Tettigonia viridissima, I thought they were almost extinct, what a find!". 

Plus he quoted from somewhere "The Great green bush-cricket is notorious for giving handlers a painful nip: best left well alone"!... Hence the 'wart-biter'?

Once again I rue that I rarely make time to follow this thread 

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You are all such lovely people, I feel heart-warmed after dipping in here xxx

Scylla - That's really interesting. I bet Clare is even more pleased she didn't sit on him ... a painful nip would not have been good! Why not dip in more often? We are usually lovely ... and it's always good to 'see' you.

Rusty - Lovely pictures. And that beautiful poem brought a lump to my throat. I only ever write doggerel, which makes people smile but would never bring a lump to a throat. You certainly had a wonderful trip.

HEATHER – sorry you have joint pain in so many places. I know it could be inevitable with age, but you should consult your GP and get a referral – they may find some co-incidental cause and different relief.

RUSTY – because we live virtually on the border, we are never sure when it is Bank Holiday for us – our bank in town was closed on Monday, but the children were all at school! Sorry the hearing aids were problematic – I hope the problem is now sorted. Thanks for account of the Uists and Benbecula. Am I right to think they used to catch and eat Guillemots on the cliffs? I wouldn’t like to travel in a coach on that little ferry!

ANNETTE – pleased you are finding ways to cope with the sciatica. No nudes in our magazine, but I shall be upsetting some folk next issue. Printed copies have to be black and white as church doesn’t have a colour copier, but I have decided to please the majority and do the email copies in colour because we can, so I shall expect criticism for the difference!

LINDA – thanks for useful quotes – I will start a new list to save for a time when they are particularly relevant. Glad you are safe home – I thought you might stay an extra day being a bank hol weekend, but maybe better on the roads if too many people were doing that!

AQ – welcome back! Things are pleasanter now.

CLARE – we don’t have pictures of Jesus on the cross because since the first Easter, the cross is empty! (I hope it is okay that I write this, as I know some churches and individuals have depictions of the crucifixion. No offence intended.)

Good to see a post from SCYLLA – how are you?

Has been a mostly sunny day again – I felt a few spits of rain this afternoon, but they missed OH who was under the Alder tree, then we had more of a shower during dinner. We were pootling this morning – he went shopping – then gardening this afternoon, when I “advised” on tidying the front garden – trimming, weeding, dead-heading and moving some finished pots into the back garden to rest. Tomorrow we shall go to the garden centre which has the good greengrocer, have lunch there and then go to M&S Food.

Unknown said:

CLARE – we don’t have pictures of Jesus on the cross because since the first Easter, the cross is empty! (I hope it is okay that I write this, as I know some churches and individuals have depictions of the crucifixion. No offence intended.)

I'll be honest and say I have no idea of what the various Christian denominations show of the crucifixion.   I'm most certainly not a Christian and you've said nothing offensive.

scylla said:

The Great green bush-cricket is notorious for giving handlers a painful nip: best left well alone"

Oh, joy.  I was quite happily handling it, and encouraging it to leave me and seek greener surroundings - it seemed quite benign and didn't even try anything hostile!

scylla said:

Once again I rue that I rarely make time to follow this thread 

Well, the osprey season is coming to a close.  Get yourself on here, sharpish.

scylla said:

You are all such lovely people, I feel heart-warmed after dipping in here xxx

Some of us more than others!  I'm too sharp-tongued on occasion.  Seriously, though, some lovely people on here and I don't know how they put up with me.

Clare Bailey said:

Seriously, though, some lovely people on here and I don't know how they put up with me.

I suspect because you are genuine and honest, I well remember being sat chatting with you on that bench in Regent's Park all those years ago, that was a good day!

You're very kind, Wendy. I'm worried, though, that I've put Aquilareen off posting on this thread. That flaming troll appeared on here and I had a go at her for showing her face on what is normally a friendly thread.

I should add that it was great meeting you as well!

It was unfortunate that the terrible time we had to endure with PW for days & days spilled over onto here ... you have apologised to Aquilareen and I hope she can forgive and forget, never likely to happen again is it?

WendyBartter said:

never likely to happen again is it?

I really hope not.