LEWIS v MERSEYSIDE

Comparing life on Lewis and life on Merseyside leaves the latter with few things going for it - not that Jo or Richard would agree. But one thing that Merseyside has in its favour is the price of fuel. This was the price in Stornoway last week.



And this is Merseyside.



Mind you, as GB pointed out, the traffic jams in Merseyside probably cause you to use so much more fuel that it balances out to some extent.

CUNICULOPHOBIA

I did a blog posting on Phobias the other day. It has since occurred to me that folk might think I take phobias lightly. I don't. I do however tend to take the approach that "You've got to laugh". When faced with problems it's either that or cry!

I was reminded of this phobia blog when both Fiona and Ann said they had a phobia about going through tunnels. I wonder if that has a name? Cuniculophobia, perhaps?

The Clyde Tunnel

Whatever it is called, neither of them would have liked the journey from Lewis to Pensby that GB and I made the other day. Our route included the Clyde Tunnel and the (new) Mersey Tunnel. The New Tunnel, as Kingsway is known locally, is only "new" because it was opened in 1971, many years after the "Old" Tunnel, Queensway, in 1934. Both run from Liverpool to the Wirral. There is also a railway tunnel which predates both of them having been opened in 1896.

The New Mersey Tunnel

I WANT, I want, I want...

On the way home from Lewis we came through Carrbridge and stopped for a coffee (and some super flapjack). Judging by my blog postings anyone would think I was coffee and cake mad. I guess I am!

Opposite the coffee shop was The Carrbridge Artists Studio. Outside were some brilliant chainsaw carvings by Alice and Jeff Buttress. I fell in love with this owl - "I want, I want, I want," as any five year old would say..... But I want doesn't get...

Putting things in perspective

As I write this, GB was due to see the consultant to get his scan results at Ayr an hour ago. Waiting to know how he got on is not good for the fingernails. By the time I post this blog we will have some indication of what the scans showed and what treatment is proposed. Any cancer problem can hardly be said to have a positive side but one thing this last few weeks has shown is just how many good friends GB has and how concerned they all are for his welfare.
It's times like this that put things in perspective.
....Later...
GB has his results and they do not show any cancer in the bones or glands. That is excellent news. However, what treatment is proposed for it has yet to be decided. More tests. More waiting... More praying to whatever God or Gods you hold dear, please.

Can you spin Bog Cotton?

"Can you spin Bog Cotton?"



Nowadays, with the world at our fingertips courtesy of Google, I should have thought that a question such as this was easily answered. It was asked by Fiona while we were out visiting her father's airidh the other day.



The internet answers seemed equivocal with a general conclusion that the bog cotton could not be spun because it was not commercially viable, the fibres being too short. That rather suggested that if the fibres were too short it could not be spun at all - let alone commercially. But then I came across a craft site that showed bog cotton as a raw material but didn't go into any detail.



In the end the answer came by good old word of mouth thanks to one of those strange co-incidences that happen all too frequently. When a friend called at Fiona's house a couple of days later he said that he'd been out on the moor all afternoon - picking bog cotton for his Mum to weave.



Co-incidences like this are ever so common and my Latin master, Albert Wilson, pointed out that if you learned a new word it would almost certanly crop up again in no time. Ever since then I have called it Albert's Law. And Albert's Law worked again on the journey home. The answer to one of our crossword clues was Nautilus what should we then see in a shop window later in the day but this large pottery nautilus.