Picture Postcard "Harbour Lights"

September is a good month to visit Rye in Sussex. Particularly if you enjoy bird-watching. And I have just booked a holiday at this delightful cottage "Harbour Lights" for late September. The perfect time for Autumn arrivals of so many of our birds that overwinter here.

Harbour Lights is a small, modernised fisherman's cottage, a Grade II listed building dating from the late eighteenth century and situated in the fishing and yachting village of Rye Harbour. It is right on the harbour "front" which consists of half a dozen picturesque cottages and the William The Conqueror pub. It is a stone's throw from the tidal River Rother and the RNLI lifeboat station, and not far from the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (of particular interest to me for the bird-watching opportunities). The sea is about half a mile away, approached on the Rye Harbour side by a gated road which prevents access by cars. Thus the beach (part shingle, part sand) does not get very crowded. Westward, extensive shingle, grazing land and marsh provide open country walking to Winchelsea. The sands at Camber are five miles away by road.

So, there we have it. Autumnal days strolling the beach, searching rock pools, bird-watching and generally chilling out with a few good books, good food, a wee dram or two and quiet nights....

 

A Priceless Typo

I have to share this because I cannot stop giggling. My brother wrote in his very popular LJ blog:

"....I then looked around Folkestone town centre and got somewhat distracted by the different pubs and ended up doing nothing else. It soon became the early evening so I took a bus back to finish the evening with a mystery shop at The Leading Light pub in Faversham. I had an Aberdeen Anus steak washed down with a glass of the house red and a pint of Wantsum Turbulent Priest...."

The typo missing "g" was soon pointed out in comments from other LJ readers but the helpless laughter had started. I have to try and stop thinking about it to curb the sudden and spontaneous outbursts of body shaking.....!

International Birdfair 2014

I have been spending a lot of time watching the Commonwealth Games on BBC television and have just watched the breathtaking final of the Ladies 4 x 100m Medley Final in which England took the silver medal and then the final final in the pool of the Mens 4 x 100m Medley Final in which England took the gold medal in thrilling style. And then I realised that the Birdfair 2014 is just two weeks away....

I will be attending for the fourth year in a row with my good friend Graeme. We will be driving from Brighton to Uppingham in Rutland on Friday 15th August and staying at one of our favourite Inns anywhere: The Crown Inn an 18th century pub that serves the finest ales, wonderful pub grub and offers fantastic hospitality.

We will visit the Birdfair on Saturday 16th August, no doubt nursing mild hangovers...

Birdfair encompasses the whole spectrum of the birdwatching industry whilst at the same time supporting global bird conservation. This is the event of the year if you’re into birds and wildlife. It is a fabulous event not to be missed.

A Year on Blogger

I cannot let my first anniversary on Blogger pass without a few comments and observations. I reckon my blog is at best, modest. Nevertheless I have published 248 posts that have been viewed 24,456 times. I know that there are bloggers out there who receive far more hits on their sites but I am pleased with this number.

Some interesting statistics (well, interesting to me!):

Of the page reads to date 14,974 have originated from the USA. That's 61% and I am a Brit living in Brighton, England. Thank you American readers for your encouragement. 2,869 page reads come from the United Kingdom, 457 from France, 246 from Russia, 181 from Germany, 153 from China, 149 from Ukraine, 136 from Canada, 115 from Belgium and 64 from the Netherlands, plus sundry others.

Page-views by Browsers is interesting: 74% from surfers using Firefox, 11% using Chrome and only 8% using Internet Explorer and 3% Safari. Many years ago I used Explorer, migrated to Firefox and now use Chrome.

Data on page-views by OS (if you have read this far!) show 82% still using Windows, 11% using Macintosh (I am a Mac user), 2% Linux, 2% Android and 1% iPhone.

So, there you have it. My year on Blogger. Thank you for reading my ramblings; I wouldn't do it without you.

BlogGo for Blogger

I have had numerous problems with this app for iPhone, the main being non recognition of sign-in data. I eventually had to reconfigure Google+ and change password. So now, it appears that I have logged in OK, just want to see if this post appears in my blog. If it does then this is a useful app!

The wait is over

Relief. Immeasurable relief. Doesn't one always think the worst? The wait for Oliver's blood results was a long 30 hours. I tried to keep myself occupied but he was constantly in my thoughts and as the hours passed the dread increased.

So, when the call finally came from our veterinarian, the relief felt was palpable. All parameters in the geriatric feline blood profile were normal and this was a comprehensive screen including CBC, which counts not only the total number of white blood cells but also each individual type of white blood cell in the blood sample, the RBCs and Platelets. Abnormalities in any of these can cause malfunction of various organs and disease. The blood chemistry profile and thyroid hormones were all normal. Nothing remotely sinister to report.

What then might be causing the diarrhoea? Possible imbalance of gut flora? We now have Oliver on probiotics to try and sort this out. Mind you, as we have two cats (our other cat is Bertie) we have to put the probiotics on both bowls of food to ensure that Oliver gets his! (There is no harm in giving Bertie probiotics...)

Bertie

Just hope we can get his diarrhoea sorted out now as it must be debilitating for him. 

Preoccupied

I had to take one of our beloved cats to the veterinarians today. Oliver. Our wonderful Oliver. Now in his fourteenth year. A constant companion. A wonderful black and white cat that we homed from a rescue almost thirteen years ago. A gentle soul who loves to 'hide' beneath the jasmine, who 'chatters' at birds in the garden but has never harmed one. He wouldn't. He lies next to me now as I type this post. I will keep him safe as long as it takes.

Oliver has been losing weight. Two weeks ago he weighed just 3.69kg. Today, at the vets, he weighed 3.61kg. A loss of 80gms. "That's less than a sachet of food" I told myself. Our veterinarian, Matt, palpitated Oliver's abdomen, looking for a 'lump' that our other vet, Paul, reckoned he could feel two weeks ago. Matt was not convinced. But Oliver has been suffering with diarrhoea for two weeks, on and off, and I have noticed some blood in his motions....

We steered Matt away from a full CT scan. I didn't want Oliver subjected to the rigours of full anaesthesia. But we agreed to a full geriatric blood screen. Our lad had to have both sides of his neck shaved to obtain sufficient blood for the tests.

This is when, as an animal lover, as someone whose pet is helpless, who relies totally on you, this is when your bottom lip gives way. Ros and I have shared our lives with cats for forty years. We have experienced the heartache of losing treasured family members too often. That feeling of loss never changes.

I look at Oliver now as he lies beside me, on the table... and I well up. I cannot stop thinking about the 'phone call' I will get tomorrow from Matt with the blood test results. I don't want to hear anything sinister...

I just love Oliver too much.