‘Where’s MY lifejacket dad?’
Author Archives: Don
Poor Seamus —
gets a welcome ‘ere ear —
I had the bright idea that after a week based indoors that Seamus would be ready for a night out fastened in Loki’s kennel where he could see and hear what was going on around him but be safe from nocturnal prowlers.
About 4.00am I heard him howling from below my window and brought him indoors where his main interest appeared to be ‘gimme food!’
Closer inspection on returning from her morning walk by ‘she who knows best’ showed a badly torn ear to add to his catalogue of scars!
I guess he had fallen asleep with his head against the wire grill and a passing native said ‘Hello’ with a sharp claw!
🤔😳
Birthday Boy —
81 today ..
I’ve got the key of the door of our new home and while I am having a well earned rest from actively flitting today —
Helen is off on her early morning walk with Loki —
A few pics – south towards the Ochil Hills – sou-west towards Stirling and west towards Ben Vorlich —
We are in a beautiful part of Perthshire —
If I ever get time to look at it – still got lots to do 🤠👍
Duck Eggs – Anyone?
So why don’t we eat them?
If I’ve had one in the past I can’t remember having done so. I have heard dismissive remarks such as ‘can be strong tasted’ or ‘are an acquired taste’ but I was gifted these bonnie eggs as a welcome to our new home in the country, so I felt duty bound to do something with them.
Having first hard boiled the eggs, I found it easy to break them out of their shells before mashing them in Mayo with salt and pepper.
Served on toast with a splodge of Cranberry & Port Sauce I happened to find in the fridge, probably from Christmas ’22, or even Xmas’s past but there was no fur on it and formed the icing on the cake at a breakfast fit for a King 🥴😋👍
Under Attack —
or is it just another Chinese Balloon —
My eyes are a bit bleary this morning 😵
At the Green Welly —
Braved the icy roads in the sheltered bit’s between Lix Toll and Crianlarich today and arrived at the Welly on the wee Enfield about 12 noon.
I had the bike park mostly to myself but a few more bikes arrived as the day warmed up —
Had to get out and about on the bike today as the uncertainties of house hunting were beginning to get to me.
But – we got word by emal this evening that the old house we had gone after is to be ours! How about that – and with leccie power in the connecting, roomy garage there’s no end to the possibilities.
What would life be like without an occasional blast of biking therapy —
100 + Bikes and Counting —
I’ve had over one hundred bikes go through my hands in the past sixty odd years —
From my first road bike – an all alloy Velocette 350 MAC similar to this one at the age of seventeen. I remember my first mod – I turned the handlebars upside down so I could crouch over the tank like my hero Bob Mac and scraped the pegs on every bend —
This was probably my best one – bought from Neil Tuxworth – for many years the head of racing at Honda UK. She pushed out 76bhp and had been raced by works riders Hizzie – Foggy – Phil McCallen and as the Magic Wheels Honda in 1992 she won the British Supersport Championship under Mike ‘Spike’ Edwards. During my ownership the wee bike had wins and podiums at the 1993 NW200 and British 400 Supersport Series in the hands of that very capable and successful rider – Ian Simpson. Hell – even I had the temerity to race her at our local Knockhill circuit here in Scotland. A truly wonderful wee bike – the last I heard of her she had been totally rebuilt – including that jewel of a Tony Scott tuned motor and is now tucked up warm in a collector’s stable somewhere near the Skerries Road Race Circuit north of Dublin. If ever a bike deserved a peaceful retirement it was that one —
I also had one of these along the way – a 936cc Corsa – when I spent the payout from my first thirty years of marriage buying David Jeffries’ Ducati ensemble from his dad Tony at the end of the 1994 BSB season. The package included more lightweight wheels and race fairings than you could shake a stick at – with one good engine in the bike plus the second motor that turned out to be in a thousand pieces in a box under a bench over at ex Honda Uk – Doug Holtoms’ workshop in Preston. I did get one race meeting out of her and that was a ‘biggie’ – when a young Neil Hodgson rode her to a couple of fine results at the 1995 Daytona 200 —
Many of the bikes I have owned have figured on these threads and that brings me to my current steed – a pretty little gutless wonder from Royal Enfield. The 350cc may be short of poke but she corners well enough here on my favourite roads to still give me that buzz I look for every time I swing my leg over a bike —
Bikes have been in my blood ever since I rode my grandfather’s girder forked pre-war Ariel on farm roads as a schoolboy and long may they continue 👍
House Hunting —
That’s why it’s all gone quiet over here —
Seamus doesn’t know yet —
But he soon will when he reads my blog —
I’m sure his response will be – ‘Oh goody – take me back to the Isle of Luing dad —
there weren’t so many cars to dodge there and I can run faster than a tractor!’
Yup – we’ve been here three years – most of it under pandemic rules – making this place our own —
thinking we would be here forever and a day —
Loki won’t mind where we go —
so long as he’s with his mum —
and has logs to jump —
No worries — who said life was supposed to be easy —
The older you get – the tougher it gets 😁
from-a-distance 