Day Excursion to Hilbre Island

Today, we decided to take a trip up towards Liverpool, or to be more precise, the Dee Estuary at West Kirby. The aim of our excursion was to visit Hilbre Islands. There are, in fact, actually three separate Islands. The only way to get to them is by either walking, or driving across the mud flats at low tide.




Hilbre Islands Ahoy!



As we walked across the mud flats, we were very glad that we had decided to wear Wellington Boots, as there were areas where we had to splash through water channels on our way to the Islands. Bonnie, our Golden Labrador, at first didn't want to cross the mud flats, and kept turning back heading for the shore. Once she got over her initial hesitation, there was no stopping her adventure!



Bonnie having a mad moment!

On the third and biggest Island is where the houses are, and the derelict lifeboat station, and the old Telegraph Station. The Lifeboat Station was decommissioned in 1938, and now is just the walls standing with no roof, and the slipway has half disintegrated. The house owners have to pay a ground rent to the Wirral Council. As soon as they stop paying the rent, the the Council do not renew the lease and remove the building. The Council's aim is to remove all the buildings eventually.

Largest, occupied Island

Whilst I was wandering around the Island, I got talking with one of the Rangers. The girls merrily went off exploring by themselves, while I chatted with the Ranger. This is where I got the information from above. He also told me that there were grey seals swimming off the end of the Island. I went out beyond the derelict Lifeboat building and had the pleasure of seeing a couple of seals swimming nearby!



Hello there!

Whilst watching for the seals to appear, a grey Heron decided to pay a visit, much to the annoyance of the sea gulls nearby. I managed to get a few interesting pictures of the gulls dive bombing the Heron!




Get out of here!

Finally, about five hours later we finally made it back to the car, exhausted!






Can I sleep now?

I am in BIG Trouble!

This morning, I finally managed to see a doctor. He told me the bad news that my cholesterol level is at a whopping 9.6!! It should be below 5. The doctor told me that if I do nothing then I have a 22% chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next ten years.

My blood pressure is also too high. It was 134/85. The lower number should much lower. I now have 3 months to try and reduce my cholesterol and blood pressure, otherwise I will have to take medication to reduce the levels.

First I am going to have to change the type of food I eat. The doctor gave me a list of good food and bad food to eat. Next I have to loose weight. The doctor suggested I join a gym, but knowing my own character, I would not go to the gym on a regular basis.

The doctor then suggested I should do a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day. So now I will be walking our dog, Bonnie, every day!

Over the past few weeks I have had a backache in my lower back. Hopefully my daily exercise will help cure this problem too!
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Currently Reading

Synopsis:

With the American rebellion growing in intensity all around them, Jamie and Claire know they must navigate a difficult course to survive. For not only is being on the winning side no guarantee of safety; Jamie would also rather die than face his illegitimate son, William, a young lieutenant in the British Army, across the barrel of a gun - even as the chances of war conspire to bring them together.


Making their way back to Lallybroch with Jamie's nephew, Young Ian, to fulfil a family promise, might seem one way of thwarting fate. But in the chaos of war every avenue of escape is bristling with danger, and even the time-travelling Claire cannot foresee the tragedy that could tear her and Jamie apart forever.


Meanwhile, in the apparent safety of the 20th Century, their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger read Jamie and Claire's letters, breathlessly watching the unfolding of Brianna's parents' story - even as the past is sneaking up behind their own family to threaten them in the present.



This is the Seventh book in the series. I bought this book in January, and I have been steadily working my way through the series reminding myself of the story so far. The list of the books in chronological order are as follows -

• Outlander (American title) / Cross Stitch (British title)
• Dragonfly In Amber
• Voyager
• Drums Of Autumn
• The Fiery Cross
• A Breath Of Snow And Ashes

I have found that it is always better to read the first book in these sort of series and read them in chronological order, otherwise it spoils the adventure. Nowadays, some authors tend to write their story over a series of books, rather than in one self contained novel. The trouble is, if you like the story in one book, you want to read more adventures about the characters in that book!

The reason I am making this point is that the critics gave a poor review of "An Echo In The Bone" on the grounds that it was not a self contained novel, rather a continuation of the story told in the previous 6 books! That is exactly what this book was meant to be!

I always think of critics as frustrated artists, who do not have the inspiration or ability to produce something original themselves. Instead they can only write derogatory remarks in the hope that the more vicious the report, the more publicity they will receive, and thus give them the impression of increasing their own self importance.

Currently Listening to

One of my favourite Billy Joel tracks. What I found interesting about this video, is the authors attention to the timing of changing the pictures and writing!

Home Accounts

This afternoon, my wife asked me to find out how much money we spent on groceries for the last two years. This is quite an easy task as I have a Home accounts programme that I have been using for years.

I first started using an accounts programme back in the 1980's when I had a Commodore Amiga. When I eventually bought a PC, I started to use the Quicken accounts program.

Over the years I upgraded the program until 2003 when Quicken no longer supported the British market and just concentrated on their own American market. I then gave Microsoft Money a try, but having got used to the Quicken layout, I struggled to adapt to the Microsoft version. One aspect in particular was the facility to have the account show exactly how much money I would have in my account on any particular day in the future. Extremely useful if you get paid every 4 weeks and have standing orders spread throughout the month.

I could check this with ease using Quicken. All I had to do was check the scheduled transaction page and the information I wanted was immediately visible. The Microsoft version had a more complicated process to obtain this information. Consequently I have continued to use the Quicken program.

What I did discover today though is that it is not a good idea to delete old accounts that have been closed. I discovered hundreds of transactions from my live accounts that had originally gone to another account, such as credit card payments or mortgage payments, suddenly had no account to send the money to, so the transactions were no longer categorised as they had originally been.

I just spent the last 4 hours re categorising these transactions so that I can now produce accurate reports of where I've actually spent my money!

In case your wondering, our grocery bill increased by nearly £1000 between 2008 and 2009!
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Cherry Tree

This afternoon, we purchased a Cherry Tree. Not the ornamental flowering kind, but the type that will produce juicy red cherries to eat! Now all I have to do is hope that it survives my ministrations and bears fruit one day! Admittedly, I was ably assisted in the planting by my wife and daughter.

I freely admit that I do not have any green fingers! 9 times out of 10 whatever I try to grow just wilts and dies. Though on the odd occasion something flourishes, despite what I do to it!

Gardening is not something I enjoy doing. I consider it a necessary chore that must be done. Maybe one day I will be in a position to pay someone else to do my gardening for me! Or better yet, leave it for my wife and daughter to do instead!

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