Posthumous Wordless Wednesday

 

Footloose

Teddy had an interdigital cyst between two of his toes on his back left foot. At first I thought it was just a hot spot, it cleared up, or I thought it had, with just some Polysporsin and keeping it clean.  When it came back again, the first thing I thought of was a tumor. It looked like a large blood blister so I wrapped it with a bandage and vet wrap. It had burst by the next morning. As luck would have it, it was the weekend so I called the vet's office first thing Monday morning and they were able to get me in. After seeing the vet, I ordered Teddy some balloon boots, they're rubber reusable washable boots.  

Luckily it wasn't a tumor. Teddy went home with topical and oral antibiotics. Again the cyst seemed to heal up but the day after we finished the oral antibiotics the cyst had swollen up again. I called to get another appointment, it was a Thursday and they couldn't get me in until Monday. The cyst burst while Teddy was wearing his balloon boots and the blood was all over his foot. It looked like a lot more blood than it actually was. We kept on using the topical antibiotics and added Epsom salt foot baths. I also got Teddy a more comfortable cone.

By the time we got in to see the vet on Monday, it had started to heal up again. She said it was a good thing for it to be draining and to keep on using the antibiotic cream.  Teddy was still wearing balloon boots at this time. The vet said he should continue to wear boots to protect the feet from salt or other foreign particles. Balloon boots are hard to get on so I decided to get Teddy some other boots. 

Teddy is good with letting me put the boots on and he doesn't seem to mind walking in them. We may try him with all four feet in boots as he likes to walk on the sidewalks and the city uses a ton of salt.

So the cyst hasn't come back, his back two toes seem to be spaced wider, the vet did say there was scar tissue there. So for now anyway, Teddy is cone free but he's not footloose, he'll still wear boots at least until Spring arrives and there's no salt on the sidewalks.

Pre-history in Scotland - A Trip Back in Time

When I travel to Europe, I'm always amazed at how old some of the buildings are, but then am even more amazed by structures that have survived that are thousands of years old. In Inverness, we went to one such place called Clava Cairns. It's very near to the Culloden Battlefield. To get there, you have to travel a short way down a single track road, it's a good thing it's short as you can see the cars coming back out along the road and therefore know not to try to enter as the only pullout is at the car park for the cairns. 

It's pretty amazing that these people understood the movements of the sun and moon enough to build these ring cairns so that on the summer solstice the sun would shine into the cairn. 

To find and move all these stones would have taken quite a bit of effort and certainly a lot of time. I would have thought that simpler structures would have sufficed.

We spent about an hour walking around the four cairns and other stones that were there. On our way out, we saw this little resident. He didn't see to be afraid of all the large humans around him. 

On the Isle of Arran, we had thought to go the Machrie Moor Standing Stones but when you only have one full day to visit the island's attractions, walking an hour to see some Neolithic standing stones would really have taken up too much time. Instead we decided to go see a cairn that's just off the highway. It was only about a five minute walk up the hill.

By not walking for hours to the standing stones, we had enough time to visit Lochranza castle and to stop at the the Arran distillery before heading back to Brodick.

At the distillery, we all had a bite to eat and did a little shopping in the gift shop. I sampled some Arran Gold, a cream liqueur made with single malt whisky. It was really good, better than Bailey's but unfortunately I can't buy it here.

On getting back to Brodick, we went out to dinner, only to find that our ferry the next day had been cancelled due to an engine problem but that's a story for another day. 

I hope you enjoyed this trip back in time. My brother said, good thing you didn't touch the stones. Not being an Outlander fan, I didn't understand that's how they travel in time. But we had touched the stones so I guess we really had travelled in time when you think of the thousands of years they've been there.

Another Christmas come and gone!

 Well, it's been awhile since I last wrote but I just couldn't think of what to write about. 

Christmas has come and gone. We had the traditional family gatherings, even though those have changed over the years as my nieces and nephews left home and started their own families. I hosted a Boxing Day dinner for my two sisters and their husbands. The menu was tomato panko topped haddock with salad as the appetizer, chicken Cordon Bleu with a mashed potato casserole and roasted asparagus as the main course; and for dessert there was gingerbread cake with vanilla sauce and whipped cream. Everything turned out fine but I don't think I'd make the Cordon Bleu again. 

Haddock and salad

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Gingerbread cake

Before the Christmas season really got started, I had some friends over for brunch and to help decorate my tree.  One of the friends is vegan so brunch was vegan pancakes, maple curry roasted vegetables, hash browns and fresh fruit. There was also sausage for the non vegans. After eating, we decorated my tree. A few years ago, I decided to start naming the Christmas tree. This year from those names that were suggested, the name Cailun was chosen. 

If you Google Cailun, you're likely to find it means "little girl" in Irish Gaelic but one web site said it is derived from the word "caille" which is Scots Gaelic for "from the forest". So whatever definition you like, it was a good name. Cailun was a near perfect tree. I'm sure I say that every year but it was a beautiful tree. 

Cailun - the Christmas tree of 2024

I also had friends over again at New Year's. We were a small group this year as only five people could make it. It was nice though with just a small group as we seemed to have more time to sit and chat. We did our group photo and toast to the New Year around 11pm but everyone stayed until we could actually celebrate the New Year's arrival. 

Since the holidays, I've had a cold followed by the flu, neither lasted very long but it certainly doesn't get you in the mood to do anything and I'm not much of a winter person anyway. Liam and I have started back to agility and hoopers classes. In the Spring, Teddy will probably go back to doing some ratting classes. I'm already thinking of camping season but haven't made any plans. We'll probably stick close to home this year. 

So that really brings you up to date with what's going on with Teddy, Liam and me. Pretty boring right?