refracted inspirations for those passing through Yell

Have spent most of this morning reading blogs and links and am feeling  ’warm fuzzy feelings’ by the tremendous efforts and the beautiful writings I came across.  ( Also, still feeling positive about my cheesecake from last night too!)Responses from other bloggers are funny, tender and warm hearted  but also there are warnings of dire, even cruel feedback.

I don’t believe I can be as active, informative and as cheerful a blogger as most of you. But I will pop by within the time scales seeming to be set by the man at the helm!

The picture was taken last week before the rain/wind arrived.  I really felt it to be the first day of summer in The North Isles.

As I walked on this beautiful beach (with our dogs), I was thinking about dogs and clearing up after them. This was partly because The Shetland Times had featured a criticism of dog owners and the dog poo problem.

Dog poo is a yuck type hassle for bairns on beaches and for the rest of us! Yet it seems all dog owners get blamed when in reality it is a minority who fail to clean up after their dogs.  What did we do about this in days gone by?  When I was a child I remember watching out, using my sense of smell and jumping!

In the country there isn’t neat/discrete bins on lamp posts for ‘dog dirt only’ and so it means carrying bags of dog poo for ages. Then there is the question of:  ’well now what do I do with it? ‘ Do the rubbish collection men really want it in household waste? 

As I left the beach I noticed a big bag of dog poo neatly tied up and placed at the edge of the beach. (We do have folk on the island with very LARGE dogs who are fond of walking on this particular beach!) Being a fair minded individual I took exception to the spoiling of my pleasant walk and as I was already carrying my own bags of poo I gave no blame to the dog(s) who had left this behind and with said dog(s) in mind lifted it and took it with me. I do not believe I was wrong to do this although it’s true I would have preferred not to. After all I clean up after my own dogs.

Is this something other Isle Bloggers have a view of? I am truly interested. After all there is a lot of ‘clean up’ shouted at us dog owners but no ongoing support  of ‘OK you have done that now this is where/how to dispose’.

am back- I think! But am currently making cheesecake for a celebration birthday meal with a neighbour..at a crucial moment and so can’t stay.

Les got me back on line here, I had forgotten log in details - the lot!

I notice as I get older how much I dislike change. So forgetting is part of that. I suppose.

Thought I would be back over festive season and tussle with this new way of blogging. But a trapped nerve had me yelling in pain - almost as bad as the midgies which I have yelled about in the past. So even to find my way to any web site was an exercise in itself.

As for  Ruffles in January….well they always happen and often in large dollops. 

To list the sad and bad ruffles would take forever. (Its that time in my life for such Ruffles - you know an age thing? )

 But a laugh type ruffle I can happily share is this -  recently my daughter decided she was old enough to order the drinks at a meal out together and she gaily ordered a giraffe of wine and was truly puzzled when we all fell about laughing.  Of course Mum here had to take the blame for not teaching said offspring about carafes of wine …. 

Where would we be without our bairns?