Are these the same visitors you moaned about last year, or do all visitors get the same review? 
Dunno whether it’s my age, or just high background levels of personal cuntiness, but I really enjoy conversation and have a rather old-fashioned notion that it should involve two or more people making equal contributions, not one person talking over everyone else - and getting louder when anyone else interjects, and getting visibly irritable when someone does actually manage to crowbar their way into his endless monologue…
And (“My wife could hear the difference from the kitchen” clause), Sam was as exhausted as I was, and equally relieved when goodbyes - eventually - concluded! And she’s vastly more tolerant and reasonable than I am… 
Do I just know an unusual number of people like this? Curiously, by-the-bye, I can’t immediately think of anyone on here that I’ve met personally who does it…
And FWLIW, no we’d not seen these two since before the pandemic, so I’d forgotten what an insufferable motormouth he could be… Genuinely nice guy otherwise.
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This is exactly the situation while we were in York with the visiting Strayans.
The female half of the couple, just expected everybody in the group to listen to her moaning. Mostly about her very niche dietary requirements that weren’t being pandered to, sorry, “Aren’t being satisfied in this backwater of a country”. Followed inevitably by, “This wouldn’t happen at home”, or “They’d never get away with….”
Trying to offer some justification for these sad human abuses, is simply met with the same thing repeated over the top of your explanation 
She’s Narelle’s BFF, but even she couldn’t understand where the moaning was coming from (they both backpacked around Yerp in the late 70s/early 80s. It seems her friend has lost the ability to adapt to different cultures. While they’ve never been “foodies”, the constant choice of fish & chips (because it’s safe to eat) while bemoaning the lack of choice, was tiresome (Narelle and I never had the same meal twice BTW).
It fair wore me out having to control my natural urge to beat her to death with her boring husband’s decapitated head. Even N was glad to see the back of them and resume their long distance friendship.
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OK - you win this round. At least our man isn’t a whiner!
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I really must make it to the next bake off.
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Nice to see you’ve finally toned down the decor in your house
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Had a stroll around the coast by Burravoe
then ferry to (Shetland) mainland and on to its northwest coast
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Love the bee
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Shetland bee
An endemic species apparently (not that I’m any authority on buzzy things)
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Getting this lot rehomed.
The beekeeper kindly regaled me with stories of tank driving and shooting people in Northern Ireland, his racing driver exploits, his views on immigration etc etc
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Unlike @mickbald, remembering it’s our anniversary today and coming prepared with card, flowers and gift.
Thanks to @htm_1968 
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Happy anniversary ter you & Hel Wayne!!
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@mickbald is a legend, a standard to aspire to ( and survive ).
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A short walk this morning from Merrivale up to Great Staple Tor, not one I’d previously been up. Merrivale had one of several granite quarries in the area, its stone being used to face many well known buildings in London from the Victorian era onwards.
Nice CI building on the site that has had various uses including being a chapel at one point.
Mist was descending as we made our way to the summit but just about clear enough for a couple of pics.
In the far distance you can see the river as it opens out just below Lopwell.
A surprise on the way down, we came across two freshly eviscerated lambs with guts completely gone. They were about 200m apart. One had obviously been dragged 20m or so to where it was left. I don’t think this is the work of a dog or fox.
Trail of wool and bits to the 2nd carcass.
A couple of walkers we met who were camping nearby said there’d been talk of a large cat sighting (with rings on its tail) at the campsite. Who knows but that seems more plausible. Wouldn’t be the first big Cat sighting in that area.
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Stop sacrificing sheep you barbarian.
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FoL#1 suggested it might be the Samford Spiney Satanists but they tend to leave the carcasses aligned in pentagon shapes (and don’t seem to have been active for a decade or so). I prefer to trust to cryptozoology, less disturbing.
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Foxes can do that, see similar round the Lakes at lambing time. Once the fox has had its fill scavenging birds will dig out.
Neither birds nor flies had got there by this time and it was still wet. Might have gone with fox but two, so close together?
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