We were sitting in the car having a cup of tea down by the seashore (as you do) and watching the variety of seabirds as the tide was out and the rocks were clear of the water.
I took a couple of photographs and noticed that in the distance there was a house that
A bit blurred, but the big one
looked like a jacket with silver buttons on the front. Using the binoculars, I could see it was indeed a house and that it actually looked to be round. Then G realised what I was looking at, and told me it was our closest neighbour in a northwesterly direction from 11CC. The legendary home of Dr John C. Taylor OBE, a very famous philanthropist, inventor (self-switching electric kettle plus lots more) and horologist. His self-designed house is for sale ( a snip at £30 million) and the estate agent even shows photographs of the interior. OK, the house is actually 1km from us, but there is almost nothing in between, so neighbour he is!
Slightly better photograph
If he pops over with a plate of cakes when we move in, I will endeavor to get a selfie (never done one yet, and unlikely to start on him I guess).
That actually epitomises the Isle of Man.
Wherever you drive, in any inconspicuous little lane, there will nearly always be a grand set of gates, usually with a gatehouse, and somewhere in the distance will be a large imposing house (if you can see it at all for the large trees or landscape features). Boy there are some (actually lots) of fabulous properties here. (I would happily buy the gatehouses of most of them, they look that good, but not, I guess ever for sale).
But back to the beach and the birds.
No gannets diving and no cormorants drying their wings, but a grey heron became G´s favourite, while I was watching a fluffy chick (bigger than a pigeon) on the weedy rocks and eventually identified it as a baby mallard (mainly as accompanied by distinctive dad and mum). Usual suspects were around with plenty of oyster catchers, eider ducks and canada geese. There was a large flock of "something fluffy" on the far mudflat, but unable to discern anything even with the bins. Probably curlew or possibly snipe, but not sure (and not sure I could tell them apart anyway).
Currently sitting at home awaiting delivery of our new tv. I did my usual, whereby I did lots of research (to the point of total confusion), then just jumped in and bought something that was half price on black friday at Amazon. (not that daft, it was one of the models I had on the "possibles" list, but I realised the bargain was more important than the technical specs - for now anyway).
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