Staying at The Daughter (TD) and Son In Law’s (TSIL) house whilst he recovers enough from his broken hip to be able to be left to fend for himself, we are sleeping upstairs at the top of their three storey house, up amongst the chimney pots.
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| Looking inland |
In one direction the view from the top floor is of the nearby rooftops and in the other you are looking across Morecombe Bay, with Piel Island in the distance, and the Blackpool shoreline on the horizon. Blackpool is more obvious at night, as a string of lights but in daytime is just visible.
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| Looking across Morecambe Bay |
Piel Island is interesting, being an ancient habitation since the Vikings were coming here for their holidays. Since then Monks inhabited it for a couple of centuries or more and built what is now referred to as Piel Castle, which was a necessary fortification against pirates during the monk's occupation of the island. Over time it fell into disuse, but now is a National Trust property. There are four residents on the island today, one of whom is the landlord of the of the Ship Inn and who is known as ‘The King of Piel’ a title dating from the fifteenth century and an abortive attempt by Edward VI of Ireland to claim the English throne, using Piel Island as a forward base.
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| Photo by Simon Ledingham |
Looking inland from our part of the house, on the chimney of the house over the road, there is a seagull’s nest with the parent seagull sitting on some eggs.
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| Mother seagull sitting on her eggs |
The Better Half (TBH), as explained in the previous post has been up with TSIL for a week before she came to fetch me and since then has been looking after two invalids, TSIL and myself, since I had orders not to move anything heavy, bend down or get my eye wet after my cataract removal. This ruling has been rigorously applied by TBH and after two weeks I will be able to do most of these things without incurring her wrath.
During the two weeks that I have been here, the seagull’s chicks have hatched and so there are now two more poop dropping creatures soon to be flying around covering people’s cars in their unpleasant mess, but just at the moment, they look cute as they explore their small home.
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| The chicks exploring their new world |
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| Father gull stands guard |
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| Seeing an intruder, he warns them off |
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| Despite the warning, the intruder gets too close and is chased off |
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| Lunch is served |
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