The Mental Health Thread - (Help Contacts in First Post).

[rigoberts song]

Yes give me a ring anytime and leave a msg on my answerphone .
Seriously I'm open to pms and talking to someone anyone is the way to go .
As is laying off the booze ,walking and connecting with nature.

[-DL-]

You’re bang on the money there … are you still doing your photography, some great places to take pics in Wales. Would recommend Portmerrion for something slightly different.

Was actually there last week.

I've not been snapping anywhere near much tbh. With the weather getting better (maybe ) I will get back in to it though.

[The Old Man of Storr]

During our time here on Skye we've planted numerous trees and hedges so we get quite a variety of birds visit , from Blackbirds to Buzzards - however , I'd never been that much interested in them until recently - we fed them of course and we'd helped them by planting but as for taking an interest , not so much . During the past 5 years or so I've grown quite attached to them - we had a blackbird that was easily indentified because of a streak of white down one wing - then last year Dan discovered a fledgling blackbird hiding away underneath the step by our back door - I picked him up and took him round to the front of the house placing him under the olearia shrub growing next to the house in the hope Mum would hear his call .

Every day he's the first bird outside our kitchen window and if he doesn't get what he wants he'll sit there until I grate him some cheese .

Last summer Jen and I were down the garden , he followed us down there and was sunbathing under a rhododendron - I was around 20 ft away looking at the blackcurrant bush full of fruit - I sat down next to it picking the blackest of the berries - next thing I know our little friend joins me - he stays a few feet away on the rowan nearby then when I move away he starts testing the berries - I'm convinced I taught him that blackcurrants were safe to eat .

He's still with us despite the arrival of a peregrine falcon and the pine marten which lives close by - he's such a character and brings me much joy .

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Out of idle curiosity, have you climbed the The Old Man of Storr TOMoS ?

[ageing hammer]

Tomos your story about the bird has jogged my memory of a jackdaw who used to call into our local fruit and veg shop each morning for breakfast.

Michael Healy te owner of the shop called him John

https://www.google.com/search?q=jackdaw ... mBngk315u0

[OFT]

Tomos your story about the bird has jogged my memory of a jackdaw who used to call into our local fruit and veg shop each morning for breakfast.

Michael Healy te owner of the shop called him John

That's brilliant ageing

[The Old Man of Storr]

Out of idle curiosity, have you climbed the The Old Man of Storr TOMoS ?

Despite having lived here for 35 years I have never had the inclination to climb up the Old Man , had I taken up Photography earlier I'd have been up there a lot I'd imagine - I may give it a go before I pop my clogs if I can find the energy .

Jen has walked up there a couple of times .

It's become a very popular destination nowadays as have the Fairy Pools - I'd probably need to go there in the middle of Winter and even then I wouldn't be alone .

[The Old Man of Storr]

Tomos your story about the bird has jogged my memory of a jackdaw who used to call into our local fruit and veg shop each morning for breakfast.

Michael Healy te owner of the shop called him John

https://www.google.com/search?q=jackdaw ... mBngk315u0

That's amazing , Eamonn , absolutely amazing .

We've got this picnic table thing outside the house and we'll sit round it when weather permits , the nearest he's ever come was when he landed on there to take some food and as luck would have it I had my back turned so didn't see it happen [ Jen told me ] .

At the Clan Donald Centre [ now called Armadale ] where I used to work you could hold out your hand and offer the little birds there food and they'd actually perch on your hand and take it - the tourists loved it . No such luck with ' Blackie ' yet .

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Despite having lived here for 35 years I have never had the inclination to climb up the Old Man , had I taken up Photography earlier I'd have been up there a lot I'd imagine - I may give it a go before I pop my clogs if I can find the energy .

Jen has walked up there a couple of times .

It's become a very popular destination nowadays as have the Fairy Pools - I'd probably need to go there in the middle of Winter and even then I wouldn't be alone .

An old mate of mine went to the Isle of Skye when he was 11 as part of a school trip. That would have been 1984. I remember thinking that sounding like a real adventure and a helluva way to go distance wise. A year later we ended up going to Barry Island.

I’d like to think I could climb TOMoS but I’d probably do something less daunting and watch Sea Eagles or visit a ruined castle.

Wonderful scenery up in the Western Isles as I know you’re only too well aware.

[The Old Man of Storr]

An old mate of mine went to the Isle of Skye when he was 11 as part of a school trip. That would have been 1984.

I’d like to think I could climb TOMoS but I’d probably do something less daunting and watch Sea Eagles or visit a ruined castle.

We moved here in October '88 so missed your mate by 4 years . By January '89 I was working on the Kyle-Kyleakin Ferry so met literally everyone who came on and off the island [ unless they left via Armadale , Uig or Kylerhea ] . In my time I spoke to Michael Palin , Billy Connolly , a young Jemma Redgrave , Bill Travers , Virginia Mckenna , John Woodvine [ Dr Hirsch from American Werewolf In London ] , Lisa Goddard and regretfully I was a bit rude to Hardy Kruger but I made up for it with charm after asking him ' Excuse me , are you Hardy Kruger ? ' - I'll still remember his answer ' You have a keen eye , young man ' . There were others , Muriel Gray [ not a lot of laughs ] and Gregor Townsend [ his name was emblazoned on the side of his car ] .


I'd say that the Old Man is accessible to anyone with reasonable fitness levels , Jen would have been in her late 50s or early 60s when she walked up there .

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Hardy Kruger ?

If you hadn't met him he would have been the one that got away ! (1950s film about a Swiss-born German fighter pilot Franz Von Werra for the unitiated)

My wife is a Registered Nurse and when she was working in a private hospital a few years back she came home and said " I've been looking after Anthony Cottee. Have you heard of him ? "

"Err, just a bit. " was my reply.

[The Old Man of Storr]

Would have been summer '94 or '95 [ Ferry stopped running on the 16th October '95 ] - a glorious evening -

There were a few cars already in line when old Hardy turns up in a black Mercedes soft-top with a gorgeous looking woman in the passenger seat [ could have been his Daughter ] - I shouted at him to get behind the other cars but he ignored me so I walks up to him to give him a piece of my mind - then I see it's Hardy Kruger . Well , I don't want to spoil his holiday so I leave him be after asking him ' Are you Hardy Kruger ? ' . Happy Days .

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Talking of war films, was The McKenzie Break filmed up there ?

Or was it the Republic of Ireland ?

[The Old Man of Storr]

Talking of war films, was The McKenzie Break filmed up there ?

Or was it the Republic of Ireland ?

Blooming 'eck , there's a blast from the past , not seen that one in decades .

Not Skye that's for sure -

Just looked it up.....Ireland . You were right first time .

As for Skye being used as a film location - here are a few though the only ones I was aware of were Stardust , Macbeth , Outlaw King , Highlander and Prometheus - an ex work colleague of mine got a part as an extra in Made Of Honour [ crap ]

https://www.visitscotland.com/blog/film ... locations/

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?loca ... 20Scotland

[The Old Man of Storr]

Even when you're going through the bleakest of days my advice is to take JOY from wherever and whenever you can find it .

Yesterday was a good day -

We took a trip over to Kylerhea where the Ferry crosses to the mainland to Glenelg ....[ you'll remember Glenelg / Arnisdale , Nick . ]

The road down is an 8 mile stretch of the narrowest single track road on Skye which ends in a 45 degree drop down to Kylerhea .

Once you get down there the views over to Glenelg are breathtaking and from the little car park there's a mile long track which leads to the Otter Hide . There are also a few picnic benches where you can sit and take in the vista - Jen had made some scones and a couple of flasks of tea so we tucked into those before ambling over to the hide - there are 4 maybe 5 benches dotted along the path which help old codgers like me get down there and there's a view from each and every one of them .

I've seen loads of otters during our time on Skye but I've never seen a single one from the Kylerhea Otter Hide , yesterday was no exception - it's a very pleasant experience though and we did see plenty of cormorants .

There were 2 other couples and a family of 5 , after they left we had the place to ourselves - on the return journey there was a man and his collie dog sitting on the bench which overlooks the Ferry point so I went over for a chat - turns out he lives in Kylerhea .

I asked him whether Jimmy Watt was still alive [ he is ] - Jimmy was one of the young lads who assisted Gavin Maxwell [ of Ring Of Bright Water fame ] and you can see his lovely house which sits above the quay opposite , at a guess I'd put him in his late 80s early 90s now - I asked after Beryl who ran the Playgroup in Broadford when Dan was a toddler - ' she was still going strong in her 80s - we discussed dear Andy who died of a heart attack up on the hills of Kylerhea working on an RSPB project back in 2019 [ I'd been chatting to him 4 months previously ] , he was only in his mid-50s . Life can be cruel and unfair .

Turns out my new friend , Gordon had another link to Gavin Maxwell - Maxwell formed a Shark Fisheries company on the isle of Soay back in the 1950s/60s , an unsuccessful venture as it turned out , he'd hunt basking sharks from his boat - in his time Gordon had been a teacher on Soay - ' How big were your classes ? ' -' Sometimes they'd be as big as 3 ' he joked ' and one of them was our son ' .


Got home at around 6 pm - Jen was exhausted - I felt so invigorated I put dinner together for the first time in a fortnight .

Yesterday was a good day and sometimes it's all we can hold on to .

Love and Hope to you ALL xx

[davids cross]

Just my own personal opinion ...which has gained great traction with me as I've got older (59), is that.......

We have totally (as a human race) lost our connection with nature.

I honestly believe nature was put there to help us cope with stress and anxiety.......but (mostly) we totally and absolutely ignore it. Ignore simple beauties that we have taken for granted our whole life....and we suffer because we have lost this therapeutic connection that costs nothing but offers such great rewards.......sometimes unbeknown to us. In fact almost always unbeknown to most.

Life was never meant to be looking at a phone screen all day.....or a computer screen ...or a TV.

The amount of kids ..(and adults) you walk past in the street with their head buried in a mobile phone...who never contemplate looking up to say "hi"...or looking at a beautiful growth of flowers as they pass by them as spring approaches.

It's almost totally subliminal the benefits to looking or just smelling this beauty.

It's sounds very "tree hugging"...it's not meant to be, It's just I feel that nature...the outdoors.....the wildlife......the wind..the rain.......offer so much comfort that we just don't know exists on a conscious level.......most will laugh to think it does.

The benefits cannot really be measured as such. But to me.....they fully exist. A bike ride.....walking the dog....a jog.....just look about you as you go.....and take in the beauty of things that have been there for hundreds of years..an oak tree you pass may have been there 300 years....or more.

300 years looking down on us.....just being there, and we pay it no attention or recognition at all.

It's a sad world.

Tree hugger out.....

[Cockneyboy311]

Just my own personal opinion ...which has gained great traction with me as I've got older (59), is that.......

We have totally (as a human race) lost our connection with nature.

I honestly believe nature was put there to help us cope with stress and anxiety.......but (mostly) we totally and absolutely ignore it. Ignore simple beauties that we have taken for granted our whole life....and we suffer because we have lost this therapeutic connection that costs nothing but offers such great rewards.......sometimes unbeknown to us. In fact almost always unbeknown to most.

Life was never meant to be looking at a phone screen all day.....or a computer screen ...or a TV.

The amount of kids ..(and adults) you walk past in the street with their head buried in a mobile phone...who never contemplate looking up to say "hi"...or looking at a beautiful growth of flowers as they pass by them as spring approaches.

It's almost totally subliminal the benefits to looking or just smelling this beauty.

Absolutely spot on DC, and it will only get worse as we continue to create more/bigger concrete jungles and thus reducing green spaces.

[davids cross]

and it will only get worse as we continue to create more/bigger concrete jungles and thus reducing green spaces.

Don't get me started on this Cockers.......

[The Old Man of Storr]

Saw the forecast was giving rain for the next three days so insisted we go out again today -

We were going to go to this forestry commission walk around 10 miles away but we ended up going for a loop walk around Kinloch starting on a path which follows the river over to a large paddock which used to house the old Sleat & Strath Football pitch [ they've since moved to Broadford ] - we sat down next to the pool we were at a few days back - the frogs/toads weren't honking today but the Sand Martins had arrived - we saw 3 of them swooping about like bats - delightful birds . I just lay there for 15 minutes taking in the surroundings , he trees , the mountain , the river , the pool , the frogs swimming about and the birds swooping and diving - took us an hour to walk back to the car , no benches whatsoever to sit on - I was knackered but happy when we got home .

DC - you are absolutely correct - I never feel as relaxed as when I'm outside somewhere whether in the garden , sitting next to a river or somewhere spectacular like Kylerhea . It's the best therapy .

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Hello TOMoS.

I was racking my brains and making a list of all the Highland teams I could think of...ICT, Ross County, Fraserburgh, Fort William, Brora Rangers, Keith, Inverurie Locos, Wick Academy, Nairn County...have you been to any of these grounds ?