Morning all,

After my adventure in the rock pool with that very cross crab a few days ago, Herring Gull Harry, Teacup and me decided to do something different yesterday and so hopped up the steep hill that goes up, away from the beach.  Looking at the top from the beach, it looked very easy but as we climbed up the path, it started to disappear under over-grown bushes only to re-appear a few metres further up the hill.

Well, we continued with our journey to the top of the hill and when we got to what looked like the final bit of the path, the bushes got really unfriendly greeting us with prickles, and then more prickles – and yet more prickles. Oh, froglettes, it was a prickly nightmare.

At one point, I held back the branch of a prickly bush so that Herring Gull Harry and Teacup could go by but my right foot slipped and I lost my balance. I foolishly tried to grab on to something to stop my fall – a prickly bush no less – but ended up with a lot of prickles in my hand.

“Ouch,” I said loudly as I fell and held my injured hand in my other hand.

“What’s up, Errol?” said a concerned Teacup.

“I fell over and put my hand out to try and break the fall on a prickly bush and now my hand is full of prickles,” I replied as I tried to get some of the prickles out myself.

“Let me see,” she said and came over.  A moment later, she said, “it’s too dark to see much here but wait until we are at the top.”

“Hmmm, thanks,” I muttered looking at the prickles in my hand.

My hand felt rather like what I would imagine a pin cushion to feel.  Sore and very, very tender.

I’m pleased to report though that not long afterwards we came to the end of the prickly bush path and the top of the steep hill which had a great view of the sea.

I sat down with Teacup and she patiently took out all the prickles in my hand.  It seemed to take forever and hurt as she took each one of them out of my skin.  There were enough of them that we could have made a necklace!

The journey back down to the beach was much more straight forward and my hand, although still tender, is feeling so much better now.  A spot of fishing is in order, methinks!

‘Till later,

E