The mutilations of war

In the woods near Tralee Bay, Benderloch, there lies an old graveyard containing the tombs of the Campbells of Lochnell. It has fallen into disrepair, but the most startling remains are that of this statue, which had its limbs truncated during world war II, to make munitions.

I am not a fully paid up member of any church, despite my upbringing, but I do feel that it might have been more respectful to have taken the whole statue rather than to hack off its arms and legs to make guns. I suppose it serves as a stark reminder of the horrors of war.

Kate and I went walking around the estuary, the woods and the bay, while Jezzie and her cousin Hamish had their piano lessons. We picked them up afterwards and admired the many framed illustrations by Gloria Young, the piano teacher, who is also a talented artist. She used to own the house next door to her current property, and maintained a shop and open studio, where she sold over three thousand of her paintings over a period of several years.


I still had a heavy cold so didn't enjoy our walk as much I would have usually, and didn't want to go far. I am getting by on Day Nurse tablets.

Later, after we'd watched Quartet on Netflix (sticking with the opera theme, which I still haven't blipped) we all went round to my sister Mouse's house for a family meal. Steve is trying to learn Minecraft for some reason, so Hamish gave him a lesson, while Jezzie modelled skis in the kitchen. She's really excited because Mouse has given her a complete set of second hand gear.