Napoleon's Piles

Mike Sales
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mike Sales »

PDQ Mobile wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:I would love to get you started about Bardsey, have you landed?

Firstly mickf I apologise fir drifting your thread again.

Yes I have landed, more than once.
Waved at the seals.
And have climbed the top of the mountain more than once.
Looked at the ruins of past lives,seen the birthplace of friends, looked at the Abbey graveyard and even have Afal Enlli in my garden.

But it's the name(s) that I thought could lead us astray!
Ynys Enlli is a nice name and perfectly describes one aspect of the place.
The Island in the Flood (or current but I prefer flood!).
As a sailor you will know this!
The tide surges around Enlli four times a day as if it stood in a powerful river breaking into foam over the Skerries and emitting an audible roar - beware owners of small yachts!!


But Bardsey?
I wondered about it long; puzzled over the map yet could find no definite explanation.

A bardic fellow strumming his stuff in an attempt to lure mermaids to his isolation?

Bardsey?

Then I climbed the mountain and I saw in a blinding flash of intuition what I think the name represents.
The Bearded Isle!
From the Germanic, Bart = a beard.
The lighthouse Peninsula is the beard jutting Aladdin like out to the SW. An appendage!

It is but a personal theory, mind, and discounted by some, though I am convinced.
And I have not heard a better explanation....yet?


I see Lleyn as a magic place beyond Yr Eifl, and Enlli as an even more mystic island beyond the Sound, which "serves it in the office of a moat".
Did you see the seal cave, on the mainland face of the mountain?
Ian Sturrock, who rediscovered the afal is a good friend.
I once stumbled out into the pitch darkness after a meal of island food and beer to be disconcerted by the absolute lack of light. It was only the intermittent flash of the lighthouse which got me back to my boat.

Hilaire Belloc, in The Cruise of the Nona has a stirring description of sailing through the Sound in a force 6 over a spring tide.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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Mick F
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mick F »

Audax67 wrote:...bringing their tendency to high cholesterol with them.
I must be a Viking then! :D

Sky high cholesterol of 11.4 when I was diagnosed. Huge rugby balls of statins for ten years then developed side effects. Now on fortnightly injections - zero side effects, but expensive.
Mick F. Cornwall
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by PDQ Mobile »

Mike Sales wrote:
I see Lleyn as a magic place beyond Yr Eifl, and Enlli as an even more mystic island beyond the Sound, which "serves it in the office of a moat".
Did you see the seal cave, on the mainland face of the mountain?
Ian Sturrock, who rediscovered the afal is a good friend.
I once stumbled out into the pitch darkness after a meal of island food and beer to be disconcerted by the absolute lack of light. It was only the intermittent flash of the lighthouse which got me back to my boat.

Hilaire Belloc, in The Cruise of the Nona has a stirring description of sailing through the Sound in a force 6 over a spring tide.


Interesting.
Sales by name and by nature?!

You can thank Mr Sturrock for the tree from me.
It has proved exceptionally disease resistant in a place where many modern varieties succumb to various problems. It is also so laden with small crisp sweet apples this year that I fear a bough may break.
I know of a couple of other Enlli trees in other places that share the disease resistance.

I have been down along the rocky seaweed clad, boulder strewn, fringe of the channel and a wild place it is too. Few folk go there.
I once surprised an enormous seal lying in one of the inlets and he made noisy and ungainly progress as he slithered back to the sea. Impressively powerful.
I don't know which of us was the most surprised!!

As chance would have it I was just recently looking at a copy of Christine Evans interesting book "Bardsey". I think you would like it.
Mike Sales
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mike Sales »

PDQ Mobile wrote:
As chance would have it I was just recently looking at a copy of Christine Evans interesting book "Bardsey". I think you would like it.


I will try to get hold of the book. Thanks for the tip.
I collect books about islands.
Helgoland, St.Kilda, Rockall.
The Scottish Islands by Hamish Haswell-Smith.
Lived on one in childhood.
Another Welsh one visited, Ynys Seiriol (Puffin)
There is something special about islands for me.

Sule Skerry and Sula Sgeir are two I would love to visit, but probably will never see.
They are 50 miles N. of Cape Wrath.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
PDQ Mobile
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Joined: 2 Aug 2015, 4:40pm

Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by PDQ Mobile »

Mike.
One of my all time favourite books is "Island Years" (first published 1940) by Frank Frazer Darling.
He lived (camped) with his family on three Scottish islands in the years leading right up to WW2 to study birds and seals.
Two islands in the Summer Isles and finally to remote and wild N Rona.
His enchantment with and by the places shines out of the pages.
Mike Sales
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mike Sales »

PDQ Mobile wrote:Mike.
One of my all time favourite books is "Island Years" (first published 1940) by Frank Frazer Darling.
He lived (camped) with his family on three Scottish islands in the years leading right up to WW2 to study birds and seals.
Two islands in the Summer Isles and finally to remote and wild N Rona.
His enchantment with and by the places shines out of the pages.


I know it well, it's a favourite of mine too.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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531colin
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Location: North Yorkshire

Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by 531colin »

Dupuytren's contracture; Left hand
IMG_4546.JPG

On the right hand, I get some sticking and clicking of the typically-involved joint on the ring finger, usually first thing in the morning.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... &eim=1,2,6
I don't fancy steroid injections, and hand surgery even less.
At the moment, I simply straighten the affected fingers (using the other hand) a few times a day, and I have had no progression of symptoms for maybe a couple of years.
I imagine all I'm doing is ensuring that the tendon can move freely past the overgrowth of connective tissue.

Right hand lesion extends further towards the heel of the hand
Attachments
IMG_4541.JPG
Last edited by 531colin on 14 Sep 2021, 11:21am, edited 3 times in total.
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Mick F
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mick F »

Mine are worse than that, Colin.
Here's my left hand. Right hand is similar.
Little finger mostly and ring finger not as much. Other fingers fine.
IMG_0367.jpg
Mick F. Cornwall
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Mick F
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mick F »

Here's the right hand.
I'm very right-handed, and I find it difficult to take a photo with an iPhone with my left hand!
IMG_0369.jpg
Mick F. Cornwall
Mike Sales
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mike Sales »

I occasionally get a sort of spasm in my palm which resembles the problems described above. My palm distorts painfully and it is impossible to use. It is over in a couple of minutes I am glad to say.
Does this sound like the onset of Dupuytren's Contracture?
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
User avatar
Mick F
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Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mick F »

Sorry, can't advise.

Mine was a gradual thing over a few years.
I've been ignoring it for months, but thought I'd get to the doc's and see what he says as it's becoming difficult now. Things can only get worse, so something needs to be done.

0845 appointment 11th Sept.
Mick F. Cornwall
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531colin
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by 531colin »

Mike Sales wrote:I occasionally get a sort of spasm in my palm which resembles the problems described above. My palm distorts painfully and it is impossible to use. It is over in a couple of minutes I am glad to say.
Does this sound like the onset of Dupuytren's Contracture?

I don't remember anything like that happening before Dupuytrens.
Sounds like cramp?
I sometimes get cramp in my hands, with manual work which I'm not used to.
Mike Sales
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mike Sales »

531colin wrote:
Mike Sales wrote:I occasionally get a sort of spasm in my palm which resembles the problems described above. My palm distorts painfully and it is impossible to use. It is over in a couple of minutes I am glad to say.
Does this sound like the onset of Dupuytren's Contracture?

I don't remember anything like that happening before Dupuytrens.
Sounds like cramp?
I sometimes get cramp in my hands, with manual work which I'm not used to.


I expect it is cramp. Thanks for the reassurance.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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fausto copy
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Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by fausto copy »

I get something similar Mike. It doesn't feel like cramp, much more like a spasm.
If I straighten my fingers out it usually goes, but will come back a few times before disappearing for quite some time.
Another one of life's mysteries, I believe.
fausto.
Mike Sales
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Joined: 7 Mar 2009, 3:31pm

Re: Napoleon's Piles

Post by Mike Sales »

fausto copy wrote:Another one of life's mysteries, I believe.
fausto.


Or another of those miscellaneous aches and pains which accumulate with age.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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