Snout (fanciful?)

After yesterday's mixup with the hormone injection, I'd rearranged things with the doctor for 12 noon and stopped off at the pharmacy to pick up the kit on the way.

The doc updated me on correspondence he'd received from the various consultants and specialists who've been involved in my prostate business, administered the injection, and then settled back for a bit of a how-are-you chat. I told him the main difficulty in terms of side-effects of the hormone treatment was turning out to be the hot flushes which I'd been warned to expect. They became more frequent and more severe during the holiday, and I'd been told by the urologist or oncologist that I should discuss the situation with my doctor if things got too much to bear. I did what I'd been advised to do, and the doc surprised me by suggesting a touch of homeopathy! Why not, I told him, so he consulted his books and came up with tablets which contain snake venom (in tiny amounts, of course).

The local pharmacy didn't have it it stock and told me it could be a week before they could get it in. I got a phone call an hour later telling me that they wouldn't be able to get it at all because it was only available on special order, but that I could get it in town in a specialist homeopathic outlet on Duke Street.

After all that, with the weather rather lovely, I decided it was high time for a bit of a decent walk. Where to go? Walk to Killester, hop on the DART to Howth and make my way back to Howth Castle, how's about that? Whatever possessed me to be so ambitious I have no idea - unless it was brought on by a guilty conscience, rearing its ugly head because of the pathetic amount of walking I've done since we got back from the holiday. I've been using my sore back as a bit on excuse, perhaps, and it really was feeling good as new today.

Anyway, I survived the experience. The main disappointment was the poor crop of photos I came back with. This old tree trunk turned out to be the best of the bunch, even if the snout shape which originally caught my eye isn't as obvious after the event as it was at the time. Can anyone else see a forehead, and eye and a snout? No? Ah well, I must be seeing things.