What's a thrustle?

Is it a thrush?

No, I think that it's a river, here in the south-west (somewhere!), which Thrustle Ward is named after. That's the Cardiac Intensive Care unit, where my father, just in the last hour, has returned from surgery. They say he is fine.

Last night, I found myself counting grasshoppers! You know, you'd hear them making their grasshopper noises all over the garden and there'd be one here and one there and one behind the bird bath. I think there were 3, but there could've been 4.

I need a holiday! :) As it is, I'm deep into lahars at the moment - and things are actually getting written, much to my relief!