I’m pleased to report that I still have bats around my house. I saw a couple at the weekend, and I went out this evening and saw another couple. When I’ve finished writing this, I’ll go out and have another look, now that it is fully dark. I don’t know if they are roosting in the trees or somewhere in the house. If it is the house, then it must be the roof but I have no idea where.
Category: kanturk
A new toy – “sat-nav”
It’s Father’s Day today. My wife and children gave me a “Sat-Nav”. It’s nice to receive a gift, and this one will be useful for the summer holiday. Personally, I like to review my route before I set out, and I will continue to do that, but this piece of technology will make the navigation en-route simpler and less stressful for everyone.
I couldn’t resist taking it out this afternoon and seeing if it could cope with the minor roads around where I live. It passed pretty well. If it had a route then it detected that I had “gone off track” almost immediately. That’s good, because that’s always a problem. I did manage to confuse it when it wasn’t actually following a course and I turned up a bohereen (minor road) which it didn’t recogise. I think that has to almost count as cheating on my part.
I’m looking forward to the vacation. I hope the sat-nav will play it’s part in getting us there and back safely.
A Matter of Life and Death?
(2nd June 2012)
Is one supposed to enjoy a funeral? Probably not, but it is possible to enjoy, or at least gain comfort from, the support of friends.
A close friend died recently and I attended his funeral. To attend I undertook a long and quite difficult journey. It has cost me money that I would rather not have spent. Before setting out I grudged the time I was going to spend. Now the trip is nearly over (I set out to return tomorrow), I have changed my mind. I am glad that I came. The money and the time have been worth it.
Why do I think that the trip has been worth it? My friend Dave died suddenly and unexpectedly. He was middle aged. A middle aged man. Unusually, he was not overweight, and while many people would have criticised him for having an unhealthy lifestyle, nobody thought that he was ill. I found that I was quite shocked by his death. The funeral was attended by a large number of people. Dave was not a religious man, so the service was held at the local crematorium. The crematorium chapel was full to capacity and a large number of people were left outside. There “wake” was held at the pub where Dave drank almost every evening. I have not seen the place so busy for many years. I felt people supporting one-another. I hope Dave’s family felt the same.
Community. What is a community? I don’t know, but I felt it at the funeral service and at the pub afterwards. Not something it is easy to define, but something which is shared together, something which people feel together. I suppose, by definition, it must be something “communal”. Whatever it is, having encountered it, I feel it is something good.
Pulling Teeth and “The Artist’s Way”
Once I had finished breakfast and the washing up, the next thing I did this morning was continue with pulling up the hedge stumps. For some reason I started comparing pulling the stumps up with pulling teeth. I find that a little strange, because; I’m not a dentist and I’ve only ever had three teeth extracted, and two of those were wisdom teeth which were removed in my late teens before they had time to cause problems.
After pulling my quota of stumps (I was aiming for 3, but actually achieved 4), I crossed the road to the garden centre and bought a roll of weed control fabric to use in London. Taking it with me will save me the trouble of locating a source when I’m over there.
I treated myself to a trip to Mallow. In some ways it was a disappointment because I didn’t find the bookbinding materials I was looking for, but I found something which has proved to be a pleasant surprise. I was browsing in a bookshop when I spotted a book which a friend recommended to me a couple of years ago: The Artist’s Way. I bought it, and have found the contents interesting. I think I may follow through what it recommends (12 week action plan), because it provides a structured way of doing some things I was considering anyway. For example, one of the things it suggests is writing “Morning Pages”. By coincidence, the previous evening I had written a note to myself to “Write a certain number of words every day”. Sounds like two ways of saying something very similar. And of course, writing this blog, and other similar activities all serve a similar purpose.
Going back to my roots?
The hedge between the front of my property and the road suffered very badly during the severe winter last year. Most of the hedge died, so we decided to replace it. I removed and shredded most the dead stems during the autumn, leaving the stumps in the ground. The advice we have from the garden centre is that we should remove the dead stumps and prepare the soil before planting the replacement hedge plants. So, the task falls to me.
This week I started removing the old stumps. There is no particular hurry, so long as the job gets done before spring. I don’t know if you have ever tried removing a small stump, but it is hard work. Even with digging it out and then levering at it with a pick-axe it still takes a while. I have other things to do (and I don’t want this to be my only occupation), so I have set myself an informal target of 3 or 4 stumps a day. So far, I seem to be running slightly ahead of my self-imposed schedule. With any luck I will have finished removing the stumps before it is time for me to depart for England.