SLUGS FOR SUPPER

Our supper this evening contained, in amongst the crispy green salad leaves, that not so rare a specimen known as  Arion distinctus Eire or the Irish green slug and yet when treated with the culinary skills that

the dearly loved Mrs H possesses, are also known as Dolmades. 

There were as you can see five of them on my plate, wrapped in giant Irish shamrock leaves, which were grown in our own garden. They were then cooked and pickled gently in white Guinness for seventy two hours, drained and finally stored in a cool place for four weeks ‘till matured.

The Arion distinctus Eire were utterly delicious, very filling as you can no doubt imagine and put the rest of the meal’s ingredients as nice as they were, in the shade.
Mrs H’s skills as a dedicated nocturnal Slug hunter are renowned for miles around. Neighbours have been known to drive to our boundaries with their night glasses and notebooks following her at a safe distance as she makes her selection from a large herd of well fed slithering Irish slugs.

A Slug Supper

And so I wish you bon appétit!

For further information and recipes -
http://www.eattheweeds.com/are-slugs-edible-what-about-snails-2/

A SWEET EXCURSION

The other day our visitors from England treated Lady H and myself to a tour through three

counties to one of our favourite destinations The Chocolate Garden in county Wicklow 

We each felt very undecided in making a choice from the menu board, thus our selection seemed to take a good deal of time. Lady H chose for herself an Ice Cream Sundae, I went for a slice of chocolate Fudge Cake accompanied by a vanilla ice cream and the other two had slices of Carrot Cake and fresh cream. All with a mug of Hot Chocolate each.

Following on from a surfeit of chocolate Lady H and I became quite giddy, high would be another description anyway, we spotted this bijou cottage and wondered whether to down size.

As you can see it comes complete with all of the necessary domestic equipment and we would very much appreciate your thoughts ?

http://aheronsview.blogspot.ie/2014/05/chocolate-ice-cream.html

Ludicrous !

New Speed Limit Sign for Minor Local Roads
A Speed Limit is the maximum legal speed, but not necessarily the safe speed at which a vehicle should be driven. It is the responsibility of a driver to obey a Speed Limit and to ensure that the vehicle speed is appropriate for the prevailing circumstances, even if that speed is lower than the Speed Limit applying.
Ireland’s road network is extensive and inconsistent, which means that a ‘one size fits all’ solution for Speed Limits for the 99,100km of road network is not possible. Additionally, Local Authorities (in conjunction with the National Roads Authority in respect of National Roads) are able to amend and set Speed Limits as appropriate and in accordance with Guidelines on Special Speed Limits for different sections of the road network as required.

Arising from the recent Speed Limit Review the Working Group recommended the introduction of a new ‘Rural Speed Limit’ sign for Local Roads, a generic sign that does not display a numeral value, to replace the 80 km/h signs on minor local roads (boreens). This new sign is a ‘black circle with diagonal which is in use internationally under the Vienna signage convention and which was used in Ireland prior to 2004. The new sign means that drivers must use their own judgement but must never exceed 80km/h in any case.

In my opinion the decision to introduce this sign was a dereliction of duty by The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar TD, who launched the new sign on 19 March 2015.

It is in itself a misdemeanour, especially when one considers that most towns have an inner speed limit of 30km/h. 

This could easily have been made common for all local roads which in a lot of instances are very narrow with blind bends and are frequented by pedestrians and farmers moving animals.

The speed limits on the edges of some towns are bad enough already, when on leaving a town's outskirts with a 50km/H limit and on approaching a  roundabout the speed limit goes up to 60km/h! 

If common sense were applied it would stay the same or even go down.

Once again we shall be made a laughing stock by the rest of the world for the lack of professional comprehension by our political leaders!