A Helpful Resident !

Damhnán Alla

or in English

A SPIDER!

The damhnán alla or spider may not be your favourite creature to look at, but you have to admit they are fascinating. There is no shortage of wonderful facts about them that get them noticed either.

All spiders have 8 legs. They arthropods which are invertebrate insects  having an exoskeleton (external skeleton) , a segmented body, and jointed appendages.

Spiders spin webs that they use to catch food in. They have glands that make silk.The silk that they make is stronger than steel and as yet science has yet replicate anything similar.

They are the largest order of Arachnids and are 7th in the world when it comes to diversity among their populations.

Antarctica is the only continent in the world where you can't find spiders.

They don’t have antenna which is what separates them from insects.

There has only been one species identified as vegetarian the rest are all carnivores.

Within the home they consume about 2,000 smaller insects and mites per year. So love them or hate them, they are an important part of our ecosystem by helping to keep the insect population in check. It is estimated that the spiders in 1 acre of woodlands consume 80 pounds of insects a year.

Spider superstition: Never kill a spider or you will invoke bad weather.

The Spider's webs were used to stop bleeding when de-horning cattle and they were also used in wound care in ancient Ireland.
ref: The Tadhg Ó Cuinn (1415) manuscript.

SPRING WEATHER

Birds in a snow storm and on the right a clutch of hardy greenfinches

at 1515 hrs

Two minutes later snow has lessened

photo at 1517hrs

Photo taken five minutes after the first one

in sunshine

Aged Hoodie & Spiders

One of the quirks of living in a centuries old cottage, is the amount of spiders who share themselves liberally around the place. So much so that I spend a lot of time looking at their regular web sites (no pun intended) Mrs H used to have a pet spider in the bathroom called 'Itsy' which I fear may have been inadvertently sucked up by the dyson !

All of our rooms have wooden ceilings. Our front room, which was the old kitchen until I relocated that function to the rear of the cottage; it has a hipped ceiling which is donkey's years old. Twenty-three years ago when I first moved in it sagged a little, so I stiffened it up with a few equally spaced small beams which gave it adequate support.

This is our turf (peat block) basket which our small cat Squeaky frequently adopts as a sleeping nest. She is very fortunate in that I always check the basket before tipping in a bucket of turf.

I acquired this colourful hoodie for five Euros yesterday in a Birr charity shop, it had been sitting there for several weeks and is brand new. I can only presume that it is too loud for the average person in this area. It is light in weight and keeps me warm which to my mind is the sole purpose of clothes.

Pete Seeger R.I.P

This is my humble tribute to Pete Seeger, the singer - songwriter and Activist, who used his gifts for the betterment of the world's people. A man who by his songs raised awareness of what the world might be if only we all had acted with peace in our hearts & minds. 

   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha1vhK1S1ao

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvl0sbC73_Q

             For more information please visit     http://peteseeger.net/wp/

Gerry Adams with Toshi and Pete

November 2009

FUEL DISASTER !

During the recent holiday period Mrs H & myself were listening to the radio RTE 1 to be precise and we were somewhat alarmed to hear about a tiny community of aboriginal Canadians and a Limerick GP.

"Undue Alarm" is the story of how Dr. John O'Connor became a tireless campaigner on behalf of the First Nations communities - and found himself at the centre of a nationwide controversy in Canada. Limerick man Dr. John O'Connor who went to Canada to practice medicine. He had little idea how his life would unfold.
The Alberta Oil Sands is the biggest industrial project on the planet. The area currently being mined for oil is the size of Ireland. Downstream from this on the shores of Lake Athabasca lies the tiny native community of Fort Chipewyan.
A breathtakingly beautiful place, 'Fort Chip' is on the far northeastern tip of the province of Alberta. In winter it is accessible by the 'ice road' - a road that is constructed from the harsh northern climate. In summer access is by way of a small plane.
Most of the people that live here are either Méti or First Nation - that is, native Canadians who have lived on the land through traditional methods of trapping, hunting, fishing and gathering berries for generations.

In 2000 Dr. O'Connor - or Dr. O as locals call him - became family physician to the tiny community of 1,200 people. When he started hearing concerns among the community about elevated rates of cancer in the community he did something that no outsider had done before: he listened to them. Then he spoke out about it. And what happened next is not what he expected.
A raft of professional complaints were made against him by the Canadian health authorities. And he would live with one of these - 'causing undue alarm' among the community - for five years.
Dr. O'Connor went from being a simple GP to a tireless campaigner and activist on behalf of native communities in Canada.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/documentary-podcast-undue-alarm-canada-aborigines-john-oconnor-doctor.html

Greenpeace is calling on oil companies and the Canadian government to stop the tar sands and end the industrialisation of a vast area of Indigenous territories, forests and wetlands in northern Alberta.
The tar sands are huge deposits of bitumen, a tar-like substance that’s turned into oil through complex and energy-intensive processes that cause widespread environmental damage. These processes pollute the Athabasca River, lace the air with toxins and convert farmland into wasteland. Large areas of the Boreal forest are clearcut to make way for development in the tar sands, the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

Greenpeace is also concerned with the social and health costs of the tar sands. First Nations communities in the tar sands report unusually high levels of rare cancers and autoimmune diseases. Their traditional way of life is threatened. Substance abuse, suicide, gambling and family violence have increased in the tar sands. Meanwhile, the thousands of workers brought in by oil companies face a housing crisis in northern Alberta.

Enbridge Inc.'s tar sands tanker pipeline proposal threatens to allow a 30 per cent expansion in tar sands development. Enbridge's tar sands pipeline would span 1,170 kilometres from Hardisty, Alberta to Kitimat, in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Over the past decade, Enbridge's own pipelines spilled an average of more than once a week. The pipeline would cross over 1,000 rivers and streams and the Rocky Mountains on the way to B.C.'s pristine coastline. The pipeline would bring more than 200 crude oil tankers through some of the world's most treacherous waters each year.

The governments of Alberta and Canada actively promote tar sands development and ignore international commitments Canada has made to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Through direct action, we draw international attention to government climate crimes in the tar sands and demand change.

http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/Global/canada/report/2010/10/steering-clear-of-oil-disaster.pdf

http://norj.ca/2014/01/cold-lake-shocked-by-fourth-leak-from-cnrls-oilsands

Further information here: http://www.naturecanada.ca/tarsands_impacts.asp

PHONE - FRUSTRATIONS !

GALAXY POCKET NEO

Last week I treated myself to a birthday present, a Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo - A Smartphone. Within in a few hours I was wondering why.
The instructions were far from clear, well not for old idiots like me, I was slightly confused to say the least. Mrs H says that I was swearing left,right and centre. I down loaded the manual read it and still there was no real clarity. So I called the help line and the person that I spoke to suggested that I had inserted the wrong Sim card into the phone. I told her that it was not possible because the Nokia Sim (from my old phone) was three times the size of the Samsung one. I went to bed, awoke at 2.30a.m and made my way into the kitchen where I opened the phone and this time I quite quickly and easily created the locking pin code. I returned to bed and slept soundly for six hours. 

On awakening and returning to the phone task I found that there was a whole range of questions that needed answering before I could actually and properly access the phone - gulp! To cut a long story short I engaged the help of a friends son who did a magnificent job.
What I have discovered throughout all of this mild techie stuff, is that every company uses different terms : thus on my WiFi what they call a security code is known as a Password to Samsung. So yes, this did make me swear an awful lot....!

I have now managed to send a few texts and have made some calls and am now looking forward in doing much more however, I do realise that just as my first two or three computers were PCs before graduating to AppleMacs and that eventually I shall move over to an i-Phone, whose technology will be easier to understand.

Making a Spectacle of Myself

On the 3rd January I had my two yearly eye sight examination. The optician asked if I had noticed any change and I told her that my left eye seems to have deteriorated slightly and sure enough this was confirmed.

There was also a check back into the records for previous history and reference was made to 2009 when they sent a letter to my GP with regards to my High BP & Cholesterol.
Today there is no sign of either and I was pleased to point out that the vanquishing of those two monsters was all down my own efforts, as I had refused to take the doctors medications.
A change of eating habits and a walk of two miles before breakfast was all that was required.
At the end of the examination a photograph of each eyeball was taken. I found them to be very interesting as they showed in great detail all of the small veins and their various pathways.  

Yesterday I re-visited the opticians to collect my new pairs of spectacles needed for driving & reading. The reading ones were immediately fine but when I put on the driving ones they felt quite odd and was informed that I would get used to the variance. On arriving home I tried them again and by using various tests I decided that the left lens was actually a identical copy of the left lens of my reading pair. So today I went back to the opticians where I told them of my suspicions.
After testing I was proved right and now it will be next week before I get the corrected pair - just as well I didn't attempt to drive home wearing them!

Words, words, words.

My first published book of poetry

During the time between writing the last blog and now, I have written, no, started composing many others in my head, none of which ever came to fruition. For on each occasion the desire for a slice of cake, a laced coffee or even a small tot of cherry liqueur slipped into my mind and as you probably know a well fed mind that has no hunger within loses its’ desire to create. 

The next day and thereafter the process was repeated; not though today. 
For last night into my mind came nine words - a metaphor - which is like a long lost solitary piece of a jigsaw puzzle and it is still echoing in the recesses of my being. As yet I have neither inspiration nor inclination to do anything with it. That line will be entered in a page of a notebook which has other lost lines and like the others it will grow neither fat nor slim, until one of them drops like magic into a rightful place. Hopefully I shall get started soon and start scribbling away.

At this time of the year, during mid winter we listen to the radio far more than at other times of the year (no TV by choice). 
During my late teenage years I realised that listening to the radio was far better than watching the attention seeking one eyed monster in the corner of the lounge, because at the very least I could paint or read a book at the same time.
So when I reached the age of maturity my decision was not to have a TV. 

Writing about that non-sensical box has revived memories of the letters that I would receive annually from the TV licensing authorities and of the great delight I had when making my polite replies. All of that altered [the politeness - that is] when they changed their previous format and started their letter with a threat to prosecute me, to which I replied with extreme vehemence.
I told them how dumb they were in not noting the contents of my previous sixteen letters and of how they needed to keep a register of non-conformers like myself which would save both of us the cost of postage etc.

Since becoming a pensioner however, the powers that be have granted me a free TV licence for life and I no longer get any letters. That too has its drawbacks as I can no longer vent my spleen annually and rid my self of my accumulated angst !

Season of Goodwill

Obscenity is not just pornography or even provocative photo's of the human body. There are other types of obscenity. One of which is the portrayal of photo's on blogs and words describing their pre- christmas fare gluttony !I have just visited one blog that said that on the following morning that the author was so stuffed from the meal of the previous day that all they had was a slice of toast for breakfast. Well whoopee for you I thought!

Then I thought again about the five million people in the UK who are suffering from food and fuel poverty, also of the half million and more in Ireland who are in a similar situation. Well who cares - who actually cares ?

One might name a charity, almost any charity. 

Ah'yes! But be careful that they are not just in the Business of Re-distribution. For example the other day a national Irish newspaper published a list of forty-one well known charities of which there was only one in which the CEO took no salary. Of the other CEO's who did their salaries ranged from €80,000 to over €100,000 per annum.

That one single charity whose CEO receives nothing is Br. Kevin Crowley of the Irish Capuchins see  http://www.churchandhalston.irishcapuchins.com/Day_Centre.html

We stopped sending Seasonal Greeting cards a couple of years ago, instead we make a donation to an organisation that cares for people who are in great need, the numbers of which are growing daily. This year it will be to the Capuchins.

Whether you have a religion or a belief or not or are simply a pagan like myself. My wish for you is that you are warm, free from hunger and surrounded with Love.

One of My Pleasures!

We took ourselves off to Dublin the other day. For Mrs H it was a chance to window shop ( yes, I have her trained!) Actually she was accompanying me to the famous pipe manufacturer's Peterson's of Dublin, whose retail outlet is in Nassau Street at the bottom of Grafton Street. We had fun getting there for I insisted on staying on the bus a lot longer than what we should have. No matter the walk was good for us and by way of recompense. I out of the goodness of my heart pointed out the Dail (The Irish parliament building) to her.

Peterson's have a fine array of pipes on display however, many of them were well beyond price range and in any case their seconds accommodate my wallet far better and give a good service.

The last time that I visited them was about five years ago and the shop assistant recommended to me pipe which he felt that I would appreciate. He was absolutely correct!

For here we were, for me to buy pipe another of similar design.

The new pipe with the trade name of Killarney.
It is a gem to hold as well as to smoke plus it
has the unique characteristic of sitting down.

My previous pipe which sits well in the hand,
as well as sitting nicely on the desk without
spilling any ash.

The stem of each of the above pipes can be used
with a replaceable filter - I change the filter every two days.

A Driskule
This little fellow is a conical wired cage that
sits in the bottom of the pipe bowl and prevents wastage
of tobacco as well as keeping the bottom dry.

My favourite tobacco of which I smoke
about 50 grammes a week.

For many years now the bent pipe
has been my favourite.

I purchased this old timer in Germany
in 1958 and only very rarely do I use it.

'The Meerschum'

This takes pride of place in my tobacco cabinet.
The head is that of a bear.