New blog address

I have a new address for you to view my blogs on its at http://derrykyle.com/wp/ hope to see you there :)

2 sister in laws not happy

Well both my Sister in Laws are not happy that I haven't being blogging with my usual gusto, so I am putting fingers to keys tonight in a vain attempt to satisfy their insatiable craving for my undoubted mastery of the written word and pictures of my pets.

In the news there was a mention of the referendum vote this last Saturday, which is a bit of a surprise seeing only 10 people bothered to go to the voting stations. 6 of them must have voted yes as the Child Referendum bill went through 60 - 40 and there is some talk about not having voting again on a Saturday seeing nobody turned up, maybe more folks would have, if they had got some time off work?
That Muslim cleric Abu Qatanda was released with a new bracelet today, he has been in jail in Britain for the past seven years fighting extradition to his home country of Jordan. It costs on average £47,000 per year to keep someone in prison so that's £329,000 and a bracelet that the stoopid human rights laws cost the taxpayers to keep Osama BinBag's right hand man safe. Bet you are happy I'm blogging again girls.

If you want to see how my fight against wind farms is going you can keep up to date at www.connemaraagainstwindfarms.com/wp and also marvel at my skill in website design at the same time.

Ben the pup has stopped eating socks, there are none left, have had the same pair on for a week. I saw him sniff one and turn his nose up today.

It has been raining heavy here the last two days and the river is in spate, the garden ponds are also full to bursting point and I have had a bit of a break from tree felling.

Ohh one last news item I saw that "One Direction would "kill" anyone if they hurt Niall Horan" hes the blond one in the band, not sure what instrument he plays, ohh that's right they are all singers. I cant imagine any of them being huge punchers maybe they would bite the person who hurt Niall or pinch him to death.

Good job if you can get it

How does £450,000 sound for 54 days work, I think that's £8333.33 per day hmm not bad ehh wonder what the pension fund is like that could swing it ehh. The director of the BBC just got that as a severance not because he had done brilliantly and made a fortune for the company but because he stuffed up, I'm sure I could do the same. His successor acting director general Tim Davie has urged senior corporation managers to "pull together" in the BBC's interests. He said that while rubbing his hands in glee and wondering how best to stuff up, no he didn't I just made that up.

I see Venice is underwater this morning after floods, I shouldn't be smiling at others misfortunes but I must admit to a smirk when this wally on TV, wading through thigh high water, at pace, so he could get on TV behind the reporter and probably make faces, stumbled, and took a wee dive, ipad first into what looked like crystal clear auqa blue waters in the Platza NOT.

Ireland is more like Venice than S Australia this morning which has bush fires raging, there is no way I would have bought this place if it had been in Australia I have acres of branches needing burnt, they would be prime hiding places for snakes and other goodies, there are ponds here that no doubt would be home to various man eating creatures and the whole place would be like a tinderbox. The reason I havent burnt off much in the way of branches is I have a phobia about the fire getting out of control. Unfortunately it has to be done at some point.

Well its almost 0800 I've had a shower and breakfast and am now going to have another look at Wordpress, wordpress is a free and open source blogging tool and a content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. Did that help you understand? Anyway the reason I am learning how to drive it, is that I knocked back a couple of jobs last week as Static website design would not have met the clients needs, one was for an auction house that has furniture and antique sales and they wanted a website they could administer themselves and add their >600 items for sale every monthly sale a content managment system is what they are after. I think I shall have a go this week at turning www.derrykyle.com into my new wordpress site and will move my blog to there.

Take care all.

Sorry about the lack of blogs

I know a few of you keep in touch with what is happening here through the blog so sorry about the lack of them recently. I have been busy protesting about the wind farm development that is proposed for this township and have made a website at www.connemaraagainstwindfarms.com Connemara is the part of Ireland we live in. The more research I do into this the more I am convinced that wind turbines are not the way to go to generate our electricity, anyway shan't bore you with turbines anymore today, notice the today.

I have stacks of chopped firewood all over the place now and could do with a tractor and trailer to get them all back close to the house, nevver mind it must help keep me fit dragging my sled full back to the house every time I come back up for a cuppa or break. A lot of the wood is unseasoned so it wont be fit for the fire until next year, if we are spared. The central heating is working well but I still need to put insullation in the loft as the North end of the house (Barney's wing) is still a lot colder.

The wee dog is saving me a fortune in washing powder as he just eats my dirty socks instead of them needing washed apart from that he is grand, I think he is further up the pecking (pack) order than Gus even though he is only half the size may be ther terrier in him gives him the edge, Gus is a bit like Ishan temprament wise and is just chilled out.

It looks like showers and sunny intervals today so I am going to chop down another tree near the road that was split in two by a storm in the past, its hard going the bit I am clearing just now as there have been a couple of felled trees in the past that they just left the brances and the brambles have grown through them so I have a thicket about 10ft deep of thorns to wade through.

Anyway all the best to everyone and give me a call if you would like to be bored by wind farm facts and figuires, I think that writing to pollies, putting my hand up at meetings making a website and talking politely may not be working and Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King had to get arrested to get their message across, I wonder if they would deport me back to Long Bay in Australia if I do some Peaceful Demonstration? ok Wheres my black texter I'm gonna make a big bliddy sign and go down to Evening Mass with a mega phone, ok maybe not. 

pre winter gardening

Well the leaves are falling off the trees and grass has stopped growing for the season, the midgies have eventually dissapeared for another year and I can get out there and not be bitten all over. I have been cropping bushes back this last week or so letting a bit more light and breeze into the place.

 

 

Peat in for the winter

Well it was another nice morning so I got a lot done about the place, chopped some more wood, cut a lawn and erected a wee fence while Gus trained Ben how to jump into the pond (and get covered in mud) and how to bark and Jessy tried training him to bite the lawnmower front tyre.

I bought a trailer full of peat from a neighbour for 60 Euro which will last me all winter with the wood supply supplementing it. Helped him load it and he had an awesome Fork specially for handling peat it has baubles on the fork ends so they don't pierce the turf and is sort of spoon shaped so you can pick up a good load at a time and it doesn't spill off. I have to unload it into the turf shed at some point which will take ten times as long but I have it covered with a tarp to keep it dry meantime. Tonight is meant to be wet again but we have been lucky this week with gorgeous weather.
I took a wee photomontage of my view across the bog it will be a shame if its covered in bliddy windmills. Emailed the Galway Mayor councellor Welby who used to be on the Oughterard small business committee with me to have a whinge lol probably do no good whatsoever but what the heck ehh.
We are meeting with the counsellor in charge of planning but he will already have had his backhander from the developer no doubt. I'm not opposed to renewable energy and I  understand how Ireland has to meet renewable resource deadlines but all counties in Ireland have areas with sufficient wind speeds to make them economically viable – this is borne out by the presence of wind farms in these areas already. It is evident that any national policy for Ireland which seeks to capture the country’s maximum capacity for wind energy can be achieved without impacting on areas with sensitive landscapes, ecology and hydrology and I think my bog could quite eassily qualify as sensitive.

Dog Psychology

Well its a joy to watch a puppy interacting with my two older dogs, Jessy the eldest and only female dog in the pack was having great fun racing him round the garden through the trees over hedges under stuff and round in tight circles earlier and now we are back inside dodging a shower he is slapping his front paws on the floor and dancing round her to try and get her to do the same chase inside. He is scared of the car for some reason, maybe he accosiates it with being dumped so I didnt insist he come with us for a swim this morning but it wouldnt have been fair for the other two to miss out so we left him in the porch I suppose the obvious way to get him to trust the car again is to make every time he goes in it a pleasurable experience, the other two as soon as I say "in the car" go crazy with excitement. Gus is not quite as enamoured with the new guy but puts up with him fine.

I am feeding them seperate from the pup as he is very skinny and gulping down his food then trying to get theirs which is a recipie for a fight, I read somewhere that getting malnourished animals back to prime health again needs a bit of thought you cant just dive in there and feed them as much as they can eat straight away so he gets small feeds often throughout the day with added extras like egg and cheese instead of a big feed at night which is what the other two are used to, they have been having smaller than normal feeds twice a day as well.

There was a call from the owner of Ross Castle yesterday that I missed but she was singing my praises to Angie about how much she likes her new website, its not "live" yet as I havent finalised with her if there is any more info to go on it but you can view the test site on my server at http://www.galwaysitedesign.com/ross/ another one I have nearly finished is for a wee guest house in Oughterard its also on the server at http://www.galwaysitedesign.com/fougheast/ others I am working on are http://www.galwaysitedesign.com/breizon/ and http://www.windowsgalway.ie/ any comments are welcome as pages look different on different browsers.

I had a call from a bloke in Dublin the other day asking about website design, he wanted a small site for his business with the capacity to buy items from him using paypal to pay, I quoted a really reasonable E200 to which he told me I was too dear, on asking him how much he expected to pay he said could I do it for E45, I spilt my coffee, luckily it didnt get on the laptop. I spend perhaps 10 - 20 hours getting a site right which equates to between 10 and 20 Euros an hour. To get a decent trademan to lay some flooring or make an archway would cost me twice that at least per hour, so I told him he should shop around a bit.  

Visit to the Cardio Department

Well I had to go for an echocardiogram this morning then be poked by a 25 yr old Polish Sheila who said she was a Dr, I didn't complain even when she wanted to feel how rough my hands were on the back of her kneck, ok I was dreaming again. I have been put on a bigger dose of Atacand and fish oil which used to be subsidised but was removed last month, so its costs about as much as caviar, probably because they knew I was coming and fish oil comes from Poland. Have to go back in 3 months to see how the drugs have gone and maybe have an angiogram which is where they pump dye into your blood and watch it circulate through the heart, if they use blue dye it may not show, I told the Polish Sheila that, but she was too busy playing angry birds on her iphone, or summat, to hear, or didnt quite get the joke.

Ben hasn't been claimed so we had a bath, I say we although he was quite good and stood in the bath well, after he realised I wasnt going to skin him so I didnt get too wet. He is less brown in colour than we thought initially.

 

He follows me round like a shadow so I guess he is glad to be in a warm environment with dogs and dog lovers.

Abandoned Pup

Well I'm babysitting, a wee pup that appeared outside on the road yesterday, I think it has been abandoned as it is skinny as a rake and badly needs a wash. It also hasnt been neutred so I'm guessing it was dumped, anyway I have contacted the local radio station and they will put out on air that he was found and I also told the local shop. Not sure what age he is but he has young looking teeth and apart from needing some TLC and lots of food, seems fit it took him 20 hrs to come indoors but he is an affectionate wee creatir and the other two dogs like him.

windmills and new floors

Well the floors are down and I spent today moving furniture and rearanging the house. Its great to have floor coverings back and it looks really good. I still have a bit of painting to do and insulation to go in the loft which would be nice to do before the cold weather, I have a fire on tonight so it is really cosy.

Angie's company did a double take when she said she wasnt going to Dubai and decided to keep her on in the same position here in Galway so thats a bit of relief.

There is a planning proposal for a wind farm development of 14 windmills between me and the 12 pins mountains basically right in my view so I was at a meeting the other night of locals opposing the farm. I'm a "blow in" and the whole meeting was in Irish so I would have been more constructive if I had gone to a meeting of North Korean butterfly conservationists, but I did email the action committee with my points of view today.
The developers had a display in the local hall with photos of how the windmills would look and of course they are in 50 mm wideangle so they look tiny, I showed a comparison that I found online with windmill photos of the same area taken with 50mm and 75mm which is more like what we actually see as a comparison and suggested they ask the developers for shots in 75mm and when they refuse, as they will, we can quote their unwillingness. The Scottish Heritage have a court case just now insisting that windfarm developers show true representative photos in 75mm rather than wideangle shots as they are deceptive.

 I went to the movies aand had dinner out last night as Angie was at a going away party for some of her workmates that have been made redundant, the movie was the Sweeny with Ray Winston and was full on violence and swearing and the movie theatre had a grand total of 5 people in it. Last night was the 27th and "Arthurs Day" so the town was full of drunks staggering all over the place when we drove home about 2300.

I did a website for Warmer Homes Ireland and have started one for the Internal Defibrillator Accosiation of Scotland this week and fixed up a PC so it wasnt a wasted week. The weather hasnt been great but whats new ehh and the time that it was calm the bliddy midges were back.

I'll give them "blow in " got as much right as anyone to complain about wind farms here.

Seafood

Well I got a website design job for a company called Breizon who process and export shell fish, when I was down at their office getting information and such the owner gave me samples of the produce so we had seafood last night curtisy of them. I made prawns in a 1970's style Maree Rose sauce and garlic crab claws for a starter then crab meat spagattini with garlic, chilli, tommatoes, a wee bit tom paste and a couple of spoons of lemon/ lime marmalade which turned out nice. Its nearly impossible to buy fresh Irish shellfish here unless you have a contact on a boat as it is all sent abroad. I think if he has an online shop selling things like razor fish, lobster, whelks, crab and scampi he would do really well.

Tonight we are back to mince and potatoes lol. I paid for the hardwood flooring today and tomorrow the electrician is back. Friday the tiler is here to use the remaining tiles from the kitchen floor in the spare bedroom onsuite. I have to drive to Monivea tomorrow to see a customer for another website so am quite busy.

 

Had to move the yacht today as they are sandblasting and painting in the marina so I have a berth not in the corner this time.

How handy is cow dung ?

Well while out walking today the two and a half miles from the marina the boat is at up to the house, i observed some cattle near the river and got to thinking, as you do, about dung. Now amongst some of the weird things I discovered about the pat online was a website at www.cowpieclocks.com , as the name implies they produce clocks out of cow dung, not sure how they get the cow to eat the clock right enough but what a wonderful present for Jeffrey (my most adored ex boss) it says everything ehh. "we took your crap now take ours" "congratulations, you dung great in your field"
As well as clocks I found out that dung is used for making ,Pens, plant pots, milk jugs, fuel, concrete, Cow dung vanilla for shampoo, Tooth powders, Facial cleansers, Incense, bio gas, housing, fire lighters, and the list goes on, my favorite is the clocks though.

As well as my walk I managed to hack down a few hundred square meters of bracken so am noe enjoying a can of pear cider before dinner, making a pork roast with roasted veg and creamed leaks which should be nice. The electrician put in the RCD and new lights yesterday and will finish off on Tuesday, it takes about a week for the wood flooring to be ordered so I shall do that tommorow.

Ohh there is a cow dung bingo game here in Ireland too, they mark out a field in squares and sell them for 5 euros each then a cow is introduced into the field and well let's say motheR nature takes her course and the winner is the person in who's square the nature,s course is taken, clever ehh and great for also introducing patience into out hectic lifestyle.

Nice weather and woohoo the midgies have gone

Welllllllllll the midges have dissapeared this week, its been cooler and thank goodness they have all taken off for Dubai or somewhere, its been great as between jobs I have managed to get some clearing done again. This last couple of months were hell in the garden with the midgies I have never seen anything like them, for next summer we may invest in one of those machines that emit co2 and use infra red to attract them then zap them.

I had a couple of computer jobs this week and the websites are starting to move too so that is good, the electrician is coming tomorrow and hopefully the floors will get laid this coming week too. I shall have to go out and buy the wood flooring this weekend.

How can they not trace who posted the anti Islam video on youtube? could it be that they havent really tried? A trailer for the anti-Islamic video was posted on YouTube in July. An Arabic-language translation began circulating in the Middle East in recent days. Clips from the movie depict the Prophet Muhammad as a villainous, homosexual, child-molesting buffoon, among other overtly insulting claims. Free speech is all very well but inciting violence via this sort of video is, in my mind a  criminal act and the people responsible should be punished. Mind you the violence, put down to the video, in parts of the middle east, is also to be condemed I suppose it highlights how uneducated the protestors are and how keen they are to attack the Satanic American. Anywayyyyyy !!!

The marina are letting me leave the boat there all year for less than the summer rate which is good as last March was the best month of the year and I didnt have the boat in the water untill the start of May so I missed a good chance to go cruising, I shall have to take her out at some point to antifoul the bottom but there is no growth yet. I will just do the antifoul with her on the trailer on the slipway I launched her at. One never knows maybe we will have an Indian summer. Its windy today but if it drops down a bit I may get some fishing in this weekend.

cutting trees and cycling

Well I must be feeling better ehh cut a couple of trees down and chopped them for firewood and also just back from a cycle, was kerry pakered coming back up the hill right enough.

I took a couple of pics of the kitchen tiles. They look better in real life.

Well done Andy

Wtg Andy Murray, he looked more relieved than happy after winning the USA Open tennis but he doesnt smile a lot anyway. What a summer it has been for sport the Tour de France, Olympics and the ParaOlympics, USA Open, Volvo Ocean race concluded at Galway. London must have been an awesome city to live in this year with the Queens Jubilee as well.

Today is a lot cooler and I had the radiators on for an hour this morning for the first time, today has heavy showers and sunny intervals and it blew hard last night. Today is more painting and housework and I may get to do some firewood between the showers. The electrician is either coming tomorrow or Thursday to install an RCD, new ceiling pendants, new lights in the kitchen, globe type light fittings in the bathrooms, a couple of sockets and make any junction boxes in the loft safe. I think he will take two days. Next week the floor in the living room is getting done, I will have to go out this weekend and get the materials, going for a light oak engineered wood floor which should really look great in here.

I,m looking at taking the Subaru to the UK to try and sell it as noone in Ireland wants a 2.5 ltr petrol car as the road tax is over 2000 Euros a year, its not as easy as I was hoping as the car was built for Australia not the EU so it doesnt have a conformity ticket. Having a deisel vehicle here is the only way to go.

Furniture moving

Well I had a good day today moving furniture around the house, took my bed to bits and put it and the bedroom furniture into the onsuite bathroom. Put the bookcase and big lounge into the bedroom making it a snug for when the lounge is getting its new floor done. I wanted to have as much furniture out of there so I can paint the ceilings and not have to struggle moving things around. All that is left is the tv and a couch and chair so tomorrow I shall give it a paint. We will use the spare bedroom for a while and after the floor is done I will move the furniture back in and start on stripping the bedroom walls so I can paint them.

The lounge looks huge with hardly any furniture in it and is echo filled. The kitchen tiles look brilliant and all that needs done in there now is three lights to go up and a wall to be filled again and painted and do the section of bench top with the sink in it but I may leave that a wee while. It looks like a wet week coming up so painting will keep me amused.

Angie's company is moving to Dubai and she was offered to keep her job if we moved there, I really love camels, sand and temps in the high 40,s and tea towels ohh and no bacon  and the fact that the fairer sex are treated better than family pets so I was really really disappointed when she said she might give it a miss. Things may be tight if she is out of work but we haven't starved a winter yet so we are not panicking ohh there was that one winter we had to gather whelks in the snow in Skye but we weren't really starving. Gus will really enjoy being at the beach anyway regardless of if it's snowing. Whelks sell for about  170 cents a kilo about 70 euro a bag but I haven't seen many on my visits to the shore here lol.

Ohh well I may go have myself a bacon sanny a dram and go stand outside in the drizzle and 11C for a while before bed.

Kitchen tiles

Well I have the tiler here today and tomorrow and the floor in the kitchen is looking great already, there are three different sized tiles layed in a pattern they look like marble but arent, better for cleaning and they wont scratch as easy apparently. I will take photos after he finishes.

I took the yacht trailer back up to the house yesterday, a friend was storing it for me while my driveway was busy with builders vans, and I gave it a coat of paint, started yesterday as the weather was lovely but the midges stopped me as they were forming huge cloauds round my head, today is cooler and more windy so I finished painting the undercoat and serviced the whinch etc.

There is a big high pressure system over the UK but we seem to be on the outskirts of it but at least its dry anyway. I think the forecast was ok and getting better towards the weekend, it would be nice to get out on the boat this week. Feeling back to normal health wise here too which is good as I dont do sick very well.

Fishing and picking brambles

Well I had a good day today walked and swum the dogs, picked brambles then I went for a sail and caught some fish for dinner. Had a fish pie and will make a bramble and apple pie tomorrow. We used to gather a lot of brambles and mum would make pies and freeze some for after the bramble season.

The forecast looks ok this week so I might get out on the boat, it would be good to get out a bit before the boat has to come ashore for the winter. The midges are hellish this evening as the breeze has dropped off.

Diddlie I de do

Well I'm home from the hospital again, this time they gave me 4 cortizone injections in the back ? not quite sure why apart from the fact that my back was sore, that was the reason I went to see the Dr last Wednesday. Anyway I know now after a GP visit, and a visit to the bowel specialist, two nights and 4 days in hospital, and a visit to the reumatologist, that I dont have kidney stones or anything drastic with the bowel apart from it being a bit inflamed or reumatoid arthritus. The drugs I took which had me no where near food or a loo for 2 days then sitting on it constantly afraid the porcelin may crack, when I wasnt stuffing things up my bottom, seem to have worked?
 So whats up with you bud? sorry havent the faintest idea. Ohh he ended up asking if I'd had a colonoscophy, or summat recently and I felt like saying "no the only thing I have been putting where the sun doesnt shine for the last week is my index finger on the end of a painkiller / anti inflamatory" but I didn't as they are just doing their jobs ehh. Whinge over? Well not quite, do you know how much they charge !!!

I'm changing my favorite movie of all time to  Darby O'Gill and the Little People just because Sean Connery singing riles the heck out of those trying to get rid of the "leprechaun diddly I de do" Irish label they are stuck with to be sure.

Ok change of subject and I'll try and be serious, anyone scared of flying, as a few of my friends are, should look at this guy who is eighty three Ron Akana from Boulder, Colorado., finished his career as a flight attendant over the weekend on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Kauai, setting the world record for the Longest career as a flight attendant he clocked up 200 million miles in the air.

Ok Diddly I do off I go

windy day

G,day all, windy day here and I dont mean my bowels lol, good news this time of year if its windy is the midgies dissapear, until the wind drops anyway. So if you were looking down from space on Connemara and saw all these wee white bodied people with freckles and red hair, running around after their lawnmowers you would know it was windy.

Took a pic of how the fireplace looks at the moment, I'd like to paint the brown surround with a satin or even more matt finish so will save for yet another tin of paint. They do make small test size tins Rob, yeah I know but but !!!!

 

Anyway better dash here have to go do some shopping, the highlight of my day apart from the suppository of course.

A hurricane a lion and two years in a tent

Well I was feeling a bit sorry for myself this morning untill I saw the poor souls that have just been buffeted in Haiti, by hurricaine Isaac, most of who are still living in makeshift tents after their homes were destroyed two years ago. It shows the rift between developed countries and third world ones when I remember the amount of discord there was in Sydney when people couldnt get their tiles / roofs repaired for a couple of weeks after the hailstorm there, because of insurance backups and lack of tradesmen. Isaac is heading for Florida now On the seventh anniversary of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans.

A lion is roaming around Essex, if you ask me it's a great spot to import more of them, that accent grrrrrr, every time I hear someone on the x factor auditions say they are an Essex girl or guy I hope like mad that they sing like a Sylvester Stallone x with a seal and don't make it. Sorry to the loads of lovely Essex folks out there but why don't you gag those "any way is Essex"  "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." pfftt.

It's blowing hard here today, bit like me ehh, and I have put a fire on, the shed is running low in peat so I bought some of those pressed peat bricks which seem to burn well and give off a decent heat, they worked out at three euros a block which should last a day in the burner and longer if I use wood as well so they aren't too bad, a bag of smokeless coal here costs 17 euros. It's good to be getting the hot water from the fire not just heating in the one room. 

I,m out I,m out wohoooo

Well I,m nearly out, just waiting for a lift. They armed me with drugs and have set me loose. Had a good craic with my nurse Trish this morning as this is the first day I can pass wind in three days and I had her in hysterics that maybe the airconditioning might get contaminated. I think she was very happy not to be the NS nurse as they had to do the suppository thing lol, she promised me some KY jelly but I said I,d rather have the ice cream.

The dogs will be glad to see me no doubt, as I shall probably be going outside a lot in the next wee while, subtle reference to wind there. Just for a giggle I might go stand in the lift for a while before Angie gets here.

in hospital

Well im in the ER Galway hospital with suspected kidney stones.I will know more in a while no doubt but am kinda uncomfortable at the moment.
I will keep you all updated as to if i have to stay in overnight or not. Didn't even have a shave lol so look kinda bedraggled.

It's a kinda dreich day anyway and all I had on was painting, I put an undercoat on the new mantle yesterday which was like applying treacle and I,ll probably have to do a fair bit sanding before I gloss it, you would think nowadays they would have easy application under coats, they do Rob just you chose an Irish brand.

Petrol prices are about to jump up again, at the moment the Government get 93.5 cents out of every ltr sold in tax crazy ehh. It's good they have wifi in the ER here at least I can muck about on the iPad. I used to change tack mid scentence with topics but am much better now and they have nice blue curtains in here to be sure.

Angie gets a shot of the mower

Well Angie had a go at cutting the big lawn today which is good as she now knows whats involved and how big the job actually is :) I managed to get the edges and the other lawns done before it started raining. Dogs got a swim in the ocean as they had both been wading in the pond to cool off and were muddy.

I was meant to have a tiler come to price doing the kitchen floor yesterday he didnt come, and another one today didnt appear either, considering there is meant to be a shortage of work in Ireland you would have thought they would have at least rung to say sorry I cant make it or something along that lines. One of my pet hates is so called tradesmen saying they will do something then blinkin not appearing, its like they think you have nothing better to do all day than wait for them not to come.

May be going to Scotland in September for a wee break to see the folks, am just going to check out ferries now. The boat will have to come out of the water at the end of the month too was a rubbish summer and I was watching a wee yacht making heavy weather of it going out of Casla bay when the dogs were having a dip as the weather was coming straight into the bay, not the most enjoyable day out punching into short seas and driving rain.

 E coli bacteria is in the news today Six people have died and at least 100 others have been made ill by pickles contaminated with E coli bacteria in northern Japan.
Officials in Hokkaido said today that the pickled Chinese cabbage was made by two local producers and sold across the region. The first reports of illness occurred about 10 days ago.
Most victims were elderly people in nursing homes, but a four-year-old girl in Sapporo city died last week, a few days after eating the pickles.
Pickled Chinese cabbage is a popular Japanese side dish, and the deaths have shocked the country. Most food poisoning cases in the past have involved meat or seafood.
In Ireland,Cork County Council has banned swimming at three beaches in the county as a precautionary measure after dangerous levels of e-coli were found in the water.

Rowan Trees

What a great tree the Rowan is it doesnt get too big has a wonderful show of white flowers earlier in the year and then a mass of red berries this time of year until the start of autumn. There is a saying that if the red berries are prolific then a hard winter is to follow if this is the case I may need snow shoes as the trees are full of berries.

Oh rowan tree, oh rowan tree, thoul’t aye be dear to me,
Entwin’d thou art wi’ mony ties, o’ hame and infancy.
Thy leaves were aye the first o’ spring, thy flowr’s the simmer’s pride
There was nae sic a bonnie tree, in all the country side.
Oh rowan tree.
How fair wert thou in simmer time, wi’ all thy clusters white.
Now rich and gay thy autumn dress, wi’ berries red and bright
On thy fair stem were mony names which now nae mair I see.
But there engraven on my heart, forgot they ne’er can be.
Oh rowan tree.
We sat aneath thy spreading shade, the bairnies round thee ran
They pu’d thy bonnie berries red and necklaces they strang.
My mither, oh, I see her still, she smil’d our sports to see,
Wi’ little Jeannie on her lap, wi’ Jamie at her knee.
Oh rowan tree.
Oh, there arose my father’s pray’r in holy evening’s calm,
How sweet was then my mither’s voice in the martyr’s psalm
Now a’ are gane! we met nae mair aneathe the rowan tree,
But hallowed thoughts around thee twine o’ hame and infancy,
Oh rowan tree.

Sorry I burst into song there I'll just slap myself and maybe blog about something less ehhh red.

Francis is just finishing installing the mantle piece and fire surround so I shall take some photos before I paint it, I,m thinking maybe a dark brown satin finish would look well, the skirting will wait till after the wood flooring is laid and that will finish it off perfectly, I,m glad the marble got removed even though it has cost a bit more than we budgeted for.

Have just had a lady and her son look at Marks car which is still sitting out on the roadside with a for sale sticker on it so hopefully that will sell.

I couldnt believe what I was seeing on Thursday on TV with Reuters TV footage of officers opening up with automatic weapons on a small group of men in blankets and t-shirts at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum plant, note to self dont take machete to my next picket line.

my firepit

The pavers behind have been moved since I took the picture they are now around my vegetable garden. I need to get a metal grill for the wood to burn on and a barbi grill for the top. The marble came off the fire surround and is bliddy heavy, my shins can contest that fact.

Heading over to the dentists this morning to spend my weeks earnings on a couple of fillings, I sold the last two mountain bikes yesterday so just have to get rid of the bike trailer thingie and do some sums to see how much the bike hire cost or earned last season.

The midgies have been crazy this summer which will probably be the norm with the shelter I have from all the trees and the water round about, I have a list of jobs I want to do but am covered in bites from them and the horse flies so a lot of the jobs wait until its blowing a gale or even till this next winter.

Olympic closing ceremony

Well what did you think of the closing ceremony? I,d like to say it was excellent as the rest of the games were but, I don't know, Geoggios Kyriacos Panayiot had two songs, personally I wouldn't have given him one I can't imagine him still having the fan base he used to after all his exploits in the parks but hey. Emili Sande has a great voice but personally I wouldn't have had her sing the song she did twice, the best of the entertainment for me was Eric Idle, the Who, John Lennon, Jessie J , Queen, Annie Lenox, and wow I never thought I would say this the spice girls. I think there are some british bands much better than some that featured but it would be impossible to please everyone ehh. Anyway it didn't take away from a great Olympic fortnight, I have never watched as much sport in my life and most of it was riveting viewing I think the bbc did an awesome job of coverage with the red button allowing people to view sports that would not normally get airtime wtg. 

Things are getting back to normal here now, the Galway races have finished and the Volvo cean race,so no doubt the builders will be back from their holidays and I might get my wiring done and floors laid and the fire surround finished, probably my website work might progress too as I have been waiting for photos etc from customers. 

A mountain named after me

Well I think it's great they have named a Marsian mountain after me, as usual they forgot the "i" but hey what's new I normally have to repeat my surname spelling 5 times and I,m often asked "are you sure"

Just harvested / cleaned and froze half a squill ion carrots and also some spuds and onions and yet more zucchini the veg beds I made from used scaffold timbers last spring have been great. Next year I shall be even more organized and put down heaps more spuds and maybe try some different veg.

Today is less hot than yesterday but very humid, I managed to cut the rest of the grass and put down fertilizer before it rains so that's me done for the day. My brother in law in Sydney was telling me that they have had severe winds for the last few days and there is dangerous surf on the beaches, I think the USA has had a real dry summer, so bad infact that the price of bread is about to rise dramatically as their crops have failed, Australia was very wet this year, we had a great spring and a woeful summer up until this week anyway, my pal in Canada was saying they have drought conditions. I think the weather has to be the most whinged about thing out there.

Sailing and a galley awash with water

Well I,m just back from a sail which wasn't that enjoyable, Jessy was a real pain, for some reason recently she gets really scared on the boat and tries to escape, so she had to be tied up down below. Then I had far too much sail up for the conditions so the boat was heeling and rounding up in the gusts, I looked down below and the galley was awash with water so we just came back in. Turned out there was just about 10 Ltrs of water that had spilled out of the fresh water container under the sink so I just mopped it up with a towel when we got back in. Reminded me of the 1 st element of seamanship keep the water out of the boat. Gus jumped over the side after we berthed and near strangled himself as his lead got caught. I knew I should have just done some gardening today lol.

The whole country here went mad when Katie Taylor won gold in the boxing And IRELAND jumped to 39th in the medal standing. it could be enough of a boost to end the Eurozone crisis, or maybe not. Well I dont know wether to go for a swim or do some mowing, I know what I should do.

New phone

Well my trusty old iPhone gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I made the leap and got a new one on a plan with Vodafone the plan gives me unlimited off peak calls to the UK on the home phone and free calls to other Vodafone mobiles. The new phone is a Samsung Galaxy 2 and I have just being setting it up. As far as gizmos go it has them all including voice commands that actually seem to work ie I can ask it to send a text to someone in my contacts or look up frogs on google or set an alarm. It doesn't feel as classy as the iPhone but it is fast and has lots of good features including an 8 MP camera, I can remember the first digital cameras that came out that had 1MP and they didn't have a phone attached.

It's another glorious evening here weather wise although the day was overcast. Finally we are getting some heat it was 26C today. Hope to get out sailing tommorow.

Shins vs Marble, Marble wins 2-0

Well I was making a firepit out of the marble fire surround that was taken out in the renovations and managed to take the bark off both shins at the same time when one of the blocks tipped over, gladly my neighbours are a fair distance away as the air turned blue. We had the first taste of summer today withthe temp climbing to about 22C and sunny and calm so i took time out to do some work outdoors, no midgies around so I have all the windows open for a while. Jessy is lieing outside in the sun probably remembering Australia.

If its nice tommorow I might try and get out for a sail as the weekend looks dreich again.

Apparently there was a Twitter frenzy today when a newspaper refered to Katie Taylor (Irish boxer ) as British lol it sounds like a not very frenzied frenzy ehh a twitter frenzy, anyway the whole town of Bray where she comes from is stopping for her next match at about 1400 today, good on her hope she wins, ohh her Dad is from Yorkshire btw.

Well lunchtime is over so I better get back to it.

First use of the range oven

Well we are having roast leg of lamb tonight so the oven is getting its first workout and all seems to be going well, the smell from the kitchen is awesome.Harvested and gave away some more veg today, the zucchini are over a foot long and we also have a huge crop of carrots and  onions. The day has been sunny intervals and torrential showers and I spent it painting the hall ceilings and walls as well as doing other wee bits and bobs. 


Angie was at the reposing of one of her workmates Mothers who passed away earlier in the week, basically the coffin is out on show and folks come and show their respects, the que was right up the street. There is a Mass tomorrow in the local chapel and I think she is going to that too. 


I hope the weather improves this week so I can get out sailing, watching all the Olympic sailors has me in the mood for a sail. Having the boat alongside has been great no hassles with moorings and rowing out and worry about the weather but unfortunately the summer has been pretty woeful so I haven't been out in her as much as I would have liked anyway maybe we will have an Indian summer he says with fingers crossed.


Marks car is still sitting outside, I put an advert on Done Deal but there hasn't been any response yet. 

Heating finished

Well the central heating is installed and working great guns I'm sitting here in a pair of shorts blogging, I put the shelves back in the hotpress today and almost finished tiling the wee shower room, it looks well.

This used to be two rooms both pokie and dark, I took the photo from inside the shower which is also a huge improvenment as they put a pressure pump in the water system so the shower has a great pressure  now.

The new stove sends hot water to the tank below, it holds 500ltrs of water and as well as being future proof with all these different places solar and different methods of heating can be plumbed into it also has all these failsafes and valve thingies and buttons and stuff.  

We couldnt afford a new kitchen so I painted up the existing units and renewed a worktop, there was nothing wrong with the carcasses anyway and it would have been a waste to scrap them.

The floors will get laid after I finish painting which will take a couple of weeks anyway but  I have the carpets and tiles lifted (the carpet is on top on my percolation area suppressing weeds till next spring) and we aim to put hardwood flooring in the sitting room and tiles in the kitchen. I'm going to try sanding and varnishing the hall cork tiles I think.

Because I'm home renovating the Olympics have been on in the background and what a brilliant coverage there is too, the BBC has up to 19 different sports on the red button and ones like the sailing and archery have been grabbing my attention between jobs. I think the UK has 8 medals so far one ahead of Australia.

Summer hasnt arrived yet although yesterday was nice it was back to showers today.

Olympics opening ceremony

Well what a good start to the Olympics ehh, I didn't completely understand all the elements but the highlights for me were the transformation from countryside to Industrial revolution, which went seamlessly, the deaf lady drummer Dame Evelyn Glennie and the 1000 other drummers who were braw, Mr Bean and the symphony orchestra, James and the Queen and her corgi's, the Olympic cauldron, the colourful dresses of the different nations, most of the music and the biking winged folks.

Danny Boyle did an awesome job, for me seeing the kids and staff from GOSH was nice but the NHS celebration started to lose me a wee bit, apart from Danny being MrTrainspotting I dont think that movie would have got a reference, Paul stuffed up the start of Hey Jude and carried on far too long at the end but he certainly had squillions of us singing along for the first 10 choruses of na na na, overall it was well worth staying up late for.

Progress report

My blog is getting more and more like a building progress report every day, I remember a time when I used to sarcastically blog about Sylvester,s Mummy and the Mufti, sounds a bit like a sequel to Tomb raiders, anyway theres not much happening in the world apart for my fireplace and heating system honest.

The finished thing will have tiles between the two plinths and a wood mantle and wood on top of the two shelves/ seats or whatever they are meant to be. I was going to stain/ varnish them but I'm not really a stain fan so now they will get painted a high gloss. The chimney breast will be that muddy grey colour and the bit behind the fire will be same light wall colour as rest of room so the fire stands out against it. The copper piping was run yesterday and 4 radiators hung ready to be connected, there is a wee thermostat which controls a pump which lets water from the boiler on the back of the fire to the 500ltr holding tank, that was installed along with the pump, the chimney breast was filled with a substance for insulation around the flue and there is a new cap on the roof.

There is a cacophony of swallows swooping around chasing flies over the pond and in amongst the trees making a wonderful din as they feast themselves. They are amazing to watch as they feed on the wing at breakkneck speeds.

The weather is back to being windy and moist again but hey this is Ireland what were you expecting son. All the plumbing is finished in my office so I have put everything back in there and am hot to trot with my website designing, I have numerous ones on the go at the moment including a guest house, a castle, a window company, a zumba dance class, a music tuition business and hopefully a pro photographer, anyway they have all paid a portion of the cost apart from the zumba and music ones who are for a friend so no doubt they will all call up at once to proceed further with their designs. No doubt as soon as the sun comes out lol.

Finally back online

Well it seems like an eternity since I had the Onwave satelite disconnected and signed up with Vodafone for my telephone and broadband, wait a min it is an eternity, anyway this is me back online again. It only took 15 working days in the end but hey this is Ireland and the working week is only 2 days after all.

The fireplace should be getting plasterered tommorow and hopefully I shall get my living room sort of back to normality, saying that I have to lift the carpet and take off the carpet tack rails and the skirting boards and repaint most things. Today I'm painting bathrooms between things one coat before the rads go on next week. Will have three plumbers here over the weekend so there should be some progress.

I missed my internet, the dongle Angie has wasnt strong enough to use skype so I havent been in touch with anyone for the 15 days.

I see my neighbour is down at the river building a new bridge today so i shall have to go down and inspect at some point, I saw him this morning and he was saying the Pikies were down at the river last night, the neighbour owns the fishing on the river and the travelers have decided to camp in a passing place just down the road here( not good as they leave a heck of a mess, rob everyone in the vicinity and there are now 7 caravans parked there). I have my gates closed to stop Jessy from going out but have still had visits from them trying to sell me stuff probably on a pretext while they cased the joint. Thankfully I have two largeish dogs that make a heck of a row if anyone comes in.

new fire arrived

Well the new Nestor Martin Harmony fire arrived today and is currently in the middle of the living room floor it looks the same as the one below

I got tiles for the hearth today they should look great and are a bit like shiny textured slightly rusty metal in colour. The store they came from had some good bargains and we may even tile the kitchen floor instead of putting wood through there. Took me ages and lots of sweating to get the cork tiles off, used "Big Bertha" which is a long handled heavy scraper, but it weas still hard going.

Am going to get a Rangemaster range cooker for the kitchen, will order that tommorow and have my 70 yr old plumber fit it.

The gas bottles will be out in the shed with a new water tank and pressure pump for the hot water.

I will have to try and do the kitchen cabinets up rather than get a new one at the present time but changing them from varnished pine to a cream colour high gloss should give them a new lease of life.

So its all go here

Remember the old fire place ?

Well renovating is such fun I must do more of it to be sure to be sure. I think every room in the house now is decimated with dust and ruble and tools and that. Remember the old fireplace? well its near gone and barrowloads of fill came out of the chimney breast.

The new stainless tank has pride of place in the hallway, its huge and has more places for inlets and outlets than you could poke a stick at, it was expensive but is future proof and can take solar pannels and all sorts down the track and thankfully it wont stay in the hallway for ever but replace the existing electric emerser tank in the hot press.

The wall in the small shower room off the hall has gone and in a few days when the plaster goes off I shall paint it and after the radiator goes in there will lay some lino I think and maybe tile it down the track.

The kitchen ceiling has been renewed they ended up putting up new battons before the plasterboard for extra strength. And the Archway is also up and drying out.

Went out fishing with Sacha and caught about a dozen and kept six decent sized Pollack.

Harvested some veg from my garden the zuccini went mad

Have copious quantities of them and onions, carrots, lettus beans and peas and spuds.

The weather has been pretty hopless for Sheanas stay but that hasnt stopped us in any way from having a good time.

Bear Grylis eat your heart out

Well we got into building a tree house, well actually a tree tent thingie and then scaled the rapids in the river near the house, or sacha did anyway I put my largest toe in the water then feigned malaria.

windows in and looking good

Well the windows are in let the big cleanup begin. They made o good job of installing them but sheeeze they are mess. Anyway I have till Wednesday before the next round of works begin. I got the rest of the hallway stripped of wallpaper it was a big job but apart from some cracks that I have filled the walls look in good nick and should take paint well. Tommorrow I shall give them an undercoat or two of white then decide on a colour.

The electricity came back on about 9 pm last night and today was mostly dry so things have started to dry out a wee bit, the midges were horendous today but at least they had more target humans to attack not just me.

The wood along the bottome of the door has to be knocked out in a couple of days when the cement has gone off and I need to give them a wash tommorrow as the silicon will have set.

thunder storms

Well today was severe thunder storms one which knocked out the electricity, which is still off. I'm blogging from a car park near the local shop as the "dongle" reception is better down here and the car isnt full of dust unlike the house. The new windows/ doors look great they just have to fit the front door and do some plaster work and clean up I hope lol, bliddy renovations are messy I had no idea just how much mess was involved replacing windows, I suppose they had to cut out a lot of cement and plaster as the new windows are a lot thicker.

My solicitor got the certificate for the tank today and I got a quote for the new fire and heating systems which I said yes to.

I had to go in to Galway Hospital for a meet with the public system cardio man, its free but I have discovered they make all their money from the car park charges and the fact that they get you to go in 3 hours before they are ready to see you, I was sitting in one waiting room for an hour and a half then an other for a chest xray for about the same time then had to join the q for blood work. I almost choked when the Dr said next visit would take most of the day, note to self take a novel as the mags in there are all womens.

The yachts arrived in Galway from the Volvo round the world series so the town is busy, if the weather is half decent on Saturday I might try to go out for a sail up towards Galway. I should have a tellephone line on in 8 days time so will try calling family and friends after that.

new windows

Well they have brought the window installation ahead so will be starting tommorow :) hopefully a lot will be done before the weekend as Sheena arrives then for a two week visit. The surveyor passed the septic tank and percolation area today which means we will get a certificate and pay over the last money and the place is finally ours woohoo. The kitchen ceiling and archway and shower room wall are getting done next week so its all go here at last. I'm still waiting for a quote for the heating but hopefully that will be going ahead really soon too.

I managed to reverse into a petrol pump fourteen months ago and a claim came through for repairs to the insurer yesterday lol ohh well this is Ireland ehh since then I have moved house and insurers and they asked if I wanted to settle it myself or for them to do it? I paused a min and said " I think I'll let you go ahead considering thats what I paid you for".

My whipper snipper is in for repairs and today my hoover decided it needed replaced by the new model too, psst its in for a shock as I have duct tape here.

The picture below is the new colour of the walls in the living room I just gave the fire surrounds a coat of this sort of muddy grey colour which sounded great on the label "urbanite" I'm not sure if it will pass inspection from the P & O manageress but hey I did ask for some guidance on colours before I bought it. The stone part of the fireplace is going to be ripped out leaving a wee  Inglenook that I can stack wood in around the new wood burner I think it should look good and am wondering if I should paint a light colour in it so the stove stands out or maybe get a cream coloured stove and paint it darker.

I'm home alone from tommorrow untill Friday night so am thinking of painting the hallway the same "moccasin" colour as the other walls in the lounge and kitchen, why? well I have some left over for starters and its a nice light colour which will go nice with wood floors I think.

Below is the percolation area and John's rock garden which was a muddy patch near the shed.

I have to plant grass seed around the percolation area and put more veg in at the moment there are just some lonely potatoe plants. I was waiting this time untill it passed inspection.

Sky tv

Well June ended pretty dreich infact I saw somewhere that England had had the wettest June since 1834, John and I got a wee bit done, made a sort of no maintenance rockery to the North of the house on a slope beside the new driveway, it was all muddy as soon as we got a bit of rain as the dogs run over it all the time. Anyway it has pavers, gravel, rocks and wood and should be easy to look after.

We got sky tv installed yesterday, the dish wouldnt get a signal on the gable end so he ended up attaching it to the chimney, it was fine for him to climb all over the roof but Health and Safety wouldnt let him go in the loft so I had to go up and do the cables up there, wonder if I could put a bill in for installing the cables in my own house lol.

The dongle internet reception is woeful at times and poor at best but it means I can get emails and do the blog anyway. If I have to transfer files for websites or anything I shall have to go out in the car and look for a better signal lol.

Got all the grass cut today before it started raining as John left about 0730 so I had an earlyish start, my strimmer is in for repairs so the edges didnt get done, if its not back soon I shall need to get the sycthe out.

Well I have a family of Mallards on my pond, nice to see the wee ducklings scooting about.

I'm not happy with the company that was supplying my internet and tv via satelite, so its getting removed on Friday and Sky are putting on TV on Saturday. I wont have the tellephone untill I get Vodafone broadband installed which could be 15 days but I'm hoping I can borrow Angies dongle and connect it to my laptop to get emails etc. Not sure if it will be strong enough signal to run Skype.

I gave the walls a second coat of paint today and they look good, also burnt some bushes they ripped out when the tank was getting installed and its been a nice sunny day, I think tommorow is back to showers so I will do another wall paper strip. I havent heard back with any quotes but this is Ireland.

Sorry for the lack of blogs

Well my friend Mary Lou from Ohio emailed wondering if I was ok due to the abcsense of blogs recently. I am fine but have been busy with the garden, house and websites, and haven't had a lot of news really. The septic tank and percolation dramas continue, the last I heard was the surveyor isn't happy with the level ness of the percolation area and won't issue the certificate so the plumber will have to return once more to the fold. It's a pain as I replanted my spuds some carrots, beet root, and brocolli on it and they are going well. The house has 9 ft ceilings which are lovely apart from when you have to strip wallpaper which I have been doing recently, the kitchen and living room have been done or nearly anyway, the bits above cabinets in the kitchen still need stripped along 2walls but I think I,ll wait untill I strip out the kitchen untill I do them. The granite on the fireplace is going to be removed leaving a sort of inglenook about four and a half foot square, we haven't chosen a multi burner stove yet but have two in mind.It will fit half in half out. It is connected to a big stainless tank that stores the heat so the rads can have heat even when the fire is off. The water tanks in the loft are being scrapped and a large tank put in the wee shed type room at the end of the house along with a pressure pump which is good as it won't be heard inside when it is running. I,ll also put gas bottles in there for a gas hob. 11 radiators are to be installed throughout the house with the pipe work in the loft rather than digging up the floors. Windows and doors getting replaced in the next two weeks or months as this is Ireland lol. The kitchen ceiling is getting done as well as a door sealed up, an an archway installed and the wall in the shower room between the toilet and shower removed to make it one larger room. I,ll remove the existing kitchen and repair walls / paint and it is getting a new kitchen, also the floors in the lounge, dinning/ kitchen and hallway are getting light American oak boards. We were hoping to put underfloor heating and tiles in our on suite rip out the bath and install a shower but may have to wait a while if the funds run out. Sheana and Sacha are coming for a couple of weeks from the 7 th July and my pal Mark and his mate stayed the other night before they left the country, I shall miss Mark as I have no friends here, everyone in Ireland hates me and I may go eat worms, ok that was an exaggeration but I haven't any close buddies here yet really. Had a good crop of broccoli i but caterpillars have appeared and damaged some of the remaining plants so I ripped them out today and replaced with lettus, my zucchini are looking good too and we will start harvesting them soon. Lettus coming out our ears so I was looking for a soup recipie for using it up. I have been out fishing and sailing a few times and hopefully when Sheana Is here will get out heaps, Angie is taking a couple of weeks off and it would be great to stay out on the Aran islands overnight on the boat.