carvings

Just put these here so I can link to the photos from another blog site.

Mama Mia

Well we went to Mama Mia last night to support Michaels eldest girl who was singing in the part of Sophie and very good she was too, it was quite a big performance with maybe 350 to 400 people laughing away at the jokes and two of us looking bemused. I think Mama Mia has something to do with whaling as it had a few boats in it.

Today has sleet showers again and is freezing when the wind comes up in the showers, I did a bit more clearing branches this morning and have decided to make a rockery out of the stones that were knocked out of the wall when the cypress fell, I will use other stones from the wall as well to make quite a big rockery and have some plants John donated in a rockery out the front that I will get cuttings from.

Mama Mia

Getting dragged out to go to Mamma Mia in Gaelige performed by a local school tonight cant wait. To hear it in Irish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7J80FtGMsc

Dad went through his knee operation fine and John is also recovering after having stem cells removed and I think he gets to go home today. Mum is staying with Aunty Margaret in Glasgow till Tuesday so they can visit in the hospital.

I have been doing all the exercises my physio gave me to do this time, last week I was so tired logging timber I missed a few walks and tip toe balancing sessions, sounds like a ballerina workout ehh. One of the hardest things is standing on the injured side leg only with eyes closed, mind you I cant remember if I could ever do that even before the accident lol I know that after a few ales I have trouble standing on two feet. This week I have graduated to doing tip toe with heals over the edge of a step and a bent leg stretch thing that is too hard to explain in text. She was not happy with the way I am walking and I have to concentrate more on pushing off the toe as I walk, still gets sore after 10 mins on the road.

Eircom have gone missing again so still no movement with the telephone line, maybe next week or month.

I had the engine running on the boat yesterday, she started first kick and I shall have to get her cleaned up as it is only a week or so until I can put her back in the water. It is easier to power wash her and give her a scrub up here at the house although the marina does have electricity and water. I'm not going to anti foul her this year as there seems plenty left and there was no growth to speak of when I took her out. I can always put her on a beach and give her a scrub later in the season if it is required.

turning into a hermit

Well I did not bother going out yesterday which makes me think I am turning into a bit of a hermit in my old age, quite happy to watch "The Voice" on TV and fall asleep spreadeagled on the couch rather than fight the masses to get a Guiness that someone has died green. Mind you  I have no hangover this morning and some wood got chopped yesterday too so maybe there is something to be said about hermitting.

My Dad and Bro in Law John are in hospital this week Dad is getting a new knee and John is having stem cell treatment so my thoughts are with them. I would have liked to go over to Scotland for moral support for my Ma again but it has not worked out this time unfortunately. My next big excursion is to a protest March in Dublin on the 15th of April against the Governments plans to cover the country with turbines and pylons.

I never mentioned the rugby in my last blog as Scotland were worse than woeful agin Wales but I must say that Ireland stuck to their guns and are worthy winners of the competition, well done.

St Patricks Day

Tomorrow is St Patricks Day and I might pop down to the local pub in the evening as they have live music on, I shall see, it tends to get a bit rowdy sometimes and the younger generation go over the top with the drink, well actually its not just the younger generation everyone seems to get blootered.
I did not realise but Labrador Montserrat and Newfoundland also have public holidays tomorrow to celebrate Irelands
Lá Fhéile Pádraig. Last year Sheena and Sacha were across from Scotland and we went to a couple of parades and when we were in Oughterard I actually had a float. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early seventeenth century.
Little is known of Patrick's early life, except that he was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. Apparently, he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.
In 432, he said that he was called back again to Ireland, though as a bishop, to Christianise the Irish from their native polytheism. According to Irish folklore, one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish people. After nearly thirty years of evangelism, he died on 17 March 461, and according to tradition, was buried at Downpatrick.
I think I will have another big bonfire to celebrate tomorrow. I didn't manage to have the day off today, Ron came back over for breakfast and it was windy so we decided not to go out in his boat so I had a wee walk with Gus for my ankle and then cut the stump off another fallen tree down near the pond. Best laid plans at having the whole day off did not transpire and I did two fills of petrol in the chainsaw, ohh well it needs done and no one else is going to do it.

I still have no phone or broadband lol.

Storm damage cleanup

Well it has taken me about a month to cut up all the trees that came down at the front of the house, I just worked away steady at it doing as much as my foot would let me before it started aching too much and eventually I,m nearly there. The stumps that are left are going to get cut lower by a bloke who is coming to take down some more trees for me in a few weeks time. I aim to make carvings out of two of the stumps one looks like it might make a good tortoise and the other an owl.

 

After the stumps get cut I shall ask my pal Keith for another couple of loads of soil and level the ground out a bit and maybe put a hedge up along the front wall line. In the bottom picture the trees behind the electric pole are some of the ones going.

 

I had a couple of bonfires the last two days to get rid of branches and am finished now for the day, my friend Ron from Cavan is coming over to watch the rugby with me this afternoon and have dinner tonight, he may stay over and I think we will go out in his boat tomorrow for a bit of a jaunt. It will be nice to have a day off lumberjacking and Monday is St Patricks day so that might be written off too. Next week I will have to start hacking my way into the next part of the garden and maybe try getting the half a tree out of my pond lol. I'm thinking of making a wee island in the middle of it sort of Japanese Yen style with a bridge, I certainly have enough timber to do it.

 

 

a good week of weather

Well a good week of weather and the front garden is looking a bit better. I gave away a few loads of timber in exchange for some help or I would have been there for months. A good rake and wee bonfire and all that is left is a massive rootball (3 tree stumps with the huge lump of soil and roots) which I am not sure what to do with. Next project is to get the half tree out of the pond and work on some others down the garden. I am going to pay a bloke to come in and top 4 more big pines at the front of the house so I can drop them too and I have a couple hanging he can attend to while he is here, that should happen in the next three weeks as he is still busy clearing up after the storms elsewhere.

A couple of weeks and the boat goes back in the water, it seems like for ever since I took her out last autumn. a friend with a boat is coming up on St Patricks weekend so i shall go out on his boat with him for a jaunt and help him get her onto the trailer for a bottom clean. My boat just needs a good scrub down and a buff up but it will take me longer this year to get the mast up etc as I took the spreaders off and things.

My ankle is progressing well although it gets very weary standing on the raised heel when I am out working and often by the end of the day I can hardly stand but its getting there I suppose.