First gale of the autumn

Sitting here watching the trees bend in the wind through the horizontal rain thinking how lucky I am to not be living in a cardboard box in an alley somewhere. It is amazing how flexible the trees are. I,m glad I got a sail in yesterday and the grass cut, I caught some fish and had them all nicely filleted and cleaned at the marina, put them in a plastic bag at the tap on my berth where I had been cleaning them and got distracted, I got talking to a fellow sailor who had taken a berth in the marina for the winter with his Oyster yacht. His boat ( I went for an inspection) was owned by Celtic Tiger NAMA champagne swillers who had treated her really badly (the last 6 years she has been on a hard stand with all running rigging flogging away to a thread) so he got her for a song and he is in the process of getting her back into shape. The boat in good nick would sell for £180,000 he got her for £25,000 and she has huge potential. Anyway by the time I had been into every nook and cranny on his boat and walked back to the tap the gulls had removed and polished off all my fish.

The marina has a tame or sort of tame Atlantic Grey seal about 250kg, yesterday he was about a foot under the water waiting for me to drop the fish carcasses into the water, he ended up taking the fish out of my hand when I dangled them in the water. Was quite enchanting looking into its eyes wondering what was going through its mind. Probably thinking how glad he wasn't living in a cardboard box in an alley somewhere.

I think a fire is in order here so am away to set one.

Putin in your money's worth

Well I was not a fan of President Putin's dealings with the Chechen republic but his NY times article regarding America and Syria makes a lot of sense. Why is it  that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States? In my opinion it should be the United Nations that do any policing of the worlds affairs. Anyway that out of the way what else is happening? hmmm not an awful lot really, I got a 2nd hand PC tower and have it connected to my TV and surround sound, this lets me get Netflix programs now which are heaps cheaper than Sky tv. I can also use it to play music etc etc.

Today is misty and calm, great midgie weather again, the last couple of days I have managed to get a bit of soil spread so the front of the house is almost ready for grass seed. There were a lot of stones and weeds in the soil so it needed a lot of raking, I still have about a ton left to go out of the 16 tons.

I see Sydney has a lot of bush fires already this year, they are early and I hope they don't have a really bad bushfire year this year, they seem to follow cycles, I suppose the undergrowth gets a few years to build up a fuel then a dry summer and wooosh the whole place is ablaze. I couldn't have a garden like mine in Australia it would be full of snakes and spiders and be a huge fire hazard.

George and Gail are setting sail from Cairns tomorrow for a 4-6 day sail across to the Lousinaides then they spend a month or so in the islands there cruising around in a flotilla of yachts. There is a girl from Skye going with them as crew who does a lot of sailing, I think she arrives from Scotland just hours before they have to clear customs so there is some anticipation to say the least. I hope they have a good sail in nice weather as I think my sister in law is a bit scared and it would be nice for them to have a quiet first cruise up to now they have just been port hopping up the coast. There is nothing like the clear sky at night out of sight of land doing a watch at sea in calmish conditions.

Wallpaper stripping

I spent a good part of the morning stripping paper off the walls in my office here which is one of the rooms I haven't done any work on decorating, looking around the interior of the house needs done again. I shall let the walls dry out properly and fill some wee cracks before painting this time I'm an awful hasher when it comes to decorating I need it finished today. The reason I was decorating today is not due to bad weather, its a nice calm dry day out, its just the midgies are awful out there, over the weekend I took down a tree and ripped out a big bush and I had to cover up entirely because of the wee bugs, that meant long sleeves, my sun hat with the wrap around neck face flap, glasses and gloves. I put a lot of the tree through the mulcher and the big bush got dumped behind the percolation area (out of sight out of mind). Its easy cutting trees down its getting rid of all the small branches that is hard.

I had enquiries from a cardiologist and a flower shop for websites over the weekend turns out the cardiologist was one I visited myself in Galway, he is in the private sector but I had to go public when I discovered the battery and surgery for my ICD would not be covered by medical insurance as it is an "existing condition" and I have to have the insurance for 5 years to qualify and the thing will be due to be replaced soon. I get a lot of enquiries about websites, some pay a fee I ask for before starting work and then I either never hear from them again or they call back 6 months to two years down the track. Thats Ireland for you.

If you are like me you will get fed up with the news as it very rarely contains anything apart from misery and suffering. I was glad to come across a website that does the opposite its at www.upworthy.com and it has motivational and emotional news videos I particularly liked this advert that Rupert Murdoch tried to have banned from Aussie TV on the run up to the elections down there as it is really Australian Mate http://www.upworthy.com/nice-try-banning-this-advert-rupert-murdoch-but-australia-can-watch-it-here-instead

My skype phone is down at the moment as my credit card was renewed and the expiry date etc changed, so the skype and other direct debits from it all stopped working. Other ways to contact me are by email robshairp@gmail.com or on my mobile 0871615645 or by skype on the computer or you could shout loudly over the front wall I suppose, so I am not total incommunicado.

I was crook but back to normal again

I had a stomach bug thingy the last week and was knocked around with that, so much so my 10 tons of soil heap still exists and I was off my blogging, anyway I'm back to my usual dirt spreading form again. That's if the midge's will give me a break they have been bad recently.

Went out fishing with Ron yesterday and he invited us to his 50th wedding anniversary at the Galway bay hotel on Saturday night  so that will be an adventure for me getting out of Connemara woohoo. Our trip to the Greek islands is off due to financials and how hard it is to fly to Lefkas from Ireland maybe next year we could have another look at it. Instead I might stay in Connemara lol.

Have two new websites in the offing but the prospective customers are both Irish so I can expect them to come up with the content sometime this century I suspect. I realise they are both busy running their businesses but I'm not a magician and if they want to list high in search results then they need to have a content rich website. I think as far as my wee contribution to our living expenses we would have been better emigrating back to Scotland rather than here, anyway what is done is done.

Its drizzly and breezy today the summer wasn't too bad this year we had at least a month of really nice weather and sometimes September can be nice, fingers crossed for that. I think Alan is coming across for his birthday on the 23rd which will be good, hope the weather is ok so we can get out on the boat a bit more than last time. There is so much nice coastline around here but getting the weather and time to explore it is hard, having the dogs is a real tie and I only got to spend one night away on the boat all summer although I have been out on her a lot for a few hours at a time it hasn't really been exploration more retracing my steps.

The berries are out on the Rowan trees now and the grass is growing slightly slower all summer it has needed mown every 7 days, I got the lawns mowed on Wednesday and hope they last for 2 weeks this time before they needs doing again. Its my wee brothers birthday today he will be 48 I think this year and still has a good head of hair, obviously Real Estate work is less strenuous on the hair follicles than ship mastering. I miss the big boats but take pride in being the best  yacht moorer in the history of man lol. I was coming back from fishing last Sunday and the owner of a  visiting yacht asked if I needed a hand mooring as I was on my own but I thanked him  and told him I was fine as I was in and out of the berth all the time sometimes its just easier to do something yourself rather than direct folks that might not know what the plan is.
Gail had me worried on her blog when she was talking about entering Cairns the other day "Going into a port for the first time in the half light of dusk takes concentration.  Can I just say right now, "God Bless the Furuno Chart Plotter!".  What an amazing piece of equipment it is.  I can't imagine (well, I can and let's just say I wouldn't want to) trying to do this without it.  I was steering the boat at full speed - 8 knots and a bit - hurtling into the unknown with the plotter as my guide while the Captain was busy on deck getting the fenders and lines ready for the marina." Gail please Don't make a practise of hurtling into a place you don't know in the dark relying only on the chart plotter or if you are please don't tell me. I saw a trawler skipper one evening take out the bow of his boat, half the wharf  and the stern of another trawler because he just knew his boat would stop from full ahead in a matter of a few meters when he went full astern, only she didn't got full astern, she stalled, same with the yacht if the chart plotter fails you are plowing headlong into what?  Oooops I'm preaching, blinkin heck I'm getting like my Dad Oooops sorry Dad.

smoked mackerel and another 8 tones of soil

John was up for the weekend and we went out fishing twice, it was windy both days but the wind had gone into the West on Sunday which is more sheltered in Casla Bay where we were fishing, and we caught a good few. Some were traded in the pub, I got a Tuna, or the rear half of one anyway, for some and the promise of more monk fish down the track. The tuna has been cut into steaks and will do for many feeds.
The mackerel I took home I filleted and boned, then they had cracked black pepper and salt sprinkled over them and I smoked them in the barbi with green tea and pine shavings, John commented that they were the "tastiest thing he had eaten in ages" as he demolished them.

I had another 8 tons of soil donated by Keith at Glengowla mines, I will use it to level out parts of the lawn that have dips in it and various other bits and bobs, I started yesterday but it was calm and the midgies were out so I didn't last long. Today is drizzly so it may not get done today either, och well Rome wasn't built in a day ehh.

Angie was away in the UK this week but gets home late tonight and will work from home tomorrow and take Friday off so she will have a long weekend. I was going to take the boat over to Kinvara for the hooker races but the weather doesn't look great.

  

Dog fox the size of a small wolf

I was wondering what was making all the birds in the garden give off their distress calls until a dog fox walked casually as you like, across the lawn, he was the biggest I have ever seen easy as big as Jessy. I had visions of more vets bills if she had seen him too. Her neck has gone down with the antibiotics she was on and the vet seemed happy although she has to go back next Friday to be checked again. Ben and Gus will go too to get their annual shots, the vet examined Ben last week and his knee had been broken and set in a weird position, poor wee cratir. He had a limp when I took him in but it is heaps better now and doesn't seem to bother him at all.

I was chopping a couple of wee trees down this morning and burning some of the dead branches in a brazier made from an old oil drum but the breeze has picked up a lot and sparks igniting spot fires so I have knocked it on the head for now.

John is coming up tomorrow for a couple of days and hopefully I can get him out fishing, the weather looks like it is on the turn but one never knows it may be ok, there are lots of mackerel around just now, I was out with Ron last Saturday and we caught a box full, I popped into the pub on the way home and gave away the majority of my share there and some more to the local shop keeper the rest I soaked in brine for a couple of hours then coated with cracked black pepper and smoked the fillets on my barbi they turned out nice Angie has a workmate who only eats fish so she got some to try as well. One of the people at the pub gave me Monkfish yesterday in exchange for the ones I gave them, good deal, I love monkfish.  I will have a bash at making Scampi for dinner tonight.

I am thinking of a wee holiday to the Greek islands in the Ionian Sea with Alan and Angie, there are some >50% off deals for a weeks yacht hire at the start of October, I have always fancied sailing the Greek isles and that time of year is nice temps and the water is still warm. There were lots of offers pick up the boat in Lefkas and drop it off in Athens but that is a fair hike in 6 days sailing and the winds are usually light in October so I think it may be wiser to go with dropping her back to the same place we get her from then we can just enjoy a couple of hours sailing in the day and some exploring / swimming, sounds blissful ehh lol. I was trying to get John and Miriam to come too to share the cost but they cant this time unfortunately.

Angry Panthers in the garden

Well the angry panthers (Agapanthus's) are in bloom along with the mopheads, sounds more like a circus than a garden ehh.

 

We had a gale yesterday and the seas were up today so I didn't get fishing, hopefully tomorrow will be better. We went across to Oughterard yesterday and closed a bank account there and opened another in Spiddal which is easier to get to. There is a Friday market in Moycullin we visited and got a wooden (Sycamore) mirror for the bathroom and a lot of deli foods like fresh pesto and artichoke hearts.