A Magical Ring Fort And A Gold Bracelet.

Here are a few photographs from the walk I mentioned in my last post.

Below is a Sheeps Head Way marker post leading to Brahalish Fort.  The yellow painted oak posts are scattered  all over the walk to show walkers where to go. 

The magical hillfort I spotted when I walked down the road and turned a corner and there before me was Brahalish ring fort.  There are said to be over 10000 ringforts, stone circles, standing stones and wedge tombs in Ireland.  Some historians say they were built to house farmers and protect against invaders and wolves.  Some say the'little people' and leprechauns live in them.  They are also said to be homes for local dignitaries, clan leaders or even royalty!

Near this ringfort.  Workers digging the road from Durrus to Kilcrohane in 1843.  A workman found a ancient gold bracelet.  Probably Bronze age gold found in a stream and smelted and fashioned before Jesus was born or the pyramids in Egypt were constructed.  The Brahalish bracelet is in the British Museum.

The craftmanship is incredible and some very'special' people must have lived there.

Walking To Keep Fit And To Observe.

I have been walking a lot for the last week.  It's been so dry and walking does wonders for my back and I don't need the Buplex and Paracetamol much, if at all.

Charles Dickens frequently walked twenty miles a day.  He once said:  "I must be the descendant, at no great distance, of some irreclaimable tramp".  He used his walks for a fact finding mission.  Walking into areas of all the social classes and no doubt spotting characters that metamorphosised into the literary characters we love and hate in his books.  

Any way I walked twelve miles yesterday along the roads and boreens of the peninsula.  I nearly got knocked down by a speeding car racing along one part of the road.  But thankfully I lived to tell the tale.

In one garden I noticed a yellow Rhododenron in flower in January and I noticed an ancient Bronze age ring fort too.  We must have drove passed it hundreds of times but we never saw it.  Perhaps its because there are no leaves on the trees?  I will post a photo of the fort some time.  

Some of the beaches had plastic washed up on them and I see lots of litter in the brambles and verges at this time of year.  I never understand why county councils don't provide litter bins or create litter picking jobs.  I would do it gladly!  

I visited my parents graves and noticed dwarf daffodils pushing their way through the soil.  Somebody had mowed the grass around the graves and there were more daffodils in flower.

Stopped at my brothers for twenty minutes and then walked home another way along another tarmac road for a few miles.  A jogger said: "hello" and so did a man and woman in high viz jackets.  Going for a pleasant walk like myself.  

I often wish I had a fellow walking companion and sometimes listen to RTE radio playing the tunes of today.  I also think of my ancestors walking to Confirmation lessons and digging turf (peat), making hay, digging spuds and me and my dad having having a pint outside a pub in Durrus.  I was only fifteen and we walked over the hills and looked at Dunmanus and Bantry bays.  

Isn't it great to go for a walk?

I Beg Your Pardon. I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. Also Onions Sprouting And Picking Carrots In JANUARY!

The weathers gone mad here in Costa Del West Cork.  I went into the garden plot to do some weeding and found a red rose in flower.  There are also forget me nots growing in the Phormium plant pots.

Remember my onion drying frame that I made for the grand sum of NOWT!  I went to pick them this very morn and they have decided to root and grow again.  Mother Nature's gone Sea Lion.  I mean senile.  That's a Peter Kay joke and we do live next to Bantry Bay.

 Do you remember when I made the carrot planter out af an old wheelbarrow?  Old Mr and Mrs carrot fly can't fly over twelve inches or 30 Centimetres if they're metric.  So we did soweth the carrot seed and they left the carrots alone.  Today we did picketh the carrots in January.  Isn't nature amazing?

Shall we have a sing song?  Good!  I think the lyrics are so clever

Booking An Alternative Airline. "Anybody Want To Sell An Old 747?"

I see a certain short flight air company was voted the 'worst airline' for six years in a row.  We always use them because they are extremely cheap but I do think they could give you a free beverage, not try to sell me a lottery ticket and provide some in flight entertainment.  This got me thinking, hmm...?

Imagine if you could get a second hand flight simulator or even a 747 jet.  Park it up on a supermarket car park.  Then you could sell “stay at home holidays”.  A hostess greets you with your favourite drink and they show you to your seat.  A band  starts playing your favourite music: “Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree.”

Then the hostess serves you your favourite native dish.  No I am not talking about Chicken Tikka Masala.  Yes we all know it was invented in a London restaurant. Margarine is actually grey and electricity slot meters are not money boxes for saving up in. 

You have some more drinks and listen to your favourite comedian.  Then you chat up the air hostess and think you are having an intelligent conversation.  In reality she is thinking:

“Oh no?  Not another two pot shouter”.

She must be Australian? 

Don’t ask why you never see Skippy the bush kangaroo any more on the television: "Tut, tut, tut".

"What Skippy?  He's fallen down the mine and I need to bring a rope and couple of tinnies to quench your thirst?"

The poor air hostess goes to the toilets (outside one’s on the wings) and wipes your spit from her ears.  

You then go home and sleep in your own little beddy wed. 

I forgot to say that there is a big sign advertising the tour.  It says;

“OUR GATE AND KERB STONE EDGE Holiday Tours!

What do you think?  You think you have been on holiday.  But it reality this is not true.  All you did was walk out of Tesco’s and climb up some steps on an old 747.  I am surprised that anybody hasn’t already thought of it? 

You know how they say fact is funnier than fiction.  Well... 

I read in some book (can’t remember?) that if you jump into a taxi in Dublin and say;.

“Take me to Butlins please driver.”

The driver takes you to Asylum Seekers centre.  Yes believe it or not.  They incarcerate asylum seekers in the former Butlins holiday camp. 

Here's another alternative airline for you to consider:

Planting Spudatoes On The Moon.

Apparently those clever lads and lasses in China have landed on the Moon this very morn.  No doubt Gwil will put is in the picture?  Apparently they want to plant potatoes.  Remember the Smash adverts:

 I have had one of my ideas.  I think it relates to a Channel Four television programme I never watched a few years ago.  Eh? 

Pray let me explain dear readers?  

I once listened to a radio presenter talking about last night’s telly.  A group of people who were recruited (press ganged more like) to appear on a programme where “ordinary people” jumped on a plane and traveled to the hmm- MOON.  Yeah I know! 

Anyway they all made videos before they set off on their INCREDIBLE Lunar voyage.  

One not very intelligent sounding  character said something like the following:

“Good bye every body.  All my school teachers said that  I would never do anything wiv my life and become sum fink.  But look at me now I’m going to the Moon!”

I don't think the plane even set off!

Here's a space track by the brilliant band The Pixies.  You have seen them haven't you Dave?  Yeah way back in 1989 at Glastonbury festival.  It was only twenty eight quid for the weekend.

A Daffodil In Late December. "Don't Stop Believing|"

Welcome to the Irish Riviera (West Cork) and look what's is happening in the garden and plant pots.

 A special day for us yesterday.  It was my dad's death anniversary (six years) and this little Daffodil decided to open up its flower.  Was it a sign from above?  Dunno but it upset me very much.  We had a drink of Scotch whisky last night and toasted: "Granddad".  It's Grandmas birthday next week and her anniversary the week after.  Isn't it a great time of year?

 Lily's growing in pots.  Their parents once were lovingly tended by my grandmother.  I hope Jack Frost doesn't decide to paint them.  They don't like frost.

 A Daisy still flowering.  Yes the grass needs cutting and I have so much weeding to do.  It's just been so wet.  Even when it's not raining it's wet.  That sounds daft but it's so true!

Bergenias or Elephants ears in flower.  The great English plants woman Gertrude Jekyll loved them and used them in formal edging.  Americans call them "pig squeak",  If you rub their leave they let out a shriek that sounds like a pig.

We watched "Rock Of Ages" last night.  Tom Cruise reminded me of Axl Rose.  The plot isn't great but the songs are excellent and the hedonism is what you would expect from a Rock N Roll film.  I have said before the songs from thirty or forty years ago are better than a lot of today's music.

Any way thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great 2019.  I have so many plans for next year.  One is going to a rock festival in Blighty.  Never thought I would still "Rock n Roll" in my fifties.  Anyway here's a song with appropriate lyrics: "Don't Stop Believing!" 

All Kinds Of Everything...?

"Bye Gum!"

It's still 2018 and the Daffodils in the plant pots are nearly ready to flower.  I know its the mildest December I can ever remember and we do live on the Gulf Stream don't we?  "Bye gum!"  yet again.

"Bye Gum!"  Our young lass did do some knitting and only did knitteth (is that a word?) me a jumper for a Christmas present.  I am well chuffed and the wool only cost SIX EUROS!  

"Bye gum!"

Yes I have found the free movie channel: Talking Pictures.  Yesterday we watched the classic: Hobson's Choice.  That's why I keep saying: "Bye gum".  

Guess who noticed the concrete water cooling towers in the wedding scene outside the church?   They didn't have them in Victorian Salford, did they?

Remember this: