How Much Is That Doggie Advent Calendar In The Window?

We got a leaflet in the post the other afternoon.  You don't get post in rural Ireland until the afternoon.  The leaflet was advertising coal and oil filled radiators and wild bird feed and Advent Calendars for DOGS!  Please!!

We all love our pets and apart from their dinners I wouldn't mind being a dog.  Is that why I always want to go a walk?  But surely to goodness its time to draw a line in the sand (or snow) and say enough is enough.  Our canine friends get the best seat next to the fire and half the Christmas dinner which we made enough for an army for.  But then again your dog deserves a treat.  Especially if they are loyal like our Fido the Jack Russell terrier.

Christmas Day is a Monday this year, I think?  It's going to be a very long weekend isn't it?  Why can't they just call it Christmas Sunday and celebrate on the nearest Sunday date to the twenty fifth?  It's too easy isn't it?  I have always wanted to go abroad for Christmas and see it from a different and much warmer perspective.  Have you even been abroad at Christmas?  Where is warm at Christmas?  

Kennel Building For A Small Dogeen.

My son made this kennel for my brother's (also a Jack Russell)dog the other day.  I think he made a good job of it.  It's a pity he had to make it on my lawn.  Hopefully the bald patch will grow back or I will have another grass seed repair to do.  

I cut some of the planks for him with an handsaw.  I couldn't get over how much moisture nay sap there was in the wood.  Years ago newly sawn wood was seasoned for about a year or more.  Today its cut down and planed and made into planks and sent straight away to a timber yard.  Is it any wonder nothing lasts anymore?  

Its been raining today and all last night.  Here's an appropriate song by the aptly named Carpenters.  Yet another track from my very eclectic music juke box.  I would love to have seen them live.  I believe they played Manchester Free Trade Hall.  

Have you thought about Christmas yet?  I will give you some suggestions for presents in my next post!

An Old Farm Ratter Comes In For A Warm.

That's a picture of our Fido the Jack Russell terrier.  She's fifteen years old and still plodding on.  Here she is being a star in front of our Stanley Mourne number 7 solid fuel range.  

Talking of stars or even starless.  Two versions of King Crimsons Starless for you.  I saw The Unthanks a couple of years a go at Killarney Folk Festival.  If you ever get the chance to see them sing and clog dance, don't miss it.    They are brilliant!

The other version is of The David Cross Band.  I saw them play this in Germany in Loreley at The Night Of The Prog Festival.  David Cross was in King Crimson and David Jackson was in Vandergraf Generator.  A band which was formed at Manchester University.  The David Cross Band were brilliant.  I love this version of Starless.

A Folk Song About A Lark In The Morning.

I was looking on good old You Tube the other day for An Irish folk duo I saw in Killarney in July.  They supported the Hothouse Flowers.  The duo are called: The Vagabonds.  

I have an eclectic music taste and I have always liked folk music especially when its live.  They sang a wonderful old English folk song called 'The Lark In The Morning'.  Its been sung by the Dubliners, Steely Dan and many others.  

The song was was first printed in 1778,  Any way I found the Vagabonds singing this song in a cave the other day.  I think the cave must make wonderful natural acoustics.  Enjoy.

Pictures From A Day Out In County Kerry.

We went over to Kerry the other day for some retail therapy and took these pictures.

This statue is brilliant.  It commemorates a Fisherman, Turf-Cutter, Rugby Player, Teacher and Writer.  I like how each of his occupation are featured on the plinth.  

A butchers van in Killarney and a litter bin.  You never see a litter bin in rural Ireland outside of the towns.  It looks like the cows are wondering if there is anything worth eating in the litter bin?

Puppets playing along to same Irish Trad music.  Notice the hole in the Leprechaun picture to put your head through.  I have never seen a real Leprechaun in Ireland, have you?  

The late author Pete McCarthy writes in his wonderfully funny book: McCarthy's Bar that he use to go looking for looking Leprechauns with butterfly nets on sticks at his grandmothers farm in Drimoleague, which is only a few miles up the road from where I live.  

I remember once asking my grandmother how do I catch a rabbit in the fields behind the farmhouse.  She told me to get some salt and sprinkle it on its tail.  A few hours later she wasn't very happy when there was no salt.  

Alice In Wonderland Gets A New Job.

One of my highlights of this year was flying from Kerry to Germany to spend a few days at the legendary Night Of The Prog festival at Loreley next to the river Rhine.  Its a beautiful place and I never really thought I would be going to a Rock festival when I was in my fifties.  

The big disappointment of the Summer was my favourite Rock band Kansas cancelling their European tour which included Poznan  (I had a ticket) in Poland and the Night Of The Prog.  So to make up for this my mate and myself decided to go on a once in a life time, strike it off the bucket list and get ourselves over to Germany and sup some mighty fine German beer and watch some great bands.  

One of the highlights (I will show you some more) of the festival was Franck Carducci's Band.  They are from France and play music to make you smile and wish you were around when all the psychedelic rock groups were strutting their experimental stuff way back in the early nineteen seventies.  

Any way the Franck Carducci Band have written and penned a song about Alice the girl who fell down that rabbit hole and met the Mad Hatter (not Mr Carducci, he wears a big hat) and she had an eerie dream.  

Many thanks for the people who film these concerts and put them on You Tube for everybody to enjoy.  I was there.