Blue Moon.

There's supposed to be a blue moon tonight.  But with all the wind and rain from Hurricane Zeta and Storm Aiden we probably won't see it.

Perhaps it's a sign for Manchester City to win the Treble or perhaps a Democrats victory in America?  

It's also called an Hunters Moon.  Traditionally when animals were fattened for winter

"Blue Moon" is often sang by Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra fans at their home games.

Here is the king of Rock n Roll:

It's  not raining.  Yet.  I took a photo of our Irish blue moon.  

In Search Of The Prog Rock Goddess. "Prog On A Friday".

 The title could be a series in itself.  One woman who is up with the Goddesses of ancient history and folklore must be the one and only Catherine Bush or "Kate Bush" to us mere mortals.   I am sure Stevie Nick's could be mentioned in the same vein.    I just about being a goddess but she's certainly made her mark on "Prog" Rock.

Like myself she's half English and half Irish.   Kate or Catherine was born in Bexleyheath in Kent.  A family friend was David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame and he heard the young musical prodigy and he recorded her.  Very soon she made her first single at the tender age of eighteen or nineteen:"Wuthering Heights" and it reached number one in the singles charts in Blighty.

The song is an absolute classic in both literature and musical terms.  Look at her eyes and expressions in the video.  Kate just seems to look into the cameras and not at the audience.   Sheer professionalism. Talk about an old head on young shoulders.  She absolutely captivates the audience with her banshee like ways.  I never get tired of her early stuff.

I also spotted this video of her on Irish television.  She looks to be wearing the same clothes she wore on Top of the Pops.  I am joking.

"We Were That Poor We Didn't Have A Tin Bath. We Had A Paper One".

 A classic one liner from Bobby Ball.  Who passed away from Covid on Wednesday  in Blackpool.   Him and his mate Tommy were welders in Oldham and they use to entertain pubs and clubs audiences at night and at the weekends.

That's three famous comedians and comic actors : Bobby, Eddie Large and Tim Brooke Taylor that have all succumbed to this awful virus this year.  I spent many an hour watching Tim in The Goodies comedy series in the 1970s.  

We had many a happy family holiday to Scarborough when we didn't visit Ireland.   My mum and dad would always "treat" me and my brother to see two of the summer shows.  We saw: The Grumbleweeds, Cannon and Ball, Bobby Knutt, The Spinners, Danny La Rue, The Nolans, Little and Large and Frank Carson and magic shows....

I remember seeing Canon and Ball at either the Futurist Theatre or the Floral Hall?   I remember it had been a typical mixed week of sunshine and rain.  But that didn't worry Canon and Ball.  It wouldn't  be long before you heard Bobby shouting:

"Rock on Tommy".

A great down to earth Lancashire lad who had the gift of making people laugh.

"Rock on Bobby".

You and all the other comedians will have them  all in stitches of laughter in Heaven.

It's a sign that you're getting old when your favourite Rock stars and Comedians are passing on to the great theatre in the sky.

 

Extrasensory Perception On A Railway Bridge In Chester.

Following on from yesterday's blog post about ghostly experiences.   Some commentators said that they had also "picked" up on feelings when they have visited ancient battlefields, mystical King Arthurian castles and when looking round prospective new homes.  

This made me think of a strange experience/feeling I had one Summers day in May over twenty years ago.    

We lived on the outskirts of Chester at the time.  We would often walk next to the Roodee, Chester race course and on to the leafy suburbs of Curzon Park.  I would carry number one son's pushchair up the steps and we'd walk along the footbridge joined onto the railway bridge over the river Dee.

It's a lovely walk and it was a way of walking into the city without the hustle and bustle of the main road.  

I remember I was about half way across the bridge and I suddenly had an awful sense of foreboding and sadness.  My wife said she "didn't like it".  We hurried across the bridge and thought no more about it.

That was until about two weeks later I was browsing through writing, gardening, rock and local history magazines.  I noticed a headline about the river Dee railway disaster!

This happened on the 24th of May 1847.  Cast iron girders in the bridge snapped and the locomotive and 22 passengers fell into the river Dee.  Five people including the fireman drowned.

I have read about pychometry before and how objects like buildings, places and water can hold onto what happened on such a fatal day.  It was May the month we crossed the bridge over the river. Could that have been they day of the tragedy?  Had we picked up on something that the river thought was only it's secret?

Have you ever picked up on something like the above?  Do you think we have a sixth sense?   Coincidence? 

A True Tale Near Halloween.

I have posted blogs before about seeing ghosts, hearing strange noises and smelling aromas like pipe tobacco.

Afew summers  ago, three of us were looking around County Limerick.  We stopped at a small village famous for an old ruined Franciscan Friary.  

There was also the ruins of a building which had once been a notorious Hellfire club.  A place where people would get drunk, hold seances and bring the devil up from Hell.  There's  even talk about a maid being burned alive there.

This trip was three or for years ago.   We decided to walk around the Friary.  It was a lovely still day and we walked amongst the ruins.  I felt very paranoid like someone was watching us.  My son and wife said they felt the same.   

Some how I left them downstairs looking round a room and I continued up some stone stairs.  Something poked me like a finger  in the area of my back where I injured it twenty years or so ago and then an orb flew past me an out the window.

I found the other two and my wife said: 

"I don't  like it in here".

I told them about my ghostly encounter and we agreed it was time to leave.  This was in broad day light.

"Yoiks Scooby".

The Cloisters.

Graveyard leading to ruined Friary.

Altar area.

Have you had supernatural experiences when visiting ancient buildings?

Breakfast Cooked In A Air fryer.

 I've seen the future and it's not garlic bread.   Aren't  they boring, those blogs that tell you what they had for their tea last night?  Well this is what we had for our breakfast yesterday.

The wife bought her self one of those new fangled gizmos: a air fryer.  My brother asked her what she wanted for her birthday.  I'm still off the sauce so I told her to make her mind up for a change instead of me saying:

" She'd like a bottle of  Scotch malt whisky dear brother". 

 Which I would of course have helped her to drink.

So she went  to town to the German garden centre and supermarket and beer retailers and came back with a Salter air fryer.

We (I helped eat it) made a breakfast consisting of bacon, sausage and egg.  The fried egg was cooked separately.  It was just the ticket and no oil was used.  Oh to go back to a greasy Joe's cafe or maybe not.  Have you got an air fryer?

It's also  supposed to do jockeys whips (chips).   Remember the nineteen seventies when you had a chip pan and the house stank of dripping and the steam ran down the walls like this weeks weather? We did have some lovely chipolatas though!

Japanese Onions Progress In The Polytunnel.

I thought I would show you how my Japanese onions are progressing in "Portugal "  my trusty polytunnel.

They are just starting to sprout stalks or stems.  A bit like Daffodils when they have finished flowering.  When you say: " Those Daffodils have stopped flowering.  They look like onions".

"Leave em alone or else they'll go blind."

The "fish" boxes where more than likely washed up on one of our local beaches not far from where I am writing this almost daily scrawl/blog.  

It's a bank holiday weekend  here in little ould Ireland.  Only Ireland could have a bank holiday when you can't  go anywhere apart from the supermarket.  I want some compost but nowhere is open until flipping Tuesday!  Well except for the supermarkets and even the German one is no longer selling compost.  

Whilst we are on the subject of moaning.  What is achieved by the clocks going back?  I for one do not work in a first world war ammunitions factory.  This afternoon I will say:

"It would be ten to six this time yesterday"

"You said the same last year".

The homemade compost is sprouting weed seeds too.  Anybody else growing winter onions?  Are allotments still open with all these Draconian covid regulations?  

I found the following song about onions.  It will stick in my head all week:

A Dolphin Friend From Dingle Is Missing.

If this year has not been bad enough.  It's  now been reported that Fungie the Dingle dolphin is missing.  He's been a resident there for over thirty years.  

Just a few weeks  ago I posted a picture of his statue on here:

Fungie the blue nosed dolphin is said to have helped twelve dolphin spotting companies employ fifty people over the years.

 Fungie probably helped tourism there more than Charles Haughey, my blog, the Irish Tourist Board and Scandinavian tourists who say: 

"Only five Euros for a pint of Guinness.   It cheap yah.  We normally pay 18 Euros/Krona back home in Sweden."

Apparently there are a few theories that Fungie could have met some new dolphin pals and they have gone on a fishing trip, looking for the the missing tourists or perhaps he's met a lady friend?   I hope you're safe Fungie?

"If It's Real I Like The Feeling, If I Am Wrong Who Am I Deceiving?" (Prog On A Friday).

 Yes it's that time of the week folks: "Prog On A Friday ".

Probably the most underrated Prog Rock band to come from Blighty (Birmingham) must be Magnum.  I have been fortunate enough to have watched them live on more than a couple of occasions.  For me the best time was when I saw them at " Garden Party" at Milton Keynes Bowl in 1986.  The weather was fantastic and the music was sublime.

Magnum have always had fantastic art work on their record sleeves and like most Prog bands their albums have a theme.  There subjects are vast from shellshocked first world war soldiers being shot for cowardice to, asking how far it is  to Jerusalem, love and Story tellers nights...,   Plus a myriad of other song subjects and titles.

Last year I went to A New Day Festival  in Faversham in Kent and saw ex Magnum keyboard player Mark Stanway and his new band: Kingdom of Madness.  

I think the best Prog bands like Emerson Lake and Palmer, Kansas, Rush, Marillion, Yes and Magnum.., have a good keyboard player.  Well good is an under statement:

Here's probably my favourite Magnum track.  The blog title words are lyrics from "Sacred Hour" Enjoy:

The Magnum album covers are designed and painted by Rodney Matthews.   They are works of art in themselves.  

You can watch them live too.

The Covid Police Are About.

 Some wit sent Mrs Northsider the following cartoon yesterday.   

You would think we lived in a Communist country not little old Ireland or Blighty or wherever else people  have had their liberty taken away.

Little ould Ireland where we are allowed to exercise within 5 Kilometres , we must stay at home unless we work in construction need to go for the "messages" and the kids must go to school and the pubs are only open for takeaway.

Have we changed from people into sheeple?  Baa🐑

A Stone Cairn.

 

Up on the hills and on the stone and boggy  ridges of the Sheepshead Peninsula where we live in South west  Ireland.  There are stone cairns.  Historians say they are burial sites for Celtic chieftains cremated ashes.  Some historians say these piles of stones were built by the English Ordnance Survey people in the 1830s to help them map Ireland.  You know build a pile of stones or light a fire and someone shouts: "Hey I can see our house from here."

My dear Grandmother use to tell us small children that when you climb up to see the pile of stones that she called : "The Stone Man" and look down at the two bays: Dunmanus and Bantry.  "You should always place a new stone on the pile.  If you do you put a stone on the top you will always come back."  

We must have heeded her advice because we ended up emigrating over here nearly twenty years a go.  My dad left here in the "Black Fifties".  He was only 17.  

You can literally see for miles and miles up there.   Facing North, there's the full thirty miles of Bantry Bay.  This is one of the deepest natural harbours in the world.  You can a see Dursey island and Beara Peninsula with its famous Hungry Hill and Sugar Loaf mountains.  

You can also see Whiddy Island and Glengariff  and Bantry.  Turning South you can see Durrus, Dunmanus Bay and Mount Gabriel over on Mizen peninsula.  The words of The Who song start playing in my mental jukebox:

"I can see for miles and miles".

I have great memories of walking up there with my dad when I was fifteen and he would have been middle aged, a bit younger than me I suppose..? We walked to Durrus  and visited my grandparents graves and we sat outside a pub and my dad had a pint of Guinness and I had half a pint of Murphy's: brewed in Cork of course.  Well I was only fifteen.

Fitting And Lighting The Stove In "Front" Room.

 There was a draught coming down "Front" room chimney and Mrs Northsider asked number one son to put the stove back on the stone pedestal (I put my wife on a pedestal when I met her) he recently made.

He asked me to do my limbo act (on my back inside the chimney) and chisel out in the solid mortar in the chimney for the flu attachment to fit.  Here I was chiselling away with my mobile phone light shining upwards from behind my head.  

I cursed and swore and called it one of them there and it would have made a saint say: "flip off".  Not forgetting the dust and cement mortar in my hair and eyes.  I thought manual labour was the name of a Spanish builder!😊

Then number one son with all the strength of an ox lifted the stove into place and attached the flu after some more chiselling on his part.  My chiselling wasn't central enough.  

Then we lit the stove and the swearing and dust was worth it!  I think.

Back in place.    I'm off splitting  some logs for both the stoves.    They use coal too.  At least we don't have heating bills. 

Stocking Up For The Lockdown.

The Irish government is meeting tomorrow to discuss moving to level four or five.   This will mean none essential stores shutting their doors, people staying at home and only allowed to walk FIVE Kilometres or three miles in old electricity meters.  The schools will still be open and so will be the supermarkets.

So how will your life be different Dave?   It won't be much different than usual.  If you watched the English news you would think we all lived in Coronation  Street, don't  cook in our kitchen and sup copious pints of Newton and Ridley bitter and tuck into Betty's "Lovely" Hotpot!  

If the truth be known.  I haven't  been in a rub a dub dub since I was in Kent in August 2019.  

Any road.  I have been looking for some funny videos on You Tube to cheer us all up and I found a gem.  Enjoy

The Countryside Will Still Be There.

I was walking in the countryside next to the sea or in between the bays on Thursday.  Looking over at the cows and the sheep grazing in the distance.

I looked at the sea and the  Irisn navy and fishing boats and the three peninsulas where we live.  The brown, yellow and green Autumnal colours of the ever changing landscape.

I thought if or when Covid destroys the humans on this planet.  Nature will still carry on.  The days will shorten and the nights will stretch.

Soon it will be gale season and Jack Frost will paint the fields.  There may even be snow. The snow will melt and the streams will meander and rush down the sea.  Like they have done since the dawn of time.  I can still see their glacier footprints in the landscape.

There's talk of "lockdowns" and "circuit breakers" in our towns, villages, cities and town lands.  Like some kind of trench warfare.  Hiding in our scratchings like rodents waiting for the enemy to go away.  A few weeks later we come outside but the enemy is still waiting.  Like the brambles joining hands across the boreens. 

Yet life will go on in the countryside.  The birds will build nests and the animals will raise their young,  

 Are we really so important in the scheme of things?

 

The Person From Porlock Mustn't Have Been A Prog Rock Fan. ("Prog On A Friday").

"Oh no!" " Oh yes". It's  that time of the week again folks.  The day when I write about my favourite Prog bands.  Today it's the Canadian Rock giants Rush.  Toronto's finest and a band I'm fortunate to have seen live.  I think it was the "Roll The Bones" tour at Birmingham NEC in 1992?  I am told I have also seen them in Sheffield?

One of my favourite Rush records is "Farewell To Kings."  This incidentally was recorded at Rockfield studios in Wales.  The same place where Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded

One of my favourite tracks off that album is Xanadu.   No not the one by Olivia Neutron Bomb.  This song is based on the Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridges "Kubla Khan".  The twelfth century Mongol leader who built a domed palace called: "Xanadu".  Mr Coleridge took some Opium and fell to sleep and woke up and started frantically  writing down his dream.  Unfortunately  the person from Porlock knocked on his door and he forgot a jolly big portion of his epic dream adventure.  Fortunately  it's still a masterpiece of a poem and so is the Rush track and album.

It's  an epic track (eleven minutes)with lots of instrumental bits like synthesizers....?  But it's well worth a listen by a classic "Prog" band.    Some people call "Progressive"  Rock music "Cerebral" Rock.  I can see why.

Please give it a whirl or listen:

Just look what the Person From Porlock  missed?

Remember Carboot Sales?

There are no car boot sales in these parts at the moment, sadly.  We are not even supposed to leave our county.  So I can't  go wombling and remembering the old adage: 

" Don't eat that yellow snow".  

No not that one.

"One man's trash is another  man's treasure".

That's it.  

You can go to work, school or college but you can't  leave your county.  Unless it's for work, school or college.  From midnight tonight we can't  even have visitors.

Have you read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe or watched Shadowlands?  I have seen it over twenty times and it still makes me cough and rub my eyes.  

Any way here's what carboot sales should be like:

Saying Goodbye To The Womble Room.

 We have been  busy bees recently.  When we built our dwelling in 2003 my dad often remarked that we should make an arch way between the Kitchen and the Living ("Front Room"). Instead we lived in the kitchen with the range, dresser, television, sink...?  In essence it was a kitchen/diner.   You know eat your "Tea"/ "Dinner" off the coffee table.

The other week we decided to get out the Kango and create some dust and make the two rooms into a marriage.  No more "Junk room", "hello "Front room",  "hello" Kitchen".

We have obviously watched too many episodes of A Place In The Sun and Location, Location, Location and took their omnipotent advice.  We knocked the bloody wall down.  Well part of it any road!

Domino before the arch way.

Who else has pictures of tractors on their walls?  We did.

Number one son busy kangoing.  I was the trusty labourer complete with trusty shovel and wheelbarrow.   Mrs Northsider helped too and number two son helped me with the furniture.

Front room with new arch and laminate flooring and newly painted and plaster patched up.  We've just got to place the small stove in the chimney place.  Number one son built the stone platform for the stove and laid the laminate flooring.

The new kitchen.  Well new to us.   We now  have a new arch way and we sit at a proper table not at a  coffee table.  We are no longer couch potatoes.  You can see the black flu of the multi fuelled range.  Notice the red back wall.   

My dear old mum bought us those chairs when we first built our little home in the countryside next to the sea.  Hope they are both looking down from Heaven and seeing that we finally took my dad's advice and made the arch.  I need to make a new "Junk" room.

Let's See How The Cutting Are Growing In The Polytunnel.

I spent a good few hours weeding (homemade compost) 

  my new shrub cuttings yesterday.   They are being potted on and topped up with some bought compost today. 

 They are all doing mighty fine.  

A crate full of Hydrangeas.   I am really pleased with my cuttings that I made this Autumn.  Mother Nature does help form the roots and leaves and I water them and pot them on.

Watching A John Lennon Wannabe Perform on A Bus In Germany.

 John Lennon would have be eighty on Friday.  He's my favourite Beatle and I would loved to have seen him perform.

My mental jukebox starting playing when I reflected and read about JL's birthday.

My mate and myself flew to Germany from Kerry to the Night Of The Prog Festival in Loreley in 2017.  It was a very good few days and we drank some great beer at some German food and saw some great music on the banks of the Rhine in Loreley.    

On the last night after watching Marillion.  We boarded a bus back to St Goarshausen.  People were in good spirits and a rather inebriated English man (who else?) began singing to the predominantly German punters: "..All we are saying is give peace a chance".  

The majority of the bus found this amusing and even joined in the chorus.  Now every time I hear the song I think of the time we met the John Lennon wannabe on the bus next to the Rhine.

Putting Up The Net Curtains. ("The last of the curtain twitchers")

I had over 700 views for my "Prog on Friday" post.  Thanks! 

We have been having some altercations/alterations in the bungalow.  We made an arch and been plastering and painting and we decided to put the next curtains back until we put the newly altered curtains and new rails up.

The wife put her old net curtains up:

Very feminine,  neat and tidy.

Then I put my net curtains up:

Excuse the shadow of the tablet and my hand.   

It was only when Gogglebox had gone for a break that wifey noticed the curtains,  mine in particular.

I don't  suppose I will get a job window dressing in one of those posh shops like John Lewis or Primark or Penneys?

Prog On A Friday. Kansas: "The Wall."

 I have decided to start a regular series on my blog entitled:"Prog on A Friday".   Regular readers will know (see my blog profile) that I love Prog Rock music.  One of my all time favourite bands is the North American band Kansas.  I dreamed for over thirty years that one day I would see them play live.  If you put Kansas in my blog search you can read all about my trip to Warsaw in 2014 and when I got to see them play live.

Kansas became Rock giants with their two enormous hits: Dust In the Wind and Carry On You Wayward Son.  They both have Christian influences in their lyrics.

Today I would like to featureThe "Wall".  It's meaning is said to be mans strife to be close to God and all the material things in life that get in the way.   

We all have a massive wall in our lives at the moment called Covid.  It's  stopping us seeing loved one's,  visiting friends, watching great bands, going on holiday...   Things that were the norm less than twelve months ago.

It's times like this that I look on You Tube for tracks to inspire me.  The following certainly does:

Do you like Prog Rock? Which bands and songs inspire you?

A Gardening Programme That Makes You Laugh.

Do you not think a lot of gardening programmes are very serious and I end up being the commentator  in the corner like the one on Gogglebox and Four in a bed or is it Come Dine With Me?

"How many times have we seen them do this?"

Last week I spent a life time waiting for my Prog Rocker hero  Fish to appear in his Scottish garden.  Some weeks  I tune in with  the hope that Frances ( the lass with the allotment) Tophill will appear and be the gardening eye candy for a while.

In my humble opinion.These programmes need humour, music and more visiting different gardens and allotments.  Maybe a programme like the one I found on You Tube the other day?

Vimto And Lemonade Cocktails. Another episode from my "Wot I miss from Blighty series".

This is what we had last night for drinky poohs:

Vimto Lemonade Cocktail. 

Vimto  bottle.  The bottle is plastic these days!

There use to be a Lancashire drink brewed on the banks of the river Irwell in Manchester.  It's called Vimto.  Babies were weaned on it and  now a days it's made in far off places like Yorkshire, Leicester and Pakistan.  

We grew up on it and it is believed to have been  the dye for the red rose flag of the house of Lancaster and also the stain or dye of the Red Devils shirts of Old Trafford: Manchester United.

Ok I used a bit of artistic licence in the last two paragraphs.  Are you still reading?  Good.  Every now and again we do venture to Cork or Tralee and enter the frozen food store that sells English delicacies like Pukka pies, Hollands pies, Heinz Beanz and Sausages and  VIMTO!

Last night we settled down and watched Alaska The Last Frontier and Fake and Fortune.  I Googled the Lancashire church and told her the paintings provenance at 8.30.  They don't  announce whether it's  "Fake or Fortune" until about 8.55!   Oh dear.  I am in the bad books again.😊

We then treated our selves to a pint pot a piece of Vimto and lemonade.  We even had another one whilst we discussed the new level 3 instructions/rules/dictations in Ireland.  You can go to the pub and stand outside with fourteen others if you want a pint but you can't  go inside! Well we do live on the Irish Riviera and it is OCTOBER!    

Don't  we know how to have a good time?  I am not enjoying my "Dry October".

I Met A Pretty Colleen On The Road To Coomkeen. (In the style of John Hegley).

 I met a pretty Colleen on the road to Coomkeen,

I asked her if she had any margarine?

She said: "No but I have some Durrus Cheese".

So I said: "Hmm..  Yes please!"

A few weeks later we shared a bag of Tayto 

She bought me some  peat briquettes and a half tomato,

We decided to get married in Gougane Barra,

I went by shanks pony and she pushed the wheel barrow.

____________________________________________

Readers of this scribble/blog may be interested to know that the internationally famous Durrus cheese is made in Coomkeen.  

A Colleen is an Irish term for an unmarried country girl.

If any other ditty scribes, lyricist, poets..., would like to compose a few lines with a title of: I Met A Pretty Colleen  On The Road To Coomkeen.   I would be most grateful.   If you you look back at yesterday's post you will see the learned Yorkshire Puddings offering.  

Pray please join in.

Tiz only a bit of fun! 

Another Walk On Our Peninsula.

 Saturday wasn't a bad old day weather wise.  So we got the wife to drop number two son, Rosie the Golden Retriever  and me at Boooltenagh.  

Booltenagh car park to be exact.  This is on top of the ridge between Dunmanus Bay and  Bantry Bay.  Apparently there is a Bronze age Souterrain there.  Which is an underground structure and shows that people dwelled there once.  Perhaps they made briquettes, drank red lemonade, ate Tayto crisps and read the Southern Star newspaper?

 Unfortunately no doggies are allowed on this part of the Sheeps HeadWay.  So we walked along the boreen with the grass growing up the middle.  A sign perhaps that this long and winding road is not frequented by many cars, two to be exact.  The two drivers  both drove cautiously and waved and we reciprocated.  

Then we walked through Coomkeen where Durrus cheese is made.  This is also part of the Coomkeen Loop which is one of the many varied routes on the Sheepshead Way.    It's only a few miles long and a good walk along roads, bog and rocky mountain like tops with a few  ladder stiles thrown in.   I even composed a rather silly ditty entitled I Met A Colleen On The Road To Coomkeen.  Another time perhaps? Go on ask me kindly and I will post it!

No Shooting.   What not  even photos?

Looking South over to Dunmanus  Bay.

Do you not know where you're going Dave?  Of course I do.  I am just having a breather.

Not a soul on the road.

Rosie deciding which way we should walk. We carried on to my yet unadopted Northsider Loop.  

Top of Fahane looking down to the North side (Northsider) and looking over Bantry Bay.

Coming down the hill I noticed this Rhododendron in flower.   We walked along the main road heading East towards Bantry.  I reckon we walked between six and seven miles in two hours and twenty minutes.  Not bad! Especially for a ten month old Golden Retriever and us two.  

Time To Plant My Japanese Onions.

Yep folks it's that time of year again.  Time to plant my Japanese or Winter onion sets.  I have grown these for about the last twenty five years.   

They originate in Japan and are really tough growers no matter what the Autumn,  Winter and Spring throws at them.  You just plant them like you plant your onion sets in Spring.  Japs are ready to harvest around June.  We start eating them in late Spring.

My Japs crop were pretty disappointing this year.  I think it was the very wet and windy Winter, just for a change.  That's gardening or growing things for you: one kicks forwards, one kick backwards.   Yes I know you can by "Orgasmic/Organic" onions from Lidl but it's not the same.  Is it?

Besides.  Imagine being a fly on the ceiling at Northsider Towers on a merry evening:  The electric fish tank we call television is blaring and flashing in the corner, Mrs Northsider  is busy knitting (scarves for Christmas presents at the moment) and yours truly is sat with my "Japs" cutting the stalks off so the birds don't  get a kick out of pulling them out of the ground with their beaks.  Don't  we know how to have a good time?  

So today I am going to harvest the last of the tomatoes from "Portugal" my plastic three hooped polytunnel friend and plant some "Japs" in a fish box where the Tom's lived.   I am also going to grow some outside and see which does the best.  Have any you keen gardeners/soil slaves ever transplanted onions like you can do with Leeks which are Alliums after all? Perhaps I just throw them outside in the fish boxes when the old currant bun (Sun) comes to visit next Spring?

Japs enjoying the Good Life.  Overwintering in "Portugal" the polytunnel.   It's  a good way of growing  onions and other vegetables especially if you use new compost and soil and helps alleviate diseases like "white onion" rot which Fish seems to have on last night's Gardener's World.  

When I had my allotments in Blighty I met an allotment holder who grew his cabbages in old paint tubs with holes drilled in the bottom and filled with compost.  He had inherited Clubroot or " Finger and Toe" disease.  It sounds like a second division goalkeeper coming to the end of his career and using the term for letting so many goals in!😊

I will be singing "Radar Love" by Golden Earring to them!

Fish On A Friday's Gardener's World

 Just a short post tonight folks.  Remember when I wrote about Fish the Prog Rocker and Gardener a couple of blog posts back or so?  You do.  Good.

Well he's on Gardener's World tonight on BBC 2 at nine o'clock.  Fish shows the viewers his garden.   Prog Rock and Gardening.  What more could you want? I can't wait.  Hope he sings "Script For A Jesters Tear"? 

My favourite Marillion track and I know it off by heart.  Enjoy!

In The Year 2525.

I read Yorkshire  Pudding's blog post today about it being National  Poetry Day and he was going to stir his teabag (" Yorkshire or Tetley's") and compose a poem about Covid and what life will be like in the future. 

The cogs started turning and an old 1960s  song started playing in my mental jukebox whilst we have been emulsioning  our "front room" today.  Then I looked it up on Good old You Tube and found an amazing video to go with it.   Is this a picture of our future? 

There seems to be a lot of governments dictation in the last few weeks and I hate how they are killing the economy's and making people's lives so miserable.  What about the poor Rock bands who make their bread and butter gigging?  If you can go in Argos you should be allowed to go and watch a band or your favourite football team.