Another Interesting Cushion!

Yes I found another very interesting cushion on Saturday.  We drove sixty miles or so to Cork and visited The Range.  It's an English home furnishing store that is now appearing in parts of Ireland. 

We noticed this fifteen Euros cushion with the Donkeys and Robin Christmas scene.  Are they looking at the manger in Bethlehem or are they looking at you and me?

Any one else seen any fab cushions lately?

Compostable Plastic Bags.

 We went in Aldi yesterday for a tin of Scottish shortbread and I picked up some compostable multi use bags for 99 Cents.

Great idea thinks me.  Then I thought to myself:

"What do you put in them?"

So I started to think and  perhaps ask Doctor Google for some information.  But before doing that I consulted the missus:

"What do yo put in them?"

"Potato peelings and any vegetable peelings."

I said :" But I can just put them in my weeding bucket or a cardboard box or even just carry them in my hands to my compost heap".

"Exactly she says".

Have these manufacturers tried to reinvent the wheel or am I missing something?

So I  consulted Doctor Google for more information on these compostable plastic bags.  Apparently they are made out of potato starch and will start to decompose after five weeks.  You can put food waste or garden waste like lawn clippings but no meat or diseased plants.

I wonder how many people put ordinary household waste in them and lob them in the wheelie bin and they end up in landfill?

Don't get me wrong.  If you used them to bring your shopping home in they are a brilliant idea especially if you compost them afterwards.

Answers on a post card please or better still in the comment box!  Thanks.

Dining Time For The Cat And The Dog.

 Keen eyed viewers will have noticed this picture on Tuesdays post.

It's a photo we took last year or so and it's been put on a tile and hangs on the wall in the kitchen/dining room.

I think I have posted it before? I took the photo because we thought it remarkable that a dog and a cat could eat their tea together without any hissing, spitting or scratching.  

I have just remembered the picture I posted before was my loyal tripehoud and Jack Russell Fido who went to doggy heaven a few years ago.  We still talk about her and our beloved departed pets every day.  Seriously, every day.

Have a good weekend.

An Autobiography Of A Genesis Guitarist.

Back in the the early eighties my mates and myself would listen to Heavy and Prog Rockbands records and Kansas, Rush and Steve Hackett would always be playing along with a myriad of other great bands.  

I've admired Steve Hackett and his guitar music for around forty years but I never managed to see him or when he was in GTR.  But I bought his records and in recent years I am always watching his Genesis Revisited shows on good old You Tube.

I have just finished reading my eleventh book in eleven weeks on good old Kindle.  The last one his called " A Genesis In My Bed" an autobiography by Steve Hackett:

It's a very good read and if you like Steve  Hackett  I would purchase his book.  The book starts with his working class roots and it talks of his upbringing, the wonderful 1945 Labour government,  Grammar school, writing an advert in Melody Maker and Peter Gabriel phoning him up and he successfully auditioned for Genesis.    

He mentions lots of famous Rock musicians and singers and his influences like Buddy Rich who greatly influenced Neil Peart author and Rush drummer.  

Steve Hackett also talks about spiritual experiences and seeing a ghost.  Something that I can relate to.  

It's a good read and I enjoyed it.

"Brew Time."

 

It's getting cold now and even our canine friends are brewing up.  She likes tea but I'm a real coffee in a cafetiere kind of person.  

I think they  have finally taken over the house.  

They sent me this photo at work and it made me laugh.  

A New Kitten Called Little Miss Missy.

 

I mentioned on my previous post we had  a new feline addition to the family the other day.  There are lots of adorable kittens needing new homes at the moment.

Regular readers know we already have Domino who is a brilliant mouser and you need a good cat living in the countryside next to the sea.  

Debby from Lifes Funny Like That blog said she would like to see a photo of our new addition.  Little Miss Missy is quite a character.

Many moons ago, probably late eighties early nineties I went to Manchester Apollo and I saw the great axe man/ guitarist Ted Nugent.  What a musician!

Here's one of Ted's hits and I dedicate it to Little Miss Missy:

A West Cork Town Under Street Lights.

The Square in Bantry.

French Armada anchor.  See plaque below.

I walked from the ferry pier tonight through my local town near where I live.  I'd arranged to meet up at the vets where they had an appointment to get a new cat vaccinated.  I also bought a shish kebab for my tea.

On the way there I took some photos of the square and surrounding features above and below:

Wolfe Tone statue.  Irish Revolutionary leader and the square is named  after him.  

One thing I miss living in the countryside next to the sea is street lights.  It was good to walk through the street lit town instead of pitch darkness.  

Please click on the photos to enlarge them!

Save The Trees.

 I'm reading another Laurie Lee book: Village Christmas And Other Notes On The English Year on Kindle on my phone on the ferry at the moment.  I love short pieces, short stories and essays are almost like paper monologue blogs.  His village childhood Christmas reminisces are magical and so un materialistic like the world we live today.

Another essay in the book  is The Fight To Save Slad.  He mentions the Slad Valley which was the idyllic rural setting for Cider With Rosie.  He talks about rural private housing developments and when developers wanted to chop down twelve ancient trees to make way for a new Tesco supermarket in Stroud.  Many people protested and climbed up into the trees.  He himself penned a joke verse:

" I think that I shall never see

  Tesco lovely as a tree

And if we are forced to cut ours down 

"Twill shame the gateway to our town".

The trees were saved and it proves that the word can be mightier than the axe so to speak.  The trees didn't know what was going on apart people climbing in their mighty arm like branches but thankfully they are still there.

A Stihl Saw In The Front Room.

It's  Bedlam at our house at the moment.  Number one son decided to buy us a second hand kitchen this week.  We've done this before when I bought a kitchen for 300 Euros from a posh house in Schull a couple of years ago for the farm house next door.

Apparently people just buy houses and go for planning and demolish the house they have just purchased along with all the internal fixtures and fittings.  They are virtually assured of getting planning because there is already a dwelling there.  

So one day this week I came home from work and he'd knocked down the utility room wall.  I barrowed the concrete blocks outside.

Number one son purchased our 'new'  kitchen units from a posh house in Cork city.   He got a friend to transport down it to West Cork in a van.  Since then he's been busy fitting the units:

We're getting there.  It just shows you don't need to spend thousands to have a nice kitchen.   

I'm having a day off today so I have smashed up the old kitchen units with my sledge hammer and been Kangoing the kitchen tiles off the floor and using a lump hammer and bolster chisel  to chisel up the tile cement.  The Joy's of DIY!🤗

A Walk Along The Road In The Countryside By The Sea.

I managed to go on a four mile saunter on Sunday morning.  The road was incredibly devoid of cars and lorries and I felt safe walking along the road for a change.  

I've  been reading nay devouring four Laurie Lee books recently.  Oh to go back to Cider With Rosie and no motor cars or lorries and just horses and carts.  Any road here's some pics for your perusal:

Looking across the bay and over to the Beara Peninsula and Hungry Hill.  

Looking over the bay at a promontory headland and Bantry Bay.   Immortalised in song and poems.  God was a brilliant artist the day he painted these scenes.

Spring Cabbage And Japanese Onions.

I have done a post on my vegetables for a while.  I seem to have had such little time for vegetable growing with me working full time on the island and the wet weather tyesterday doesn't help either.

I did how ever manage to plant my Japanese onions sets outside in the old plastic baths filled with soil and my homemade compost.  They are a very hardy onion and don't mind the Irish climate.  

The Roman's apparently never set foot here but they named Eire "Hibernia , meaning " land of eternal winters".   They must have been on a stag do to Dublin when they gave Ireland that name?

The Japanese onions are a bit weedy but they are loving growing in the old baths filled with soil and topped up with homemade compost.  They will be ready to harvest next June.  We often pick them before they are fully grown.

Here's some seed sown Spring cabbages growing in polystyrene welder packaging.  They are loving the polytunnel microclimate.  

I wish I was only working three days a week and I could spend more time in the veg plot and polytunnel and go walking a few times a week.  

I only water twice a week now in the polytunnel.  It's full of plants and they have managed quite well with out me.   

A Super Cover Group Singing The Smiths Songs.

Not had time or inspiration to post a blog this week.  Sorry about that I will try to post more shortly.

I recently heard that Stockport band Blossoms and that lad ("never going to give you up") from Newton Lee Willows, Rick Astley, had teamed up to play some concerts and sing only The Smith's sets.

All too good to be true? Not at all.  

I love Morrissey and The Smith's and theyare in my opinion, one of the finest bands to come from the Manchester area.  Not forgetting, Vandergraf Generator (Manchester University) James, Oasis,  10CC and of course Barclay James Harvest......?

Anyway here they are singing one of  The Smiths songs and a favourite of mine: Cemetery Gates.

Have a great weekend.