A Kansas Song For Our Times.

 Regular blog readers will know that I am a big fan of American Prog Rock band Kansas.

I have often mentioned that I finally got to see them in Warsaw in 2014.

Some of the band are new members and Ronnie Platt replaced Steve Walsh on vocals.

In 2019 they released the following track.  I think it's very apt for our times.  I especially think of the plight of refugees in and escaping countries like Ukraine and Palestine:

"Pack up Your Rubber Duck. I Wish You Luck".

 I was watching Top Of The Pops from 1977 on the television the other night.

The following song came on our television 📺 screen.  Some how it seems to have passed me by:

The lyrics are great and I found it really unusual but catchy.

"So Long" by ABBA was a song I once featured on here that had also  passed me by.

Is there any famous songs you some how missed when you were growing up?

Another Repurposed Railway Line Walk.

We went to County Limerick the other day and myself and  Bronte walked a very short section of the Limerick Greenway.  

I have only 2 sections to walk and I will have walked all 40. kilometres .  Stretching from Listowel in north Kerry to Rathkeale in County Limerick. 

We walked just 4 KM from Ardagh to Newcastle West in total.  Which is two and a bit miles in old slot electric meters.   

Here are some photos 📸 for your perusal:

Ardagh train station now boarded up.  

Ardagh oak carving with carved wood chalice.

Ardagh is famous for the Ardagh Holy Communion wine chalice.  

It was found by two brothers under a stone.  When digging up potatoes 🥔. Their mother sold it to a Bishop and it now lives in a museum. I managed to mention potatoes in a blog post again.😊

The GAA Sam Maguire Trophy was modelled on the chalice.

You can replenish your water bottle for free.

Bronte ready for her walks.

Old railway  bridge.

Somebody's been busy strimming the weeds and grass. 

Picnic  tables.

Cattle chewing the cud.

Perhaps it could be the name of an Irish prog rock band?

Newcastle West.

J was waiting for us in the carpark.  She'd been in Tesco's buying tins of Ravioli and a bread mix and some beer and wine.

Hope you enjoyed  our saunter on the Limerick Greenway?

Good old Saxon and Yorkshire's finest.  I was lucky to see them once at a Rock festival in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. 

Air Fryer New Potatoes

 We had our first early potatoes 🥔 😋 for tea last night.

They are Homeguard potatoes.  Developed during WW2 and named after the Dads Army civilian soldierss who guarded Blighty by day and night.

I once heard of a local Homeguard volunteer in Lancashire on night manoeuvres shouted:

"Halt.  Who goes there?"

The recipient replied:

"MOO!"

Any road or any way:

We cut the new potatoes in half and placed them in a plastic zip lock bag in vegetable oil, garlic granules, a chopped up one of our homegrown Japanese winter onions and a couple of sprigs of freshly cut Rosemary.

J popped them in the air fryer basket and cooked them until the potatoes were soft yet crispy.   They were beautiful:

New potatoes imbibed in vegetable oil and mixed with Japanese onions, garlic granules and sprigs of Rosemary.

Air fryer set for twenty minutes or until they are cooked how you like them.  We just stopped it now and again, gave them a shake and decided between ourselves that they were ready.

A feast for a queen or a king.

Complete with a Lidl tin of corned beef.

It was beautiful.  We still have some new spudatoes and half a tin of corned beef in the fridge.  So we are going to have the same meal again tonight.

Do you cook your new potatoes in the air fryer?  Have you made bread in it?  Aren't air fryers brilliant?

"Here's Some I Planted Earlier".

 I remembered that I had planted some seed potatoes a couple of weeks earlier than the one's I harvested.

My trusty long handled fork and me found this hidden treasure:

Newly discovered buried potatoes treasure.

Enough to fill a plant pot.

Newly washed and ready to be steamed or placed in the air fyer.

Our first meal of new potatoes at the end of May.

Normal service is resumed.

Are you eating your new 🥔 potatoes yet?

Not Ready Yet!

Very small new potatoes in a plant pot.

Usually we are digging and eating  our homegrown new potatoes 🥔 by the end of May.

Yesterday when weeding I unearthed a few potatoes 🥔  from under a flowering potato plant.

To my disappointment they are far too small to harvest yet.

They have obviously not had enough rain or water when I watered them during the very dry spell.

We will just have to wait or take the frozen 🍟 out of the freezer 🤔. 

 

Heavy Horses And Songs From The Woods

 Tasker from A Yorkshire Memoir wrote an excellent post on Jethro Tull yesterday.

One of Blackpool's finest and a super prog rock band.

I have seen Jethro Tull five times and the Martin Barre band once in 2019.

I last saw Jethro Tull in 2022.  Ian Anderson can still play the flute magnificently but unfortunately his voice is a whisper of what it used to be.

They still keep the Jethro Tull name but without Martin Barre they don't seem to be that great band I loved.

In 2019 I saw The Martin Barre Band at A New Day Festival in Kent.

I particularly like the vocalist Dan Crisp who reminds me so much of a young Ian Anderson.  

Here's two songs from probably my two favourite Tull albums: