Afternoon Snow

Looking through the food stores to see what’s for dinner tonight and wondering how many more dinners the fresh vegetables will do.

Writing shopping lists that take the long view rather than the assumption that we will be in town again the day after tomorrow.

Putting on boots, a warm jacket and hat before going out the door, even for the quickest of tasks, has become the norm.

Snow Flakes Freezing

On Saturday we had fresh falls of snow and enjoyed a ramble around the forestry lanes and our land.

On Sunday we retraced our steps, we saw fox tracks and enjoyed watching where the tracks lead, where the fox followed in our footsteps and where he (or she, hard to tell from tracks) walked carefully in his own tracks.

Fox Tracks

He puts up quite a mileage each night, we can see fresh tracks each morning now that we are on the lookout for them. He criss crosses the fields quite methodically and often walks back in his own tracks.

It’s fun watching the trails left behind by him. We don’t keep poultry or fowl so we have no reason to dislike his visits. At one stage as we walked we were wondering what he finds to eat in this weather and then we spotted hare tracks. I am guessing that hare wants to avoid that fox at all costs!

We don’t know much about this business of tracking animals however we are having lots of fun. Usually we can’t see the animal tracks in the rainy weather

Snow Crystals

Yesterday, Sunday, we had lots of sunshine and the snow started to melt a little. It began to freeze quite seriously again in the afternoon which made for a beautiful effect, the snow chrystalised and flattened out into amazing spikes.

Snowy Wonders

Last night we walked about with head torches and the snow sparkled like fairy lights, everywhere we looked, it was the most wonderful sight. On Saturday night as we walked to bed we saw four shooting stars in the night sky and last night the fields were filled with starlight.

Stay warm, stay safe and if you have elderly neighbours please chat with them and see if there is anything they need – or indeed anything they can help you with……

If you are blessed with clear skies then you owe it to yourself to go out at night, bring a rug, wear a warm hat and settle into your favourite deck chair to watch the show. If you have binoculars they may add to the fun however I often find it less frustrating to just gaze upwards and let the magic unfold.

I don’t think that I will get to see any stars tonight as we had a day of rain, all day…

I decided to make use of the rain to wash the outdoor bathtub so I put the plug in this morning to allow it to fill. After a few hours I went out to check on progress. Imagine my surprise to find two fine frogs swimming about in the tub…

A pair of happy frogs

Here is a close up of one of the swimmers, handsome fella isn’t he?

An Irish frog enjoying the rain

Better late than never…

Wild Woodland Bluebells

Pretty as a Picture

Haiti is a country that once had a self sustaining agricultural industry and I am not talking about hundreds of years ago, until relatively recently there was a thriving agricultural economy in Haiti.  For more info on this please check out this link.

Obviously Haitians are now vulnerable and really need to get food growing again as soon as possible. If you do a google search on “sustainable agriculture in Haiti” you will find that there are a lot of projects underway to encourage sustainable agricultural industry there.

The hybrid seeds being supplied will produce crops that will not produce viable seed – the Haitian farmers will be unable to save seeds and go on planting as farmers have done for generations, they will be forced to buy seed every year!

I find it insidious that Monsanto are moving to get a grip on Haiti’s agricultural future and the fact that they are being aided by the USAID is reprehensible.

This is being funded by American taxpayers – whether or not they want to fund Monsanto Americans’ hard earned tax dollars are helping this genetic giant to undermine an already vunerable country.  USAID is a tax-payer funded agency that promotes the United States’ interests abroad.

Please read the report about Monsantos involvement  and if you live in the States and you are unhappy about this situation please think about taking some action here.

If you don’t live in the States and still want to take some action then look at the end of the page and click on the link for international supporters.

That’s my tirade over for the moment, thanks for reading

The sun was shining and there was still snow on the tops of the  hills and mountains, mountain waterfalls were glistening in the distance and the lakes were like mirrors.

Lough Melvin

The Boardwalk

The Picnic Table

I wondered what deep and meaningful essay I could write and decided instead to do a simple list of things that are easy to do – and therefore more likely to happen and may even save you money.

Starting with the obvious energy savers:

* Unplug your power cubes! You know the little boxes that are used to charge phones, laptops, torches, rechargeable this, that and the other…

It is not enough to unplug your device from the end of the cable, you need to unplug the charger or switch it off at the wall socket. The cube does continue to use power all the time that it is connected to the wall socket even though it is not actually charging anything.

* Change your light bulbs for energy saving bulbs. I know that they cost more although they are a lot cheaper now than some years ago. If you are on a tight budget like me then you might like to change over each bulb as the old one blows and needs replacing anyway.

The energy saving bulbs use about 80% less energy and also last a lot longer. However you still cannot use these bulbs with dimmer switches so perhaps just switch to a lower wattage incandescent bulb for your dimmer appliances.  Some shops are selling energy savers which claim to be suitable for dimmers – I have been advised that they still keep blowing so don’t waste your money on them, wait for another year or so and they may have improved.

* Do switch off your tv, computers and anything else that “sleeps” or goes into stand-by mode. Unless you absolutely need to have the clock on your microwave or oven tell you the time then switch these appliances off at the wall too when not in use. I don’t know many people who actually use their oven timers anyway. Appliances on stand-by do continue to use power all the time that they are plugged in even when they are doing nothing.

* Clean your fridge regularly and keep your freezer clear of ice (other than cubes obviously) and as full as you can, it will be more efficient that way.

* Barter, swap or buy a multi-pot steamer and a pressure cooker,  save energy while you are cooking.

* Eat fresh food in season and buy local. You help local producers,  reduce food miles and get fresher food. Remember that some EU states such as Holland irradiate all of the fresh veg that they export!

* Support Irish dairy products instead of imported, buy organic if you can. If you can’t afford organic it is good to know that Irish non-organic yoghurt is still most likely healthier than European produced organic yoghurt.

Its not just about price or about buying local when it comes to dairy products. For me it’s because I have seen a map of Europe with all the active incinerators marked on the map, in fact I helped to create the map and it scared the cr*p out of me.

Incinerators produce dioxins which are belched out with the smoke, yes, even with chimney scrubbers, they spread for about 20kms, dioxins end up on the land, the cattle eat the grass and silage, the dioxins intensify as they move up the food chain stored in fatty tissue and milk – you get the picture.

* Ask your local shops what their stance is on selling products containing GM food stuffs. Write to their head offices too if you can. Consumer pressure does work, it may take some time to see the effects, don’t give up!

* If you have the space and the time why not grow some food? You can grow strawberries in hanging baskets by your window or door in you live in a flat or apartment without a garden.

* Gardening without a garden? Join your local community garden. If there isn’t one get some people together and start a project, see what’s involved in setting one up yourselves, lots of helpful websites out there – just google community gardens and start reading, digging, growing, eating – yummy!

* Feeling adventurous? Why not learn to build your own wind turbine? It’s really not as hard as it sounds, is good fun, you learn lots of skills and when you build one for yourself you will get an enormous amount of satisfaction as you watch it spin and generate power for you. You definitely need a garden for this project though

* Sign up with social justice websites like Avaaz You can do a lot of good by simply adding you name to petitions as they come into your email inbox, I think of it as armchair campaigning!

* Check out Skill Swap.  A site where you can barter your skills and receive the benefits of other people’s skills.

* Check out Hopenhagen - it’s all about changing the Climate Change World Conference in Copenhagen into an event of Hope – it will make more sense when you read the site and please sign up

* Another site for global change is Oxfam - in their own words “As more and more people join the campaign, our voice will become louder and stronger and impossible to ignore. It is time for real action on climate change.”

* Here’s another one – a site you can sign up to and by doing so help to change things – Time for Climate Justice

I just love armchair campaigning   If you have more ideas to share please let us know in the comments.

Making a change with a flick of a mouse or keyboard…

Go forth and promote change… Don’t forget to smell the flowers along the way…

Our entire apple harvest made one yummy crumble

Our first water lilly flower getting ready to bloom

Fully blooming, how lovely

The weather has not been the best, however, this is Ireland and we have grown up with these weather patterns and have learnt from our mothers knee to just go out there and make the most of it – even if that means putting on waterproof pants and jackets, maybe even gloves – no I go too far, gloves are rarely needed

I have been camping in a few different places and having some lovely fun. No phones and no modems – hence not much action on the auld blog of late.

On the advice of a friend I headed to a beach on the west coast to see this friendly dolphin I had heard rumours of.  On and off over the last few years I had heard of a dolphin along the west coast who liked to swim with people and I often dropped by various places to see if she was visible. Until lately I never saw her.

She has moved to a very accessible although quiet beach and she is really enjoying the company of the swimmers. I have swam with her a few times now and can’t believe how friendly she is.

She seems to really want to play and spends a good deal of time with people who enjoy playing with her and ignores those who, for whatever reason, don’t want to play, which means that anyone who feels nervous about being in the water at the same time as her, need not worry about her swimming around them.

I can’t believe my luck to have had such wonderful experiences in the water with her. I snorkel quite often and it’s quite something to be swimming along, just looking at crabs and little fish and then to see, just about a foot away, a seemingly smiling face of a dolphin looking back at you.

Although I know some good swimmers who are reluctant to swim with her and are happy to keep their distance and admire her from afar, I have never felt any fear in her presence.

Mostly I feel a sense of mischievousness when she is about, a playfulness, a childlike joyful sense of fun.

I count my blessings to have had the benefit of her friendship this summer.