Showing posts with label Cape Clear Hostel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cape Clear Hostel. Show all posts

30 October, 2010

Thought for Today:
If you had an unlimited number of typewriters and an unlimited number of chickens you would need an unlimited amount of Tipp-ex, have more poop than you could cope with, and be desperate for the technological age. 
Ferries: 
All as Normal Today
We recommend checking the ferry web site if you are travelling any great distance, click the link: Cape Clear Island Ferries.com
This blog is maintained by Cape Clear Island Hostel: www.capeclearhostel.com

Sea Condition:
A little rough but manageable.
Tides:
Click the link for tide times in October: Tide Tables
The above are the tide tables for Cobh.
Simply add 15 minutes to each of the times and you will be close enough for Cape Clear.

Wet / Dry / Windy /Sunny / Overcast / Temperature :
Dry all day; A very small wind; Very warm; Overcast with sunny patches - a nice day for working in the garden.
Night Sky:
Clear and Jupiter is still very bright.
Richie's Blogs - Happenings on Cape Clear:
Click here: Daily News
Click here: Moths & Butterflies
Click here: Birds
Click here: Whales & Dolphins

Chickens x 5, Maggie; Oraiste; Teapot; Billybob; Ginger:
Eggs: 4
Sinead's Blogs:
Someday soon.
Fishing on Cape Clear:
Apparently Brian caught a Bass from the pier.
Books I am reading:
See previous blogs

My Favourite Poems:

The Shooting of Dan McGrew

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;


The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou.


When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,


There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.

He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,

Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.

There was none could place the stranger's face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;

But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.


There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;


And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell;

With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,

As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.

Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he'd do,

And I turned my head -- and there watching him was the lady that's known as Lou.


His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed in a kind of daze,


Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gaze.

The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one else on the stool,

So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down there like a fool.

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;

Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands -- my God! but that man could play.


Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,


And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could HEAR;

With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,

A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;

While high overhead, green, yellow and red, the North Lights swept in bars? --

Then you've a haunch what the music meant . . . hunger and night and the stars.


And hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with bacon and beans,


But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;

For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;

But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman's love --

A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true --

(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, -- the lady that's known as Lou.)


Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you scarce could hear;


But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear;

That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a devil's lie;

That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to crawl away and die.

'Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair, and it thrilled you through and through --

"I guess I'll make it a spread misere," said Dangerous Dan McGrew.


The music almost died away . . . then it burst like a pent-up flood;


And it seemed to say, "Repay, repay," and my eyes were blind with blood.

The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a frozen lash,

And the lust awoke to kill, to kill . . . then the music stopped with a crash,

And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;


In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;


Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm,

And "Boys," says he, "you don't know me, and none of you care a damn;

But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I'll bet my poke they're true,

That one of you is a hound of hell . . . and that one is Dan McGrew."


Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark,


And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two men lay stiff and stark.

Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was Dangerous Dan McGrew,

While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that's known as Lou.


These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.


They say that the stranger was crazed with "hooch", and I'm not denying it's so.

I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two --

The woman that kissed him and -- pinched his poke -- was the lady that's known as Lou.



 Robert Service

29 October, 2010

Thought for Today:

Stand back and admire your work as it is only the pleasure in the moment which will encourage you to do more.
Ferries: 
All as Normal Today
We recommend checking the ferry web site if you are travelling any great distance, click the link: Cape Clear Island Ferries.com
This blog is maintained by Cape Clear Island Hostel: www.capeclearhostel.com

Sea Condition:
Calmish.
Tides:
Click the link for tide times in October: Tide Tables
The above are the tide tables for Cobh.
Simply add 15 minutes to each of the times and you will be close enough for Cape Clear.

Wet / Dry / Windy /Sunny / Overcast / Temperature :
Wet start at 7pm. Should be dry later. Still a little windy. Overcast. Still quite mild.
Night Sky:
Clear at times but generally overcast
Richie's Blogs - Happenings on Cape Clear:
Click here: Daily News
Click here: Moths & Butterflies
Click here: Birds
Click here: Whales & Dolphins

Chickens x 5, Maggie; Oraiste; Teapot; Billybob; Ginger:
The annual moult is growing and there are feathers everywhere.
3 eggs
Sinead's Blogs:
Not long to go
Fishing on Cape Clear:
Might be worth a try later if the wind dies down
Books I am reading:
See earlier blogs

My Favourite Poems:

The Men That Don’t Fit In
There's a race of men that don't fit in,
    A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
    And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
    And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
    And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
    They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
    And they want the strange and new.
They say: "Could I find my proper groove,
    What a deep mark I would make!"
So they chop and change, and each fresh move
    Is only a fresh mistake.

And each forgets, as he strips and runs
    With a brilliant, fitful pace,
It's the steady, quiet, plodding ones
    Who win in the lifelong race.
And each forgets that his youth has fled,
    Forgets that his prime is past,
Till he stands one day, with a hope that's dead,
    In the glare of the truth at last.

He has failed, he has failed; he has missed his chance;
    He has just done things by half.
Life's been a jolly good joke on him,
    And now is the time to laugh.
Ha, ha! He is one of the Legion Lost;
    He was never meant to win;
He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;
    He's a man who won't fit in.

Robert Service

26 October, 2010

Thought for Today:
 The human race as an invasive species is growing faster and causing considerably more problems than Japanese knot-weed or any other invasive species and we can see that nature is starting to make its move to cut back the threat posed.  So live your own life and do not imagine that wherever you go you will be the big fish in the little pond. The truth is that, one way or another, nature will usually ensure that the aborigine flora and fauna will be the big fish.....will we, as a species, be around to see it?

Ferries: 
All as Normal Today

We recommend checking the ferry web site if you are travelling any great distance, click the link: Cape Clear Island Ferries.com

This blog is maintained by Cape Clear Island Hostel: www.capeclearhostel.com

Sea Condition:
Calm enough for a nice ferry trip. Getting a little rougher as the day grows older.
Tides:
Click the link for tide times in October: Tide Tables
The above are the tide tables for Cobh.
Simply add 15 minutes to each of the times and you will be close enough for Cape Clear.

Wet / Dry / Windy /Sunny / Overcast / Temperature :
Dry at 11am; hardly any wind; Sunny with some cloud cover; very mild, almost warm. Changed at 2pm to showery and overcast.
Night Sky:
Clear
Richie's Blogs - Happenings on Cape Clear:
Click here: Daily News
Click here: Moths & Butterflies
Click here: Birds

Chickens x 5, Maggie; Oraiste; Teapot; Billybob; Ginger:
Eggs: 5
Sinead's Blogs:
One day
Fishing on Cape Clear:
Nothing doing but calm enough to try.
Books I am reading:
See earlier blogs
My Favourite Poems:

Song from Aella

O SING unto my roundelay, 
O drop the briny tear with me; 
Dance no more at holyday, 
Like a running river be: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 


Black his cryne as the winter night, 

White his rode as the summer snow, 
Red his face as the morning light, 
Cold he lies in the grave below: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



Sweet his tongue as the throstle's note, 

Quick in dance as thought can be, 
Deft his tabor, cudgel stout; 
O he lies by the willow-tree! 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



Hark! the raven flaps his wing 

In the brier'd dell below; 
Hark! the death-owl loud doth sing 
To the nightmares, as they go: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



See! the white moon shines on high; 

Whiter is my true-love's shroud: 
Whiter than the morning sky, 
Whiter than the evening cloud: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



Here upon my true-love's grave 

Shall the barren flowers be laid; 
Not one holy saint to save 
All the coldness of a maid: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



With my hands I'll dent the briers 

Round his holy corse to gre: 
Ouph and fairy, light your fires, 
Here my body still shall be: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



Come, with acorn-cup and thorn, 

Drain my heartes blood away; 
Life and all its good I scorn, 
Dance by night, or feast by day: 
   My love is dead, 
   Gone to his death-bed 
All under the willow-tree. 



Thomas Chatterton 

15 October, 2010



Thought for today:
Tomorrow is another day and then we might need a bigger boat.


Ferries:  All as normal today.
We recommend checking the ferry web site if you are travelling any great distance, click the link: Cape Clear Island Ferries.com

This blog is maintained by Cape Clear Island Hostel: www.capeclearhostel.com

Wet or Dry: 
Dry throughout the day.


Sunny or Cloudy:
Overcast for the first hour of daylight then sensationally sunny the rest of the day - Update: it is now 5.30pm and it has been the sensational day I promised earlier. It is still lovely and hot and calm and, and, and, ooooh!

Night Sky
Clear and more stars than grains of sand on the beach.
The constellation Orion rises in the south  at midnight and is a joy to see.
Jupiter is still the brightest planet and rises early evening. It can clearly be seen in the south after dark.
The Milkyway is pointing southwest to northeast

Temperature: 
A chilly start  to the morning but then warming up to hot at midday.

Windy or Still:
No wind.

Sea Condition:
Calm.

Tides  - approx: 
High:
Low:    05.44
High :  11.57
Low:    18.26
High:   00.33 tomorrow early hours.
Using 24 hour clock

Collared Flycatcher possibly.
Barn Owl
Red Flanked Bluetail
Red Throated Pipit
Red Backed Shrike
Pied Flycather
Ring Ouzel
All on 10th October 2010, reported by John Lynch

Chickens x 5:  Maggie; Oraiste; Teapot; Billybob; Ginger  
Plumage: looking good (haven't moulted since I had them)
Billybob still a liitle hard in the crop but feeding well.
Eggs: 4

Flowers
Roses looking lovely  - pink and gorgeous..
Marigolds are huge and gorgeous.

Too many flowers to mention them all.

Vegetables from the walled garden
Lettuce
Onion
Carrots
Spinach
Cabbage
Beetroot
Potatoes
Planted turnips
We had tomato,carrot, and onion soup a few evenings ago and it was lovely mmmmm!

Water Shortages
Please use water sparingly as water is still rationed on Cape

Fishing:  
NA

Books:    Currently reading: 
Henry Martyn Field's History of the Atlantic Telegraph, published 1866:
The story of the heroic struggle to connect America with Europe. 

Terry Coleman's Passage to America, published 1972.       


Favourite Poems:

The Advice

Revolving in their destin'd sphere,
The hours begin another year
As rapidly to fly;
Ah! think, Maria, (e'er in grey
Those auburn tresses fade away
So youth and beauty die.
Tho' now the captivating throng
Adore with flattery and song,
And all before you bow;
Whilst unattentive to the strain,
You hear the humble muse complain,
Or wreathe your frowning brow.

Tho' poor Pitholeon's feeble line,
In opposition to the nine,
Still violates your name;
Tho' tales of passion meanly told,
As dull as Cumberland, as cold,
Strive to confess a flame.

Yet, when that bloom and dancing fire,
In silver'd rev'rence shall expire,
Aged, wrinkled, and defaced;
To keep one lover's flame alive,
Requires the genius of a Clive,
With Walpole's mental taste.

Tho' rapture wantons in your air,
Tho' beyond simile you're fair,
Free, affable, serene;
Yet still one attribute divine
Should in your composition shine--
Sincerity, I mean.

Tho' num'rous swains before you fall,
'Tis empty admiration all,
'Tis all that you require;
How momentary are their chains!
Like you, how unsincere the strains
Of those who but admire!

Accept, for once, advice from me,
And let the eye of censure see
Maria can be true;
No more for fools or empty beaux,
Heav'n's representatives disclose,
Or butterflies pursue.

Fly to your worthiest lover's arms,
To him resign your swelling charms,
And meet his gen'rous breast;
Or if Pitholeon suits your taste,
His muse with tattr'd fragments graced,
Shall read your cares to rest.

Thomas Chatterton 

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