Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. 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

13 October, 2010




Thought for today:
Don't join book-clubs and be sure to keep your own counsel regarding your choice of reading, for the books you choose to read can tell more about your character than the fullest page in your private diary.








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 overnight and throughout the day.


Sunny or Cloudy:
It's hard to keep saying that the sky is beautiful but we live here because it is beautiful more often than not.
This morning the Sky is blue with thin white streaky clouds - and is beautiful.  

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.

Temperature: 
A chilly start  but it will probably be another hot day.

Windy or Still:
No wind.

Sea Condition:
Calm.

Tides  - approx: 
High:
Low:    04.00
High :  10.00
Low:    16.26
High:   22.24
Using 24 hour clock

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 has a problem. Her crop appears to be compacted. I will isolate her today and see if I can clear the blockage.

Last night I set them free to roam the larger garden and then forgot to let them back in to their run. I went out when I remembered, at 9pm, to find them settled in the bushes for the night. They are silent when you approach, an inate defence mechanism from times past when their ancestors perched in the trees at night. They are hot when picked up - like a little group of furnaces. So I put them on to their perch, one at a time, but couldn't find Maggie. This morning she was waiting at the gate for her breakfast.
Eggs:none so far at 8.30am

Flowers
Roses looking lovely  - pink and gorgeous..
Fuschia is still a delight and full of bees buzzing.
Marigolds are gorgeous.
Geraniums are in flower.
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:  
Decorating etc - no time for fishing this week.

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.       



Followers