{"id":1227,"date":"2010-03-23T11:26:39","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T11:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2010-03-30T14:04:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T14:04:07","slug":"bt-notes-spring-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/bt-notes-spring-2\/","title":{"rendered":"BT Notes – Spring!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly every day reflections about things to say in this newsletter occur to me.\u00a0 But I find myself busy and so procrastinate another day.\u00a0 As the days grow longer important changes take place in home and garden – the heating bill goes down, the time children spend outside goes up.\u00a0 A few days ago we passed the Spring equinox in the northern hemisphere so that was the signal to stop procrastinating and write the journal.<\/p>\n

It has been an unusual year so far.\u00a0 There was the amazing white New Year which kept us out of school for an extra week – hooray!\u00a0 It was fun to see the land painted white, to slide down the hill on our backs or plastic bags and trays, to throw snow balls. And then there were the other new experiences that were a little less benign.\u00a0 The skidding on the road and hoping no one is coming the other way.\u00a0 The frozen or burst pipes.<\/p>\n

That was a good training period for me – it seemed as though I was plumbing for three weeks solid.\u00a0 First there was the frozen pipes, so we had no water.\u00a0 That lasted two weeks.\u00a0 We are very lucky to have a stream a hundred metres from the back door so we were able to get a few buckets of water a day for flushing, dish washing, cat-washing and cooking.\u00a0 It was a good time to clean the pressure switch and re-plumb the main feeder tap at the pump; many thanks to Ivan Stanley who helped me reprime the pump and become the most popular person in the family for the weekend that the water came back on!\u00a0 And then half way through the no-water drama, a pipe on the “skirting-radiator” in the living room exploded, soaking the floor and furniture.\u00a0 Luckily we had wood to feed the stove for the next week or so as I fixed the piping.\u00a0 It was a useful training programme in plumbing and a good chance to clean out pipes which harboured 30 years of sludge.\u00a0 But by the time I’d finished that project I just wanted to put the plumbing tools away and did not want to continue cleaning the rest of the system – maybe this summer … ha ha.\u00a0 And then the next week I was back up at the cottage where another pipe had burst flooding the downstairs.\u00a0 Luckily Michael noticed the flood and we stopped it after a couple of days.\u00a0 It took me anther couple of days to re-plumb the system and we still have some cleaning and painting to do, but at least the drama is over.<\/p>\n

The garden was severely punished by winter.\u00a0 A number of unusual trees suffered severe frost damage and might not recover.\u00a0 We’re still waiting to see if the Strawberry tree will rejuvenate – it would be sad if it doesn’t leaving a huge space in the border.\u00a0 Our store room did not withstand the frost and see potatoes were mostly ruined.\u00a0 On the positive side, the start to the season has been delayed so we are almost on top of chores.\u00a0 Seeding of tomatoes, broad beans and allium is well underway.\u00a0 Even Richard and Jaspar are getting in to the game having staked out their own plots, diligently dug them and started planting.\u00a0 The fruit cage was crushed by snow and I’ve just mended that – I was hoping to rebuild but find myself short of time so have to put off a rebuild till next year.\u00a0 The outdoor chicken koop was blown down and I’m reconstructing that – a messy job with dead wood and wire all over the place at the moment, but I think when I get it done it will be a better home for the birds.<\/p>\n

The birds!\u00a0 They’ve douubled in number as the chicks have grown to young adults.\u00a0 Nealry half are roosters so with Spring time hormones they are all over each other.\u00a0 It has a strange similarity to men outside the pub.\u00a0 A couple of young roosters have even tried it on the ducks – boys!\u00a0 Egg production is good though.\u00a0 A great treat has been the goose eggs that have been coming out – they are huge and rich, mostly yolk and tasty, a meal in themself and great for baking.\u00a0 One weighs about the same as three or four chicken eggs (~150g!).<\/p>\n

After a slow start in december, logging has been going well.\u00a0 The cold weather was a great motivator.\u00a0 For a couple of weeks the wood buring stove was our only source of heat as the plumbing collapsed from frost.\u00a0 The blossoming of spring was also severly delayed.\u00a0 We usually see camelia out in January, but this year they’ve only just started blooming.\u00a0 And everyone has noticed the absence of daffodils from St Patrick’s Day.\u00a0 The’re finally beginning to blossom but it seems a month late.\u00a0 Farmers in particular are feeling the long winter because grass has only started to grow in the past couple of weeks so they have had to provide much more winter feed for livestock.\u00a0 The shortages are not a harbinger, but certainly an illustration, of the difficulties of not having enough food and the magnitude that an ecological crisis would cause in comparison to an economic crisis.<\/p>\n

The opening of the fishing season passed without event.\u00a0 There will be little fishing on the river again this year.\u00a0 Good for the riparian habitat, sad for anglers and unfortunately still a long way to go until the river is rejuvenated.\u00a0 One benefit of the recession has been a slow down in the rate at which we flush toxins in to the water system.\u00a0 Unfortunately modern lfestyles are so far removed from nature that it is a change in systems – in farming and in personal consumption – that is needed to save nature.\u00a0 Check out the documentary film Food for a stimulating and realistc look at the modern food chain – it’ss help you understand why a can of coke is cheaper than a head of lettuce!\u00a0 (Shall we have a screening?\u00a0 Let me know if you’re interested.)<\/p>\n

Pam was invited to give a special day’s training to teachers in training at a yoga centre in Wicklow.\u00a0 It was very well received and it is great to see the word spreading about what an ecellent teacher she is.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 no, I’m not biaised …\u00a0 Pam’s yoga classes are on schedule.\u00a0 We’re coming to the\u00a0 end of the spring term and will break for easter and then resume for another term of seven weeks from 13 April to 25 May.\u00a0 Contact Pam 086 0891141 to get more info.<\/p>\n

Our children have been enjoying the spring too.\u00a0 Tym has been on a drama camp, which gave a break from forced studying for her junior certs, helping our neighbour with his beatiful horses – her real passion, as well as studying hard for mock exams.\u00a0\u00a0 Antonia performed in the Ballet Barn spring show and also got a bit-part in a performance by an international ballet company.\u00a0 The boys have been enjoying football more and more and the hurling season has started.<\/p>\n

Outside BT I’ve been busy particularly with business turnarounds.\u00a0 That’s what I love though it can be frustrating in a bankrupt economy.\u00a0 On the other hand it is very rewarding to see positive change and helping people resurrect their businesses.\u00a0 The boom got in the way of good business practices and sound decision making – so those skills were redundant, whereas today they are simply in short supply.<\/p>\n

For those interested in computers or using them for work, I upgraded to Opensuse 11.2 and changed desktop from KDE3.5 to 4.3.\u00a0 I like the new imporvements and you can see my spiel (including a video download of the spinning desktop) on-line here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year will be the 15th anniversary of the starting of PestalozziWorld – a great milestone for an enterprise that really does make a difference to hundreds of people.\u00a0 The big event this year was the opening of the Pestalozzi Education Centre in Lusaka, Zambia.\u00a0 PEC is a secondary school providing a rounded, affordable education to local fee-paying children and providing scholarships for PestalozziWorld scholars.\u00a0 It is an inspired project which we hope will become a model for secondary schools in Zambia and even elsewhere.\u00a0 Here in Ireland we don’t have any big plans yet, though we will be helping to raise money to educate poor children.\u00a0 Pam has already signed up for the Flora mini-marathon to sponsor PW.\u00a0 If a little motivation helps to get fit, think about joining her for a fun day out or spend a day out with a daughter\/mother\/sister\/friend. It’s a wonderful route around Dublin that starts in Fitzwilliam Square and finishes in St. Stephen’s Green.\u00a0 If you can’t make it on the day, please consider sponsoring a runner anyhow – any amount is welcome! Donate on-line here<\/a> or send a cheque to PestalozziWorld, Ballin Temple, Ardattin, Co. Carlow. Cheques payable to \u201cPestalozziWorld,\u201d thank you.\u00a0 Registration deadline for the Flora mini-marathon deadline is April 27th, and you must be registered to participate. It’s easy to do on www.womensminimarathon.ie<\/a>, but if you would like us to register for you, email events @ pestalozziworld.com or call 059 9155037. Your registration pack includes goodies from the mini-marathon’s sponsors as well as your all-important race number.\"evolution\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally, for a bit of a laugh, and an education, check out the Uncyclopaedia here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoy Spring, the blossoming of Ireland and all the good fortunes that we have …<\/p>\n

Tom<\/p>\n

(Sign up for free newsletter here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly every day reflections about things to say in this newsletter occur to me.\u00a0 But I find myself busy and so procrastinate another day.\u00a0 As the days grow longer important changes take place in home and garden – the heating bill goes down, the time children spend outside goes up.\u00a0 A few days ago we …
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