{"id":365,"date":"2008-02-13T10:43:29","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T10:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=365"},"modified":"2008-02-13T10:43:29","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T10:43:29","slug":"bt-notes-kung-hei-fat-choi-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/bt-notes-kung-hei-fat-choi-fishing\/","title":{"rendered":"BT Notes: Kung Hei Fat Choi, fishing, …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"woods\"Happy New Year!\u00a0 Chinese New Year that is!\u00a0 We have fond associations with Chinese New Year from our decade in Asia and wish all our friends a happy, peaceful and fulfilling Year of the Rat<\/a>. The year of the Rat started with the new moon at the end of last week.\u00a0 To celebrate yours truly attempted some Chinese cooking – not a complete disaster and the children enjoyed it!\u00a0 Coincidentally rat<\/a>‘s have been on my mind recently.\u00a0 Firstly, because there was such a good crop of them this autumn and last week I finally succumbed to using poison.\u00a0 I hate to do it because it is mean and the poison spreads through the food chain.\u00a0 The small consolation is that vegetarians generally avoid the poison web because they won’t eat dead carcasses.\u00a0 Hopefully a good blitz now will reduce the immediate population (especially with the cold nights) and they will stay away from the poultry and house.\u00a0 Before finally getting the poison, I did some on-line research into rat control and lifeccyle and found that in fact they are far less revolting than their reputation suggests.\u00a0 They can carry disease, but that is generally the same as other mammals living in close proximity to one another – in their natural environment they do not overpopulate and are generally disease free.\u00a0 They become carriers of disease when the population balloons because human waste is attracting them. Taking rat appreciation to another level, there are in fact fancy rat<\/a> associations and rat shows<\/a>, like dog shows.\u00a0 The rats at these look quite nice and well behaved.\u00a0 Finally, in my rat odyssey, we saw the movie Ratatouille last week, a great movie about food and cooking! Kung Hei Fat Choi! (or wishing you prosperity).<\/p>\n

There is news on the fishing front.\u00a0 As mentioned before there are to be conservation restrictions in place on many rivers in Ireland this year.\u00a0 The Slaney has salmon and sea-trout catch and release only.\u00a0 You can read about these restrictions here<\/a>. Many keen anglers, however, have decided to put down their salmon rods for the season anyway because they are convinced that the river needs a few more years to recuperate.\u00a0 This group includes Tullow Anglers who voted unanimously at their AGM to ban fishing salmon on their waters this year.\u00a0 The background to this conservation is more political soap opera than you might expect with back-door conversations, selective polling and extraordinary coincidences (like the fact the government has changed the terms of leases on the Slaney in such a way that it allows Dan Morrissey’s (one of the best connected business groups in Ireland) to bid on a stretch of river and buy it out from anglers that have maintained it for years).<\/p>\n

Our fishing policy this year will be somewhat restrictive.\u00a0 There will be no fishing at all, except for overnight tourists who will not be charged by us but who will require a guide.\u00a0 This is to provide some attraction to tourists who may bring some economic vitality to the community and offer some encouragement to training anglers and showing them the riparian habitat.\u00a0 This of course also means that season rods will not be taken up.
\nHowever, as development of the natural playground continues here at Ballin Temple we will open up access.\u00a0 From this year people interested in contributing to the maintenance of the woods and river are invited to take an annual ticket.\u00a0 This will entitle holders to access and will help us maintain paths, parking, banks, woods, tea hut, security, etc.\u00a0 Depending on the activities you plan to pursue – walking, horse riding, bike riding, camping, fishing, etc – there will be small supplement.\u00a0 We hope people living nearby will take up this offer and we will be able to nurture a community of people that use and love the river and woods and get to know one another.\u00a0 Please drop me a line to find out more.
\nThe pace of activity in the garden seems to have picked up suddenly.\u00a0 While there is still lots to do on the maintenance side (logging, path clearing, building etc), and now’s the time to do it while vegetation s subdued, the planting cycle is starting to get busy.\u00a0 I’ve restructured my rotation slightly and tilled half the plots, trimmed the hazels between the plots and planted onion sets, broad beans, beetroot.\u00a0 Garlic should go in soon and greenhouse plants are being sowed.\u00a0 The warm sunny days are very difficult to refuse and offer an attractive distraction from the desk!\u00a0 I wonder if this warm weather is going to be like April last year – extraordinarily pleasant and seemingly unseasonal – and then no summer …!\u00a0 I think its getting close to time for a BarBQ while its dry :-).<\/p>\n

Pam’s popular yoga classes are still ongoing, though there will be a break for Easter soon.\u00a0 Check with Pam for details (059 9155037).
\nFinally a bit of news from Astraea – we’re in the process of launching a new workshop for people thinking of changing their lifestyle.\u00a0 Changing Course is a one-on-one workshop to help people slow-down and balance work and life better, without making as many mistakes as we have!\u00a0 There is a brief summary here<\/a>, or call me to find out more (059 9155037).<\/p>\n

I hope you’re enjoying a fantastic spring with sunny warm days (or a lovely autumn if you’re down under \ud83d\ude42 ).
\nAnd boys, remember to show your partner some love on Thursday – Happy Valentine’s Day.
\nBest wishes,<\/p>\n

Tom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year!\u00a0 Chinese New Year that is!\u00a0 We have fond associations with Chinese New Year from our decade in Asia and wish all our friends a happy, peaceful and fulfilling Year of the Rat. The year of the Rat started with the new moon at the end of last week.\u00a0 To celebrate yours truly …
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