Marty

Lunatic asylum?

Well, it's after half past midnight here. I'm going to have my cocoa and head to bed, as I need to be up early in the morning. I've to pick up my two male strippers, before buying them breakfast and then heading back to my place to continue what we started in the bedroom a few weeks back. Yup, you got it in one! Preparation for redecoration.

And to add to what clo said, you're neither crazy, nor old, Gary.

A few hours before sunset this evening I decided to take a stroll up to the wind turbines on the mountain near me. Here's a view back before I reached the summit plateau: That's the northern end of Lough Allen, which is the first big lake on the River Shannon. At a total length of 361 km (224 miles), the River Shannon is the longest river in the whole of both Ireland and Britain.

I've made elderflower sparkling wine in the past. And elderberry wine as well. But where are you going to get hold of elderflowers this time of the year?

Sure, why do today what you could just as easily put off until tomorrow?

Well, I'm a lot older than you, but there are still times when I find myself spending hours on end reading. But I do admit to having some books in my house (as I've yet not got round to putting up shelves since I moved in, I can't say on my bookshelves) and on my Kindle, that I haven't yet got round to reading.

I did that, once. The wool was from my own sheep, which another neighbour had helped me to shear. Then I borrowed a spinning wheel, and spent many a long winter night converting the fleece into yarn. I knitted a child's sweater with it for the five year old son of a friend. And also knitted a christening shawl for some friends who'd asked me to be godfather to their daughter. All this was about thirty years ago, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could go from raw material to finished product by myself. Memories...

That might be an idea, but... ... there's a couple of problems with sheep: They are a flock animal, so don't do well kept in isolation or very small groups. My garden is not big enough for a whole flock of sheep. They're not quite as bad as their cousins, the goats. But they definitely do not eat only grass.

Greetings, Gary.

Sleep well, Bucket!

I fully understand that when you say "ever" you mean ever recorded by mankind. Here's an interesting article, though: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-hottest-earths-ever-been There's a Part 2 to that article, that looks at global temperatures since the last Ice Age, and includes the following interesting graphic:

They're still making the news here in Ireland, Albert: https://www.thejournal.ie/california-wildfires-some-of-largest-in-state-history-5182720-Aug2020/ Along with news of villages being evacuated due to a wildfire in Greece’s southern Mani peninsula: https://www.thejournal.ie/greece-wildfire-mani-5183051-Aug2020/

It's just after 3:00 pm here in Ireland (but I'm replying at least 8 hours after you posted this blog entry).

G'day, young Albert.

Happy Sunday, all! Well, dughlas, I did manage to tie most of the damaged pea vines back to the chicken wire they had been growing up. Some of the stems are quite badly damaged, but hopefully the plants will still be able to transport water up the stems to swell the peas inside the abundant pods that had started developing before the storm hit. A reasonably mild day here, with the temp currently (around 2:30pm) about 16°C/61°F. Mainly cloudy with frequent light showers and occasional sunny periods, but not long enough to risk hanging washing out. The lawns really need mowing, but they're far too wet at the moment to do so safely without damaging them. Hopefully there'll come a couple of dry days in the week to cut them, but I may have to put the mower blade to its highest setting for the first cut. Hope you're all keeping safe!

Oh, I don't want to get rid of really nostalgic things. But there's stuff I have that is really just taking up room. I'm not quite as bad as some of the examples in the following article (I hope), but I do sometimes worry that I might be slowly approaching that stage... https://scienceofcaring.ucsf.edu/health-public/recognizing-and-addressing-hoarding-significant-senior-health-concern

It's probably time I started getting rid of some of my years of accumulated belongings...

You referring to the pandemic? Or are you saying Canada's suffering from a plague of locusts?

Did you know that the study of grasshopper species is called acridology? Some species of grasshopper are responsible for swarms of locusts. Locusts are the swarming phase of certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. Swarming behaviour is a response to overcrowding. The largest recorded locust swarm was one formed by the now-extinct Rocky Mountain locust in 1875; the swarm was 1,800 miles (2,900 km) long and 110 miles (180 km) wide, and one estimate puts the number of locusts involved at 3.5 trillion. An adult desert locust can eat about 2 g (0.1 oz) of plant material each day, so the billions of insects in a large swarm can be very destructive, stripping all the foliage from plants in an affected area and consuming stems, flowers, fruits, seeds and bark. Millions of plague locusts on the move in Australia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper

Hey, Gary Hopefully the grasshoppers are causing no serious harm to your crops... Personally, I don't mind sharing some of the food I grow with the wildlife. Not sure what my reaction would be to a plague of locusts, though...

Hey, bro!

G'day, bro! Wet morning here, but drying up now with a watery sun trying to come out and play. Around 17°C/63°F. But at least the wind has moderated considerably. I might see if I can use some garden twine later to try to get most of the peas back off the ground and tied to the netting they were growing up. Most of the pods haven't swollen yet, and are likely to either rot if left on the wet ground, or just get eaten by slugs.

Good day, young Albert. Take care now, ya hear?

Looking good, clo! I lifted the rest of my early potatoes last weekend. About 20 kilos from 1.5 kilo of seed potatoes. I'll probably start lifting the main crops shortly. I had intended leaving them for a few more weeks, but unfortunately the wind from Storm Ellen completely destroyed the shoots.