Budget 2009?

Oh, Dear!

Read on, if you dare...

Happiness?

Yesterday I thought a bit about what makes me
Happy.

It was an easy exercise as most of the day was spent
scrubbing...

walls, windows, floors...

I love a clean house and during the Summer
a vast army of wild life seems to have taken refuge
indoors from the torrential downpours in the garden.

Mostly spiders, I'm glad to say.
Since moving to a house with concrete downstairs flooring
we no longer have mice. They were one of the afflictions
of the Edwardian house that I still think of with fondness
and which we left over twenty years ago.

In fact, one mouse became a sort of household pet for a while,
a European version of the Cricket on the Hearth,
though probably not to everyone's taste.

In any case, the wildlife is no more.
All the scrubbing has paid off...

Today, 15 October, 2008 is Blog Action Day

It's worth thinking about.

Rather than chatter on about my own little concerns
it is important to consider the number of people who
live in poverty on this Planet.

There are many posters and bloggers linked in
the Title Bar who have taken action on this
important issue.

I thought about writing a post about the Budget

for the Irish Republic for 2009...

and then thought better of it.

The roaring which surrounded its presentation yesterday
was quite enough to make me turn the TV off and wait to
read about what was actually being said.

Apparently callers to radio stations throughout the land
have been less restrained.
The general consensus seems to be that it is

"Not A Good Thing" and, if things go on as they are,
they are bound to get much worse.

Having been blessed with an up-beat an optimistic temperament
comes to the fore during such "Interesting Times".

I head out into the garden, study the lilies of the field
and wonder if they are edible.
The family of blackbirds that responded so well to Summer feeding
and to the shelter of dense hedging which hems in our garden
are now being eyed with a view to possible protein content.

We probably shall not go hungry.
However, it will be more than interesting to see
how things evolve...

Facebook Continues to Puzzle and Bemuse

I joined Facebook as an exercise in extending my blogging range.
I thought it might add a certain spice to my writing skills.

However, I belong to a generation that is so paranoid about anything
new that I find myself fairly alone there, surrounded by "Bright Young Things"
who party
Morning, Noon and Night
and who send round the odd pretzel
or
invitation to a Bar Fight.

Culture Shock isn't in it...

Quo Vadis?

After a week of foostering and getting to the point,
I'm ready to move on with blogging.

An effort to reach a wider audience, which, may, in time,
begin to post comments here, is up and running.
With the help of links to Irishblogs.ie there is already
a sense of community with a power greater than myself...
the Irish Blogosphere.

Bloggers are forever posting about comments:
who makes them, why, whether they are favourable or not,
what the protocol involved may be.

There is a trend among some to complain that, even though
they leave comments on the more popular blogs,
they are either ignored out of hand or nobody
comes to their blog to return the courtesy of
leaving a comment.
As in school, power blocks seem to develop quickly
and without any obvious reason.

It's early days yet in this blog.
Gardeners are not slow of wit,
but tend to take a very long view.

When you spend twenty years patiently waiting for
a plant to flower, as was the case with my white wisteria,
you don't tend to get into a flap about blogging.

Just as well...