harryc

GARDEN INVADERS

Squirrels and I have never got along. There are far too many of them. They are aggressive and greedy !

We have a biggish garden and it backs onto private woods. My wife has a mission in life to feed every bird in existence and so we have numerous bird-feeders and trays dotted around the place.

It is a delight to watch the birds go through their feeding routines - robin,tits ,finches,thrushes,starlings,blackbirds and occasionally some lovely woodpeckers who live in the woods at the back. There is also a sizable colony of pigeons and doves and the occasional visit from some pheasants (escapees from a breeding farm for shoots up the road)

All these birds share the food and seem to mix happily together.

ENTER THE SQUIRRELS !!!!!!!!!

Word has obviously got round that there is an abundance of food at our place and the squirrels seem intent on having the lot. We tried initially to have a feeder near the house exclusively for the birds, but this is what happened :

They would shimmy up the steel pole, hang on the feeder and gorge themselves.

We then started to grease the pole every day and watched them try to climb and slide back down again.But after the first few volunteers most of the grease would be absorbed on their fur and they could make it to the top again.

Eventually my wife found a device that seems thwart their best efforts to get to the top.

It's a plastic dome and, although some of them come every day to inspect the device, they have failed to crack it so far.

But I know how cunning they are and they'll keep working on a solution.

Although I despise the little culprits I do admire their persistence !!!!                              

                  

BALL GAMES

I was rummaging in the garage today, trying to work up the enthusiasm to start the long overdue clearance project, when I came across this :

It's a hurling ball ! Hurling is a national sport in Ireland.

The ball is called a " Slioter" ( pronounced Slitter). The game is played by striking the ball with a hurley which is a stick made from ash and looks like this :

My brothers and I played hurling from a very young age. We played it through our school years and for many years after we left school. It is a very fast skillful game and demands high fitness levels. It was also a dangerous game in which we saw some serious injuries - in our case we escaped with minor bruises and permanently skinned knuckles.

The game is played on a pitch which is slightly longer than a soccer pitch. A team numbers 15 players , including a goalkeeper, and the line-up is as shown in the diagram on the left. You can imagine how crowded the pitch becomes with 30 players, all swinging hurleys with an action similar to a golf swing.  So I'm not kidding when I say it is a dangerous game and not for the faint hearted ! 

The game still has a huge national following with county and provincial championships leading on a knockout basis to the All - Ireland Fnal at Croke Park in Dublin. The occasion has the same aura as the Cup Final at Wembley and attracts crowds of 80,000 +.

As a very young boy (10/11) I would travel off with friends to support our local or our county (Cork) side sporting the Red and White colours of Cork.

It's amazing how when you come to consider clearing the garage or the loft, and you begin to sift through the stuff, you find these objects that can set you off on flights of nostalgia.

Suddenly it's time to eat and you think ........... I'll try again tomorrow !!!

MOUNTAIN RESCUE

The Dead Artist (it's Marcus, but keep it quiet !!) has put a lot of time and effort into a scheme to sell one of his rare paintings (shown below) for charity. All the proceeds will go to the Glencoe Mountain Recue Service. You can read all about it here :http://thedeadartist.blogspot.com/

Apparently , the final value will be enhanced by the number of bloggers who link to the above site. So please get busy bloggers in support of such a worthy cause.

Thank you Marcus for the considerable work you put into this project . It is very much appreciated by me and the family.

Precious Old Thing..........

In 1962 I was working and studying at night in London when this lovely old guitar came into my life -

It is an arch-bodied blonde Hofner Senator (1958) - Acoustic/electric with steel strings.

I had gone to live in a bed-sit in Croydon in a big house where many other young bachelors, who were trying to make their way in the 'Big Smoke' , lived. One of them, John, had acquired this guitar - he also played the violin. I decided that in my spare time I would teach myself to play the guitar so I borrowed it regularly. Sometime later when John was promoted at work and was moving up North he very kindly gave me the guitar when he left saying " you play this far more than I do so have it as a present"

It has given me so much pleasure over those 45 years.

Progress was painfully slow for, literally, the first 34 years.  I was 'stuck' in the key of  C for quite a while and it was only by using a capo that I ventured away from C during that time. On the way I taught myself my own peculiar finger picking style and various strumming techniques, including the 'Calypso Slap' !!

I had no ambition to be an 'out front' soloist - I just wanted to quietly strum chords and pick little riffs while other people sang. However my knowledge of music theory was woeful which limited my progress severely.

When I married 'Joanski ' and before we had the children we used to spend our holidays in Ireland - and the guitar would come too !

At that time (late 60s,early 70s) there was a huge Irish Folk revival driven by the success of groups like the Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners and others - every pub had live music over the whole weekend. I knew many of the people in the groups. I would sit in with them regularly for practise and learnt a lot by observing and listening.

There was no shortage of singers - who would sometimes sing in the most obscure keys - and sometimes in the cracks in between !! . But there were some very good singers too and the rafters would ring with the popular balads of the time right up to closing time - and often beyond !!!

Afterwards we would often retire to a friends house and chat and sing until the early hours - happy days.

Later when the children came along we'd all load into the car and head for Ireland via Fishguard. There were times when I had difficulty finding room for the guitar and I would begin to wonder which of the children I could leave behind !!! (just joking..)

After that as the children grew up and I got busier at work there were long periods when I didn't play at all.

When I eventually retired I decided I would do something about improving my knowledge of music theory and for a few years attended a group lesson every week from a professional rock guitarist. He taught us so much about alternative chord positions, playing in the box and to be comfortable with bar chords I learnt for the first time about pentatonic scales. I still can't play very well but I understand how the system works - and that's half the battle. He loved the old Hofner and loved to play it at those lessons.

Although I've started to play the saxophone seriously again I love that old Hofner. It is now quite a rare old thing, and I pick it up, however briefly, most days and have a quiet strum.

It's the very least I can do -  we go back a long way..............................