BT Notes: Kung Hei Fat Choi, fishing, …

woodsHappy New Year!  Chinese New Year that is!  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.  To celebrate yours truly attempted some Chinese cooking – not a complete disaster and the children enjoyed it!  Coincidentally rat‘s have been on my mind recently.  Firstly, because there was such a good crop of them this autumn and last week I finally succumbed to using poison.  I hate to do it because it is mean and the poison spreads through the food chain.  The small consolation is that vegetarians generally avoid the poison web because they won’t eat dead carcasses.  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.  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.  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.  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 associations and rat shows, like dog shows.  The rats at these look quite nice and well behaved.  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).

There is news on the fishing front.  As mentioned before there are to be conservation restrictions in place on many rivers in Ireland this year.  The Slaney has salmon and sea-trout catch and release only.  You can read about these restrictions here. 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.  This group includes Tullow Anglers who voted unanimously at their AGM to ban fishing salmon on their waters this year.  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).

Our fishing policy this year will be somewhat restrictive.  There will be no fishing at all, except for overnight tourists who will not be charged by us but who will require a guide.  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.  This of course also means that season rods will not be taken up.
However, as development of the natural playground continues here at Ballin Temple we will open up access.  From this year people interested in contributing to the maintenance of the woods and river are invited to take an annual ticket.  This will entitle holders to access and will help us maintain paths, parking, banks, woods, tea hut, security, etc.  Depending on the activities you plan to pursue – walking, horse riding, bike riding, camping, fishing, etc – there will be small supplement.  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.  Please drop me a line to find out more.
The pace of activity in the garden seems to have picked up suddenly.  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.  I’ve restructured my rotation slightly and tilled half the plots, trimmed the hazels between the plots and planted onion sets, broad beans, beetroot.  Garlic should go in soon and greenhouse plants are being sowed.  The warm sunny days are very difficult to refuse and offer an attractive distraction from the desk!  I wonder if this warm weather is going to be like April last year – extraordinarily pleasant and seemingly unseasonal – and then no summer …!  I think its getting close to time for a BarBQ while its dry :-).

Pam’s popular yoga classes are still ongoing, though there will be a break for Easter soon.  Check with Pam for details (059 9155037).
Finally a bit of news from Astraea – we’re in the process of launching a new workshop for people thinking of changing their lifestyle.  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!  There is a brief summary here, or call me to find out more (059 9155037).

I hope you’re enjoying a fantastic spring with sunny warm days (or a lovely autumn if you’re down under 🙂 ).
And boys, remember to show your partner some love on Thursday – Happy Valentine’s Day.
Best wishes,

Tom

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