Greetings from Cranleymore

Saturday 2 July’11

Good day to all Family and friends,
At least it is not cold today and yesterday was hot, but I could not enjoy it as I was teaching CPR, although this period of time is called summer and you expect it to be warm, sunny, with bright skies, it does not apply to Cranleymore. We have our own weather here which differs from that in the town of Edgeworthstown as well as that of the county Longford and even of that of the Midlands.
The day started perfectly, gorgeous and we were so excited- it is now 11.30 and the clouds have made space for shadows where you do not want it and the possibility of rain is not far off!
Just back from outside as I wanted to hang to washing on the line but..... I am not Irish enough to do that-they leave the washing on the line for days until it eventually is dry , through the showers and whatever may happen in between- and it looks dark and ominous outside.
I always try to preserve energy but decided against it and have put the washing in the drier as it is my day off and I do not want to run in and out with the washing until.......!
The vegetable garden is totally overgrown and the goose manure has caused the plants to grow extra big and high.
We enjoyed broccoli and cauliflower during the week from our own garden and that was very special. The tomato plants on the porch are now 1.5 m high.
The roses are lovely and a rose that never grew and was really thrown out and put into the corner is now the most beautiful, dark red and sweet smelling rose thinkable. The sweet-peas are colourful and the petunias lovely- the baskets are passed their flowering time and are going down quickly now, maybe another 2 weeks and they will be gone.
The lower field is divided into 2, the pathway Barry cut for us to walk round and the inner part where the grasses were left growing for the enjoyment of the small birds and insects as well as the bees! The baby swallows do not fit into the nest anymore and reside now on the rafters of the donkey house until they depart.
Suddenly we have 3-4 cats visiting. The old cat that was coming to us for the last 2 years must be dead but the children now frequent the Dunnes hospitality. Two of her children visits now, as well as 2 black cats- the one is surely from a house around here as it sits and wait on the wall at the back door for Barry to bring something out! We recognise him as the one with the white spot on his chest. He does not even run away any-more. The other black cat does not look as well fed and is pitch black and very frightened.
The children of the matriarch arrives any time of the day and wait patiently under the hedge until Barry eventually bring something out- carefully check the surroundings out for danger and crawl then to the wall and devour all in no time everything that is available! We just love our visitors! The birds are also off course fed but only with old bread and oats! Mamma black bird is doing the feeding of the young all by herself, we have not seen the male for over 2 weeks- might have been killed as they would both be picking up worms to feed the young and he is no more.
The country itself is as beautiful as ever, lush green foliage on the trees and the farmers are cutting hay- very busy time of the year and our neighbour cut his fields behind is on Thursday evening – it has to lie for a couple of days and then the bailing starts, which he said he hope to do this afternoon- Ray, who does the cutting and bailing is from our church and he always have a minute to say good day to us which is lovely! The whole procedure has to be observed from inside the walls of our house where I am concerned as I get bad hay-fever from all the pollen- red watery eyes and non-stop sneezing, 20-30x in one go is nothing.
My knee gave final notice and I cannot walk on my treadmill at all anymore and we have decided to sell it- and buy a new TV we still have an old fashioned TV and hopefully we will now fit into the modern times.
At work the morale is low and this man MG as I call him may be a good businessman but there it ends! The new Emergency department is opening on the 18th and the Cardiology Dept on the 11th. There is a tremendous backlog of National Health patients waiting for operation for over 3 years and the hospital did a deal with the HSE and the consultants will work through the backlog at a lesser price and the hospital will give a special tariff- the package must be good as there is no money in the health sector and for the HSE to accept the deal means that it must be to their advantage. With that in mind the ENT surgeons are going to work like mad and the theatre staff as well as us in the ward for the next 3 weeks, we have been scheduled for extra shifts, instead for 3 nights a week we will be working 4 nights and then have the 1st week in August off- as the theatres will be closed for revamping and the installation of a clean air theatre where hip and knee replacements will be done!
I also did some teaching yesterday BLS (CPR) basic Life Support and another 40 still needs to be trained.
I lost track of what the politicians are up to accept for the one TD (member of parliament) who won a celebrity contest in 2007 for charity and now it came to the front that over 3,600 calls were made from the government building to vote for him and to prevent him being asked to resign, he decided to pay the account. They, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste (Prime minister and deputy with the Min of Finance) are still trying their best to get the interest rate down for the bailout moneys from the IMF but who knows what goes for what- I doubt if they themselves know what they are doing!
Birthday! Annemaria (Haya) on the 5th and Hester her sister the 6th, Happy Birthday to both of you! May it be a joyful year full of wonderful experiences and surprises.
Some results of exams have been coming forth and Jeanne Potgieter my friend Marthie’s daughter passed her year doing Law with Cum Laude! Wonderful and congratulations!
Tomorrow is the best day of my week and as I have to work next weekend Joy will play for me and I will do her Sunday-tomorrow! Soul food and Praise is at the order of the day.
Sincerely hope that every-one will have a blessed Sunday and week!
Finbarr, Amanda and Lukas should be at their destination in the Canary Islands where they will spend the next 7 days!
They both worked extremely hard and deserve a rest- we will just miss talking to Lukas!

We read about the many farm murders and would just like to re-iterate the importance of being diligent with your own safety.
It started to rain and I greet you then from Cranleymore where things are always different than anywhere else!
Barry and Christina