Acair Fearann

A rare bit of good news, but Morocco is fairly stable.

http://ideas.ted.com/restoring-the-worlds-oldest-library/

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I was most surprised today when I swung through at lunch time to see the witch hazel in full bloom.  ‘Arnold’s Promise’, a spectacular yellow.  Perhaps, for once, we will have a witch hazel that actually does its thing.  The wild ones have a certain ephemeral charm, but something that is front and center in a garden needs to hold its own.  It looks like this one will. The little sweat bees certainly like it!

What else? some crocus, not as many as some years, but not too bad.  And snowdrops of course.

(I am told it got to about 75 today and sunny, wouldn’t you know after spending January tromping about in the woods at 20 and snowing….I was inside today aside from lunch? Good thing I actually don’t like hot and sunny! Still it was a little funny!)

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How to re-open an old road.  Add some chains to the tires and this is what I had the opportunity to drive today.*  The wheels are just shy of six feet tall. The articulation is incredible (rear and front axles are independent) but the blind spots are massive. It is a delicate, reactive machine, but it is big. There is a reason for those warning signs.  And, even though this really is a baby, it is quite able to pull a downed eighty foot hemlock without complaint.

*The one I was in doesn’t have as pretty a paint job, nor a cowl over the grapple arm….way to create a bigger blind spot there!

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Or, more to the point…..did you know that in sufficient quantity….apples don’t rot away over a mild winter?  No, neither did I.

At some point, I will have to deal with the west lawn’s apple problem.  Thankfully, since it is snowing a bit, I still have some time before I need to get it cleaned off. On the other hand there isn’t a large amount of gravel from the driveway on the lawn this year, unlike last year.  So it all balances out.

Remind me again why I planted some more? I do love them, but….!!

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hat tip to Maggie’s Farm:

http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/27738-500-high-school-students.html

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The clump of heather by the well stone is blooming now, the first flowers of 2016. The sun is moving north and the sky at nightfall is turquoise and gold.  A new year is coming across the land and what will it bring?

I am not where I was at this time last year, and the speed of change has been far greater than many years. The sun’s constancy has a great deal of comfort in it.  Can you imagine if the stars really were strange one day?

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I could curse, the car died, the computers are trying to die, all levels of government are being particularly and obnoxiously asinine, the customers are idiots, the board is obtuse, the weather is foul…..

But, equally: the weather is precisely what it ought to be for this time of year; my actual managers are very fine people indeed; the customers did come in; the government is leaving me alone currently; the computers are backed up; and the car….well the car died fifty feet from a safe parking lot next to a building from which I could immediately summon several strong guys to push it back to its resting spot from which it will be towed on Monday (furthermore I could immediately summon rides to and from my other job).  So no, not really that bad a day.

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