Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (13535)

Ireland

Joined myLot 10 years ago

An Irishman who has called many places home, enjoys whiskey in moderation and reads Dostoyevsky frequently.

Fiacre Banks's Discussions

Travelling angst.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 5 May

Travel really does bring out the atrabilious old codger in me. Can’t help it. This Dublin airport hotel I’m holed up in is okay I suppose. The staff have been efficient, friendly and helpful but the food is overpriced and...

4 responses •

4 people

Tale of the windy teacher.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 4 May

I giggled and chuckled my way through Church this morning and was severely admonished by the wifely glare coming at me but I didn’t care. A woman came in and sat in front of me and I recognised her to be a teacher who taught my...

5 responses •

6 people

Time and taxes.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 2 May

I got my tax return completed and submitted today, nine months before it’s due. Normally I let it go right up yo the wire and panic, but this time it’s done and dusted - why didn’t I do this years ago? And it’s so simple now that...

5 responses •

7 people

Ticket to ride.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 2 May

While England has been suffering in up to 29 degree heat (Celsius) I have been quite content to enjoy a mere 13 degrees here in Ireland - 55F in old money. The garden is sheltered and warm, a bit of a sun trap, and the grass is...

8 responses •

9 people

Oh happy day.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 1 May

More common sense was spoken today when a few of Britain’s sporting bodies declared that trans women could not compete or play in women’s teams. Trans groups are incensed, but a lot of women are relieved that they won’t face a...

4 responses •

5 people

Common sense prevails.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 1 May

For a number of years now there has been a proposal to build a “visitors centre” (over-priced and poor quality cafe and over-priced gift shop) on the side of Slieve Donard, the highest peak in the mountains of Mourne, Northern...

5 responses •

6 people

Daisy, Daisy.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 29 Apr

Meet Oscar, one of the plants living in a little terracotta pot and adorning my deck. He’s an osteospermum but prefers the nickname African Daisy, and has a sister in another part of the garden who has orange flowers. I really...

4 responses •

6 people

You plant pansies and you get potatoes.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 29 Apr

The photo above depicts the reason for my current pondering. Among my yellow pansies blooming away merrily in a tub and annoying nobody, a potato plant has sprouted. This can happen if you don’t lift all the previous year’s crop...

5 responses •

5 people

Days of impecunity.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 28 Apr

Doesn’t it feel so good to be able to climb into bed at the end of a hard day, into a warm, comfortable, safe bed with clean sheets? The windows are fully glazed and there is no chance of rats, snakes or ne’er-do-wells creeping up...

5 responses •

7 people

Sunday morning.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 27 Apr

It’s a warm morning down by the shore. The ferry from Scotland has just slipped into the harbour, its engines humming beneath the water, gulls wheeling and squealing in its wake. Soon a convoy of cars and trucks will spew out of...

3 responses •

4 people

Egyptian cotton memory.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 26 Apr

A chance reference to Egyptian cotton on TV tonight sent me on a trip back in time and conjured a life lived a long time ago. In 1969 an American friend from Greenville Ohio gave my mother a stole made of Egyptian cotton. He’d...

3 responses •

7 people

Sunshine, blossom and wine.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 24 Apr

The back garden was a glory of warm pink this afternoon. The sun shone and the wind made the cherry blossom fall onto the grass. I sat a goodly while in the sunshine, fortified yet laid languid by a glass(es) of the noble grape. I...

4 responses •

7 people

Issues upon issues.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 23 Apr

The positive way of looking at our boiler/furnace issues is that the weather is heating up, and heat is not urgently required. The negative way is to focus on the expense of buying a new one and having it installed. The previous...

5 responses •

7 people

Back to France - what a drag!

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 17 Apr

Yes, I’m off on the trot again and it wasn’t planned. Hot on the heels of my May sojourn in Athens I feel the need to visit my brother - he’s just moved permanently into a care home due to the limitations brought on by Parkinson’s...

6 responses •

7 people

What is a woman?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 16 Apr

Whoever thought it would come to this? Among all the silliness that people visit upon us, today a British Court ruled on the definition of what a woman is. Now I’ve known for quite some time what a woman is, but nobody ever pays...

8 responses •

10 people

Irish rain.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 14 Apr

My garden looks like it’s smiling in at me as I watch it from the kitchen window. That’s because just after lunch time it saw rain for the first time in over 2 weeks. And it wasn’t just a warm spot of rain, it was a prolonged...

8 responses •

9 people

Lavatree blues.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 13 Apr

The bubble monkeys were at their nonsense again tonight. They mixed some of grandma’s special recipe with my coffee and I woke up later with these poetic thoughts firmly etched on my brain. Read them with a slow lilt if you dare,...

4 responses •

6 people

Spare a thought for sea creatures.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 11 Apr

I sat in the sunshine up at Skernaghan Point this afternoon, well away from the frivolity of the beach where pasty white bodies were all turning crimson. There were sheep in the paddock, loads of them, all bleating. One enormous...

4 responses •

8 people

Greece - good or not good?

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 9 Apr

The Aer Lingus app tells me that I’ll be landing in Athens in 26 days, as will my wife and daughter. A taxi will whip us away to Piraeus where we hope to overnight at a port side hotel with a roof top bar, and next day a flying...

5 responses •

6 people

Nooky on the decking.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13535) • Ireland 9 Apr

I can’t think of much that betters rising with the late spring sun and pottering about the dew-wet garden, noting what seeds have sprouted overnight and setting out breakfast for the birds. And aren’t birds so admirable, so...

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4 people