Friday, January 20, 2012

Busy few days

Well John and I have had a busy three days, he is fast asleep on the couch as I type. We took down a tree the was over the driveway, the one I mentioned last post, it fell perfectly into the car parking spot on the roadside of the front wall exactly were I was aiming for and we mulched the branches, made a seat out of part of the main log and cut the rest up for firewood. We have also dug a drain, put up a fence to let some grass have some peace from dogs it was getting very muddy, cleaned out more of the pond and severely pruned the bushes round it, and chopped up another 3 wind blown trees. Doesn't sound much but we spent hours.

There were 5 fishermen lost here when their boat hit rocks Off west Cork, one was his first trip. The Adan and Eve rocks they hit we're only minutes away from the wharf which somehow makes it feel worse. Reminds me of one of our worst maritime disasters, the Iolaire was carrying sailors who had fought in the First World War back to the Scottish island of Lewis. She left the port of Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland late on the evening of the 31 December 1918. But, at 2:30am on New Year's Day, as the ship approached the port of Stornoway, a few yards offshore and a mile away from the safety of Stornoway Harbour, she hit the infamous rocks "The Beasts of Holm", and eventually sank. The final death toll was officially put at 205, of whom 181 were islanders, but as the ship was badly overcrowded and there was a lack of proper records the death toll could have been slightly higher. Apparently the folks waiting on the wharf could see the ships lights when she grounded.

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