Paul (19 hcap) and Tony (20 hcap) admire the three birdie opportunities on the 10th hole at East Clare
Golf is a game I enjoyed playing from a pretty early age. I actually got reasonably good at it through my teens (12 handicap). In recent years I have returned to the game only to find I’m now pretty crap at it (20 handicap). Continue reading “Why do I bother playing golf?”
You are a weapon of mass seduction.
Please let me inspect you tonight.
You are a weapon of mass seduction.
I want to inspect you tonight.
In shock and awe, I’ve been reeling for days.
Your beautiful eyes were like laser guiding rays.
In shock and awe, now I’m feeling the pain.
All this searching for contact, leaves me sad ‘n’ insane.
I’m losing myself, I can’t find my mind,
I can’t seem to talk anymore.
There’s things inside me that I just cannot say
And it’s tearing me up, it’s tearing me up.
On a fine summer’s day,
Walk the East Clare Way
See a chimney piercing the sky.
Well it blows day and night and
The smoke is black and white.
Smell the chimney, piercing the sky.
Well, it’s farewell to Ireland
I’m leaving again.
When this May morning dawns
Another parting will begin
With a sense of hope across the land
For our daughters and our sons.
For the first time in my life
I feel the healing has begun.
My brothers and sisters when they reached eighteen years
They caused my mammy to shed many tears.
Yes, my mammy cried when they had to decide
To go over the water.
A hundred years before I saw the light of morn,
In Edinburgh’s Cowgate James Connolly was born.
The streets of Little Ireland were his home for many years,
From the West Port to Saint Mary’s Street, you feel him very near.
Hey! Don’t you feel that lovely evening sun?
It’s gonna burn all your troubles away.
So what if we didn’t do all that we wanted to get done,
Tomorrow, that’s another day.
This was how I commemorated the Millenium – at midnight on 31 December 1999 a few of us were sat around a bonfire in a suburban Edinburgh garden getting tucked into some vegan trifle! The recipe makes 2 trifles or you can have one trifle and a fruit sponge pudding. Trifle purists will argue of course that you have to have whipped cream and hundreds and thousands on top, but spongey-jelly-fruit with vanilla dessert is good enough for me! The sponge recipe was adapted from Neal Barnard’s lowfat recipe for Fruit Cobbler.
This recipe was adapted from the Vegan Carob Sponge in the Engine Shed Recipe Book and is the standard cake we use for family birthdays and any other time a lovely light sponge sandwich with “buttercream” icing and jam filling is required!
Wheaten Bread is popular in Ireland, (known as Wheaten Bread in the North and as Soda Bread in the South) and is traditionally made with buttermilk. It is a yeast-free bread and is therefore very quick to make.
Credit for this recipe goes to Nature’s Gate wholefood shop in Edinburgh, sadly now no longer in existence. This “Festive Roast” is so easy to make, turns out so well and has a very pleasant taste and texture that it has been the centrepiece of my Christmas day dinner for the last goodness knows how many years. (I say it is easy to make, but I suppose that is assuming you have access to a food processor to make the breadcrumbs, pulverise the cashew nuts and mix the tofu and stock together!)
This is another recipe for the sweet tooth and again it is inspired partly by the Engine Shed Recipe Book, though the initial credit must go to our friend Sheila Hyslop. Warning: the vegan adaptation is still somewhat experimental, so please attempt this recipe with a “trial and error” attitude, particularly when preparing the carob coating and olive oil. If you can’t get hold of carob that works well, substitute with vegan cooking chocolate, though we found that chocolate melts more in the hand when the balls get eaten.
I was walking, early springtime, just before the dawn
Down where the Shannon meets the sea.
Birds of prey were on the shore,
I never saw so many before
Down where the Shannon meets the sea.
