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Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

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Archives for March 2020

Borders

March 25, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

25 March 2020 at 10:31 GMT – 7°C Mostly Clear – Co. Dublin, Ireland

I stumbled over one of my photographs of the Mourne Mountains and that made me think of Slieve Gullion. Like Krakatoa and Vesuvius and Etna and Fuji, Slieve Gullion stands proud of its landscape though its a few million years older. And it’s often visible from South County Dublin some 90 km away and it less than 600 m high. Under high pressure conditions, not through today’s spring mists. It stands alone from our perspective, our eyes drawn to it in the same manner that drew megalithic people to build passage graves on the summit

I had the same view as my photograph when my age was in single digits. I remember seeing it once from where I grew up, through binoculars we were using to identify birds among the frames of hundreds of new houses being built at the end of our garden. My father joked “It’s a miracle” because the brown smog of Dublin city was between us and the mountains. The view disappeared shortly after that because my parents let the end of the garden grow wild to block our incoming neighbours from watching us in our kitchen and bedrooms.

[Read more…] about Borders

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: booklink, borders, garrett carr, geology, geophysics, mountains, photography, seg, volcano

1970 or 2020

March 24, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

24 March 2020 – 13:57 GMT – 13°C Mostly Cloudy – Co. Dublin, Ireland

I’m struggling to understand the uneven and unfair responses of global governments to the covidgency.  Shoulder-to-shoulder prayer meetings in India and Bangladesh versus arresting curfew breakers in Macedonia versus Belarus selling TV rights for its continuing football games. Not enough ventilators in Lombardy, among the richest places on earth, a team in Bray just eight kilometres from me have an Open Source Ventilator project trying to coordinate mass production of ventilators on not-for-profit basis. When the symptoms are treated, we must address the cause. Could that really be related to deforestation?

19,000 deaths.

[Read more…] about 1970 or 2020

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: biafra, Olafur Eliasson, photos, Tate Modern, ventilators, volcano

Plague Contagion Pandemic

March 23, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

23 March 2020 – 22:40 GMT – 8°C Mostly Cloudy – Co. Dublin, Ireland

I feel so sorry for everyone who has had to put their lives on hold and even sorrier for those whose loved ones will not hold onto their lives.

16,500 deaths.

The UK has gone into lock-down. About time too. Wonder if Ireland will do it tomorrow? And how did we get to having a 40,000 test backlog?

I walked to the vet earlier to collect meds for Gus, our dog. A supply he might need if Ireland goes into curfew. A proactive move to avoid future trips to the vet. Then we took him for a short neighbourhood walk.

[Read more…] about Plague Contagion Pandemic

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: atm, mandarin, pandemic, vet

Aviary

March 22, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

22 March 2020 – 10:35 GMT – 8°C Partly Cloudy – Co. Dublin, Ireland

Dunnocks on the bottlebrush.
Bullfinches feeding on the last flowers of the winter cherry.
Robin and Blue Tit scampering around on the budding maple.
Blackbirds on the lilac buds, chasing falling food to the ground below.
Great Tit lurking and singing in the pittosporum.
Long tailed tits looking me in the eye while clutching onto the thin window ledge.
Two Wood Quest Pigeons courting in the pine tree.
Magpies watching from the gutter.
Shadows of unseen hooded crows glide across the scene.

All this while I listen to the BBC TV that I have to use because RTE has no budget to show much news at all.

13,000 dead.

[Read more…] about Aviary

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: anxiety, birds, hang gliders, social protection, socrates

Jumping Vegetable Perdify

March 21, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

21 March 2020 – 10:01 GMT – 5°C Mostly Cloudy – Co. Dublin, Ireland

Washing, social distancing and isolation – all required in defence against a virus that jumps from animals we raise to eat – do we need a referendum – would any nation choose hay fever or corona? Not to mention a planet benefitting from methane reductions.

Six coronas included Mers and Sars all ‘jumped’ from animal husbandry. Then a seventh. Time to learn?

[Read more…] about Jumping Vegetable Perdify

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: diseases, leadership qualifications, pandemic, trust, vegetarianism

Look On The Bright Side

March 20, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

20 Mar 2020 – 10:36 GMT – 7°C Mostly Cloudy – Co. Dublin, Ireland

Always liked the idea of travel, the wonderment of it. Little intrigues in stories recounted by friends who had travelled widely. Not stories of cruise ships or ski chalets or student binges. I was more interested in stories of life in extremis.

Writer Gerry Hanley told me about the village elder missing the tip of his nose. Elder was shot through a thicket in the crossfire between Japanese and British troops in Burma. The thicket was big enough to have hidden an entire village. The elder was the only casualty despite none of the troops realising there were several hundred people between their muzzles.

[Read more…] about Look On The Bright Side

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: alexander kielland, biafra, burma, cigarettes, dog, gerry hanley, monty python, patagonia, photo, travel

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