Catherine Daly Writer

2012-01-22T12:51:00.001Z

Charlotte's Way is now available for download on Kindle, or in all other formats, at smashwords.
Kindle UK
Kindle US (and Ireland)

Reviews
Excellent, really, really magnificent. Catherine Daly has definitely delivered a great book once again
...Fast becoming an author to be reckoned with..
...brilliant attention to detail and a friendship story that everyone will relate to. (Woman's Way)

Her characters are believable and her storyline is just gripping enough without being over the top.
Watch out for Daly, she could very well be the next Maeve Binchy. (Bibliofemme)

...a heartwarming family tale about discovery, love, longing and friendship...(In Dublin Magazine)

Reviewers please contact me for a free copy.

All Shook Up available as kindle book

2012-01-05T16:39:00.005Z

It only took a paltry seven years after the print publication of the book- but hey! I finally managed it. It being the successful conversion of "All Shook Up" to an e-book.
I still have to convert "Charlotte's Way" and "A French Affair" but now that I know how to do it, hopefully it won't take too long.
In the meantime, here are the links you need to get you to the amazon pages:

Author page amazon UK

Author page amazon.com

Book on amazon.fr
Book amazon.de

And what do you think of the new and beautiful cover I made for it?

Prepare for the winter blues (SAD) ahead of time.

2011-08-31T16:55:00.004+01:00

The season of SAD approaches
And this year, I'm planning ahead for it!
Although it still officially only August (just), it's hard not to think ahead to those long dark winter nights, and the corresponding short days. And the prospect of short days and long cold nights is enough to depress anyone - especially after the summer we've just had. But for a significant proportion of the population winter also brings with it the health problem known as seasonal affective disorder or SAD.

What is SAD?
Seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter blues or seasonal depression, is actually a form of depression and needs to be taken seriously by patients, carers and the medical profession alike. It is triggered by shorter days, and a reduction in light levels as the sun doesn't climb as high in the sky. For this reason, SAD is more common in countries far from the equator like in Northern Europe, than in more southern latitudes such as north Africa, or equatorial regions

Symptoms of SAD include:

sadness, hopelessness, and low mood for an extended period of time
Weight gain and increased appetite, with a particular craving for carbohydrates
Losing interest in activities that are normally enjoyable, and consequently losing social contact and becoming more withdrawn
Tiredness and oversleeping, with a feeling of always being low in energy
Deterioration in memory and other cognitive functions. For example getting confused easily, or finding it harder to make decisions.

If you think you may be a sufferer of SAD it is worth taking time to discuss with your doctor to discuss treatment options.

If you are a frequent sufferer now is the time to start taking action to reduce the impact of this year's winter blues.

Light is by far the best treatment option for SAD, although antidepressant drugs and talk therapy also play their part. The problem is how to maximise your light exposure at a time of year when light is at a premium.

Top tips to ensure you maximise light exposure:

Make a point of being outdoors at some stage during the brightest part of the day (usually between 11am and 2pm.) If you can combine exercise with this time, so much the better as exercise is a good treatment for all forms of depression. So take a walk outdoors during your lunch break, do a bit of gardening, take the dog for a walk, go running. Even on a cloudy day you will get a big dose of light by being outside at this time.
Find an open space outdoors where you're not shaded by trees or buildings. Think parks or running tracks. Lakes and mountains. Open countryside or roof gardens. Think Big Sky
Use a light box. But make sure it is one which delivers 10 000 lux of light at a reasonable distance from it. It will be rated something like "10 000 lux at 30cm/ one foot". Use it first thing in the morning if you can, but the best is as soon as possible after you waken in the morning.
Make sure your environment is as bright as possible. Indoors make sure all the windows are clear of curtains and pull the blinds open fully to stop any shading. Spend more time in the South side of the house than the North. Sit near the biggest windows.
Cut down or trim any trees shading your windows.
Ask your employer if you can sit near a window, and time your breaks for the brightest parts of the day.
Consider a sun holiday if you can afford it. But at the very least take a few days off when you're at your lowest, and spend the middle of those days outside.

Apart from maximising light exposure there are other things that can help with SAD:

Take good care of your diet. Eat helthily. Don't succumb to those sugar cravings, or you'll get a sugar rush followed by an insulin crash with all the mood swings that entails. Try to eat protein and slow release carbohydrates regularly throughout the day .
Tell people how you feel, and how you need to be encouraged to get out and about rather than skulking at home.
Exercise at least 3-5 times per week. This is a treatment recommended for all forms of depression.
Consider antidepressants if your doctor recommends them
Consider talk therapy

But most of all at the darkest point in winter, remember Spring will follow, and Summer after that, and your worls will be filled with light again.

Keeping the writing muscles going.

2011-08-29T17:56:00.009+01:00

It hasn't just been the blog I've been neglecting for the past few years. I've haven't been doing much writing at all. Part of it was down to bouts of depression when not only could I not be bothered, but sometimes I physically couldn't because of sheer exhaustion. So, not so much writer's block as writer's complete stop. I not only couldn't think of anything to write about, I couldn't even turn up at the page and stare blankly at it.
My health over the past few years has also left alot to be desired. I've been through a series of doctors and consultants and a full array of medical tests to address symptoms, but nothing showed up.And all this left me without the inclination, inspiration or sheer energy to write...

But earlier this summer I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and all the bits fell into place. No cure, living with fibromyalgia is all about management, but at least I could stop visiting doctors and worrying about whatever it was they weren't picking up. Because something was sure making me sick.
Now what you may ask has fibromyalgia got to do with writing.
Well, writing is what I do. I like writing. It challenges me, and improves my mood. No matter what I am writing about. But in the past I was always writing with a goal in sight. Finish the next chapter. Get to the end of a novel. Write a book review. Write a publicity piece. Now I'm a bit aimless. I've been out of writing for so long that I've lost the "writers' fitness" I had before. Words no longer flow as readily as they used to. I have no ideas. This is all partly down to the fibro screwing with my head- a phenomenon known as fibro fog - and partly due to the fatigue that comes with fibromyalgia.

But if I don't write what do I do? I can't work on my feet anymore- I wouldn't last a week. Even part time. And the unpredictability of fibro makes it impossible to commit properly to any job. One night out and the next day I can be an exhausted mess. One night staying in, but maybe going for a "good for me" walk -and the next day I can be exhausted or fine. One day I can manage a particular set of stairs up and down all day, no problem. The next I suddenly need to stop half way up to take a rest.

So writing is the only option if I want to reactivate my mind and have some hope of writing for a living in the future. So how do I do it without writing to a goal? Write for the Internet. It is a very forgiving boss. I just show up and write whatever I feel like, without deadline, required article length or commission. No need to have one particular 'voice'. My mood may dictate what I write but at least if my mood is bad then writing will improve it.

There are many sites where you can submit articles and having a couple of blogs is a good idea so there's always something and somewhere for me to write. And the more I write the more I feel like writing.
Some sites such as Infobarrel or Hubpages allow you to post articles on any topic and then get a share of ad revenue, but I'm not looking for big bucks more for a place to publish and to write. It needs to be public, because otherwise my writing becomes too introspective and naval gazing.

My foray into laser technology. (oh, okay, Laser printers)

2011-08-24T12:35:00.002+01:00

Why I love my new Laser Printer.

I'm not a techie, but back about a decade ago I was an early adopter. Tiny laptops, phones I could check e-mails on, ubuntu loaded onto an old laptup to make it work faster and give it a new life, wifi all over the house. We were the envy of the neighbours. (Or we would have been if we were the boasting type. But of course we're not.) Then too many things began to change too fast, and demanded an honours degree in maths to understand so I threw up my hands and hid behind the couch. Now am nearly at the point where I have to ask my teenagers to set the video. (What do you mean there's no such thing as video any more?)

Anyway, having always had at least a couple of computers in the house, we always had a couple of printers too. All inkjet, all by well known brands, and all worked reasonably well.

Then my printer broke down, stopped working, and refused to move because I had been putting in non branded ink cartridges. I had been doing this for years, but somehow I let the printer upgrade itself over the internet and it decided to go on strike next time I went to change a cartridge.

“But I only want you to print black and white” I pleaded with it. “You're only missing magenta, and you don't even need magenta to print black and white. Just print the flippin' document. Please...” (There may or may not have been some other things muttered under my breath, but we won't go into that!)

So off I went to get new ink. And later that week the printer stopped for good. Clearly too much of the 'pure stuff' had sent it over the edge.

I gave the printer a decent requiem. It had served me well for at least six years and had printed out a couple of full length novels, in the process. Which is a longer life and greater usefulness than many electric devices these days.

And then I began to think about a new printer. I say think, because as we now have a wireless printer in the family room, I could still print from the office, and running up and down stairs must have been good for me. So I thought some more, and developed thighs of iron. (That last bit's an exaggeration). And then I realised that I didn't actually need a colour printer. The wireless printer downstairs is colour, but I hardly ever need to print colour.

So carefully I set out for the printer shop, and asked about black and white printers. “You mean laser printers,” the helpful child behind the counter said. I didn't, but I nodded knowingly. I felt fear chill my core. Last time I went looking for a new printer, laser printers meant mortgages. “I'm only looking, really,” I told the child-assistant, shoving my wallet further down into the bag.

Then he showed me the entry model Brother laser printer. It looked the business, and matched what I thought a printer should look like. A solid space-occupying piece of office machinery which made it's owner look important. (I also saw portable printers you could fold up and slip in your pocket and they looked, quite honestly, a little ridiculous). Then I saw the price tag (€89) on the printer and I fell in love. (With the printer, not the child-assistant.).

“There's a free toner cartridge in it, not a full sized one but it will do for about 5000 letters.” he said, and the deal was complete.

Now I have been using the printer for about a month and I have to say the love affair is still going strong. I congratulate myself daily for clearing space on my desk and not leaving the printer on the other side of the room. Why? Because this printer is so fast (and all you inkjet users take note) that when I press “print” on my computer- I can't actually make across the room before the item's printed. Imagine that!

New Year- more blogs entries?

2010-01-05T15:11:00.001Z

Not an original resolution by any means- in fact I may have included it last year. But I've added the blogger tool to my i-google page so maybe it'll prompt me to blog more often. Here's hoping!!

Wormery update.

2009-11-02T13:08:00.011Z

It's been ages since I updated. I'm now composting all the organic waste in the house and garden. The can-o-worms is still in the garage and gets used whenever it's too wet or too cold to make the trip outdoors. The big green flow through is taking alot more waste than I expected, and it's getting rid of loads of cardboard and newspapers for me too. In summer heat was a bit of an isue, so I had to build a sun shelter for it. In winter it gets no sun, and I'm hoping that the heat of decomposition will keep the bin warm enough to keep my worms active.
The vermicompost has been great in the garden- I got a great crop of runner beans and carrots, and there are still tomatoes on the vine outdoors. The dog unfortunately figured out how to suck strawberries through the bird netting and got most of the crop before we managed to eat many. Next year I'll have to plan better.
I also made a few batches of vermicompost tea, and was amazed withthe results. Plants love it- aphids hate it. It even cleared black fly off a row off broad beans. I'll be putting down loads more broad beans this year so we'll have to sea if I'm as lucky again.

I made a new bin which was going to just be a well ventilated garden compost bin: (you can just about see a grate about a foot above ground level on which the compost sits for great airflow.)

But it was quickly invaded by worms and now produces the most gorgeous compost which is very rich in castings, I set it up in early june and I've taken about 100 litres of compost from it, and added a huge amount of pre-composted garden waste. I sometimes wonder will it ever fill up- my garden isn't that big!!

My worms are well and truly mixed up now. There are still e. hortensis round, but there seem to be alot less of them than the e fetida (or possibly e. andreii), but maybe the e hortensis take longer to reach adulthood. Whenever I take a batch of worms indoors to breeding bins, I usually get a few bruisers in each bin that just have to be e h. I haven't tried separatign them out, because I believe that a mixed population is probably as good an idea as any for composting as they can cope with a variety of conditions.

Winter Vermicomposting:
We're lucky in Ireland not to have too severe winters so the big flow through will hopefully operate all winter, with the can-o-worms and some plastic bins in the garage as a backup. Last winter I didn't have nealy as many worms in it as I do this year and sometimes I struggled to get all the cooked food composted. (Uncooked veggie peelings etc still went out on the compost heap to wait for spring!).
I'm not sure how brave I'll be with meat and fish though. Since summer, once I was happy that the big flow through was coping with waste quickly enough to stop smells or flies or vermin being a problem, I have been adding fish and meat without too many problems. But I don't hink I'd chance it in the can-o-worms because there's only a single door between the house and the garage in case of problems! So if lowering temperatures cause the flow through to slow down, I may have to re-consider.

Flow through vermicomposting

2009-05-27T11:46:00.014+01:00

Flow through Vermicomposting is probably the most efficient way of getting your worms to convert waste to good quality compost. The principle being that you add organic waste to the top and remove compost from the bottom. With a good air supply coming in from the base, hot air (heated by the composting process) rising through the column of compost draws in fresh air from the bottom, thus ensuring a continuous aerobic process and optimum conditions for the worms.

Pictures of my flow through bin:

This bin was one I bought in 1999 when worm composting was in its infancy in Ireland. The instructions were basically to throw in your food waste at the top and collect the compost out the bottom. It worked to a degree, but worm populations never got that good, and despite the size, it wasn't able to cope with huge amounts of waste. It also got very wet, even with the spigot open, and the compost was very compacted and sometimes smelly.

So to increase it's efficiency I've added rods above the collecting opening:

I laid a few sheets of newspaper over the rods and then added the contents of my can-o-worms over that. The can-o-worms had E Hortensis in it (euro night crawlers/ dendrobaenas), and they seem to be loving their new bin.
I feed once or twice a week, depending on how much waste builds up. I shred all of our light cardboard, most of our corrugated cardboard, a fair bit of newspaper and all our office waste paper/ junk mail and use the waste paper as 'bedding' or to keep the carbon:nitrogen ration balanced.

100 worms in a lunchbox

2009-03-24T13:44:00.005Z

Exactly what it says- the latest experiment. 100 Eisenia Hortensis worms, from my can o worms, placed in a lunchbox with compost sprinkled with an eggshell/ oatmeal/ cornflour mix. Lets see how many cocoons I can get out of that!

Review- Leaving the World by Douglas Kennedy

2009-03-22T16:05:00.006Z

Douglas Kennedy is an American born writer, now living on this side of the Atlantic, dividing his time between London Paris and Berlin. Following a career in theatre and newspapers, he wrote a number of travel books before writing three well-received thrillers between 1994 and 1998. In 2001 he changed genre completely to write 'The Pursuit of Happiness', a literary romantic tale set against the back-drop of the Mc Carthy witch-hunts. He has continued to write intelligent fiction about complex characters in novels including 'A Special Relationship' (2003)and most recently 'The Woman in the Fifth' (2007). He is a self-confessed culture addict and his books are filled with frequent and lyrical references to film, literature and music. 'Leaving the World' is no different.
The book opens with a declaration by heroine Jane Howard on her thirteenth birthday, that she will never get married or have children. “No one's actually happy,” she adds. But words, as her mother (and life) will continually remind her, 'have consequences'. Her father leaves home the next day and Jane's mother will spend the rest of her life mythologising her marriage and blaming Jane for its loss.
Douglas Kennedy's strength lies in producing finely drawn characters thrown by the randomness of life into unbearable situations which, though not their own fault, arise through their flaws. Fans of Kennedy's will quickly recognise this in Jane Howard. She enters adult life starved of approval and with a terror of abandonment and pursues success in her academic career so rigorously that she leaves little time for friends. Her love affairs are with men as damaged as she is. She refuses to commit fully to David, the love of her life and the one man who might save her. And, when she is similarly unable to save him, he dies in an tragic accident.
Jane escapes into a career in finance, deciding to 'make real money' to bolster her self esteem. She is successful but her life soon implodes once again when she makes an unwise decision motivated by the desire to impress her long-absent father. A retreat back into academia leads to an on-off relationship with the with the wildly unstable film-fanatic, Theo and they have a child together. From here things go rapidly downhill for Jane as Theo's involvement in a risky film venture eventually drives her close to bankruptcy and towards heartbreaking tragedy.
By now, her damaged psyche leaves her unwilling or unable to trust those who have her best interests at heart, and Jane 'leaves the world'. Cutting off all contact with her old life, she builds a new life away from anyone who knows her. It is only when a child from a nearby community disappears that she must chose whether to remain anonymous, nursing her damaged sense of self back to life, or follow her instincts and get involved.
'Leaving the World' is a fast-paced, stylishly written novel. But at times it feels over-plotted. Some of the plot-turns feel like devices to set up later action. For example Jane's brief foray into the world of high finance is interesting, but short and unsatisfying, giving the impression that it is included merely to submit her to the final destructive betrayal by her father and leave her in a healthy enough financial position to be a target for later fraud. Similarly the final denouement, the story of the missing child, although it reads like a good thriller with a high potential for horror to keep the reader gripped, (Kennedy is making good use of his early writing experience), it is only loosely tied into the rest of Jane's story.
But for all that, Kennedy has turned out a book that will be popular with his many fans (he is translated into sixteen languages and has sold millions), and he will win readers over with his well written and lyrical investigation of how single random events shape lives.

Leaving the World by Douglas Kennedy
Hutchinson
451 pp £14.99

This review first appeared in the Irish Times Weekend Section on 14t March 2009

Cocoons.

2009-03-18T16:40:00.007Z

This a picture of the second lot of cocoons I rescued from the compost in the 'vermi-pow ering'
experiment. So all in all, I reckon I harvested over 300 cocoons from 600g worms in compost for six days. Not a bad way of increasing stock!!

Result of vermi-power experiment

2009-03-15T13:20:00.006Z

Before and after image of compost. Six days work by the worms!

Yesterday I looked again at my 10 litres of compost with the worms in it. The texture was unbelievably changed. So dense and like pure worm castings that I thought I'd better remove the worms from it. The volume had dropped by at least half.

It is too dense to sow directly into so I will have to mix it with compost before sowing. I had initially thought that a few days of the worms in the compost would just add enough castings to improve its quality and give it some of the properties that make castings so valuable, but maybe the sheer quantity of worms managed to process virtually all of the compost. It would certainly be a good way of getting some castings in a hurry- for example to set up a growing experiment or to give to someone to convince them of the power of worm castings.

The unexpected result I got was the number of cocoons in the bin. I pulled out over a hundred, but as I said the compost was so dense and sticky that I'm sure I missed plenty. I'm leaving it in the sun to dry today to see if I can extract more.

So I set up a new container of compost to start again. But this time I am adding twice the amount of compost and leaving it for the same six days to see what result I get. Why? Just because!

An experiment using worms to vermi-power compost without having to wait for finished castings.

2009-03-08T15:22:00.012Z

Researchers have found that adding vermicompost or worm castings to seed compost can enhance germination and reduce diseases such as damping off, so I was determined to give it a try this year.
Unfortunately the bottom tray of my can of worms still contains a fair bit of undigested matter. For obvious reasons I don't want that on my windowsill exposed to flies etc. So I thought I'd try an alternative method of adding vermi-power to my compost.

I took about 10 litres of unused, finished garden (not vermi) compost, sieved it and placed it in a plastic crate. Then I added 600g of worms (Eisenia Hortensis or European night crawlers). I added some food to the system, just to help the worms settle in, but there should be a fair number of microbes and organic matter in the compost for the worms to consume- my hope being that in a week or two, most of the compost will have passed through the worms' intestines and have been “vermi-fied”. The food was added at the top of the compost, on a knitted cloth, to stop food from mixing with the compost, so that when I 'harvest' my compost I won't have food mixed through it.

Also, I have noticed in the past that there tends to be a concentration of cocoons near the cloths, perhaps because the worms like using the holes in the weave to anchor themselves while shedding the cocoon. So hopefully I'll be able to rescue some cocoons before I use the compost for potting up seeds.

Some references:
http://www.codis2008.ch/documents/posters/P13-Lazcano-Session4_1.pdf
http://www.ecoyardfarming.com/wormcompost/seed-germination-trials-with-vermipost/
http://www.redwormcomposting.com/interviews/interview-with-allison-jack/

Some pictures:

Worms removed from can o worms ready to move into their temporary home. (the cloth is so that when they move away from light, through cloth they will leave behind any traces of their old bedding).

Lifting cloth to show worms travelling through it.

Worms have settled in

Food in place

Moisture cloth in place

Test-driving the Sony e-book reader

2009-01-22T20:14:00.004Z

I was given an e-book reader (the Sony one) for Christmas, so it finally gave me a chance to try one out. When these came out first, I was sceptical. I love the feel of a paper book, and I love to read in the bath, which is not something I'd risk with such an expensive piece of technology. But I'm open minded, and anything which offers me another way to get at books has to be good!
We were spending about ten days away over the Christmas break so it was the perfect opportunity to test it for real. I brought way less books than I usually would, which was just asa well, because we were barely within weight restrictions on the flight. Instead, I loaded the books that came with the reader, and boarded my flight.
I was actually surprised how easy it is to hold and read. Not exactly like a book, but close enough that when you've been reading a few minutes, and you've got used to the way you turn the page, you soon forget that it's anything different. It's not back-lit, so the screen is easy on the eye, and one of the winning features, when it gets late, and the old eyes get tired (or you've forgotten your glasses) you can increase the font size.
I have some niggles- there's no way of annotating text, or making notes, and frustratingly if you want to attach a notebook or even just a few bits of paper to the inside cover, you can't switch over the reader so that the 'empty' cover is on your right. Great for the left-handed, but I would have to reach across the text to scribble on a piece of paper inside the cover. For a technology which is ideal for text books, and for anyone who has to carry around a lot of books for the sake of their work (for example reviewers) I would have thought Sony would have wanted to make taking notes easier.
Then there's the books available. I know it's early days, but there's a limit to what books are available. The Sony shop itself has a poor selection (nearly all new releases) and Waterstones, which launched the reader in the UK and Ireland wasn't a whole lot better. Then I ran an Internet search on 'Richard Ford e-book', 'Roddy Doyle e-book', and 'Maeve Binchy e-book' and came up with a few titles, but most of them are available cheaper in paperback (and even hardback, new, if you look hard enough.)
Finally price- the reader itself is pricey enough, but for new books, publishers only offer a saving of a euro or two for the digital versus the printed version. This for doing the work of downloading the file onto your computer, and transferring onto your reader. (They save on printing, inventory, storage, transportation, invoicing and returns costs.)I know book price probably isn't the main reason why anyone would buy a digital rather than a real book, but if the publishers want to catch the reader who reads more than three or four books a year (and who else would fork out for a reader?) they're going to have to work harder on pricing. Personally, I can see myself catching up on my (out of copyright and cheap) Classics on the reader, but sticking to real books for most reading.

Recycling vs Composting

2009-01-15T13:59:00.005Z

I was listening to a radio piece this morning about a problem with kerbside recycling of paper. (It applies to some other recycled wastes too, but it's paper and cardboard I'm addressing here.)
First of all is the fact that most of the collected waste for recycling in Ireland goes to China. Transport = greenhouse gasses.
Secondly, the price obtained by recyclers for paper as a raw material for paper mills has dropped such that it is no longer as economically viable to collect the paper and ship it to China. And yet making recycled paper is 80% more efficient than making paper from wood pulp.
There is also the possibility of using the paper as a form of fuel.
So my question is, which is better for the environment (specifically from a greenhouse gas point of view)- curbside recycling of paper and cardboard, or composting it at home?
Most of the worm forums agree that torn up corrugated cardboard is the bedding of choice for home wormeries, and newspaper isn't bad either. But would it be better to recycle it? Is the energy used in transporting it to china sufficiently compensated for by the amount of energy saved by recycling paper rather than making it from pulp. And what about the trees saved? A mature, or 'ancient plantation' tree stores a lot more carbon than the saplings planted to replace it in 'renewable resource forestry'.
And what if the paper is burned as a fuel?
And if the compost generated in the garden is used to reduce the use of fuel intensive fertilisers? And used to grow home grown veggies to reduce food miles?
Has anyone done the maths? Is it possible to do the maths?

More Worms part 2!!

2009-01-15T13:54:00.006Z

I've decided to bite the bullet and buy some more worms. I've ordered 2kg online so I'll have to get to work on getting a bin ready for them. I think I'll put them in the can-o-worms in the garage for the moment. Although it's cold out there, it doesn't freeze, and it's not as cold as outside. (And I think the other half might be upset by that many worms in the utility room). 2Kg of worms should get through a lot more waste than I'm feeding them at the moment but not more than we generate when you take all raw food into account aswell. I've ordered Dendrobaenas (E. Hortensis or European Nightcrawlers) and although some sources claim they're not as good as Red Wrigglers (E.Foetida), most say they're more robust in a poorly kept bin. Not that I plan on having a poorly kept bin, but I have killed off substantial fractions of herds before due to over-feeding and dampness. So I'll keep these worms separate for the moment to compare to the others, although it's not exactly a scientific comparison, because I'm sure the worms rescued from my outdoor wormery and brought indoors for winter, are almost certainly mixed species.
Now I can't wait for them to arrive- watch this space!!

More worms

2009-01-08T21:02:00.002Z

Following on from the last post- I've been doing a lot more reading up on Vermicomposting. There's a lot more information out there now, than there was when I started about ten years ago. Think of all the worms I've probably killed in the meantime. At least I haven't had to buy any fresh ones, I've just muddled along with the ones I started with and presumably a fairly healthy dose of their offspring.
But as I've given away about a quarter pound to the school, and I've only about a half pound of adults indoors that I rescued from the outdoor bing before it got too cold, I've decided to try a breeding experiment to get my numbers back up again before spring.
I've placed about 80 adult worms in smallish bin, with bedding and a small amount of food where I'll leave them for about 2-3 weeks. The idea being that they'll breed like mad- either because they keep bumping into suitable mates or because they think there's a shortage of food and the end of the world is nigh!
Then I'll remove the bedding, with the new cocoons, put it back into the main bin and start again. I read somewhere that you can produce loads of cocoons really fast this way, and cocoons hatch into baby worms and baby worms grow into bigger worms and make more cocoons.... And soon we'll be overrun with wooooorms!!

New Year's Resolution.

2009-01-08T20:58:00.000Z

Blog more often!
7 days behind already!

Red worm cocoons in classroom worm bin.

2008-11-26T12:07:00.006Z

I tidied up the classroom bin last night before sending it into school today. I was amazed to find that there were already a substantial number of cocoons in it. The bin was only started eight days ago, and it only had about 100g (1/4 lb) of worms in it. I hadn't fed it much since starting it up, (I wanted the worms good and hungry when the kids start adding things!) so maybe the worms were panicking that resources were running out. Or maybe they got frisky because they were all nice and warm and comfy indoors....
Should be really interesting for the kids.

More worm pictures

2008-11-24T15:45:00.009Z

Just some more pictures to add to the last post:
My old wormery (still operational as a general composter with some worms.)
There's an access port at the bottom where you're supposed to be able to harvest vermicompost, but I've found that the stuff at the bottom gets so compacted that it collects too much water and gets very anaerobic and smelly. That's why I tried switching to the can o worms.
But the advantage of a large wormery as opposed to a smaller or tray system, is that there's more room for error. If you add something that the worms don't like, they just move to another part of the bin until it rots away or gets diluted enough that it doesn't bother them. Ditto with a wet or acid part of the bin. So you don't have to keep checking on the health of your wormery. You just go in and correct now and again

I also made a small classroom wormery for my daughter's class:
It's a simple plastic storage box, with the handle-holes covered with tape and nylon from an old sock. There are no drainage holes because that would be too messy, so I've put a car- cleaning sponge into it to absorb excess liquid. There's a fairly tight fitting lid, and thanks to the handle holes, I haven't had to drill any ventilation.

For full instructions check out: the excellent red worm composting site
to my mind, one of the best resources out there for anyone who wants to compost using worms.

The bin has been indoors in my utility room now for about a week, acclimatising to classroom temperatures, and the worms seem happy and eating well

And finally the worms themselves: some of the worms that went into the classroom wormery:

Wormy Update

2008-11-22T12:25:00.008Z

I've had the can o worms for about six or seven months now, and I've had some teething problems.

One of the main problems is that being a layered system, that is with small sections, it's much easier to overfeed. I had a complete a worm die off early on and I'm still not sure exactly why. Possibly overfeeding resulted in a too acid environment. Another theory is that I maybe fed it a large quantity of non-organic banana skins. Bananas are sprayed heavily, and pesticide residues remain on the skins.
The can o worms also lets in water through the top, and although it has a drainage compartment at the bottom and I left the tap open, we had such a wet summer that the trays were permanently sodden and the worms spent most of the time clinging to the roof or the sides of the trays and very little time in the trays eating waste, making vermicompost or baby worms.
Now I've moved the whole thing into the garage for the winter and started from scratch. I chucked all the old compost/ food residues into my old worm bin and harvested as many worms as possible into a fresh tray using cardboard/ newspaper/ compost bedding. The worms are much happier and feeding furiously.
My daughter has also started a project in school about environmental waste disposal so I made a mini classroom wormbin for her to bring in. It's sitting in the utility at the moment, to acclimatise the worms to classroom temperatures, and the worms there seem to be VERY happy and have huge appetites. Which is just as well really because I suspect that no matter how much I tell the kids not to overfeed.... Well we all know what happens to goldfish in the first few months of ownership. (Fortunately worms can eat their own bedding so when the kids later get to the neglect stage they won't starve.)
I've found a really great worm composting site :
http://www.redwormcomposting.com
with loads of advice and useful information. The site of a true enthusiast and probably the best 'vermi' site I've found on the web so far.

Review- The Book Club by Kate Mc Cabe

2008-06-25T11:06:00.002+01:00

“Looking for a way to pass the cold winter nights... Marian Hunt decides to start a book club,” reads the back cover of Kate Mc Cabe's latest novel, and this could just as well have been the writer's intention with this, her third novel. It takes a while to catch its stride, with a detailed life-story for each character, but once the cast is assembled, 'The Book Club' proves an easy way to pass a few hours.

Against a backdrop of Celtic Tiger Dublin, a disparate group assemble in response to Marian's book club ad. A disgraced poet wants inspiration for the novel he hopes will redeem him in the eyes of Dublin's literary critics, while a recently bereaved young widow wants a gentle way to emerge from her grief. An older couple are looking for a new interest as the wife recovers from a stroke, and a dishy downstairs neighbour hopes to distract Marian from the boredom of her solitary evenings.

But it is Marian's ex, the scheming, solicitor Alan Mc Millan who provides most of the excitement as he insinuates himself into the book club to try and get her back. And, unusually for this genre, it is the male characters who are the most interesting, especially when it seems the author is taking a little dig at her male contemporaries: On discovering that the first book club book is to be Rebecca, Nick the aspiring novelist, dreams of emulating Du Maurier's combined critical and popular success. With his first novel. That he hasn't actually started writing yet...

The Book Club - By Kate Mc Cabe
Poolbeg Press 390 pp, €15.99

Review first published in Irish Times Saturday March 8th 2008

Doggy Travels

2008-06-25T10:27:00.009+01:00

'Cos we wouldn't go anywhere without her!

Have Dog, Will Travel.

Leaving Kayla, behind during the summer holidays, was never really an option. We go to France for four or five weeks, so putting her in kennels her would be expensive and unfair, while leaving her with family or friends would use up the equivalent of a year's worth of babysitting. Besides which, we'd miss her. And judging by the pitiful, brown-eyed, 'how could you leave me behind?'-expression she gives me, if I even go upstairs without her, she'd miss us too.

Fortunately Kayla joined the family at the end of last summer, because you need plenty of time to prepare a dog for international travel. Or rather, to bring it home. The newest member of the family now has her own passport (unlike the next two in line), into which the details of her injections and treatments are entered. Not only did she have to be micro-chipped for identification, and vaccinated against rabies, but we have to wait six months after a positive blood test (to show the vaccine 'took'), before we can start crossing borders with her. And before she leaves France she must be de-wormed, de-flead and de-ticked by a registered vet, close enough to the ferry port so that she can be treated between forty-eight and twenty-four hours before sailing. When we're booking the ferry crossing, Kayla has to have her own kennel booking, (€35 each way, limited number so book ahead), and we have to check in earlier than everyone else. It sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through just to bring our canine companion on holidays with us, but apparently flying is even worse, especially given that we could find no carriers out of Dublin to France who'll carry dogs. But the first year is the worst; now that the micro-chipping, blood testing and first rabies vaccine is given, all we have to do is keep up to date from now on.

So we reckon it's worth it. We have our own place in France, and we know what to expect when we get there. We know where Kayla will sleep, and although she chews a lot less than she did a few months ago, at least it will be our own furniture she's munching on. She already goes into mourning after every school holiday because she loves having the kids around all day, and we know she'll adore the bigger garden and the woods with all their wildlife and interesting smells. We'll have a great time crashing through undergrowth with her, and discovering new car-free paths to race along off-lead. And of course that will help us work off the local cuisine, which is one of the reasons we holiday in France in the first place.

All I have to figure out now, is how to stop Kayla from getting sick on any car journey of over an hour... Did I mention she likes to travel on the back seat rather than in the boot?

An edited version of this article first appeared in the Irish Times 'GO' supplement of Saturday March 8th 2008

Edited (july 6th 08) to add a link to a google map of vets in Cherbourg: You can click on any of the markers to get details of the vets (phone numbers etc). Zoom in and out by using the + and - buttons, and pan left and right, up and down using the arrows.

View Larger Map

Self Catering in France

2008-06-25T10:21:00.011+01:00

My favourite place in the world!

Self Catering in France.

France has always been a popular destination amongst Irish holiday makers, particularly for family holidays. Although we have become accustomed to cheap flights and far-flung destinations, our introduction to foreign travel was often by way of a ferry crossing from Rosslare before a long hot drive to a camp-site in Normandy, Brittany or the Vendee. Our first experience of foreign food was creamy brie or pate spread thick on a crusty white baguette and our first meal 'out' was moules frites in a roadside café. So it's no surprise that when the time comes to swap the rucksack for the nappy bag, and the tiny wheeled carry-on bag for a full luggage allowance plus buggy, the Irish are still going to France in huge numbers. And because it's a family holiday, and keeping to a hotel schedule may not suit the youngest members, self-catering is the obvious choice. The campsite is still popular, but has moved up a notch with giant sites providing multiple pools, kids clubs, teenage discos and and luxury mobile homes or chalets.

The Gite -huge variety of what's on offer

The other option is the Gite, a privately owned holiday home which ranges from basic two-up-two down village house, to ten bedroom chateau with pool, satellite television, wifi access and hot and cold running chefs and cleaners. Sometimes you may even have a friendly owner living nearby who can provide baby sitting. These are generally small businesses, and may not be registered with any official classification bodies, so within the same price bracket there can be a huge variety in what is on offer. The result of this is that for the peak season (second half of July and all of August) the best Gites book out early, with some families returning year after year to the same place. But this year (2008) 'Le Crunch' (of the credit variety) and the weakness of sterling and the dollar has resulted in low bookings throughout France meaning high quality properties can still be booked for last minute, and some have dropped in price since earlier in the year.

Choosing a Gite- make a checklist

Chooing a gite by booking direct can seem a bewildering prospect with such a huge variety on offer. So, before turning to the internet or opening a single newspaper or brochure, make a check-list of what you want in an ideal holiday.

The first thing to consider is size or number of bedrooms– how many people do you need to sleep, do you want them all to have bedrooms, or are you happy to make do with a pull-out couch. Do you need a cot? Large properties that can accommodate more than one family tend to book out early, but smaller ones may have extra beds, in which case check how many bathrooms are available, and if there are any separate toilets. Try telling a toddler to wait for the toilet while when the only bathroom is in use!

Next consider location – not just the region of France, but whether you want to be in a rural farmhouse miles from anywhere, or within walking distance of a shop and restaurant. The idea of rural isolation is attractive until you have to get into the car every morning to buy your baguettes and croissants, and worse, you face a drive home after every meal out. (French drink driving laws are stricter, and random breath tests more frequent than in the UK or Ireland.) Also consider what there is to offer in the area for every member of the family – are you looking for museums and historical sites, or fun-parks and water sports?

Given our appalling summer in Northern Europe last year, most people going abroad this year are hoping for some heat and sunshine and if you're one of them, ask yourself do you want a swimming pool with your property, (private or shared) or easy access to a beach, lake or river where you can swim. Do you mind if the property is overlooked, or would you rather be private, do you want a garden, or is a terrace enough?

Next consider what facilities you expect to find inside the house. Most owners in France now offer linen and towels with the rental – some at an extra charge – but there are still some, particularly near the ferry ports or those who cater mainly for guests arriving by car, who expect their guests to bring their own. Many owners will provide a welcome pack – a nice touch, especially if it includes toiletries which cut down on your luggage. A washing machine and iron are fairly essential for anyone on a limited baggage allowance, and a tumble dryer is useful in case of rain and many changes of wet or muddy clothes. And on the subject of weather, in very hot conditions, like recent heat-waves for example, an electric fan is essential for any sane family holiday, especially for very young children who overheat easily. Ideally look for a fan in each bedroom. Some properties may even offer air-conditioning.

Other things you may want to add to your check-list are a barbecue, dishwasher, microwave, oven (some older properties only have a hob), a television (check if it's satellite or just local channels), hair-dryer, a dvd player, music player, and internet access.

Look before you go!

Before booking, see as many recent pictures of the property as possible. Listings alone will not tell you what condition the property is in, or how long since it was last decorated.

Finding a property

Newspaper ads: most daily and weekend papers carry holiday sections where both holiday companies and private owners advertise. Especially true for late availability.

Local tourist offices have lists of registered rental properties (useful in low season when you can travel without pre-booking).

Gites de Frances- Official organisation for registered, inspected gites. Books available in bookshops or through website:, : http://www.gites-de-france.com/ (online bookings possible)

Private agencies eg Purefrance (http://www.purefrance.com/) have listings of properties which they have inspected and can recommend, or ferry operators such as Brittany Ferries (http://www.brittannyferries.ie/) can book accommodation as well as travel. Agencies and tour operators handle payments and streamline the booking process.

Advertising websites are basically holiday rental listings sites and your contract will be directly with the owner. All descriptions are supplied by the owners and properties have not been inspected. Usually these sites have useful search filters: search by date, search by area, search by number of bedrooms, and then more specifically with pool, near beach, with garden etc. It is often possible to book through these sites using credit cards, or they may direct you to the owners website or contact details.

Worldwide sites eg http://www.villarenters.com/, http://www.holidayrentals.co.uk/

France specific sites: http://www.visitfrance.co.uk/, http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk/

Web search engines : be specific with your search terms to cut down on irrelevant sites. “self-catering aquitaine near village private pool” will provide more useful results than “holiday France”

Eating in France.

One of the joys of self-catering is that you get to choose what to eat, and when. And there is no better place than France to buy food or eat out. So make the most of it and try to introduce the family to foods they mightn't eat at home.

When eating out, especially with a family, on a budget, the best value is probably at midday, when a 'formule midi' (the staple diet of local workers who can't make it home at lunchtime) can offer four courses with wine for between €10 and €15. Have a look around and see which restaurants fill up with locals on your first few days, then arrive before 12.30 if you want to get a table. The other way to get recommendations is to check the welcome book in your gite to see if the owner has any favourite restaurants or the guest book to see if previous holiday makers have made any suggestions.

For eating in on holidays, if you don't want cooking to be a chore, it's a good idea to shop differently than you would at home. Buy your staples, then shop daily for fresh food, like the French would. The markets are the most enjoyable place to do this, and you will quickly be able to work out who sells the best produce by the queues in front of the stalls. Keep it simple – pile your lunch table with artisan bread, a few cheeses and meats, wild strawberries and peaches, and let everyone help themselves. Don't be afraid to ask for help when shopping.

Even without French, point for example at the fish display, say “pour barbecue?” in your best French accent, and the stall holder and other shoppers will happily advise on the best of the day's catch, in sign language if necessary. Another option are the freshly prepared hot foods in markets or on deli counters, usually as good as you would get in a small family restaurant. They're quick to heat up when you get back, there's no cooking, and the kids can run riot without bothering the other diners. For example no good French market is without a roast chicken stand, which you'll find by following your nose. There will also be other birds on offer (quails being popular with kids) and roast potatoes, dripping in the unhealthiest, tastiest gravy you're ever likely to eat.

Shopping for interesting food is also the best (and cheapest) way of introducing children to new foods. A tray of frozen snails stuffed with garlic butter is quick to heat up in the oven, but there's very little lost (and no embarrassment) if the entire family rejects it.

Getting There

By Air: Aer Lingus (http://www.aerlingus.com/) serves the larger airports eg Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Paris, Rennes.

Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.com/) opens up a huge choice of smaller, regional airports, often close to holiday destinations

Aer Arrann (http://www.aerarann.ie/) offers flights to France from Galway, Waterford and Cork

Air France (http://www.airfrance.ie/) offers connections to most regional French airports via Paris.

By Ferry:

Irish Ferries:(http://www.irishferries.com/ ): Rosslare to Cherbourg or Roscoff on their new Oscar Wilde ferry

Brittany Ferries: (http://www.brittanyferries.ie/ ): Cork to Roscoff (They also offer a crossing from Plymouth to Santander in Northern Spain for those who want to take a car to the south of France but can't face the drive)

Celtic link: Rosslare to Cherbourg -this is primarily a container service that takes some car passengers. Service is basic but all meals are included in crossing fares. Keeps spending down, especially for large families.

LD lines: a new service due to start Oct 2008, Rosslare to Le Havre.

Land Bridge: Travelling by ferry to the UK and then onward to France offers a more frequent and often cheaper option. The channel tunnel is then an option.

By Train: There are excellent services from London (http://www.eurostar.com/) to destinations throughout France. An option worth considering for business travellers, late joining a family holiday.

Travelling around France:

By Car: if you have travelled by ferry you have your own car, and will be driving on towards your destination. French roads are well sign posted, but bring a good map or consider a gps system.

Print off a detailed route planner from http://www.viamichlin.com/ or http://www.mappy.fr/ (which also gives the locations of 'safety cameras').

Motorways are the best way to cover long distances and they provide frequent rest stops. Tolls operates on most routes apart from city ring roads.

Check out http://www.bisonfute.fr/ for up-to-date traffic conditions, roadworks and closures, and peak period warnings.

Rental car: Available at all airports and most major train stations. Book before leaving home to ensure that the local office is open when you arrive (virtually everything closes on July 14^th for example and Sundays are tricky in the smaller offices).

By Train Times and tickets on http://www.sncf.fr/ Although an English language version of the site is promised on the opening page, once you get down to local service level, it's all in French, but the site is still accessible. Trains, which are clean, frequent and punctual, are a good way of getting around in France, especially for visiting cities where you will be deposited right in the centre and not have to navigate or find parking.

An edited version of this article first appeared in the Irish Times 'GO!' Supplement of Saturday June 21st 2008

Wiggly waste eaters

2008-04-07T17:22:00.008+01:00

I started worm composting about seven or eight years ago and I have to say its been a huge success. The only problem I had with it, is that I bought an absolutely massive bin, (the only kind on the market at the time) which in turn is propped on blocks to allow for drainage (to get a container under the tap to drain off worm tea). It means that to put waste in, I had to perch on another concrete block, open the lid and tip my smelly leftover food in. Now anyone who has been using a wormery for any length of time will know that you cannot leave waste on the surface unless you want your bin crawling with flies, and their even less attractive youngsters- maggotts. Which means that you have to bury the waste because maggotts can't dig, and so even if flies managed to lay their eggs on your food when it was still in your kitchen, they can't make their way to the surface to become full grown flies. Now picture me, leaning over the top of my worm bin, emptying in my waste, and having to cover it with something. I tried choir-type moisture mats, I tried damp newspaper. But you still have to lean in to cover up the food, so the only real option was burial. I left a fork by the worm bin and dug a hole for the waste food.

Soon the can-o-worms appeared on the market, it looked like a great idea. Lift off a layer, put in your food, put your mat back on, put your empty layers back on, and close up your wormery. In fact it looked too easy to be true. And far too easy to earn you real eco-credentials. So I left it a few years. But a few months ago I finally succumbed. One wet february day too many of almost falling into the old worm bin as I filled it, and I went on line to by my can-o-worms.

I got mine on e-bay, because I knew I had enough worms in my old bin to get started and I wanted to get it from somewhere as close to home as possible. (and yeah... buying it off e-bay saved me quite a bit). And now I wonder why I waited so long. It really is as easy as it looks. And because its only waist high, there's no more climbing or digging. (Click on the picture to be taken to the wiggly worms site which has loads more information about worm composting and some excellent video podcasts, so you know you're doing the right ting even if if looks too easy!)
My only problem with the new can-o-worms, is that our dog realised that there was food in it. Old mouldy food, but food none-the less (poor mite, we never feed her) and so presented a challenge. It took her all of one day to figure out how to get the lid off so she could rob some of the day before's bread crusts. Now that's all very environmental, recycling our scraps by feeding them to the dog, but I pay a small fortune for expensive dog food to keep her healthy, and after a few days in the can o worms, I'm not sure the rotting food could be very good for her.
I've had to solve the problem by putting a large plant pot on top of the lid- and so far so good. Pity it's not in sunshine, and I could fill the plant pot with trailing petunias, and hide the wormery completely. Any suggestions for a shade-loving pot loving plant that grows as fast as petunias welcome!!
The old wormery won't go to waste as I can pile the nearly composted garden pile into it and end up with much finer compost that I would have got by just leaving it where it is. (I'm too lazy to do more than give it a token mix once or twice a year although the dog has taken to burying things in it, so i at least its gettign some aerating) It also frees up a corner of the garden to start a new, fresh compost heap for this year!!