Little has changed, so far as I can see, while I was away.

Most strikingly, the arctic weather continues unabated.

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The same view down Brede Thomas's field, this time frost covered, that I took in the snow in early January.

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And the view down Johnny Treacy's, frosty field from our spare bedroom.

It is truly extraordinary, for Ireland, to have a cold snap that lasts for more than a week.
The wise-crack was always that, if you got a couple of frosty days, rain was on its way.

This cold 'snap' has now lasted for the better part of three months, with only the briefest of interludes and very little rain, that for which we are so famed.

.......................................

Except for continuing resolutely to support the banks, the government is still fumbling and fiddling while losing ministers on a weekly basis.
And these banks, that government so supports, having destroyed themselves, the economy, the housing market, the building and ancilliary trades (that includes mine) are now set to destroy the hotel industry. And, if that happens, that will in its turn destroy the tourim industry, or what's left of it.
And though this support for the banks continues to infuriate the popuation, there appears to be little better prospect of the opposition landing a knock-out punch.
Meanwhile, for reasons best known to themselves, the Green Party, who are a part of government, are tearing themselves assunder. - They might as well, as the electorate, whenever they are given the chance, will do it for them if they haven't completed the job themselves.

But I resolved, as I made my way home from France, that I would buck the trend, ignore the doom and gloom merchants and adopt a positive and proactive approach to all aspects of my life. - So I should not have been writing thus.

So let me try to end on a cheerful note.

Just across the river Nore, at the far end of Brede's field, is Brownsbarn House - A Dean and Woodward building.

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You can just discern the building to the left of the oak tree.

Now, as it happens Brownsbarn House, is a rather gloomy example of their work but, as architects in the Puginesque style, they created not only a huge portfolio of important buildings throughout Ireland and the UK but they regularly introduced and included delightful light-hearted and humerous motifs into their work.

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Try these monkeys playing billiards on the column-bases of a window on the Kildare Street Club on Kildare Street, Dublin.


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