St Josephs lead the way....

Some of the Team from St. Josephs Foundation, Charleville Co. Cork

I met up with Mary Hayes recently for an interview for my Natural Instincts show on BCradio and learned about some of the work that the Green Committee who are service users based in St Josephs in Charleville are doing. To say that I was highly impressed is an understatement and so I am dedicating a whole blog just for them because they most certainly deserve it. These guys and girls are on an environmental mission and not only do they tell us how it should be done but they practice what they preach and I have the photos to prove it....

Would you care to take a turn with me?....

Doneraile Park, Co. Cork

With the summer on its way and school holidays on the horizon we will all be wondering what to do with ourselves. I want to be out and about as much as possible especially when the weather is good and dry. We are in often enough in the winter sitting next to the fire. I want to take in the fresh air, enjoy the wildlife and not have it cost a fortune if I can help it. So if you are in the same frame of mind and are in County Cork this summer why not take a glimpse at Doneraile Park.

one two TREE!

Click to hear Natural Instinct Show and Agenda 21, Tree planting.

I often say "I'll let you know how it goes" so I thought I had better do just that. I'd like to cast your mind back to a previous blog called "wonderful result" here on Greenwatch (http://greenwatch-lesley.blogspot.com/2011/01/wonderful-result.html#more) when I spoke about a project for Charleville and a lovely green space with new trees and bird and bat boxes. Well it is almost completed with the help of Agenda 21 and wonderful community of people. They applied for funding under Agenda 21 and were successful and have been as busy as Easter Bunnies planting new trees and putting up bird boxes in the park in Charleville. It's also nice to know that in these hard times too, groups such as Agenda 21 realise the importance of helping communities and their environment. I went up there last week to do an interview with Ted Bradley and Tommy Kavanagh for my radio programme, "Natural Instinct", and it was glorious. So nice to see that people are interested in the Environment still and it wasn't just the 2 of them but several groups from the community such as St. Anne's Primary School, the Christian Brothers School secondary school and St. Josephs foundation with the Green Committee group there.

Ted Bradley & Tommy Kavanagh at the park in Charleville

"One flew IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION of the Hornets nest!"

Hornet's nest and one busy wasp at the entrance

While I like to think I am "One with nature" at times, I realise that I am a lover of all nature most when it is outside. My shed is my little get away where I sit and read or think and relax. Imagine looking up and seeing this little beauty in the above picture, staring back at me this morning. I am lucky it was only the beginning of the hornets nest and very small although the picture was taken on my phone and close up so it may look big to the viewer. Thankfully only a couple of centimeters in size and one busy wasp! Beautiful and perfectly formed but  briskly removed.

A growing adventure

"Mmm Quite a lot of berries here then"

It's been a busy spring for me, trying to get everything organised. College exams coming up in a few weeks require study and with the radio station I am with finally due to go on the airwaves (at last) and not just on the internet I am trying to get programme ideas ready to record. Last year as you may have read I grew my lovely cherry tomatoes and was really chuffed with the result. So I am back on the bandwagon and growing them again and at present they are on my window sill and growing "mighty fine too!" But I did have ambitions of trying a few other, dare I say, crops this year and time was running out....

My Local.....

The old library in Cork City.

...library! I have been a member of my county library for some months now and I am always delighted with the help I receive from them every time I visit and call and Lord knows with the college projects I have to complete I need all of the help I can get. Anyway, I was in Patrick's street in Cork last week and popped into the city library as my dad had suggested I join so that I can take out DVDs and Cd's as he often does. So with a few minutes to spare, in I went and boy was it worth it.

The cost of colour...

The cost of colour

The thing about college is there are a lot of assignments throughout the year and of course there are the projects that have deadlines ever before you need to study for the end of year exams. I ran out of colour ink today just when I wanted to start printing out one of those projects and have it completed and ready to go. Well I suppose its better to find out now than the night before which is always a possibility. Ink can be an expensive thing to replace now depending on the printer you have and what it demands. I wonder is it really costing the earth?