Limerick views

My visit to Limerick left little time to explore, but I did manage to get one afternoon of sightseeing in. The city is the third largest in the Republic of Ireland and it has much to offer the visitor. I'll hopefully be going back again in October and may get a chance to see a bit more then. The pictures here show the city as seen from King John's Castle looking west along the River Shannon and the Gatehouse of the Castle from the courtyard.

The castle is a "Keepless" castle built in the reaign of King John which means simply that the towers and Gatehouses were it's redoubts unlike the earlier Norman castles which had a central "Keep" or stronghold guarded by a curtain wall. This castle has seen its fair share of war, falling in 1691 to the army of William III (William of Orange) having also been beseiged and taken by Cromwell's forces some fifty years earlier. On both occassions the defenders suffered badly, though the Royalist forces of William III were a lot less vengeful in victory than Cromwell had been.

The Tumbling Bumble Bee

Surprise, surprise - the weather today permitted Mausi to go outside and actually start doing some work in her garden. But Mausi couldn't pass her foxgloves, which this year are in blossom for the first time, without taking a photograph of the delicate beauties.

Just as Mausi was taking photographs a busy bumble bee came by and tumbled in and out of the blossom. Watching it Mausi wondered if bumble bees ever get air-sick. She almost expected it coming out of the next blossom retching...

As Mausi's camera has a gimmick allowing her to take videos she tried it out at once. The result can be watched below....

Home again

It's been a long week, though in good company. Still it is hard work to teach from 0900 to 1700 every day with a group of senior people to keep amused. The week went very well all things considered and I have made a few new friends I hope in the process.

Limerick is lovely, though its history is quite bloody. Some photos will appear soon.

A quiet day

Today is Corpus Christi or 'Fronleichnam' as it is called in Germany. In Germany it is
a public holiday for those Federal States where the Roman Catholics outnumber the Protestants. So Mausi was looking forward to an afternoon in the garden, pottering about and doing some quiet tasks like weeding that flowerbed she's been working on for some time but never seems to find the time to get it finished. But adverse weather conditions (low temperature, gusty winds and a never ending succession of showers) defeated her original plans. So she's spent most of the day reading, trying out a few things on her computer and going over some photographs she had taken during her Easter vacation whereby she came across this squirrel. It is surely one of the biggest Mausi has ever seen. Obviously it is thriving on the left-overs from the tourists at Bodiam Castle where it lives. Mausi showed this picture to her mother who at first glance even mistook it for a rabbit. For her excuse it must be remembered that we do not have grey squirrels in Germany - ours are the red ones and they are certainly of a much slender build. Looking at this photograph again today Mausi was remembered of a visit to Davos in Switzerland many years ago. The visit took place in winter time and one afternoon Mausi followed a path up the mountain, trying to find out how far up above the valley she could get in her not entirely suitable boots. Walking through the woods like many other tourists she was suddenly "attacked" by a bunch of the biggest dark brown squirrels she had ever seen. Of course, all the tourists, especially the children, found them cute and willingly gave up everything eatable they happened to have upon them. But if you weren't quick enough, the little buggers would climb up your trousers and yank titbits from your fingers or even ransack your trouser and coat pockets! Obviously they had given up hibernating and were doing extremely well out of the humans!

How time flies....

A hobby Mausi took up as a student at University is collecting native bonsai, or rather turning native trees into bonsai plants. This is down by keeping them in a small flower pot and pruning treetop and roots each year. The leaves automatically become smaller over the first years until the tree reaches a sort of equilibrium. Mausi never used any wires to bend the trees into some exotic shape. In Mausi's opinion that would make the trees look unnatural.

The photo on the right shows the first tree Mausi started with - a maple tree that can be relied upon to show the most impressive red leaves in autumn. It has suffered quite a bit from last winter's very low temperatures. The top has grown out of shape and quite bald lower down. But Mausi is confident it can be coaxed back into proportion. It's total height is about 60 cm, although it is more than 25 years old.


The tree on the left is a chestnut, almost as old as the maple. It is especially suited for turning it into a bonsai as it is a very slow growing species. Mausi is only a bit disappointed that it has never blossomed in all those years. Wouldn't it be great if it could be brought to grow bonsai chestnuts as well?

Nevermind, Mausi has become quite attached to it all the same. The advantage of turning native trees into bonsais is that they show no difficulties at all surviving in winter. They stay out in the garden all the year round and are always fascinating to watch when they burst into leaves again in spring time.

Hunting Phantoms

Last year German police was hunting a phantom, a woman that was supposed to have committed a long list of crimes, among them several murders, burglaries etc. Her DNA had been recovered from crime scenes from various places in Germany. After several months it transpired that the problem lay in the cotton buds that had been used to recover the DNA samples from the crime scenes. Although the cotton were specified as ultra pure and suitable for sampling DNA, cotton buds from several batches had been contaminated. One worker had obviously touched them during the manufacturing process and it was her DNA that had apparently been recovered from the different crime scenes. Another aspect that became obvious was that of course no real DNA had been sampled at all at the crime scenes as the DNA had been on the cotton buds right from the beginning. Therefore police had to rethink their sample taking techniques. Just rubbing your cotton buds on surfaces at the crime scene in the hope to catch some DNA is simply not good enough. Sampling trace evidence is a tricky business.

But it does not need trace analysis to hunt a phantom as the Irish police found out these days. Irish police was trying to track down a Polish motorist who had committed dozens of speeding and parking offences across Ireland while continuing to elude the courts. Under the name of Prawo Jazdy he had left a trail of multiple identities and vehicles in the Police's database. Then someone had the good idea of taking a closer look at "Prawo Jazdy". Far from being a name it turned out to be Polish for driving licence"....

Don't you love early mornings?

Mausi does, especially at this time of the year. Mausi has to get up almost with the sun, which is a drawback, but - looking out of the bathroom window - is then greeted by one of the three does who visit the fields next to Mausi's house regularly and will also bring their young ones with them later in the year. They are always fun to watch although shy.

Having taken a shower and dressed the first thing Mausi does is take a look around her garden. At this time of the year there is a clear blue sky, the morning is pleasantly cool and promises a day that may be warm but not burning hot as it will be in the height of summer.



The air is sweet and lovely to breathe and Mausi goes in search of new blossoms that are likely to have opened by the time she comes home from work again.

Mausi has a small apple tree in a pot in her garden which was absolutely covered in blossoms this year. Unfortunately not many insects were around at that time of the year to help with the pollination business. Mausi keeps her fingers crossed that at least some apples will develop all the same.