Month: February 2017

 

A generous neighbour recently upgraded his heating system, and offered us this slow-combusion heater at low cost.

Used sparingly, it should take the edge off winter mornings, without inducing a state of inertia.

 

In telling of work on St. Finbarr’s Cathedral, he mentions a workman who was inclined to cut the tiles on the spire stones a bit on the rough side, and the foreman came along and spotted it: “It won’t do, Jer”, said he.

“Why?”says the ould fella. “Sure, ‘tis going up two hundred feet an’ no one but the crows will see it”.

“God will see it”, says the foreman, “an’ He’s damn particular”.

 

from: ‘Stone Mad’, by Seamus Murphy, published by The Collins Press, Cork, Republic of Ireland.

As quoted in ‘Sweet Cork of Thee’, by Robert Gibbings, published by JM Dent.

….except for the top ‘barge’ plank, window beadings, glass, and one or two oil applications.

Took a while. I blame my habit of reinventing the wheel; my amateur status; the philosophy of ‘bit by bit’ – and a fussy temperament, which can drive my long-suffering employer to the point of despair.

Next project: the eastern wall with double-doors.