A glimpse of former Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRi) 4-4-0 #steam loco No. 171 Slieve Gullion working the last leg of the last of the #RPSI “Midlander” special #trains through the trees along the #RoyalCanal between #Maynooth and #Leixlip.

A glimpse of a green #IrishRail Commuter train between all the greenery lining the #RoyalCanal as it passes the cutting between Carton House in #Maynooth, and the 13th lock in #Leixlip.

An #IrishRail InterCity passing Pike Bridge at the Duke’s Harbour on the #RoyalCanal at Carton House having just left #Maynooth on the final leg of it’s cross-country journey form Sligo to Dublin.

On My Knees

It has taken a bit longer that I expected to get this far but I have now completed the grading of one of my modules. It wasn’t the written examination that took all the time, but the marking of the computational physics projects. This is always a slow job but for some reason it took even longer this year. Anyway, all components of the assessment for that module are now done and dusted and everything uploaded.

To add to the fun and games, last week I did the biannual trip to Naas for my anti-arthritis injections. I’ve been doing this regularly for some years now and it has become routine. When I first started I was told that there was a risk of one or both knees swelling up, but that has never happened. Until last week, that is. My right knee decided to swell up alarmingly. Although this was not really painful, I was forced to stay at home to rest and periodically apply a bag of ice. That worked well enough that I could go to last Friday’s concert (with the aid of a walking-stick) but it wasn’t until Sunday that I was properly recovered.

The alarm having passed I am now starting to feel the benefit of the jabs. I am planning sometime soon to walk from Maynooth to Dublin along the Royal Canal, that being the last leg of the National Famine Way. I want to be sure I can manage the 27km walk before attempting to do the full walk later in the summer. The weather is set fair for a few days so I might give it a go next week, assuming I manage to finish all my examining duties promptly. It’s the season finale at the National Concert Hall next Friday – followed by a long weekend break when I will be travelling a little, so I might try to do it on Thursday.

My next examination is not until Tuesday morning so, after several days of being shut away doing corrections, I can now spend a few days until the scripts are ready to collect doing numerous things that I’ve let slip while I’ve been busy. For one thing I have an inbox full of unanswered emails to attend to.

But for now I’m quite tired and in the mood only to vegetate.

#arthritis #education #Examinations #Marking #Maynooth

Former Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRi) 4-4-0 #steam loco No. 171 Slieve Gullion passing “the Duke’s Harbour” on the #RoyalCanal at Carton House near #Maynooth with an #RPSI “Midlander” special #trian.

Cat Crainn

In Irish, a pine marten – such as the one shown on the left – is cat crainn which means literally “cat of the tree” or, less clumsily, “tree cat”. The word for “tree” in the nominative case is crann and the genitive meaning “of the tree” is crainn. They are about the size of a domestic cat.

I mention the pine marten partly because a while ago it came up on Bitesize Irish, which is a way I’m trying to add to my meagre vocabulary of Irish words and phrases, and partly because the story of these animals is quite fascinating. Pine martens have existed in Ireland for thousands of years alongside native red squirrels whose habitat is similar. More recently the invasive grey squirrels arrived and bullied their smaller red cousins into decline. Pine martens were also in serious decline because of hunting and deforestation and were critically endangered until recently, when legal protections were introduced. Now the population is growing and they are spreading into new areas.

Pine martens are fierce predators who eat all kinds of small mammals including rats and voles as well as squirrels. Having coexisted with them for ages, red squirrels have learnt to avoid pine martens quite effectively. Pine martens will try to catch them but don’t find them easy prey. Grey squirrels are a different matter, though, so there has been a big difference in the rate of predation with the grey squirrels being forced out of many areas. This differential effect has been excellent news for the red squirrels, whose population is recovering strongly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIt_7pSC2wE

I’m told that there are pine martens on the campus at Maynooth, though I have never actually seen one in the flesh and am not sure where they live. This is not surprising – they are secretive and good at hiding. There are grey squirrels on Maynooth campus too. I have seen many. I’ve never seen any red squirrels though. If the pine martens thrive, perhaps that will change?

Although undeniably cute, with their choclate-coloured coat and creamy yellow bib, pine martens are wild animals and will bite if you give them cause. The word for “bite” in Irish is greim.

#catCrainn #Ecology #greySquirrels #Maynooth #pineMarten #redSquirrels

Former Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRi) 4-4-0 #steam loco No. 171 Slieve Gullion accelerating out of #Maynooth along the banks of the #RoyalCanal working an #RPSI “Midlander” special #train tender-first. The loco’s blue livery compliments the yellow rapeseed blooms nicely.

Between the showers — an #IrishRail Commuter service leaving #Maynooth en-route to Dublin along the banks of the #RoyalCanal with rapeseed blooms adding a welcome splash of yellow along the towpath.

The yellow flag irises have burst into bloom on the #RoyalCanal around #Maynooth, even if our weather has turned unseasonably cold and wet 😕 #Bloomscrolling