{"id":94,"date":"2014-03-08T13:02:28","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T13:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/?p=94"},"modified":"2016-08-01T05:52:44","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T04:52:44","slug":"dont-kill-the-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/dont-kill-the-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Dont Kill the Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Background: The calamity that is Carty, no matter how bad his DIY (which is worse than my cooking!), the only thing worse is my gardening. But that never stopped me yet, and I think my latest efforts in Edenmore angered even the Nature Gods, as nothing else explains the run of bad luck I had… Read all about it…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My gardening skills were never the best… and the strangest things conspire against you!!! All this was small compared to the house fire that came later, but thats life, and it could have been worse…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If greenfingers are what folk are born with
\nThose who flowers and nature understands
\nWell then I was not born with such,
\nNever mind greenfingers, I dont even hane greenhands!
\nBut they say that God loves a tryer,
\nAnd if so He really loves me
\nFor as a Fool in a Fools paradise
\nI often in spade in my garden I be.<\/p>\n

On this March morning, no make that an evening,
\nI, being laze, am rare up before noon,
\nI set out some wild flower beds to dig out,
\nPlant some seeds and flowers before rises the moon!
\nThe compost for them that I sought to get out,
\n– A simple job for anyone else from a garden shed! –
\nNo for me… the lock seized, I must use a screwdriver,
\nRemove the locking bracket instead!<\/p>\n

But the Gods of Nature intervened
\nThat see both flower and weed wach as their Child
\nThe screwdriver nib broke, I stareted swearing
\nIt was as if the Nature Gods wanted the garden left wind!
\nBut no! I persisted, I will not be beat,
\nTo think that Nature thinks so, not a chance!
\nSo I leavered and bent the lock open
\nNature Gods weaped and wailed: “Dont Kill the Plants!”<\/p>\n

My quarry fetched: mere Fate cannot stop me!
\nWhere lazyness cant, and more often it succeeds!
\nLike a man crazed I dig as if I liked gardening
\nStricken, a Nature God falls and to death bleeds!
\nIt looked all right if I may say so…
\nI planted seeds straight from the pack – such romance!
\nMore or less as the pack it said to…
\nThe Nature Gods in vain cried: “Dont Kill the Plants!”<\/p>\n

The daffodils there waving looked so inviting
\nGrowing wild in a clump, bright in flower…
\nThey need to be thinned, says I who about gardeining knows nothing
\nBut with a spade in hand, I the gardener have the power!
\nBut with each transplaned they looked, shook sad and wilted
\nI hoped that each one would survive
\nSo I doused each with a squall of water
\nHoped against nature that each one would thrive…<\/p>\n

The moon in the sky in her time rose as I finished
\nNot a cloud sat with her there high in the sky…
\nFar too late I worried, to late by far I wondered
\nIf frost strikes tonight the flowers will die!
\nWhy to Fate did I not listen when with bad luck she struck me?
\nWhen she caused a broken shed door lock on me by chance?
\nI should have halted when the Nature Gods angered they screamed
\nThrough a broken screwdriver: “Dont Kill the Plants!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background: The calamity that is Carty, no matter how bad his DIY (which is worse than my cooking!), the only thing worse is my gardening. But that never stopped me yet, and I think my latest efforts in Edenmore angered even the Nature Gods, as nothing else explains the run …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,23],"tags":[161,163,162,42],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funny-poems","category-north-longford","tag-ballinamuck","tag-frost","tag-gardening","tag-longford","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EI4f-1w","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4575,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/folk-of-the-land-of-the-whin\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":0},"title":"Folk of the Land of the Whin","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"3rd December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From where to the world's four corners spread All desire to, but few manage to return To children tales told, songs sung its said For deep within a fire does burn A sense of place, of people, who we are Our history, our culture we pass on To those after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Home Made\" Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"\"Home Made\" Anthology","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/bibliography\/home-made-anthology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bog at Edenmore, Ballinamuck, Co. Longford - many rebels of the 1798 Rebellion perished here while more used the cover to escape.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20150318_141658-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20150318_141658-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20150318_141658-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":911,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/beauty-passed-and-yet-still-beautiful\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":1},"title":"Beauty Passed, and Yet Still Beautiful","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"22nd February 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Beauty passed, and yet still beautiful, Walls crumble, slaves to time, build long ago The rhubarb that once here grew I ate, As a child in Banagher, where some did grow, That we brought with us, its thick stalks, Yet both bitter and sweet, grew strong and tall, A link\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Banagher"","block_context":{"text":"Banagher","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/banagher\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Doppings Walled Gardens in Derrycassin Woods at Millinaleagta in North Longford","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Doppings-Walled-Gardens-in-Derrycassin-Woods-at-Millinaleagta-in-North-Longford.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4928,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/the-ambush-at-clonfin\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":2},"title":"The Ambush at Clonfin","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"7th February 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Man for man, and gun for gun, Mere peasants stood to the test, With faith in God and their fellow man, They fought, and came out best Against troops of experience, battle hardened, For whom it was a job to do The then latest chapter in Irelands struggle... If all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irish War of Independence 1919- 1921"","block_context":{"text":"Irish War of Independence 1919- 1921","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/irelands-wars\/irish-war-of-independence-1919-1921\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writingsinrhyme.celtichosting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The-North-Longford-Flying-Column.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writingsinrhyme.celtichosting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The-North-Longford-Flying-Column.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writingsinrhyme.celtichosting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The-North-Longford-Flying-Column.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writingsinrhyme.celtichosting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The-North-Longford-Flying-Column.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2582,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/abduction-at-legan-bridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":3},"title":"Abduction at Legan Bridge","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"19th June 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Bride abduction is thankfully very rare in Western Europe now, apart from Albania and Montenegro, and most commonly heard of from Kyrgistan where its known as Ala kachuu (\u0430\u043b\u0430 \u043a\u0430\u0447\u0443\u0443) but in more dangerous years it was very common in Britain and Ireland... this poem tells one tragic tale from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Civil Rights"","block_context":{"text":"Civil Rights","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/civil-rights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Horse Drawn Carraige","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Horse-Drawn-Carraige.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2085,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wake-at-ballinalee\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":4},"title":"Wake at Ballinalee","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"25th July 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My mother told of attending a wake when a child in her native village Ballinalee, where the pipes that were smoked cermonially at the wake were swiped by her and her freinds. Having no tobacco to smoke, they filled them first with turf and then with coal, only to become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Death"","block_context":{"text":"Death","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/death\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Clay pipe remnant of the kind that was smoked at an Irish funeral years ago. Wefound tons of these in our garden in Banagher when I was a child growing up. This sample is from County Clare.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/funeral-clay-smoking-pipes.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/funeral-clay-smoking-pipes.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/funeral-clay-smoking-pipes.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/funeral-clay-smoking-pipes.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/funeral-clay-smoking-pipes.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/barbados-chest-in-a-molly-cottage\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":5},"title":"Barbados Chest in a Molly Cottage","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"8th August 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"* Molly is a townland in North Longford, Ireland, where my great grandmother Margaret Drake (who married Michael O Reilly, she herself was of the Drakes of Ballinulty) had a chest brought back from Barbados by an ancestor of hers who was a plantation agent there, of which we heard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Family Stories","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/category\/family-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3079,"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}