March – Forests, Authors, and a Falcon

I attended a talk on urban forestry in the lecture theatre at the Botanic Gardens, providing me with a chance to wander the glasshouses ahead of time. The speaker Mark Johnston is an eminent professor of forestry, and is also an author.


Mark told us about planting trees in cities in England and Northern Ireland, with the restrictions and benefits imposed by local circumstances. I was delighted to meet him and the President of the Society of Irish Foresters, Hugh Crawford, who kindly gave me his new book to review. The Irish Forestry Society, 1902 - 1923.

While I’m a tree surgeon, I never took forestry, so I will learn a great deal.

For International Women’s Day, I placed a photo of a woman passing the National Library of Ireland on Linked In, and recommended reading a book by a female author.

I went into town to attend a crime author talk with Jane Casey. She writes about London police detectives and was launching her latest novel, A Stranger in The Family.



This was held in 1WML which is a modern office building on the site of the former U2 music studios in Windmill Lane. Good crowd, mostly female but a few men, and we got a glass of wine each. I took a photo of the author and as usual, she said, “Do you want to get in?” and as usual I said, “Oh, no, I’m a journalist.”

St. Patrick’s Day was sunny but I’d had enough excitement so did not attend the parade. I had been reviewing Irish-themed books ahead of time. Weather is intermittently sunny, mostly wet and windy.

Dune 2. Fantastic. I’m quite cross that Princess Irulan didn’t get named once, she’s ‘the Emperor’s daughter’ throughout this film. There are not many named women by comparison with men. However, Chani’s role was increased and the film does come across as one of the great love stories of our time. Perhaps due to Pandemic restrictions, the directors chose to shrink the time period of the tale – in the book, Alia is four at the end, in the film, she is not born yet, so the story from landing on Arrakis takes under nine months. I can understand they didn’t want to bring a baby or small child on set, but it does seem too short a period. The ending sequences however – wonderful. Frank Herbert would have loved to see this film.

I gained a certification from the UN called Greening The Blue, about how the UN tries to run more sustainably, and how its personnel can make more sustainable choices. The principles should apply to everyone. For example, holding meetings to suit the largest number of people in one location, and planning several meetings to suit one person’s travel. Buying locally grown food and reducing use of heating and cooling in offices.

I attended a talk in Trinity College by a professor from the State University of Campinas, Brazil. Professor Francisco Foot Hardman described the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and loss of land and livelihoods for the people who live by traditional means in the area. Grants are available to help their young people attend college, but it’s hard for them to be one in a class of thirty. I took his photo, and said “Obrigada,” (thanks) which pleased him. The professor told me his great-grandfather was Irish, a Foot.

The latest NASA – SpaceX launch included Jeanette Epps, whom I was honoured to film at Worldcon 2019 while she was an Astronaut Candidate.

Big news, a peregrine falcon perched in our garden. I'm delighted to have gained a certification in Bird Nest Monitoring from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. So can you, and it's free. Visitors need to sign up and there is a page of info as training, which does not give all the answers needed, so some are common sense. You gain a nice PDF cert which is printable and could be used for a Scout badge or go on a CV.
https://nestwatch.org/learn/how-to-ne...

This month I am making Murder at Kildare Mensa free, 19 – 22 April. This mystery involves stud farms and skydiving.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E79D9K8
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E79D9K8

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