Zeta Dooly

Finally a cool pic of our hens and hen house that Anthony built!

Support Fenor School

Fundraising at Fenor National School is prolific they raised lots of money (30K) at the annual sale of work at Christmas and are currently in negotiation to build a playground...so well done to our whole community. NEXT event is Ladies Fashion Swap Fri 5th Feb 7-9pm and Sat 10-3pm @ 'the Meeting Place' Tramore - old Quakers hall in between Vic pub & Banyan restaurant rules etc below

]]> The Parents Council from Fenor National School would like to introduce you all to the latest hottest fashion trend: swapping instead of shopping.

What they propose is that we use this trend in guilt free clothes shopping to raise funds for Fenor School, in conjunction with the Waterford (South Eastern) Simon Community,
with a Fashion Swap Event. It will be hosted in the Meeting Place, Branch Road, Tramore between 7 and 9pm on Friday the 5th Feb and between 10am and 3pm on Saturday the 6th.

There will be fitting rooms, refreshments and a fashion raffle. All clothes that haven't been"sold" will be given to the Simon Community charity shop based in Waterford.

We are also approaching local fashion outlets for donations of new clothes and accessories. Entrance fee is €10.

This event can only be a success if we get good numbers of swappers and quality clothes so bring along your mother, sisters, friends, neighbours and granny's and make a night of it! For More Information Call 0868827212

How it works
Go through your wardrobe and dig out anything that may not fit anymore, you have grown tired of, or you just don't like.

Make sure they are clean and ironed and put them in a bag with your contact details on. (clearly label your bags with name and phone number.)

High street clothing as well as designer labels are welcome! Deliver them either to Fenor National school or the Meeting Place in Tramore.

Drop off from Monday 1st Feb to Friday the 5th. Clothes can also be brought on the day and exchanged for points.

We will classify all the items according to its quality and condition from which you will receive a number of points to"spend" on the day of the swap.

There is no maximum to how many items you bring, but bear in mind that the more you bring in, the more you can take away.

Bring friends or family along on Friday 5th or Saturday 6th and"shop" to your hearts content.

Swapping Guidelines
Please only bring clean, pressed, good quality, nearly new or gently worn clothing. All zips & buttons should be in working order. No stains, rips etc.

Only bring the quality of clothes that you would wish to find. No throw-away "fast clothes". We want your good quality, but no longer loved items.

Accessories are welcome (including hats, costume jewellery and shoes). All sizes and styles are welcome too.

Please only donate items that you are 100% certain that you want to give away.

It's a bit like Christmas – while the points system will reward those that give good quality, we do stress that what you get might not be, in your eyes, as good as what you give.

Please come with an open mind, This is an Opportunity to try a new style or new look. You can afford to take a risk !

Tuning in CBeebies in Ireland

Recently our CBeebies channel disappeared from our list of available channels on SKY, mainly we watch 'In the night garden' on it as its a soothing pre-bed time treat that can help to wind down the little ones. I left it for a few weeks and then remembered it needed to be fixed so thanks to boards.ie i found the fix pretty quickly and it was fool-proof just took 2 mins and we're back up and running thanks!

]]> To add channels to your "Other Channels" option, do the following -

With your digibox turned on, press the "Services" button (near the top of the remote).

Select number 4 (System Setup), and then 4 again ("Add Channels").

In the appropriate fields enter the following (you move through the fields using the up and down arrow keys).

In the Frequency field enter: 10.773,

The next three fields are toggle fields, i.e. using the left and right arrows will change the value.

Toggle Polarisation to : H
Toggle Symbol Rate to: 22000
Toggle FEC to : 5/6

Then select the last button - Find Channels.

current interests - now that spring is around the corner

Christmas is a good time to get going on reading for spring activities, a river cottage diary and website and online resource future forests have given me some inspriation and enthusiasm over the last few nights in our battle toward more self sufficiency..bring it on!

Roberts Solar DAB radio - not for use in Waterford

Unfortunately this Christmas my shopping was influenced by a review in the Irish Times on Roberts Solar DAB radio, thinking it would be a lovely environmentally friendly pressie. However there is no DAB coverage in my part of Ireland and as a colleague pointed out to me - many journalists or people in general feel that where they live i.e. Dublin in this case is the centre of the earth. Sure it might be rolled out in the future! suppose it might work well on holidays...lesson is take your time christmas shopping even online and don't forget to research newspaper recommendations yourself!

Future Internet day in Dublin, hosted by TSSG

On December 3rd the TSSG, WIT hosted the 2nd Annual Future Internet Forum Event in the Digital Hub.The focus of this year's event was Identity, Privacy, Security & Trust in the Future Internet. Given the magnitude of internet use, user needs and requirements and opportunity for crime, it proved to be a mixed event with much lively discussion.

Minister Conor Lenihan T.D opened this years event, and the key note was given by Dr. Jacques Bus Head of Unit F5 DG-INFSO, European Commission, who provided findings on the recently published RISEPTIS report, titled 'Trust in the Information Society'. The panel session proved that research in Ireland is mature in many aspects, mainly technical, but the subsequent cluster session highlighted that often the weakest link in internet security is the 'user', education and awareness along with technical development will go a long way in ensuring that Irish citizens are not subjects of criminal activity.

Trust in the information society

RISEPTIS have published their report, the 'future scenarios' documented by Kieran here @ tssg make it particularly tangible to all walks of society from the tech-savvy to technophobes

Waterford Half marathon-done and dusted!

Myself and Una completed the Waterford Half marathon in 2hrs 6 mins which we were happy with, given our training schedule! well done to all it was great to have such a huge crowd and good weather, bring on those christmas bevvies and treats

Eggs, hens, children and Irish Future internet forum

Its been a long time since i've been blogging -from the title of this post you'll see i've been busy, we have 3 new hens, a 10 month old to add to our 4 and 2 yr old and i'm back to work. So all is good in the world whatever Brian Cowen does with the budget this week. I will give more details soon on hens and the joy of getting 2 eggs before leaving the house each morning.

Transition towns

A Transition Initiative is a community working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:

"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"

The resulting coordinated range of projects across all these areas of life leads to a collectively designed energy descent pathway.

The community also recognises two crucial points:

* that we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there's no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope
* if we collectively plan and act early enough there's every likelihood that we can create a way of living that's significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.

For more information please look at the Transition Towns WIKI.

There are a group of us in Tramore
that have started to start this intiative ...life evolves ..its time to become active

There are solutions emerging ..educate yourself about this - there are many resources out there including lots on youtube
If you would like to contact the Tramore Transition Initiative directly please email:
transition-town-tramore@googlegroups.com.

Bird tracking system available to public

The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) is a leading conservation organisation saving wetlands for wildlife and people across the world and its got a link for tracking geese, swans etc. iI found this link on the Friday Irish Times which we were still reading on Sunday eveing - value for money! and in particular interest was the Greenland Barnacle Goose where a school in Mayo was responsible for naming these birds - excellent use of technolgy, education and fun usage of the internet

Waterford's foodies

Garden Banquets and Monster Farmers markets coming to Waterford, the Slow Food Ireland group and WIT are coming together for a 4 day event (Terra Madre) on food - should be good!

Peak Oil - Climate Change

Peak Oil - Climate Change - everyone's responsibility, take time to think about your actions and take part in community efforts. This Future Scenarios website is very informative and gives cultural implications. Many communities are beginning to take action such as Transition towns movement these problems won't just disappear!

Asturias - excellent place for doing stuff

Even though the weather wasn't great - a mixture of sun and rain showers just like Ireland really northern Spain Asturias region is an excellent base for exploring the Picos de Europa
mountains and the beaches (empty due to low temperatures) were brilliant, very remote and often difficult to access which just made it more of an adventure.

EU announces Think-Trust RISEPTIS group

Yesterday at the BSA security Awareness day Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, European Commission announced the creation of an advisory board within the Think-Trust FP7 project named RISEPTIS (Research and Innovation for SEcurity, Privacy and Trustworthiness in the Information Society). the main mission of the RISEPTIS Advisory Board will be to provide visionary guidance on policy and research challenges in the field of security and trust in the Information Society.

]]> It will do so by formulating recommendations on:
• Policy environment – The development of coherent legal and administrative frameworks, operational environments, and human behaviour relating to security, privacy and confidence, in view of the technological changes leading to and arising from the future Information Society,
• Research Agenda – Future European research and development that can facilitate the creation of an Information Society that will be secure, whilst respecting freedom and privacy of its citizens, with due attention given to the ICT infrastructures, networks, services and applications.