National Tree Week will take place from 7-13 March. The theme is ‘Twenty Ten – Plant Again’. We are asking people to make a renewed effort to go out and plant more trees during the week.

The aim of National Tree Week is to raise awareness about trees and encourage local communities and local authorities to participate in over 300 events which will take place around the country during the week. Events are organised all over the country which include forest walks, tree planting ceremonies, workshops, talks, competitions and even tree plantathons!

This year 15,000 trees, sponsored by Coillte will be distributed to community groups by local authorities all over the country – contact your local council for a supply of trees.

Every year a poster competition is held, this year’s winner is Fiona Cooney as student of NCAD, Thomas Street. Posters for the competition will be presented on Wednesday 3 March at Charleville Mall Public Library, North Strand by Éanna Ní Lamhna.

Despite the great advances in the past 100 years, Ireland remains one of the least wooded countries in Europe with only 10% of our land planted with trees compared to the European average of 40%. approx. This initiative will provide thousands of new jobs build our forestry industry and help improve our environment.

Why plant more trees?
•The forest industry is worth €1.65 billion annually.
•It is estimated that more than 10,000 people are employed in the industry mainly in rural Ireland.
•More than 17,000 farmers own and manage farm woodlands.
•Forests absorb carbon dioxide and give us oxygen
•The non timber benefits of forestry include bio-diversity, carbon sequestration, wood biomass energy and recreation.
•Ireland’s forests provide an opportunity to conserve bio-diversity at local and national level.
•Ireland’s forests provide a potential for wood to displace fossil fuels.
•Over 20 million visits are made annually to Irish forests.
•Over 200,000 people use forest trails for exercise.
•Trekking through forests is an important aspect of ‘Walking Tourism’ which attracts 500,000 visitors who spend €138 million annually.
•Wood is uniquely renewable among building material.
Do not despair, even if you have very little space to plant. By doing something as simple as planting one tree, you can play your part in helping the environment.

By thinking locally, we can act globally!

All Tree Week events are free and everyone is welcome to attend.

Nigel

www.studio63.ie

www.studio63.wordpress.com

The Modern Homes & Building Exhibition returned to The Hub on the 13th to the 15th November 2009, on show were building suppliers to help you, renovate, extend or improving your home and garden.

The Modern Homes & Building Show is the place to be. For those creating a brand new home, weary of their interior décor, or simply curious to see what contemporary products & services are available to do with home or garden.

Among some of the exhibitors was  Roy Twomey who develops and markets storage management systems. He has recently appeared on the Dragon’s den.

www.modernhomes.ie for future developments and shows.

The 10th Annual Irish conker championships was held in Freshford on bank holiday weekend 28th and 29th of October. Drawing in many competitors and spectators each year this year was no different.

The event is held on the village green in freshford and is supported by a team of 60 helpers who both construct the tents and the conker arena and practice areas, not to mention judging the conker games.

Both local schools and helpers collect many hundreds of conkers in the weeks before the competition each year and help select the best conkers to be used. The strings used for all the conkers are donated by Rossiters shoe repairs on the butter slip, Kilkenny. No competitor knows or sees which conker they will get until they make a selection before their match.

All competitors pay to enter and must make good use at the practice area before they enter the main arena for their actual match. The competition is split into age groups from under twelve’s to adult.

The prize for the adult winner this year was 500 euro’s and was won by Aileen Dooley,

the under twelve’s winner was Jude Mc kinley.

Aileen Dooley in action

The tents contained areas for craft stalls, local food producers and a refreshments area along with a marquee used for music events during the weekend.

Music in the main marquee

The craft tent included crafts people selling clothes, wooden ornaments and garden furniture . One stand was run by two transition year students Kieran power and Darren Walsh, who have setup a company making ornaments out of slate. These included mirrors and garden sculptures.

This was a great weekend event and one well work the visit, it keeps on growing each year and if you didn’t make it this year then keep it in mind for October 2010.

Nigel

www.studio63.ie

What a homecoming.

What a welcome home for the Kilkenny hurlers, both minor and senior teams, who have done us proud yet again this year.

Yesterday, the Liam McCarthy Cup came back to Kilkenny for the fourth year in a row as the current Kilkenny hurling generation have surely proved themselves to be the most successful and dominant hurling force ever seen. The four-in-a-row was only seen once before in hurling history and that was a long, long time ago.

Amazing Stuff.

Massive estimated crowds of 30,000 experienced the homecoming yesterday despite heavy rain, spiteful wind and the biting cold. Fantastic entertainment prior to the arrival of the champions were led by rock band UP4IT and by local trad favourites, The Kilkennys, formerly of Uisce Beatha fame. The homecoming was presented by Edwina Grace, of KCLR96FM.

A large amount of respect has to be given to Kilkenny student Alan Hayes, 13, as he closed the event with a powerful version of ‘The Rose Of Mooncoin.’

Click here to view the full post and all the photographs.

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