Rolls of turf prior to being laid in the grounds of City Hall. The X-mas continental market (food and drink as culture) leaves the grass dead hence the replacement.
More as a trailer than a review – as it’s out on Thursday– I draw attention to Fintan O’Toole’s latest polemic “Enough is Enough – how to build a new Republic“. Fintan has been promoting the book vigorously on this side of the water, on Radio 4’s Start the Week and here at greater length [...] read our review »
Fair play to Iain, he managed to get over 2,200 people voting in his poll for the top Northern Irish blogs this year… We (just, I imagine) retained our top spot, with Splintered coming straight in at number 2, no doubt his pet subject du jour will have garnered him a lot of fans… I’ve [...] read our review »
A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in [...] read our review »
Given its our civic centre, and by extension our premiere piece of institutionalised space and architecture symbolically accessible by all, you would think the powers that be would go for something more neutral coloured than grass e.g. concrete.
ARTICLES,
i TAKE IT YOU HAVE NEVER SAT ON THE GRASS ON A SUMMER’S DAY LISTENING TO THE LUCH TIME CONCERTS.
dO THEY STILL HAVE THOSE?
Oops, not shouting.
Xmas ? What is Xmas? Is it the celebration of the birth of X? I think you mean Christmas Market?
Bring back the wheel i say!
Never had the pleasure Joe.
As for nowadays ,not often around the City Hall at lunchtime so i don’t know for sure, but they do have occasional lunchtime concerts at the Ulster Hall courtesy of the Ulster orchestra.
Anyhow back to Gardeners’ Question Time. Is it a good idea to lay turf when it’s frosty?(we’re in another cold snap at the moment) What’s the best time of year to lay concrete?
Laid in this weather? I wish them luck
The X in Xmas is the Greek letter ‘chi’, which is a short hand for Christ as anyone who has seen the Book of Kells will know.
I personally don’t see the big deal myself, it’s not like that time of year has anything to do with yer man anyway.
Grass goes dormant at 4 degrees C. Shouldn’t lay concrete below 0C although you can if you can keep it warm. Concrete gives off heat while hardening since the chemical reaction is exothermic.
More: So if you lay concrete when the weather is very hot, you have to keep it cool. Usually by laying sacks or the like on it and spraying with water to keep them damp.
Impressive. Suggestive of a new strapline for Slugger O’Toole
No question knowingly left unanswered.
Makes a change from the oft quoted “Gladstone spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question”
I recommend Bill Bryson’s recent tome ‘ At Home ‘ a History of Private Life’ for all those who are finding it difficult to endure the winter
Full of interesting facts about how we got to live in houses and even have lawns .
On the matter of grass and lawns Bryson notes that in the USA lawns cover more surface area 50,000 square miles (about 1.6 times the size of Ireland ) – than any single farm crop .
To keep it short and green and continuously growing means pouring a lot of stuff onto it . In the western USA about 60% of all the water that comes out of taps for all purposes is sprinkled on lawns . Worse still are the amount of herbicides and pesticides -70 million pounds a year are soaked into lawns . For most people in the USA keeping a handsome lawn is about the least ‘Green ‘ thing ‘ americans do ‘
Now did’nt I see on Slugger something about NI having a water problem ? Maybe the NI Green party might want to peruse Bryson’s findings /
Alas it’s too late for the Southern Greens who are about to to receive a different kind of watering from an irate electorate .
Greenflag,
Some cities (counties? States?) in the USA have banned the use of grass in house grounds. Only indigenous plants, drought resistant obviously in some southern states, are allowed to be grown and watering is forbidden.
Who’s running this thread, Alan Titchmarsh?
They spent someting in the region of £11 million re-furbishing this shithole, £60,000 on christmas lights and £40,000 for a christmas tree, and there are still people sleeping in shop doorways with cardboard over them, something not right here methinks.
Fordprefect
I spend little time in Belfast at night. What’s the extent of the problem?
Articles
Probably not as bad as bigger cities like Dublin or London, but it’s still there, i.e. people sleeping rough.
People sleeping rough often have mental health problems or have fallen on really hard times. Sometimes runaways trying to escape an abusive environment..
But you’re right, fordprefect, it’s disgusting that the authorities seem to just want to ignore their problems.