Then there's the garden. Besides the 60 olive trees which produce about 300 kilos of oil a year, there are the 3 mandarin, 3 orange, 3 lime, 3 cherry, 2 lemon, 1 grapefruit, a plum, several mangoes and 2 avocado trees to look after (plus a California Redwood) - pruning, plowing, fertilizing, watering and occasionally spraying. I even own a plow and a mulcher.
I like growing anything I can eat, so long as it's a strange color, so things like yellow or purple tomatoes, black peppers, blue beans, red lettuce and so on are just fine by me. Likewise size: cherry tomatoes and monster basil. I also like growing stuff for the heck of it -- far too much, so I swap the excess produce for free beers at the pool over at a local hotel. And besides the vines over the house for shade, I've planted 60 Primitivo vines in the lower garden, so I get Zinfandel from the property. I've learned this - if you take up the hobby, remember, a 100 kilo barrel lasts about six months, provided you drink it slowly; otherwise you need more. I have five barrels in the back pantry. Plus a lifetime supply of hootch/screech/raki/grappa (call it what you will) under the stairs. You take the skins of grapes that have been crushed for wine, let them ferment in your old socks for six weeks, and then distill the muck. Yummy.
Biking. I've sold my old (1956) BMW which I had for twenty years. Have just bought a Honda Varadero. My brother is a Harley fan but I can't handle polishing all that chrome.
A Cretan Hound, a black Lab and a Golden Lab/PitBull cross. And a couple of cats. Coy carp, about the size of my forearm in the pond. A nesting pair of barn owls (encouraged) in the roof. Badgers in the lower garden. Hedgehogs.
Computing, I guess. This year's so far unsuccessful effort has been to transfer old vinyl records to CD. I need more time to get used to the software.
Going fun places with UMUC. Kuwait, back in 1991, in uniform as the oil fires were still burning. Khobar Towers, Saudi, before they blew up. Again in uniform, to Brko in Bosnia before the bullets stopped buzzing. Riyadh in Saudi, again. Back to Bosnia for a second tour. Sharm el-Shek in Egypt. I have a cupboardful of US Army uniforms. Most recently I was in Kuwait (Camp Virgnia in 2008.)
Speaking of travelling, I was the 2004 Chairman of the Faculty Advisory Council, and the 2005 Chair too. 2004 saw four visits to the United States on University business and four to Germany (Heidelberg). 2005 saw a couple to UMUC in Adelphi in the States and one to the UMUC Asian Division in Japan. Got to Kadena in Okinawa, and well as Tokyo.
Alas, travel to places like China and Thailand (2005) has been replaced by rather too many visits to Ireland in the past couple of years as my mother (83) and my stepfather (was to have hit 90 but didn't quite make it) became suddenly rather frail. Mom is now on her own and rather more dependent than ever. So when folks ask, "Where you going on holiday this year?" the response is "Northern Ireland again!" I grew up right on the North Atlantic, looking out at Iceland. I prefer the Mediterranean now.
Occasional mountain hiking. Tourism is taking its toll on the island as folks find new ways and places to exploit. They're punching a road up and over the White Mountains to the south of here to open up the High Desert to "walking" tours.
Amateur artwork. I'm useless at color (consider my vegetables), but my pen & ink work is good enough to exhibit and sell in Europe and Canada. Mostly landscape. Some cartoon work. Have had cartoons published commercially in England and Germany. Last public book commission was to help illustrate a book on ancient Roman Theater: Spectacle Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome, by Dr. Richard C Beacham, Yale University Press 1999. Biggest ever piece is a 25 square meter mural for a local hotel (2007). Joint exhibitions in summers of 05, 06, 07 and 08. And I've recently taken up etching.
If you wish to take a look, click here.
That's it for now. Thanks for showing interest.
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