Picture of the Week

Happy helpers: Diarmuid (two) and Aoife (four) Naughton, Stonepark, Roscommon, loving life on the farm.

Letter to the Editor

In response to Margaret Hawkins’s health article in the edition 5 March 2022 regarding intensive care units and patients in Ireland

Dear Margaret

I would like to express profound appreciation for your action in publicising the plight of so many patients in intensive care.

The mention of the part our ICU Steps group can play will hopefully benefit some more patients on the road to recovery.

Even one patient helped is a success, and makes our efforts worthwhile.

So many farmers, and others busy in active outdoor callings are fit strong and active, and to discuss the difficulties they experience with anyone at all is a serious leap, and your story of the farmer attempting to recover is a classic example. Hopefully you will succeed in liberating a few more such sufferers.

On behalf of all in our group, I would like to congratulate you on a really well written, absorbing article, and thank you most sincerely for taking the trouble to run the article and summarise the chat we had.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

John Logan

Tweet of the Week

Growing wild

with Dr Catherine Keena, Teagasc countryside management specialist

Look out for Hazel ‘lambstails’, one of the first signs of spring. These are the male flowers that release pollen to the wind on warmer days. The female flowers are fewer and found lower on the tree to catch the pollen drifting downwards.

Female flowers look like buds with red filaments or styles sticking out which, if fertilised, form hazel nuts.

Number of the Week

112 – The room number in the Shelbourne Hotel, also known as the Constitution Room – in which the Constitution of the Irish Free State was formed in 1922.

Money Mentor Tip

Loan to value (LTV) means the amount of your mortgage in relation to the value of your home. The lower the LTV, the lower the interest rate. More than 90,000 homeowners availed of mortgages between 2018 and 2020, which means as house prices have increased (10% annually), and the mortgages have been paid down, the LTV on these homes has decreased. Therefore, if you are one of these homeowners, you could now be entitled to a lower interest rate on your mortgage, which will save you thousands over the long term. Now is an ideal time to avail of some really good long term fixed rates in the market, which will also guard you against potential rising interest rates.

Quote of the Week

From Majella Gollogly, on My Country Living:

The idea being that women are more than ‘standing in a gateway’, that they’re actually the ‘gateway’ through which most of the operations of the farm happen. Whether it be looking after the farm family, whether it be the operations of the farm in terms of IT and business or whether it be out working on the farm – they’re the gateway.