1st - 2nd March. Erne Head of the River

It is the Erne Head of the River competition today, with teams coming from all over Ireland, and also some from England. Queens University are turning the stern of their boat over here, ready to fix the two halves together. Their rowing shoes can be seen, already fixed into the boat.

The coach is lining up both halves of the boat, ready to bolt them together.

There are boat trailers everywhere at the Round "O", with oars and equipment stored in the bottom for travelling. These oars are ready for collection by the crews, when they are ready to launch.

Special pontoons have been brought in to make launching the boats easier. This eight is going into the water from the inner jetty.

The outer boat here is the famous crew from Moseley on the River Thames, in England. The combined age of the crew adds up to 533 years!

Crews are queueing up to launch their boats from the pontoon on the outer jetty. Some boats are launching further downstream at the Portora Boathouse. All the boats have to row upstream the full length of the course which, at six kilometres, is the longest in Ireland. There are 70 boats here today.

The Head starts at 2.15pm. The first boat coming through the Enniskillen Bridge and passing the Round "O" to complete the course just past the Portora Boathouse is number 1.  This is the Galway composite crew. Have they retained their title from last year? We will have to wait and see.

The Head of the River is a time trial, so when a boat catches up with the one in front, they know that they are doing well!

Once the eight oars are out of the boat, they have to be carried back to the trailer. There are different ways of carrying them. Here two of the crew are finding it quite easy.

However this man, going for the independant single carry, seems to be finding it quite a struggle!

Back at the trailers the boats are taken in half again and loaded up. Most of these trailers can carry six full length boats, if fully laden.

It is not often that we see such activity in the park at the Round "O".

Galway did come first, being fastest over the course. In second place was the University College crew from Dublin, with Queen's University from Belfast in third place.

14th - 28th February. Tree Cutting and Zone bowls.

Sometimes boats go past quite fast on this stretch of the River Erne, ignoring all moored boats. We will certainly know about it when this wash reaches The Puzzler.

More trees are being felled behind the Police Station. Rumour has it that this is all in preparation for the G8 summit.

Another tree going down! Most people feel that this "tidying up" is being overdone, with so many mature trees being felled.

Compare this view, which was taken two weeks later, to the one directly above it, to see the number of trees which have now gone. They used to hide the fence of the Police Barracks.

However, we cannot complain about all this timber, which somehow finds its way on to The Puzzzler!

Short mat bowls is very strong throughout Ireland. Fermanagh forms the main part of the Western Area in the Zone Competitions, and Western has been very successful in the Shield competition this year. Both the Ladies and the Mens Western teams qualified for their respective finals, which were held simultaneously in the Union Hall in Enniskillen. They both won their matches! Janet's team are studying this close head of bowls, during the competition.

We moved back to the Round "O" after dark one night, passing the Police launch, moored outside the Police Station.

The Round "O" looks quite different after dark. Click on this picture to enlarge it and get the full effect!

1st - 13th February. Winter in Fermanagh.

Not all the puzzles which occupy our time are flat ones! Andy is just putting the last piece into the globe.

Time to feed the birds!

Is there room for one more?

At this point the River Erne becomes one again, having separated to go on both sides of the island of Enniskillen. The Puzzler, moored at the Round "O", is just visible on the right of the river.

These two swans come and peck at The Puzzler every day, to ask for food from the galley window.

On February 5th we awoke to snow, our first of the winter!

The park at the Round "O" looked really pretty, but by the evening all the snow had gone.

There are very few boats moving this week. Waves are breaking in the centre of the river, as the strong winds try to halt the flow of the water. Our satellite dish blew over, and had to be set up on the jetty, where there was a little shelter from the wind.

Five days later, the water was calm enough here for a flotilla of canoes to set off safely. There have been few dry days this year so far. There is a well known saying here that for half the year Fermanagh is in the lough, but for the other half, the lough is in Fermanagh!

We went to a tea dance at The British Legion with Gerry, Violet, Dessie and Angela. There was live music, with plenty of dancing and good craic. It was a great afternoon.

13th - 31st Jan. Inter Zone bowls. Devenish Cup. Wood collecting.

When the seagulls and the pigeons are about, the ducks have to move quickly, to get any bread at all!

We went to watch the Irish Indoor Bowling Ladies Inter Zone Shield semi-final between Western, which is this area, and Northern. Western had a terrific win, with 77 shots to Northern's 41. This quote is from our local paper, The Impartial Reporter:- " What can only be described as possibly the best ever performance by a Western Ladies team took place in the Unionist Hall, Enniskillen last Saturday. - - Janet Brown's rink was never overawed by being drawn against the Irish International and TV personality Margaret Johnston and really cruised to a very easy win by 13 shots to 4." In this picture, Janet can be seen, showing her next player exactly where to put their bowl.

Other boats come and go at the Round "O". Beyond the mooring a Waterways Ireland working barge is going past.

We attend The Devenish Bridge Club at Irvinestown every Wednesday and our performance week by week has been adequate. However, on 16th January, everything went right for us and we won The Devenish Cup, with Mollie and Renee coming second.

Having heard a chain saw working, we made our way across the River Erne, and managed to tie to two of the fishing jetties there. We were given permission to take a lot of wood, as the undergrowth was being cleared.

All three Police boats were out today. This one seemed to be quite heavily laden! The bigger police boat followed ten minutes later, and certainly exceeded the speed limit. He really threw The Puzzler about with his wash!

It was quite tricky loading the wood on top of The Puzzler, as our only access was along the gunwhale from the fishing jetty at the bows. Tidy stacking can come later!

Last December there was a lot of undergrowth in this area where we have been collecting wood.

Look at it now. What a difference!

Meanwhile we have been chainsawing and chopping our wood to make The Puzzler tidy again.

It is a good thing that we are not going sailing in rough waters, when the logs are stacked as high as this inside the cratch!

4th - 12th Jan. A visit to Florence Court.

We still continue to play both bowls and bridge regularly.
A waterboarder went upstream past the Round "O". She tried to go up through Enniskillen Bridge but failed, which was not surprising. There is quite a flow on the River Erne at present.

We went walking at Florence Court, which is a splendid 18th century mansion and is the former home of the Earls of Enniskillen. It is set in acres of fields and woodland with many lovely walks.

In this building, in the grounds of Florence Court, there is an operational sawmill, which has been there since 1848. It is powered by a waterwheel, which is activated by the water feeding across from the stream above it.

The waterwheel can be seen close behind the building.

It is quite impressive.

We carried on further round the grounds to the pretty thatched summerhouse. The clematis, on the front arch above Violet and Andy, will be lovely in a couple of months time.

Time for a rest! The walls are lined with small branches, while the rustic furniture inside this delightful building is also made by using natural shapes in the wood.

We looked at the view, while Joe checked out the path in front of the summer house.

Having completed our circuit, we walked back past the main house. We really appreciated our visit here, having heard so much about Florence Court. It certainly lived up to our expectations.