Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Gorse is a Gorse, of Course, of Course!

Gorse weed, Gorse (Ulex europea) is native to Ireland.  According to our Guide on the tour, Joe it’s a noxious weed of deadly beauty. It resists attempts to eliminate it. This thorny plant is not only difficult to handle, but, at certain times of the year, generates within its tissues a natural flammable oil. In 1936, this characteristic all but doomed the tiny town of Bandon, County Cork, Ireland. It is not certain how the fire started, but the Gorse burned furiously and within hours the inferno had consumed 484 of the 500 buildings that made up this small town as well. Much of this weed has finally been controlled by the commercial development that has happened here.  It has deprived even this hearty weed of a habitat.  Note the small picture taken in the county prior to the fire.  The same spot today is covered with pavement, homes and a whole neighborhood, which leaves no room for the weed!



This is a picture I took along the road in Ireland and
  as you can see the Gorse still has a hold here along
the roads and within the  hedgerows in many counties.

The funniest thing comes from how my granddaughter and I came to remember the name of the weed which of course gives us the title of this article.  I am a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to the old television show theme songs and remember many of them all too well.  The lyric I used came from a very old show called "Mr. Ed" (Who was of course a talking horse!), hence my very strange title. 

5 comments:

  1. That is a pretty weed, and I like the way that you remembered its name.

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  2. I'm one for rhymes or songs to remember things and of course our guide would ask us each morning we headed out on the bus, "What's the name of that noxious weed?" until we all remembered it!
    :-)

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  3. We must think alike because something is always reminding me of a rhyme, a title, or a song.

    Your photos are excellent. Your trip is a gift that keeps on giving.

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  4. ChrisJ,
    In many ways anything that rhymes stays with me YEARS longer than almost anything else, and songs are almost a forever thing for making sure memories remain!

    After going through over a thousand pictures that I took, am just now getting through to putting the final leg of my journey on my other blog! It's been so much fun going through them again and I'm putting together a bookbinder of the whole trip for the family!! :-)

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  5. Interesting story. I'm the same as you when it comes to remembering. Every little trick helps. Happy Memorial Day!

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