Pangur Ban

I found this poem the other day in a compendium of animal poems. I thought it had a really nice flow to it (although that could be due to the skill of the translator) and couldn’ beleive it had been written more than 1200 years ago, incredible!

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
 'Tis a like task we are at:
 Hunting mice is his delight,
 Hunting words I sit all night.
 Better far than praise of men
 'Tis to sit with book and pen;
 Pangur bears me no ill-will,
 He too plies his simple skill.
 'Tis a merry task to see
 At our tasks how glad are we,
 When at home we sit and find
 Entertainment to our mind.
 Oftentimes a mouse will stray
 In the hero Pangur's way;
 Oftentimes my keen thought set
 Takes a meaning in its net.
 'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
 Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
 'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
 All my little wisdom try.
 When a mouse darts from its den,
 O how glad is Pangur then!
 O what gladness do I prove
 When I solve the doubts I love!
 So in peace our task we ply,
 Pangur Ban, my cat, and I;
 In our arts we find our bliss,
 I have mine and he has his.
 Practice every day has made
 Pangur perfect in his trade;
 I get wisdom day and night
 Turning darkness into light.
 -- Anon., (Irish, 8th century)

Guard Tortoise

The killer tortoise

Some interesting animal behaviour here!

Goat

Goat

Originally uploaded by Deputy Dog.

Taken at Leek Show

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Chimp

Twycross Zoo, originally uploaded by Deputy Dog.

One of my favourite photos taken at Twycross Zoo during freshers’ week.

Religion and Animal Welfare clash again

Another eport from the BBC about a cow that has tested positive for TB on a small farm run by a Hindu community in Wales. Under animal health regulations animals which test positive for TB must be destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Slaughter fight for ‘sacred’ bull Hindus have launched a last minute appeal to prevent the slaughter of a sacred bull which has tested positive for tuberculosis. The bull, Shambo, lives in a shrine in Llanpumsaint, Carmarthenshire. Officials at the Skanda Vale Temple and the Hindu Forum of Britain, say the killing of cows and bulls is against their religious principles. But the Welsh assembly government said infected animals were slaughtered to “protect both human and animal health”. Shambo tested positive in routine bovine TB screening and was placed in isolation. Agriculture officials intend to start discussing whether to slaughter the six-year-old British Friesian on 14 May, but the temple is mounting a legal challenge and has begun an online petition to save Shambo.

Test Post from Clipmarks

This is a test post direct from the clipmarks tool bar.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Supernovae occur when huge, mature stars effectively run out of fuel and collapse in on themselves. A massive star about 150 times the size of the Sun exploded in what could be a long-sought new type of supernova, Nasa scientists have said. SN 2006gy impression: The most powerful supernova yet recorded

First Post

This is the first post of my new blog. I am hoping to use this site to combine all my previous online presences – eg livespaces, blogger blogs, bakewelluk etc etc, plus include feeds from all the web.2 sites that I’m signed up to.

Update

Well it’s been a while since I last updated my blog but I’ve been so busy I just haven’t had time. So much has happened that I don’t know if I can remember it all. I can’t believe that I’ve been here 6 weeks already!powered by performancing firefox

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My room at Sutton Bonington

My room at Sutton Bonington

Originally uploaded by TheLoneRanger.

Monday

Well today was the big one, the real thing, the day when the first new vet school in 50 years finally got some students! There was a real sense of participating in the start of something really important. All the staff were in academic dress whislt the Dean gave a formal speech to open the school and welcome us all. Next the part everybody was really waiting for, time to collect our goodies!

All the students in the first year of the course have been presented with a “Foundation Award” which thanks to various sponsors has been extremelly generous. The pile of stuff that the school had managed to obatin for us was absolutely incredible. It would take too long to list everything here but to summarise it inluded; clothes, books, stetscope, wellies, bags, books and much much more – musn’t forget the laptop on which I’m typing this blog. (It took me 2 trips just to get it all back to my room!) It’s a brilliant way to start the course and should save me quite a bit of much needed cash. Because we have received so much stuff we were even told not to flaunt it to other students on the campus in case they got a bit upset.

Next we met our tutors who’ll oversee our academic and pastoral needs over the next 5 years, so it’s really quite a good idea if you get on with them! The lucky person to be allocated to me is one of the new Professors at the school Dr Malcolm Cobb. He seems a nice guy and I think we’ll get on OK, although boy is he competitive when it comes to bowling (but more of that later). This was followed by the official school photograph (I wonder if we’ll make it on the front of the Vet Record, maybe not ) which I’ll put up on here when I get a copy and for once it’s actually a photo where I’m not pulling some rediculous face – no more than usual anyway. After the snaps outside the shiny new building we were treated to a really tasy buffet and champagne! The first of many this week for us spoilt vet students

By now I’m already flagging and we’re only haflf way through the first day – lol.

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