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Bog? Blog? It's all Irish to me ...

Funny word, blog.

It's not the type of word you'd envision associating with literature or the arts.

Who'd have thunk 20 years ago, everybody would be blogging it.

Blog, as you would note from my post title, reminds me of the Irish word "bog".

A bog, admittedly a rather odd word in the same vein as blog, is a section of wet spongy ground. Ireland has its share of bogs. Bogs are a natural resource that provides Ireland with "peat". Peat sounds like the boys name "Pete".

It smells delightful and cut into bricks, the fossil fuel has kept many an Irish toe toasty on the cold damp nights for which Erin's green isle is noted. Peat is formed when layers of partially decomposed plants accumulate on top of each other. Peat is cut - into blocks - and dried before burning.

Bogs are also a wonderful medium for perservation. People, books, trees, and even artifacts many many years old - have been found carefully maintained in Irish bogs.

Which brings me back to blogs. What do you think blogs and bogs have in common?

Well, let me enlighten you. Blogs, like bogs, are a wonderful natural resource. Bogs, of course, are an environmental resource. Blogs are a human resource. But both are natural.

Blogs and bogs are both excellent at perservation. Bogs can perserve things. Blogs can perserve ideas and views that are unpublished in the traditional sense, but that might otherwise be forgotten.

In honor of the Irish bogs, let me sing a little piece of an old Irish folksong called "The Rattlin' Bog".

"Hi ho the rattlin' bog and the bog down in the valley-o

Rare ho the rattlin' bog and the bog down in the valley-o

And on the tree there was a bird - rare ho the rattling bird

Bird in the tree and the tree in bog and the bog down in the valley-o"

Blog on!

Loretta

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Comment by Loretta A. Murphy on August 6, 2007 at 6:20am: Many thanks, Miss Shelagh, for your kind comments.

And trek I shall, to yer wee blog in the infinite blogspace of the ethers.

Loretta

Comment by Shelagh Watkins on August 6, 2007 at 12:53am: Hi Loretta,

I've already watched the first trailer and I'll catch up with the second!

I'm a Trekkie too and it shows in my writing. Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine is about a trek into space.

You can trek out my blog here:

http://shelaghs.blogspot.com

Btw, I thought your first trailer was very good.

~Shelagh

Comment by Loretta A. Murphy on August 5, 2007 at 11:05pm: Hello Shelagh.

Nor could I resist answering you back.

On behalf of peat, Pete accepts your Pun.

Yes, Shelagh is another lovely form of Sheila - the Irish Julia. My very dear neice is a Sheila and amongst the Carroll cousins and aunts of present and past generations, there are more than a few Julias. I have two cousins Julia in my immediate round of cousins and an aunt Julie in the last three generations on my mothers side.

Blogs and bogs, for peat's sake, are certainly an interesting pairing to consider, if nothing else?

Welcome to my blog about bogs.

On that subject, let me say that if nothing else, I enjoy the way the words blog and bog sound together. Most especially when blog is used first.

Like the chorus "guns and drums and drums and guns ... " from Johnny, I hardly knee ye. Guns and drums sound right bouncing off of each other. Hope they are never trapped in a bog.

Back to bio-logs ..

Come to think about it, didn't they do a biolog on Star Trek? You know, the one they always read at the beginning of the show starting with "Captain's Log, Stardate such and such".

If it wasn't a biolog, maybe someone out there remembers what it was called. I should know this, me own dear husband Patrick is a Trekkie.

But my brain has been working overtime today in a hot garage rehearsing for a show and taping a string of original songs for a CD that benefits our theatre group.

I'm tired but I'm writing this entry at 12:45 am.

Do you know where your blog is?

In any case, let us hope it has not gone home by way of the bog.

Loretta

Watch both The Pipes Are Calling book trailers on YouTube!
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=zL4StoARe-w
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=TeAAKoqORKU

Loretta Murphy
The Pipes Are Calling
ISBN 142414826X

http://www.freewebs.com/lorettamurphy

http://www.authorsden.com/lorettaamurphy
http://pipesarecalling.blogdrive.com

Comment by Shelagh Watkins on August 5, 2007 at 3:54pm: Hi Loretta,

I couldn't resist answering this blog post! Shelagh is the Irish spelling of Sheila, but a blog isn't a novice (L) trapped in an Irish bog; it's a bio-log or daily log written by and about the author.

So, for pete's sake, blogs and bogs don't have much in common. Pun intended! LOL!

~Shelagh