Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Elderly woman dies in house fire
TRAGIC Scene of blaze in Larne, Co Antrim
AN elderly woman died following a house fire at the weekend, it has emerged.
The blaze happened on Saturday at around 1pm at a property on the Ballyrickard Road in Larne, Co Antrim.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and said the fire was under control by 2.30pm.
A PSNI spokesman said: “Police can confirm a woman aged in her 80s has died following a fire at a house in Larne.
“The fire was reported to police at around 1pm on Saturday afternoon and the woman was taken to hospital for treatment but sadly passed away a short time later. The fire is not being treated as suspicious. “
THE thing about spring is that everything seems to happen at once.
No sooner have the snowdrops come into full bloom than the daffodils burst beautifully into flower.
“Fluttering and dancing in the breeze,” in the immortal words of Lakeland bard William Wordsworth. Do schoolkids still learn that iconic poem by heart? Or indeed, any poetry?
But I digress. And now I hear the first curlew of 2021, telling me that nature’s new year really has sprung from the dormancy of winter.
In fact, according to the meteorological calendar, winter ended yesterday. Whatever the scientists say, I date seasonal change by the moorland arrival of the often-heard, but infrequently seen, curlew with its piercing, mournful cry.
I tried to find out where they go in the winter, without much success. Some experts believe they migrate to France and Spain, while others think they stay in the mudflats of southern England.
Wherever they go, they are welcome back. Their numbers are decreasing, globally halving in the past 25 years.
They were added to the European Red List of birds at risk of extinction in 2015, so they are very special visitors to Airedale. There are only about 300 breeding pairs south of Birmingham, and ornithologists fear they could become extinct down there by the end of the decade.
Unbelievably, curlews were once eaten, even appearing in cook books. They were presented as a feast to King James I, and were so common in Cornwall they were served in pies. How could anyone eat something so rare and beautiful? Steady on, old boy, you’ll soon be hugging trees.