Happy Christmas 2012

As I suspect it has with a lot of people - 2012 seems to have flown by and Christmas is again upon us.

So here's some of our news from 2012. Click on the photos to make them bigger...

Ellie started secondary school in September - a big change from the small primary school but she seems to have settled in well, made friends and according to a recent parent-teacher evening is doing well academically. She's singing as part of the choir in the school show (January) and also plays basketball for the school.

Back in March, the Tulla St Patrick's Pipe Band which Steve belongs to were invited to Huddersfield UK to head up their St Patrick's Day parade - so a family trip was organised and it was great fun and we enjoyed catching up with some of our friends from Yorkshire as well.

Steve has also been discovering his thespian tendencies - earlier in the year taking a major part in a small independent local film (due for release soon)

A small "making of" clip is available on YouTube for those interested
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnpxDVDxvLU

He also took the part of Major General Stanley in the East Clare Musical Society production of New Pirates of Penzance (the Australian comedy version) that had a very successful 4 night run last week. All the cast and crew worked tirelessly and it was incredibly successful.

Ellie is still rock-climbing. She had trips to France and the UK with the Ireland Youth Team to climb outside this year and is still entering competitions. Great results in the Bouldering World Cup in Sheffield this summer and the Youth Climbing Series in Edinburgh. Also winning first place in the Irish Lead Competition in the Under16 female category in Dublin in November.


Home-wise it's been a particularly poor year on the fruit and veg front - mostly down to the prolonged wet weather and lack of sun we've had very poor harvests (except for raspberries)
Hopefully next year will be better - we have a handful of parsnips and sprouts that we're saving for Christmas dinner (one of the few things that the slugs and caterpillars have left us !!!)

Autumn saw the final completion of the sand arena at the front of the house. It replaced a boggy and useless patch of ground so after a lot of consideration, yards of drainage, hours of work we have a fully functioning piece of land. Instead of surfacing it with sand we were able to locally source finely ground recycled glass which is a marvellous and eco-friendly alternative with over 87000 ground bottles per lorryload (and we had 4 lorryloads)
Bracken seems to enjoy it anyway. Look - it WAS sunny at some point... I'm wearing a T-shirt !!!

2012 saw us increase our animal tally - we were given a pair of kittens (Eric and Ernie) from an unwanted litter (!!!)

...and then 5 days later when Ellie and I were out riding on a deserted country lane, we heard a squeaking sound coming from the ditch. Ellie crawled into the ditch and emerged with a tiny female kitten that was soaked through and crying. We took her home with a view to warming her up and then taking her to an animal shelter, but who could resist such a sweetie ? She's still very small but healthy and very affectionate.
Ellie christened her Saoirse which is Gaelic for "freedom"

Luckily work has taken off a bit more for both of us lately - I've managed to get some more regular locum work which keeps me busy (and my mind stimulated).

Sadly Steve's mum is in declining health so he's over in the UK visiting and sorting out continuing care for her.
Dad is much the same as usual, doing volunteer work all over the place and generally enjoying life to the full.

Our plans for Christmas - assuming Steve gets back from the UK, just relaxing in front of the fire and enjoying some family time off together. What with the demands of work, school, singing, acting and sports we are rarely in at the same time these days. I'm working over Christmas but get Christmas Day and Boxing Day off so we're looking forward to it.

Best wishes to all of you in 2013.

Now is the month of maying

...or so the song goes. Coincidentally the very song that we're singing in choir at the moment (and will be performing for the President of Ireland when he visits Clare in mid June if all goes according to plan)

Anyway - I digress

Following requests for garden photos, I'm ever happy to oblige.

It's been a slow start to the growing season this year despite the mild winter and the wet spring, things have been slow to sprout and slow to grow. The spell of warm weather last week has brought things on no end so at last we hope there's going to be something edible this year.

Polytunnel with herbs,spinach, broad beans, grapevine, tomato plants (L) and salad, kale, French beans, carrots, spring onions, cauli and Brussels sprouts (R)

Bean wigwam, brassica bed (netted...yeah we're learning) and garlic

Currants, gooseberries & rhubarb, strawberries and asparagus (the bare-looking bed at the front... not one of our better years but there's still time)

Fledgling apple orchard (only planted this spring and had lots of blossom so hopefully a couple of apples)

So there you have it.... more updates to come soon (ish)

Explanation

 I wanted Photoblog  to run down the page so I've reversed all the posts so it reads top-to-bottom.

I didn't live my day in reverse, although that might be quite interesting.

It's still raining and the cat's STILL asleep... =^.^=

Photoblog 1

It's supposed to be a photographic representation of the day (except because it's spur-of-the-moment, the camera battery is flat. So is the spare.) So you're excused from viewing breakfast and the school run and we skip straight to my second cup of tea and making Steve's packed lunch...

Weather check - today will mostly be grey, cold, windy and rainy.


Ponies are hungry and making "OI where's our breakfast??" noises at me as I take photos
Here's your breakfast (in their favourite wheelbarrow)
And about time too !!!
Billy is filthy again...
A quick muck-out with their not-so-favourite wheelbarrow
And a bit of fresh bedding to roll around in
Enough wheelbarrow shots now !!

Photoblog 2

The wheelbarrows go back in the shed for the day

Hens are sulking inside because it's raining
Cat's having the first of many naps in the shed, proving why we have a mouse infestation.
Gap in the rain gives me the chance to nip out and see what's sprouting in the veg garden....
Bit of garlic - that only went in a week or so ago
And some rhubarb - obviously responding well to the horse manure then

Photoblog 3

I spend about an hour replying to emails and making phone calls. This would make boring photos so I didn't take any.

It's cold in here so decide to clean out and light the stove
Fetch in some more logs - the pile's getting low
Luckily there's another pile !!!

Cat's STILL asleep !!!!!

Collect the eggs before one of the hens stamps on them.

Put the dinner on to warm up... yesterday's soup (minestrone-esque)While the soup's warming go and have a quick look through the choir pieces for Wednesday. The piano playing needs a lot more practice...

Photoblog 4

This photo is supposed to represent the fact that El and I took the ponies out for a quick run after school. It was wet and windy and I forgot the camera - so here's my muddy boots

now a well-deserved cup of tea

Showtime

The year is flying by too quickly - I can't believe that next week it'll be August. This means Gort Show so I'm busy amongst other things sorting out veg to enter into the show classes. I'll keep you posted of the results !!

Big Baby Birds

In just 12 days they've grown enough to crowd out the nestbox - it's been amazing fun watching them. The day after this photo was taken, we got up early only to find they'd all fledged successfully.

Babies !!!

10 days later, we appear to be hosting 8 blue-tit chicks

Birdcam

Our camera nestbox has occupants !!!

Marching on...

End of another month, and what a month it's been here !!

St Patrick's Day, Bank Holiday and parades, the start of spring and the growing season (including weeds)

Irish Youth Climbing final - Ellie came 4th in the girls 11-13 category with 474 points out of 480, an awesome performance.

Choir practices for me, the choir will be competing at the choral competition in Wexford this May so we need 4 competition pieces up to the high standard that we witnessed last year.

Ellie has her first Irish traditional music exam on 4th April, on the tin whistle so is memorising her two set pieces for that.

Add in pony-riding, pony vaccinations and visits from the farrier, gardening work picking up for me (which is nice as we have had a very dry and sunny month so I've started my suntan early)

As the month draws to a close, the routine tasks (half-dismantle the stove and give it a thorough clean...messy) and sweeping the chimney (urgh) beckon, so as compensation, there's plenty of cuteness about. I'll leave you with another of Ellie's photos - a nice springtime one !!

February

....OK - who stole a month then ??!! Can't believe it's the last day of February already.

1st Feb is officially the First Day of Spring in Ireland (though it rarely feels like it) though the last week has been pretty nice - warm days, despite the sneaky night-frosts that destroy any seedlings that you're too keen to plant out. YES I have learned and all my baby-plants are safely in the front room. It's the time of year that the airing-cupboard gets emptied of its usual selection of demijohns full of home-made wine and becomes a heated propagator.

Currently living beside the towels/bathmats and Ellie's rather crusty crystal-garden in a jam jar are:

7 varieties of tomato
2 varieties of pepper
Chillis
Aubergines
Peas
Broad beans
Coriander
Basil
Spinach

In the front room (coolest and brightest place in the house) the seed potatoes are chitting in egg boxes

Have chanced a couple of rows of carrots and beetroot in the polytunnel, heavily protected by fleece from the frost and the cat, who likes to sleep in there during the day as it's nice and warm.

Strawberries thinned
Raspberries and redcurrants pruned

Bring it on !!!

Photography and Ellie

following Ellie's Christmas wish for a "proper photographer's camera" various friends and relatives clubbed together to buy a secondhand DSLR (Canon EOS 450D for the technical amongst you)

Thanks to a lot of co-ordination it arrived just after Christmas and in true 11 year-old technical style, the instruction manual was discarded after the briefest of glances and she shot outside to begin snapping away.

Paid off though - capturing this beauty by the sheer persistence of sitting under the bird-feeder.

Ellie's ambition is to become a professional wildlife photographer and work for the BBC... It's promising and good luck to her !!!

Billy

...no I'm not trying to rhyme my posts (honestly)

Billy is the latest addition to our animal collection. He arrived on Christmas Eve (but "Baby Jesus" aint the catchiest name for a pony, and it's apparently bad luck to change the name of a horse)

He's a 2 1/2 year old gypsy-cob gelding and was a present to Ellie from my friend Kayt who was looking for a caring home for him...ta-dahhhh.

Bracken loves him to bits, to the point of being his shadow almost (after a year of being on his own, poor lonely little soul) so there we are... They live out 24/7 with no ill-effects (but quite a lot of mud...ha...)

He's used to being handled so we've had a saddle and bridle on him, Ellie's backed and ridden him but just for very short distances until his bones are a bit older. He's a lovely nature, cheeky and a little dippy.... should fit in well here then !!!!


Best buddies.....OY - quit shoving.....

Chilly

While the rest of the UK and most of Ireland (apart from County Clare !!!) is submerged under massive amounts of snow (and we are a teeny bit jealous... I know...) we're experiencing Baltic temperatures too.
Lowest of the season yet was -12.6C last night - luckily Stanley keeps going through the night and with a quick rake-out first thing he's up and running within 10 minutes.

Unluckily it's a real marathon to keep outside water unfrozen for the animals - the hens drinker has to be brought inside the house at night, the ponies water bucket smashed with a stout stick every couple of hours, then this morning, despite our best efforts of heavily lagging absolutely every exposed inch of pipework after it happened in January - the water supply into the house froze.

Fortunately we'd some stored water for immediate use but now starts the twice daily trip to the river with buckets and ropes - dropping the watering-can off the bridge, filling it and pouring it into the bucket which we then wheelbarrow back home. All good fun (and good for keeping warm)
Hopefully it'll come back soon.

Keeping warm

Meet our best investment of 2010. We originally had a solid fuel boiler but it was on the small side and wouldn't stay lit overnight - Never underestimate how nice it is to get up to a warm kitchen, so after alot of research and deliberation we decided to look for a second hand range.

Meet Stanley...


OK, not the most streamlined or up to date model, bless him, but heats all the radiators, provides us with gallons of piping hot water now that the solar water season's over, and as an added bonus heats the oven and hotplates so we can save money on gas for cooking.
Stays lit overnight as well so within 10 minutes of getting up and us feeding him an armful of wood the house is warm...ah bliss....

Brass Monkeys

Well we haven't had the massive amounts of snow that Sky News is reporting the UK is buried under but it's been pretty damn chilly - night-time lows of -6C and daytime highs just above freezing point.
Gave Ellie the chance for some photos though





stay safe readers !!!

Flying shed

...to add to yesterday's epic day, as soon as it was dark, the wind picked up quite severely. Strong South Easterly which is unusual for us as we normally get prevailing winds from the West.

Anyway - long story short.... Steve came home and told me we had one shed less than we'd had when he went out. The little shed for containing the pony's bedding had lifted off and blown into the field, whereupon it'd smashed itself into bits.

Not small or flat enough bits to lie flat so we'd to don head torches and flatten it, THEN throw a tarp over the pony-bedding so that didn't blow around.

To add insult to injury, at around 2130 the power went off and I missed the end of Turn Back Time which was just getting interesting. Can't even catch up on BBC iPlayer as they won't let foreigners watch it !!!

Disclaimer-thing...can't think of a proper title...

Just in case anyone thinks I'm complaining, or trying to make out how hard-done-by I am, remember, I CHOSE this.

I could still be in Durham with a 9-5 paid job and gas central heating and a manageable garden, but the truth is... I love it here. It might seem weird to some, or that we're making work for ourselves. Yes, on some days solid fuel is a real pain - when you're a bit ill the last thing you want to do is go and fetch fuel in, or go and sort out animals, but you just "man-up" and do it.

What doesn't kill you makes you wetter. At the moment anyway ;-)

Blogging...

...or should that be entitled "Why I'm rubbish at blogging" ?

This is why I've not done much blogging for WAY too long. Apologies to the couple of people who actually noticed (and thanks to the one that emailed me to ask if (a) we were still alive and (b) if the blog was broken)

A day in the life.... starting with today.
Get up about 7.45am
Put the kettle on
Go out and let the hens out, break the ice on their drinking water, top up their feed
Feed the cat
Give the pony his hay-net (filled the day before.. I AM organised)
by which time the kettle has boiled - make tea
Rattle the ash out of Stanley (our solid fuel stove/boiler/cooker) and throw in some wood to get him going (I like a man who's as easily satisfied as Stanley)
Attempt #1 to get Ellie out of bed
get washed and dressed (yeah.. I did feed the animals in pyjamas/coat/wellies combo...they don't seem to mind, but I wouldn't go to the supermarket dressed like that)
Attempt #2 to get Ellie out of bed
Make Ellie's packed lunch
Warm cup of tea up in microwave
Eat some toast and drink tea (yay)
Decide on leek & potato soup for lunch based on how cold it was when I went outside
Nip out and dig up some leeks
Wash and slice leeks and start sauteeing in some butter (Stanley's warmed up to cooking temperature at this point)
Not enough leeks - nip out and dig a few more
Get foot tangled in netting that's blown off the cabbages. The caterpillars have seized on this opportunity and decimated them now. They look like someone's machine-gunned them !!!
Roll up netting and put it away so I don't fall over it again.
Come back inside - leeks on stove are now starting to burn.
Pick out worst burnt bits - wash, slice and add other leeks. Then potatoes and stock - dump into oven. Hurrah.
Meanwhile Ellie has surfaced - get her to fetch music for piano lesson, sports helmet for sports lesson and packed lunch (lunchbox still in bag from day before)
Get Ellie to school
Turn pony out into his field
Muck out stable and change his water
Fill 2 haynets
Empty wheelbarrow of muck into the forest
Come in - put kettle on for coffee
Go out again - fill log basket and turf bucket up
Check soup
Have coffee and check emails - pay some bills online
Write blog... it's 11.10am

I'll add more later ;-)

Update - it's now 12.45pm...
So far
Been out into the garden - cleared half a bed of weeds/dead runner beans/collapsed cane wigwams (4/10 for effort, must try a better and more wind-proof construction next year)
Been attacked by garden tools in the garage. I'd like to point out that we have a series of screws and hooks upon which to hang said tools, but these are obscured now by a steady accumulation of mysteriously other "non-garden tool" objects
Like the 2 Roman spears from Jesus Christ Superstar last Christmas (well... you never know - they may come in handy for something....or perhaps I could train the runner beans up THEM next year ??)
Anyway - 2 forks and a rake fell on me. Gits.
Resolved to paint the handles of all my hand-tools a vivid colour in gloss paint before Spring as they're all a uniform "mud" hue which makes them difficult to find in the soil/gravel/compost heap. I've been resolving this for years.
Discovered just how much my hens fight with each other. Compounded this by throwing them a bolted cabbage to scrap over. When they're not fighting they're doing renditions of "The Laughing Policeman" (guess you have to be there for that one...)

I ran out of steam and came in for soup (not bad, you couldn't taste the burnt bits anyway)
Came back on here to blog and noticed the state of the keyboard - some of the keys were illegible due to encrusted dirt so in a "Kim & Aggie" moment decided to take it off and clean it. Prised off the "space" bar as it's been sticking for ages.... couldn't get it back on.... stupid spring.
However I now have a squeaky clean keyboard and am just waiting for the kettle to boil for a coffee. Not planned the afternoon yet. It's now 12.54

Further update. Lunch, then decided seeing as it was raining to sort out my feet (yeah, sorry...graphic and apologies if you're eating....in fact no. Stop eating at your computer and don't be so scummy !!!)
The daily routine of wellies and steel toecapped boots means my feet aren't as lovely or as well cared for as they could be so had a session with the JML Ped Egg (don't bother)
Made the shopping list
Picked Ellie up from piano lesson and went straight into town to do the shopping. The layout of Gort and its shops mean that you have to visit at least 2 shops to complete your grocery shop. Got home around 5 in the dark and rain.
Unpack all the shopping.
Decide what to cook for dinner - pumpkin risotto with some frozen pumpkin. Also get tomatoes out of the freezer for next day's dinner (veg casserole)
Promised Ellie pancakes for pudding so make those at the same time as helping Ellie with addition and subtraction of fractions - attempt to explain "Lowest Common Denominator" using kitchen utensils.

Post some photos on Facebook and reply to a couple of emails while Steve's washing up.

Put the hens to bed, collect the egg (!) Feed the cat, bring in the pony but don't feed him till about 9-10pm which'll keep him going till the morning. Haven't ridden him today but he doesn't look that bothered.

8.20pm

The couch is calling me !!!

hmmmmm

yes - I know, I'm not very good at blogging am I, seeing as the last post was February and now it's November.
However now the rainy season has started I shall attempt to fill in a few bits of info on what has actually been happening during our year.

Big 4-0...

Yep - finally hit my 40th birthday and thanks to a massively well-organised surprise from several of my lovely friends and Steve, I was given the best present EVER.

(note the fact that we STILL have snow.....c'mon Spring...)

Bringing on Bracken...

I won't go into masses of detail on bringing on young horses - there are plenty of websites for that ;-)
But some of the photos of the work we've done with him (massive thanks to Kayt for the expertise, advice and the loan of all the gear, and answering my neurotic texts)

Wearing a headpiece and bit for the first time..... note the distinctly unimpressed look.


Walking out in the headpiece and saddle pad. Looking remarkably clean too, rather than his usual muddy self.


Graduating to a roller (big strap around the belly) fitted with side-reins to get him used to feeling the tension of reins on the bit in his mouth. Also changed from the metal "breaking-bit" to a toughened plastic "Happy Mouth" bit as he's still young at rising 4 and his mouth is still pretty soft.
He's fitted with this lot every day and walked out for about 15-20 minutes. Getting happier with it now, but still a way to go.
He had Ellie on his back for the first time last week - just lying across him to start getting him used to feeling weight on him - there are no photos of this as I was holding onto his head at the time.

Manchester Talented Climbers Day

Ellie was invited to attend a "Talented Climbers Training Day" in Manchester run by the British Mountaineering Council. Along with 4 of the other Mountaineering Ireland Youth Team members they spent a very productive day learning lots of useful skills. Slept well afterwards too.

Jamie and Ellie in action on the boulder wall

Still cold

Overnight snow so Ellie builds a "Health & Safety Snow Angel"
(dunno where she gets her ideas from ?!?!)

The Big Freeze !!!

Well since Christmas Eve, we've been in the grip of the coldest spell of weather I can remember. Overnight temperatures as low as -12C, 4 days with no water as despite copious lagging, the supply line under the field froze solid - even the Calor gas froze and had to be covered with blankets.
Luckily the forgotten bag of coal in the shed came in handy.

Pretty pictures though... view of the village from the mountain road

one of Ellie's artistic shots