Day Out...

It's a damp day so we decide to head out for the afternoon to Ailwee Caves in the Burren. There's a "Birds of Prey" centre on the same site as well as a farm shop selling local cheeses and fudge.

Had the guided tour round the caves - the calcite deposits were amazing... too dark to get proper photos so you'll have to visit for yourselves.

Bought some cheese and fudge and drove home through Kilnaboy - where Father Ted's house is.... more details here

Another rainbow

Planting begins !!

OK - the list so far

Early peas (Meteor)
Second early peas (Kelvedon Wonder)
Broad beans (The Sutton) planted in polytunnel in November
Cauliflower (all year round)
Sprouts (Evesham Special)
Tomatoes (4 varieties including Golden Sunrise and Gardener's Delight) - can't remember the other two except one's a Beef variety and the other's a plum.. the seed packets are in the garage so I'll look later !
Peppers (Californian Wonder)
Chillis
Potatoes (Arran Pilot) - a second early... Salad (Charlotte) and Maincrop (Cara) still to go in
Cucumber (Telegraph)
Leeks (Musselburgh)
Runner beans (Scarlet Emperor)
Parsnips (Tender & True)
Carrots (Early Nantes)
Turnip (Snowball)
Various salad leaves and spinach

Plus - lots of self-seeded brassicas from the polytunnel so I've rescued a few from the hoe and
plopped them into one of the plots hoping they're either purple sprouting broccoli or winter cabbage.
Hoping that I can leave some of the kale to run to seed and it will come again - we've had loads of picking out of that this winter and it's delicious... like a very curly spring cabbage (think the variety's "Red Russian")

Rose & Norman come to visit

Steve's parents Rose & Norman come to visit us for a few days. The weather is variable but we manage some trips out.

Bunratty Castle & Folk park.


Lough Derg

and then Wilde's chocolate factory at Tuamgraney.

plus we celebrate Rose's 90th birthday (next month but sadly we won't be able to be in the UK for it so we go out for dinner at the Falls Hotel in Enistymon AND have a birthday cake)
If the queen can have 2 birthdays, then why not ??

St Patrick's Day...

Parades a go-go.

Went to the parade in Gort yesterday, then the Tuamgraney and Tulla parades today. A veritable spectacle of colour, costume, vintage and eclectic vehicles, floats and music.

One particular vehicle caught our eye - Sunderland fans will know why.



All that, and Guinness.

And it didn't rain !!!!

Parrot hen

Is it a hen ? Is it a parrot ?

Ellie discovers one of the girls' climbing tendencies...



Lesson - Don't sit on the back doorstep holding a biscuit and expect to remain un-chickened.

Alcohol is bad for you...

especially home made wine.

It's the point when you lift the demijohn containing a gallon of almost-fermented rosé wine out of the airing cupboard, catch the water pipe and shatter the container in your hand sending said gallon of wine cascading into the airing cupboard floor, and through the floorboards into the kitchen below.

Steve, who was fitting a set of drawers in the kitchen was most bemused "It's raining wine !!!"

Big clean-up job - much scrubbing and washing later. Grump !!

Planting begins

Well despite the snow earlier in the week, today was "starting to plant" day.

Peppers and chillis have gone into the seed trays upstairs in the bathroom (it's nice and warm next to the chimney-breast) and around 150 onion sets have gone into the first seed-bed.

Broad beans and peas in the polytunnel are sprouting nicely - we were pricing up netting today as a way of stopping the deer from eating all the peas before we get to them !!!

Aldi had some fruit trees on offer so I chanced my arm and bought 3 - a Bramley, a Cox's Orange Pippin and an Elstar.

Also ordered 500 alder saplings to be delivered next week (thanks to the amazing kindness of some of our friends in the UK who sent us a lovely surprise gift... you know who you are...) which we can set about planting in the forest to replace all the deer-damaged ash trees which have to be pruned hard back.... long job, but we're not planning on going anywhere.

Steve had a second interview for the job at Shannon Airport - a seasonal post to cope with the summer rush... We'll hear later in the week if he's been successful.

well sadly.......

...things didn't quite work out with Lizzy so she's ended up going back home today. Mixed feelings -bit of sadness, but deep down the feeling that we've done the right thing. She's a working breed that needs a purpose in life other than just to be hanging around all day.

No bad feeling at all - the owner was happy to have her back - hopefully she'll find her perfect home and have a happy ever after.