Three Ruby Tuesday Songs On A Tuesday. " She Comes And Goes".

 We all know the classic rock song: 'Ruby Tuesday' by English rockers: 'The Rolling Stones.

Apparently Keith Richards composed it when his girlfriend left him and went off with Jimi Hendrix.  Like you do!

Mr Richard's resides or owns a house in West Wittering in Sussex where Kate Winslet and Rodney Trotter also reside.  Regular readers will recall I visited there on my travels around southern England last August.  

' I think  'Ruby Tuesday' or " Ruby Tuesdays' would be a good name for a live music 🎶  venue or even a clothes boutique.

Any road or any way here's 3 versions of the song.  Please tell me which one you like the most:

The original version.

Irish band: 'The Corrs' version.

Apparently they played Bantry Mussel Fair in the nineties and it was the biggest thing to happen in West Cork since Rory Gallagher and Thin Lizzy played the Mountain Dew Festival at Macroom Castle in the seventies.

The Corrs are playing outdoor venues this summer. Cork and Scarborough are two venues I would like to see them.

The Scorpions version.  You have seen them haven't you Dave?  Yeah I saw them at Birmingham NEC many moons ago.  I have also seen former band members  Ulri Jon Roth and  Michael Schenker in their own bands.

What's your favourite version of 'Ruby Tuesday' folks?   I will tell you mine after you have told me yours.

Scenes From A West Cork Polytunnel And Carboot Sales Plant Nursery In January.

 I got tired of looking at what I had for my tea yesterday.  So I have posted this 6 hours early for your perusal.

Back to the grind.

I have not mentioned my perennials on my polytunnel for a while.

The other day it was dry and I decided to start tidying up the perennials in my carboot sale plant nursery.  This use to be two lawns and then I put down some black plastic sheeting and I quickly filled my second hand plant pots with perennials and shrubs that I have propagated myself:

Making a start on the perennials and shrubs.

I have quite a few casualties from the usual very wet winter.  I composted any dead or old plants and saved the plant 🪴 pots to make new plants.  At least they will make space for all the new propagated shrubs and perennials in ye olde polytunnel: " Portugal".

There's quite a lot of new plants overwintering in the polytunnel.  Shall we have a look:

A pretty fully polytunnel.

You can see my poor polytunnel is even more gale damaged since you last saw it.  That's two hoop spaces exposed to the elements now.

There are some very small 🥕 growing in one of the fish boxes.

If you click on the photo and enlarge it. You will see my polytunnel runneth over with potted plants.  I really need to get myself another hobby than plant propagation.  Well I do write blogs most days.

Anyone else turned into a bit of a plantaholic?  

Someone very close to me suggested that I should grow more vegetables and not many people in Ireland are interested in your plants Dave!   It's  true.  They don't seem to be interested in flowers.  

Well they are interested when they are in flower.  Unfortunately flowers are not in flower for eleven months of the year.  

We'll see.  Roll on spring and some carboot sales.  It's horrible and wet today.  Who said they will be glad when the frost is gone?

Cheap Baked Beans.

 We tried some 18 Cents cheap discount supermarket 

Baked Beans for our tea tonight: 

We had a tin of corned beef, chips 🍟 and the cheap Baked Beans 🫘.

What I had for my tea.

My favourite Baked Beans are made in Wigan in Lancashire the town where the best pies 🥧 come from.

Here's a picture of the 18 Cents beans:

Discount supermarket Baked 🫘 Beans.

Would you try them or would you pay 4.99 Euros for four?

Oh to be a fly on the ceiling of expats in a Spanish or Portuguese hotel dining room:

"But they are not proper Beans and it's not like 'our' bacon what we have back at home.  It's that streaky stuff!"

I might have uttered similar words myself.

So dear readers what do you think cheap Baked Beans or the expensive brand?

I will hopefully tell you what I thought of the cheap beans in my comments.

More Smallholding Tight Wad Firewood Making And Thinking About My Grandmother And My Mother.

I was busy the other day chopping up a chair outside.  Like you do! 

It was one that my late dear mother bought us when we moved into our newly built  abode about 20 years ago?  She's still keeping us warm.  

I wrote a similar post a few years ago about us still having my grandmother's hand sewn patchwork quilts  on our beds. Which she had made over fifty years ago.  I said then my grandmother was literally still keeping us warm and she is.

All those long Autumn, Winter and dark Spring nights straining her eyes and hand sewing old materials onto a woollen blanket.  

There was no television in those days or on my phone or tablet reading and writing blogs, surfing the Internet, watching some prog on You Tube and seeing if United had signed a new Ronaldo or Ole yet.  

Back in the day they would listen to the wireless for the news and read an talk and have another cup of tay.  Talk about the weather and go to sleep 

Any way or any road:

The dogs have only decided to chew one of the legs and tear the cloth on the seat covering the upholstery in the Conservatory.

So I took the poor chair outside and gave it a good talking to and promptly dismantled it with my axe:

A chopped up kitchen chair.

It wasn't my Grandfather's axe that I have mentioned before.  The one with 7 new handles and 3 new heads. 😊  It was my car boot special bought axe.

Well that saves buying a net bag of firewood for one night.  Six Euros for a nights warmth.  

Anyone else repurposing their house hold contents for firewood?

Another post tomorrow dear readers.  

It's already written/wrote.  Such are these long winter nights!

A Home Baked Loaf And Some Smallholding Soup.

 

Odlums soda bread mix.  If you had the Smellavision app you would be in Heaven!

Talk about: "If I had know you were coming I'd have baked a cake or even a loaf of bread?"

Tomatoes 🍅 sown and grown by yours truly.  Leeks sown and grown by me again.  🥔 Potatoes of a organic variety bought from J in Lidl. 

Potato, tomato and leek soup and a slice of home baked bread 🍞. 

Yours truly prepared the vegetables and J baked the bread.  I even had some veg peelings left over for the rabbits tea.

We didn't liquidise the soup.  J said it was a bit too "tomatoey".  I said it was too "Potatoey".  She agreed.  Are they words?  Well they are now!

Anyone else been making their own soup?

"Blessed are the "Cheese makers"

Or was it the "Soup maker's?"

Starting Dry January A Few Days Late And The Price Of Non-Acoholic Beer.

I often have conversations with people I know about the price of a pint or alcohol.  So why don't we have one on here?

I have decided to have a bit of a dry/dryish January and save a few shillings or Euros even.

Supermarket beer is still relatively cheap compared to pub beer prices.  You can stay in your scruffs and you don't get cold but you never get to socialise apart from social media and on here and maybe an odd chat with someone  other than your immediate  family.  Well that's rural living for you in winter.

 One can buy 8 cans of Guinness for 17.20 Euros including your deposit for the "Return" scheme we have here in Ireland.  

You would pay 5.50 at least for a pint in a pub.  Times that by 8 and you will see why I choose to drink at home.

It looked like the "Black Stuff".  It was a lot milder taste but it wasn't bad.  Have you tried it?  Would I drink it again?  Maybe.  I wouldn't pay for a pint of it on draught in a pub though.

I very rarely drink in pubs in Ireland say at a very rare rock concert or maybe if we visit some where like Dingle in the summer. 

When it's nice to quench one's thirst sat outside at a pub at a beer table with a couple of pints of lager or Guinness.  I tend to sup (drink) lager in summer and stout during winter.

I never thought the day would come when ordinary people could not afford to go out for a gargle or pints.  

Plus taxis here are fifteen Euros each way and that is if you can get one on a weekend night?

I would rather have a good drink of real ales or cider in the West of  England or Kent  when it's a prog rock festival and visiting famous literary connections like Dorset.

I always seek out a very well known pub chain who offer food and drink at incredibly reasonable prices.  Like 2.72 for a pint of real ale or a Dorset cider.

I also seek out English and Irish bars when I go on sun holidays to places like Tenerife or the Algarve.  Draught beer and wine is so inexpensive over there.  

We do go in Portuguese bars too and we go in Lidl and the prices are far different than England or Ireland Lidl prices.   Isn't that the story of the Euro? 

Alcohol duty is the big difference  in other countries and  the hospitality tax in cafes and pubs is 13 percent in Ireland when it could be 9 percent.  What is it in Blighty or across the pond?

Any way I have decided to cut back on my home drinking.  I'm not giving up.  I am just cutting down.

So I had a look at zero alcohol in the supermarkets.  Have you tried it?

Discount supermarket price for four cans of Guinness.  It's 9 Euros fifty for cans of the real "black stuff".

Then we have pub prices for Porter or Guinness.  Speaking to people I know who go out drinking Guinness. I am informed that a pint of Guinness is around 5.50 and a pint of Guinness is only 40 Cents less.  

I know the government levy is 55 Cents on a pint but how can they charge so much for a pint of non-alcoholic beer?  Apparently Guinness 00 is expensive because the manufacturers claim they brew it twice.  Once to make it and twice to remove the alcohol?🤔

It is hardly an incentive for people to socialise and drive home is it? Especially when you can buy four pints of the stuff in cans for 6.99

How much is non alcoholic beer where you live?

What do you think of non-alcoholic beer?   Would you rather have a "nice cup of tea" or a glass/bottle of 🍷?  

We have tried non-alcoholic wine and I could not believe it had no alcohol in it.

Anyone else thinking of giving up the slurp or having a dry January or even February?  

What would you drink instead of alcohol?

A Mixed Pile Of FYM And Homemade Compost.

A big pile of growing medium waiting to be used.  You can see the bay in the back ground dear readers.

We hired a 3 ton digger the other day for tidying up around the place.

Number 1 son drove it and he does have a digger drivers ticket after all.

I'm still  a old soil slave school with my pike, trusty Azada hoe,wheelbarrow and shovel kind of gardener/smallholder.  A pair or couple of pairs of gloves might be useful too.  Remember my disposable gloves under the work gloves tip?

I asked number 1 son to tidy up "Scruffy Corner" for me.  This is an area of the veg plot where I dump fym and weeds and let it decompose naturally.  Well that's the idea anyway. 

The photo took him about ten minutes to make this enormous pile for me.  

If it ever dries up I will spend many a happy hour piking and topping up my raised beds and containers, plant pots for my perennials and shrubs and filling up the potato 🥔 growing bags.  Yes there will be weeds. But: "If weeds will grow anything will grow"

I was going to start today but my back is aching  with the cold after all the hard graft mucking out.., this weekend.

I could do with a tarpaulin to cover up my giant pile of black gold.  

Is anyone else making compost and filling their raised beds and containers for spring?

I have been pricing bulk loads of spent mushroom compost.  It's not cheap and there's an haulage charge to wild West Cork.  

So I will make my own compost instead.

The best thing is it's cost me nothing apart from a broken back when I start forking and shovelling the black gold.  I will be happy as a pig in mud/muck.  That's an English colloquial saying for you dear readers!

Anyone getting their veg plot prepared for the growing season?

Are there any stables near you to collect and bag well rotted stable manure or fym? Get some pig ration or fertilizer bags and get filling them and you will have "muck and magic in the veg plot.

See you tomorrow.