Friday, 2 June 2023

Our Dog Gets Bit By A Jellyfish.

 

Bronte our Golden Retriever got a nasty Jelly fish sting whilst swimming in the bay near where we live the other day.

She yelped and was very quiet and forlorn looking for a day or two.  We gave her milk and our duck and hen eggs to eat and she's making a good recovery.

The wife gave her baths in Tea Tree Oil in the water.  Our local chemist said that we should make a paste with Bicarbonate of Soda and water.  It takes away the sting.

The exceptional hot weather must have brought the Jellyfish to the Gulf Stream where we live.

Please be careful if you go in the sea this Irish Bank Holiday weekend there are some very big Jellyfish about.


Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Weeding With My Azada.

I noticed some weeds growing outside the garden wall that desperately needs a good wire brushing and painting.

Sometimes I just strim the weeds with my strimmer.  I don't believe in using weedkillers because they are harmful to the environment and give you Cancer.  I was once in a local  farm coop and a man came in asking for weedkiller to apply to the weeds growing amongst his potatoes.

I also think it looks awful where weedkiller has been applied and there's a giant like wee stain for weeks and then the weeds still grow back.

I loved it in Detectorists when Andy was working for a temping agency and he just sprayed the weeds on the verges with WATER.


 I used my trusty Azada which I believe is the Spanish word for a hoe with a flat blade and long handle.

I soon filled my weeding tub and deposited them in my pallet sided compost heap.  Sometimes I give the weeds to the pigs and hens and ducks.

We have seen Azadas being used by council workers in the Algarve and Spain.  Their are small ones like onion hoes for flower and veg beds and large ones for tackling big areas like overgrown borders and allotments.

If you want to take the back breaking work out of clearing with shovels and forks..

.  I would recommend an Azada.  Have you got an Azada or thinking of getting one?

Monday, 29 May 2023

An Old BJH Song Relevant For Our Times.

 I was listening to Steve Hackett on Spotify when I was working in the polytunnel the other day and a Barclay James Harvest song started to play.  It's called For No One.

For me they are one of the best bands to come from Lancashire and wish I had seen them especially in their prime.

Anyway I think this song wrote almost 50 years ago is still relevant with the current wars around the world.  



Any Barclay James Harvest fans?  

Sunday, 28 May 2023

Fancy A Cruise Holiday To West Cork?


 Well it's not the Queen Mary which once sailed down the bay to Bantry in the nineteen fifties.  But I watched this beauty pass my Conservatory at 7 in the morning the other day.

The cruisers anchor and launches take them to town for "a nice cup of 🍵", souvenirs and a walk around and coaches take the tourists to Killarney.

It's good to see people visiting the part  of West Cork I call the Irish Riviera.



Saturday, 27 May 2023

Milk Churns With African Daisies In Plant Pots.


Two posts in a day"

I banged two plant pots of Osteospermums or Cape Daisies in and on top of the old rusty milk churns to see what they looked like.

Incidentally I'm not a City fan going off  the blue painted walls.  Well actually I was until I was 14.  My old queen or mother bought my brother a United football kit and me a City kit one Christmas.  

Until I saw the error of my ways and started being an armchair Match Of The Day Manchester United fan.  

I was glad City won the title though.  Or maybe Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest my other favourite football teams.

I digress.  Do you think the flowers are the candy of the natural world?

I'm up at least by 7 every morning watering all the plants and vegetables in the polytunnel and gardens at the moment and at night about 9 0clock when the Sun's gone to bed. 

They are even making hay in West Cork at the moment.  Who's ever known hay to be made in May?  Time will tell I suppose?




 

Milk Churns With A Rusty Patina In The Front Room.

 

Welcome back to the Tate Modern West Cork Art Display entitled: "Milk Turns To Rust".

Today's composition of two rusty old steel/iron milk churns.  They are very heavy.  I hate to think what they would weigh if they were filled with milk.

I have an old aluminium/steel milk churn and it is very light to lift when empty.

Like old corrugated roofing  iron sheets.  I love the churns rusty patina.

What do you think?  Some nice flowering perennials in plant pots placed in the top of the milk churns?

Would you give them house room?  I think they are rather nice!

I will make them more attractive on another post.  

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

Picture Of The Praeties.


 Aren't rows of growing 🥔 potatoes a glorious sight?

I can remember visiting Ireland 🇮🇪 in the nineteen sixties and seventies and you would see that each farm seemed to have a field full of vegetables growing for themselves and Cow Cabbages for the cattle and Mangolds for the horse.  

Nowadays it's normally a "Blow In" like myself who probably owns a polytunnel and reads his John Seymour Self Sufficiency bible.  What a great man and if there is an Heaven, me John, George Best and Phil Lynott are going for a pint and a chat.

We are having a barbeque on the new recycled patio tomorrow night.  It's supposed to be 21x degrees.  Life is really good down on the Irish Riviera at the moment.

Shall we have a sing song about potatoes?  Here's one of my favourites.  Enjoy:



Our Dog Gets Bit By A Jellyfish.

  Bronte our Golden Retriever got a nasty Jelly fish sting whilst swimming in the bay near where we live the other day. She yelped and was v...