Woke up to frosty fields this morning. It soon disappeared (grass frost) and we put the 6 heifers out to grazing. Cleaned the slats (more dung for the compost heap) and the Shetland pony left us a couple of wheel barrows of his presents too. Not forgetting spoilt hay that he's pulled through the head feeder to lie on. He went out to grass too.
Watered the poly-tunnel and then I set off on another walk. It's been very wet the last couple of days. I decided to go over to the graveyard at Durrus. My dad would have been eighty today and we would have gave him a bottle of his Famous Grouse whisky and shared a glass or two with him. It's also Mother's Day on Sunday. So we decided to kill 2 bird with the one stone (so to speak) and take some flowers to the grave.
My other half drove to town to get some flowers and do her shopping and I walked the 3 or four miles over the hill. I never saw a soul on the walk. If ever you want some fresh air and to get away from it all: walk some of the Sheeps Head Way and the peninsula.
I digress. There was just some sheep with sucking lambs, my heifers in the field down below me and a oil tanker pumping oil to Whiddy Island. The only noise I heard was the gurgling streams and the squelch of my footsteps, almost like a percussion accompanying me on the saturated grass and moss covered stone path down to the tarmac road.
I thought of my granddad and his son's digging the turf (Peat) all those years ago in the Forties. Filling the Donkey's baskets and walking them back to the farm. Here on the same path that I am walking on today. The same path that me and my dad walked with me over to Durrus and we visited his parents grave and then we sat outside the pub and he bought me half a Guinness and he a pint. There we where. Me and me dad drinking Porter outside the pub on the main road and I was only 15!
I stood at the 2 family graves and took off my cap and had a few silent words. Then the other half arrived with a bowl of Spring bulbs and I placed them on the grave and felt my eyes welling up like that gurgling stream up on the hill. I said to my wife:
"It always gets to me when you're with me. I am OK on my own."
"You wouldn't be human if it didn't get to you Dave."
Thank God we live in such a beautiful place and thank God for our parents! Have a great weekend. Take your parents somewhere nice. You can't replace them when they are gone! Go for a walk even?
Watered the poly-tunnel and then I set off on another walk. It's been very wet the last couple of days. I decided to go over to the graveyard at Durrus. My dad would have been eighty today and we would have gave him a bottle of his Famous Grouse whisky and shared a glass or two with him. It's also Mother's Day on Sunday. So we decided to kill 2 bird with the one stone (so to speak) and take some flowers to the grave.
My other half drove to town to get some flowers and do her shopping and I walked the 3 or four miles over the hill. I never saw a soul on the walk. If ever you want some fresh air and to get away from it all: walk some of the Sheeps Head Way and the peninsula.
I digress. There was just some sheep with sucking lambs, my heifers in the field down below me and a oil tanker pumping oil to Whiddy Island. The only noise I heard was the gurgling streams and the squelch of my footsteps, almost like a percussion accompanying me on the saturated grass and moss covered stone path down to the tarmac road.
I thought of my granddad and his son's digging the turf (Peat) all those years ago in the Forties. Filling the Donkey's baskets and walking them back to the farm. Here on the same path that I am walking on today. The same path that me and my dad walked with me over to Durrus and we visited his parents grave and then we sat outside the pub and he bought me half a Guinness and he a pint. There we where. Me and me dad drinking Porter outside the pub on the main road and I was only 15!
I stood at the 2 family graves and took off my cap and had a few silent words. Then the other half arrived with a bowl of Spring bulbs and I placed them on the grave and felt my eyes welling up like that gurgling stream up on the hill. I said to my wife:
"It always gets to me when you're with me. I am OK on my own."
"You wouldn't be human if it didn't get to you Dave."
Thank God we live in such a beautiful place and thank God for our parents! Have a great weekend. Take your parents somewhere nice. You can't replace them when they are gone! Go for a walk even?
What a lovely blog. Both my parents have passed over now, although they never feel far away from me.
ReplyDeleteThanks Vera. It's wonderful that you still feel that your parents are still near you. The walk was yesterday but I published it today. It's good to go a picturesque country walk near in between the two bays (Dunmanus and Bantry) and visit your parents and my dad's ancestors final resting place. Thanks!
ReplyDeletePeter went to the graves of his brother and parents today with his mother. He always relates it to me in a very funny way in that he orders his mum around as he cleans the headstones, and they leave flowers at three graves and they do it all with great precision. I think it is his way of coping with it. Your walk to the grave yard sounds good. Thanks. I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeletePeter sounds very level headed and pragmatic Rachel. We all have to find a way of coping with death, especially our parents.
ReplyDeleteGood win for the Gunners. Can they catch Chelsea for the title? Hope United win today.
Thanks for your comment, Rachel.
Lovely post Dave. It's good to remember.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev. It is good to remember and it's therapeutic to write down your thoughts happy or sad.
ReplyDelete