"One Rule For One .. "

 

Do you like the dog cuddly toy?

Here's the brilliant Christian and Prog Rock band that went New Wave : After The Fire with a very prophetic song from 1979:

I saw them many moons ago at Greenbelt Christian Music Festival in Odell in Bedfordshire.  I also saw U2 before they had become famous there too!

Another Successful Rooted Cutting.

 The wife bought a Coleus or ' Painted Nettle " plant from the German garden centre and beer providers the other week.  

So when she wasn't  looking I made a few cutting and placed them in glasses of water and hoped they would strike roots.  They did of course so I potted two of them up and we have now started a Coleus collection:

They are a bit mard and don't like frost but they can also be used for an annual in the garden borders or hanging baskets..?

I think I might be giving some house plants presents to people I know for Christmas!

What's The Story Nature's Morning Glory?

 I saw this pink and white Convolvolus or Bindweed growing through a Laurel hedge the other day.  I was knocked out with it's  beauty and trumpet shaped flowers.

I remember white coloured Bindweed flowers when I lived in Blighty.  But I can't remember seeing pink and white ones.

Apparently they can be toxic to livestock if they graze them.

Incredibly they are related to the cultivated garden flower Ipomea or Morning Glory.

Perhaps the Gallagher brothers were inspired by this flower when they visited their ancestral home in Ireland.  The Bindweed flowers certainly inspired me.  Drop dead gorgeous wild flowers!

Carbooting Again.

Yesterday was 25 degrees and we went to two carboot sales.  One in county Cork and one in county Kerry.  There was a myriad of items for sale.  Even the kitchen sink.  I jest not!😊

Here's some of the things we spotted and bought:

A long nosed shovel or "Grafter" they call them in England. They're  great for digging narrow trenches, planting shrubs or even digging an old shrub out. I bought a sledgehammer too.

I even managed to capture my shadow.  I am definitely not a ghost.

A brand new hand knitted Aran jumper for yours truly.

Two hardwood elephants to go with the every growing collection.

Do you want to guess what we paid for each item? Go on don't be shy.  🤔

Have you been to any carboot sales lately? What did you buy or sell?

Daisy Time.

 My daisies decided to put on their annual show this week.   Daisies are said to be the most popular plant species in the world.  They are everywhere apart from Antartica.

Shasta daisies originate in north America and were named after the white snow capped Shasta mountains in California.  They were introduced to the rest of the world in 1901.

I have grown them from cuttings in the polytunnel and by division.  I have lots of them growing in my  herbaceous perennials borders. 

Neighbours call and ask me if I have any of "them daisies?" and I always find them some.

You can pick them for cut flowers or even put them in your hair.

Here's that Gypsy Goth band who I saw at Glastonbury festival in 1989 with an appropriate song:

I've seen Julianne and the rest of All About Eve twice.  What a band and what a lady.  She's a Colleen from Coventry.

The Butterfly Returns.

 Buddleia originated in China.  They are also called the butterfly bush.  If you want to attract butterflies to your garden, back yard or allotment plant a Buddleia.  Sedums attract them to.

The Buddleia was used to reinforce  newly constructed railway embankments with their roots.  I noticed a lot of them growing wild near Temple Mead train station in Bristol when I visited Dorset in 2018.  Perhaps their ancestors came from bomb sites in the second world war?  

I make cuttings from mine every year and you can also let the flowers go to seed and sow them next Spring.  I think they like to spend time frozen in the fridge to make them jolt into life and germinate.

Here's one I planted twenty years ago:

Can you see the butterfly?

Cat Pub And An Oil Tanker.

Domino is very thirsty at the moment.  He's even drinking from the dogs paddling pool.  It's  a good idea to make pet pubs in this unbelievable sizzling hot weather.  

An oil tanker sailing with a full load of oil past my Hypericum shrub in the garden.  I grew that shrub from one of my cuttings.
 

My blog title would be a good name for a Prog Rock band.

My Pal The Myrtle Tree.

 Flipping heck it's been hot over here on the Irish Riviera.  

One tree in my garden loves Scorchio temperatures and decided to flower this week.  It's my Myrtle tree.  They originate in Spain and Chile and Sir Walter Raleigh brought them over to these shores in 1586 with spudatoes, oranges, tobacco and bicycles me thinks.😊

I bought the Myrtle tree from a church fete in Durrus in 2001.  It was only about a foot high and I carried it in a plant pot back to the car.  I duly planted it in the back garden and it's now 15 feet:

It's  decided to  flower this week.  It won't (shouldn't!) grow any higher.  It's  bark is orange and peels and the flowers have a wonderful Mediterranean fragrance.  I once breathed in the orange flower blossom one April in the Algarve and thought I was in Heaven.

Myrtle trees like the mild climate down here on the Gulf Stream.  I am not sure if they would live in a northern garden though.

Have you got anything exotic or from overseas growing in your borders?

A Glimpse Of The Bay From The Back Garden.

 I was sat out in the back garden today looking over to the bay:

That's  Hungry Hill over on Beara.  You can see the white Shasta daisies coming into flower in the mixed borders.  It's a nice vista on a nice day.  Sometimes in winter when it's blowing a gale we can't even see the bay.

I often feel like we live in a beautiful oil painting in the countryside next to the sea.

Supposed to be the hottest Summer ever in Hibernia.  28 degrees on Sunday.  😎  

Our EU Digital Certificates Arrive.

This is the paper EU Digital Covid Certificate belonging to my wife.  It arrived in the post on Friday.  She had her vaccines at her local GP's practice in town.  I registered for mine online and went to the HSE VACCINATION  CENTRE in Bantry for my one shot Jannsen vaccine.  On Monday they emailed me my Digital Certificate.

All well and good and hopefully we'll get to see Portugal again some time or maybe some concerts like Kansas in London?

From the 26th of July we may be able to go inside a pub and have a pint or three of the black stuff.  On condition we have shown the alehouse staff our Covid Certs.

It's got our date of birth and our names printed on it.  But there's no photograph?  Hmm....?

Don't you think they would have asked for our photos?

A Profusion Of Flowers In Killarney.

 We were in Killarney at the weekend and I noticed this magnificent floral display:

Fairplay to the people who planted the planters and regularly feed, dead head and water the plants.  They are a credit to you all!

The bees like them too.  I think plants soften the street scape.  I think I have just invented a new word: streetscape.  Well it's  new to my vocabulary any way.

A Good English Film.

Now the old footy ball is finished I flicked through the Netflix films last night.  I always look at British films and chose The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

If you have never seen give it a whirl.  Starring English rose Lily James.  We saw her in Rebecca on Friday night too.  The film also stars one of my heroes Tom Courteney.  Who can ever forget him in Billy Liar? 

The film is set during and after world war two.  I won't spoil it for you but it's a good plot and I enjoyed the film very much.  Lily James is beautiful and a very good actress too.

Have you got any good Netflix film recommendations folks?  Anything daft or moving?  

Looking For Treasure At The Car Boot Sale.

We went carbooting on Saturday morning.  It's  like fishing somedays you come away with a big catch and other times you catch nothing.

I always walk at least three times past the make shift stalls.  You always miss something or your eyes attract you to something else.  Here's what we bought:

I bought this rural scene for five Euros.  I haven't decided where I'm going to hang it yet so I placed it on the floor leaning against a bookcase.

J bought another Cottage teapot to go with her collection for 3 Euros.  It's modern and one she hasn't got.

Have you been to any good carboot sales lately?

Listowel Poetry And A New Potatoes For Sale Sign.

A mural and poem  by  the great Kerry writer John B Keane.

Sign in a butcher's shop.  Irish butcher's shops often sell vegetables like potatoes 🥔🥕🥬...

I found a short sleeved drill top in a charity shop. It's ideal for my walking and gardening adventures.  I thought 8 Euros was a bit steep.  I was called a tight wad and it's for a good cause:  Ireland's National Sight Loss Agency.

 

Ballyheigue And Banna Beach.

 When we walked to Blennerville the other week.  I saw signs for the North Kerry Way.  Instead of walking it all we decided yesterday to have a look at two places along the route: Ballyheigue and Banna beach in County Kerry.

Here's  some photos:

Looking out to sea.

It was a grey showery day.  

You don't  see packed beaches in Ireland.  The lack of crowds and a very small population is one thing  that I have liked living in Ireland for the last twenty years.  

A rather cool notice.

Give your litter a lift.

A recycling bin and a litter bin.  It's  a pity other counties don't  have bins like these.

It passed an hour or two and it was somewhere that we haven't  visited for a while.  I wanted to go for a walk and the wife said: 

"You're like a bloody dog.  All you ever want to do is go for a walk". 

Hmm...😊

Nineteen Sixty Sixty.

 I don't  know what we'll do when the European championships are over?  I can't praise terrestrial television enough for showing the matches live and for free.  Why can't  they show live football from the Football League or even the Varanama for free?  

Last night I found the film Nineteen Sixty Six on good old Netflix.  I couldn't  believe it was filmed in 2006.  Where have been and why have I never seen it?

It's well worth a watch again now that England are in touching distance of getting to a final for the first time since 1966.

For those of you don't know or missed it somehow it's a tale of a young  Jewish lad from London having his BarMitzvah on the same day of the World Cup final at Wembley:

It's a feel good film and it captures the euphoria and emotion of the land that invented football winning the World Cup against fierce rivals Germany.   My highlight of the film was the Irish Ceilidh band providing the music at the Bar Mitzvah and the car scene when his dad gets stopped for speeding  on his way to Wembley by a Scottish traffic Policeman!

Last week Gareth Southgate's three Lions on the shirt England put Germany to the sword and showed they are a force to be reckoned with.  Ukraine suffered the same fate on Saturday  night.  Hopefully tomorrow it's  Denmark turn?  Then at the weekend it will be Italy or Spain.

I hope we all feel the same euphoria after the final?  

Still Propagating.

 I bought two new kinds of Sedum plants the other month.  So I couldn't resist and got my scissors out and made cuttings.  Now I'm  making cuttings  out of new cuttings plants.

Here's some I made earlier:

Anyone else been making new plants?

A Nineteen Eighties Rock Ballad On A Saturday.

One thing I love is a good Heavy Rock Ballad.  A nice slow start leading to a loud and fast crescendo.   

Lita Ford and Ozzy (Prince of Darkness) were drinking one night in an American recording studio back in 1988.  They got very drunk and penned the following classic:

Not bad for a  Rocker lass from London and a Rocker lad from Brum.

Enjoy your weekend!

A Three Day Week?

 I'm looking for a part time job.  Just two or three days a week.  The rest of the week will be mine for propagating plants, listening to Rock music, walking, looking round carboot sales, charity shops and reading and writing blogs..

I went back to the island for a day last week covering while a friend went for their jab.  I said to one of my workmates I would love a part time job and he's a dairy farmer and he said three days a  week would be perfect for him.  

I asked why couldn't  the working week consist of six days including Saturday and we all each worked three days? 

Job sharing would  put an end to unemployment and everyone would have a decent living wage.  I think it's wrong that some people can have five day a week jobs and some have none.

Imagine if you had a three day a week and think of all the time you would have to tend your allotment, go hiking or what ever you wanted to do? I'm  fifty seven and feeling my age and I've too much to do to work full time.

What are your thoughts folks on a three day week?

A Run Out To Ownahincha Beach Near Clonakilty.

 The rain is stopped at the weather traffic lights today.  So four of us drove over to enjoy an overcast but still very nice beach close to Clonakilty this morning:

Pamela Anderson wasn't here filming Baywatch sadly.

Some Rooks.  They must be English because they shared my chips with me.

Patrick's fish and chips.  Very nice.

 Bungalows in the countryside next to the sea.  We live in a bungalow next to the sea.

The prices are very reasonable.  It reminded me of holidays in Scarborough when I was a lad and we would go and see the Grumbleweeds and the Nolans and Canon and Ball.

Happy days. 😊