The Boars Are Nearly Ready.

 Remember when Barley the Gloucester Old Spot had her  Bonhams?  

We sold the females and decided to fatten the males.  Although they would make good breeding Boars.

Pigs develop incredibly fast and you can easily fatten them in four months.

I planted some Sweetcorn in the new polytunnel and it grew like a beanstalk and it was pushing up against the polythene roof.  So I got out my loppers and harvested some of the foliage and stalks and fed it to the lads who devoured it.  

There's no waste with anything organic.  Today I cut the Fuschia hedges and emptied two wheelbarrows of hedge trimmings on next year's new potatoes 🥔 plot.  They will mulch the weeds and feed the soil.  I never understand why people take their garden waste to be deposited in landfill sites.

Anyone else keep pigs or thinking of getting some?  It's good to have a full freezer of meat.

Daisy, Daisy..

 The Daisies are out in full bloom in my garden at the moment.

If I could only have one choice of perennial to plant in my garden it would be the Shasta Daisy.

Named after the snow covered mountain peaks of the Shasta mountains in California.

I propagate mine by division usually in Spring or September.  I have even grown them from cuttings and you can buy packets of Daisy seeds.

The Monsoon like weather we are having in Ireland and England at the moment makes everywhere verdant and you can see why Ireland is called the Emerald Isle.  Best of all I only need to water the polytunnel at the moment.

Do You Think Someone Is Telling Me Something?

 I was given a  bottle of a new hot sauce to try the other day.

It's "hot, 🔥  hot" and does what it says on the tin or rather bottle.

If you like hot and spicy sauce like I do?  Then I would recommend you try some of the sauce.

The wheels and cogs on the blog haven't been turning a lot this month.  I've been working and earning pennies/Euros for my trip to Blighty next month. 

This will consist of hiking, plane, trains and bus rides..  Visiting some literary haunts, a concert by an ex member of Velvet Underground , a Rock Festival drinking Real 🍺,  camping and staying a couple of nights in a hotel and taking photos and meeting characters for the blog.   

Have you any plans to visit anywhere or perhaps your going to a Rock concert or festival?

I hope to blog more often again.

A Visit To A Woolshop In The Rain.

There's no Heat wave in Ireland at the moment.  I think our Summer was a couple of weeks in June?

We had a ride out on Saturday to Tralee in County Kerry and someone decided we would look on Google maps on their mobile phone to find a wool shop, like you do!

Google maps tooks us through street wide and narrow and round and around again.  Then we asked some in another wool shop if they could tell us where the other wool shop was and they said it was across the road and down a street or two:

Old Crimea  and India memorial at Tralee Court House.

Murals painted of old shops and their characters.

A real Cobbler working.  Something you rarely see these days like pie shops and old fashioned fish and chips shops or even Greggs.

The wool shop destination.  Very reasonably priced wool.

It was a way of passing a wet Saturday afternoon in July.  It felt more like September than July.

A Walk That Was Nice As Pie.

In between the bays up on the hills next to a lonesome trig point.

 Neat as apple pie.

I  completed two six mile walks last week on the hills above the two bays where we reside in the Southwest of Ireland. 

On Monday I listened to Spotify music on my mobile phone whilst I walked along the boreens, paths and hills and bog.  I also took some photos.

I never saw a soul.  Well a part from some nosey sheep and some curious cattle who ran off when they saw me carrying my trusty hiking walking stick.  I wasn't going to hit them and there was a sheepwire fence between us anyway.

On Tuesday I decided to walk the same route again and just stopped for a drink of Lucozade and a look at my phone.

My left knee was giving me jip and my big toe nail on my left foot is black and sore when the boot presses on it when walking down hill.  But at least I am keeping fit and using the countryside on our door step.

I got back and wifey had baked an apple pie.  Just the ticket after a rugged walk on the land where my ancestors used to walk long ago.

The rest of the week I have been working and my heel is aching.  I hope it's not old age setting in?  More work this week.  Happy days 

At least I will have money for another roughing it trip in Blighty.  Real 🍺,  walking, public transport, camping and of course the obligatory Rock concert, festival and famous literary haunts.  I'm sixty in December and still love my music and dear old rural Blighty.

An Odd Potato?

 

We harvested some more new potatoes today.  All the recent rain is making some very nice sized potatoes 🥔 at the moment.

Notice the one with the black band around it?  I think it's a piece of plastic embedded into the Solanum Tuberosum.  

I have featured the stainless steel old Kenwood Chef mixer bowl a couple of times on here.  I bought it for a Pound about 25 years ago from a carboot sale at the Countess of Chester carboot sale.  They hold a Sunday carboot sale every Sunday and they have raise over a million Pounds for the hospital in all this time which is remarkable.

We've been eating new potatoes 🥔 since May and we still have lots to go at and Diesel our dog  absolutely loves them.  I have never known a dog love new potatoes so much.

The Rabbits Leave Their Nests.

 

They say a week is a long time in politics.  It's even longer if you're a young rabbit.

They have opened their eyes and walking around and even picking at rabbit food and hay.

Nature never ceases to amaze me how fast new born animals get on with it and thrive so quickly.

Anyone else breeding rabbits or thinking of getting some?

The Joys And Failings Of A North Facing Garden.

 I named my blog Northsider because I reside on the North side of a peninsula in West Cork.

I really envy people with South facing gardens.  Their flowers come into bloom much quicker than mine and seem to stay in flower longer.  However when my plants and shrubs do flower they do bring me much joy.

It is actually a nice day today after the wind and rain yesterday.  Here's some photos of flowers in bloom in our gardens and polytunnel at the moment:

Arum Lily.  One of my Grandmother's. 

Hypericum.  Easy to propagate from cuttings in the Autumn.

Nasturtium.  Grown from seed and can be ate in salads.

One of my African Daisies or Osteospermums cuttings in the polytunnel.

Shasta Daisy.  Named after the snow capped mountains in California. 

Roses.  My dad bought bought us this before he passed away.

Hypericum again.  Supposed to keep the witches away.

An old wild dog rose.

Fuschia.  Very common in the West of Ireland,  Cornwall and the Isle of Man.  It originates in 🇨🇱.  Don't know it got here?  Did it come with the Gunnera and potatoes on the Gulf Stream or did Sir Walter Raleigh bring it over or was it the Spanish?

Lighting The Stove In July.

 It's back to the Monsoon season again down on the Irish Riviera.

June was the hottest on record and I think July is going to make up for it with heavy rain forecast for the next week or so.

At least I don't need to water outside at the moment.  Just the new polytunnel morning and night.

We have even lit the stove at tea time today.  I lit it to burn some rubbish but then I added some wood to take the chill off the roof so to speak:

Oh well.  I suppose we had our Summer in June?  

Baby Rab Rabs.

 Ponies, piglets and now baby rabbits.  Two of the does had young two weeks ago this Thursday.  

There are 14 of them in total and we are going to breed the other two does this week.

I knew they were due to give birth because they plucked fur out of their chests and lined the nests that they had made out of hay.

Some people keep rabbits for meat but we will probably sell them for pets.  They sell for between thirty and fifty Euros at the moment.

Anyone else keep rabbits or thinking of getting some?