I spent four days helping build some garden walls. There was 3 of us constructing them with the help of a 3 ton digger to dig out the stones and topsoil and put any large stones into place. Here's a photo of one part of the wall:
A brand new drystone wall that looks like it's been there for hundreds of years.
It was backbreaking work yet it was worth it. My builder friend should take the credit for most of the construction but I did fill every stone layer with stones and soil and laboured and shovelled all day.
Number one son mainly drove the digger bringing big stones and topsoil to us.
One day last week I got up at 6.30 in the morning and filled up our vehicle with plastic crates of my shrubs and perennials that I have grown and propagated myself.
I spent the morning planting shrubs, applying bark and planting the tops of the wall with Sedums, Geraniums, Osteospermums, ajuga..
It was four days hard work. But when you stand back and admire our work I think we have created something natural and beauty.
That was a political broadcast on behalf of the unofficial Drystone Wall Society UK and Eire.
It's been a nice Spring weekend and we drove over to Kerry with 2 of the dogs: Bronte and Diesel.
Bronte is a Golden Retriever and Diesel is a Bernese Mountain dog and her breed is from 🇨🇭 Switzerland. Bronte Golden Retriever heritage is Scottish. Perhaps that's why she is whisky coloured
Cyclamen growing in the rocks.
The glass house or Orangery.
An oriental princess of a Rhododendron in flower in March. They don't/ didn usually in England until May. We live on the Gulf Stream and the Irish peaty soil is very acidic which the Rhododendrons love.
Rhodies and Azaleas coming into flower.
Magnolia tree.
Heather or Erica in bloom.
Looking over the lake. It would make a great back drop for a Prog Rock starring the likes of Magnum, Kate Bush and Kansas could headline it. Good line up Dave👍.
Muckross House where Queen Victoria used for an air bnb and put Killarney on the tourist map. The carpark and gardens are free to visit.
Camelia in flower. Sometimes they flower 🌼 in February here.
Bronte looking at the wild Celandine.
Bronte and Diesel with that old gardener/ builders labourer who writes this blog.
We stopped at McDonald's and the four of us had a 2 Euros burger 🍔 each. The dogs 🐕 were loving it!
We took them to Muckross House and Gardens again for walkies and to see what was in flower. I hope you liked the photos and the walk? The dog girls did!
I grew them in my indoor potting shed/ small bedroom or "Chitting Room".
They will get planted out in the next day or so. Then I will plant some more in the module trays.
I have plans for making a greenhouse with some repurposed upvc windows. Number one son is going to weld me a frame made from galvanised box iron. That's a blog post for another time.
Peas are members of the legume family. They originate from the Mediterranean and were no doubt brought along the Silk Road with spices, coffee, Hoover bags and Pot Noodles? I am joking about the Hoover bags!😃
Legumes extract nitrogen from the air and releaze it into the soil through their root nodules. They are one of the few vegetables that a tually replenish the soil when they are growing in it.
Have you sown and planted your peas yet?
I have been very busy working for people and myself this week. There is always something to do at this time of year.
I took fellow blog readers advice and purchased some more seed potatoes.
Not the cheap ones we bought in Lidl recently. They had all been sold sadly. So we bought two 2 kg from a garden shop for 17 Euros. I nearly had an heart attack when I looked at the till receipt.
Any way I dug three trenches and planted the seed potatoes🥔 🥔.
I planted them south to north and raked soil over them.
That's another bit of the veg plot extended. Hopefully we will have some more early potatoes for tea.
I think I will plant some more onions 🌰 sets and some peas 🫛 in there next. We have them growing in the "Chitting Room" or my " Indoor Potting Shed".
Are you busy planting your vegetables at the moment?
I have been busy around home and working for someone.
I planted a home grown Griselina hedge the other day. If you remember on here I grew them from cuttings in the Autumn. It's satisfying to know you can grow your own plants for free.
A little hedge planted in front of my plastic repurposed heating oil tanks and second hand baths. The Japanese onions 🌰 and the leeks love growing in them.
I raked out an area and stone picked it to make a new lawn. We are quite short on potatoes 🥔 space so I might buy some more seed potatoes.
Newly stone picked and raked area for prospective lawn area.
Potatoes 🥔 🥔 are said to be great for breaking ground. I think us gardeners help the great digging and cultivating the potatoes.
If I do sow a lawn I will be giving myself a chore again mowing in. Although lawn seed is cheap.
What would you do extend the veg plot or reseed the lawn?
Azada apparently is Spanish for "hoe". I have mentioned this tool several times or more on here. I could not recommend a better tool for slicing off vegetation and digging and tilling with.
Indeed if you have just took on a overgrown allotment I would recommend you invest in a Azada.
We planted up six raised beds of seed potatoes and we planted six small net bags of early seed potatoes. Traditionally potatoes are planted on Saint Patrick's Day here in Ireland. We planted ours a few days let when the temperature rose to 7 degrees.
I opened two trenches and planted the chitted seed potatoes 30 centimetres apart and a foot in between the rows.
J placed the seed potatoes in the trenches and we covered them with soil and well rotted fym. We planted; "Duke of York", "British Queens" and "Homeguard". Developed during WW2 and named after the volunteer "Dad's Army" civilian army volunteers.
I will make more space for second earlies or main crop.
Hopefully I will find some more cheap seed potatoes in the discount supermarket/ garden centres and beer providers? Our Lidl hasn't got any left. I may have to buy some dearer ones from a garden centre or farm centre.
Before heading to Inch Beach we called at a carboot sale. Just for a change.😄 You never know what you will find and being part Womble and part Jackdaw we had to go and have a look. I am not a fan of decluttering and minimalism. I like to collect and why not?
This is what we bought:
Our Lady of Perpetual Help picture.
I paid 5 Euros for it and it looks quite old.
The angels Gabriel and Michael are hovering on both shoulders.
I am not much of a regular church goer these days. I do still believe in God and I do like visiting old churches and graveyards, especially when I visit England.
I hung the picture up in the bedroom and I woke to an amazing sense of calm and peace. Perhaps I will start collecting Christian pictures? I have a framed picture of Jesus in a suitcase that I must get the glass fixed and hung up again. When I do get it repaired I will post it on here for your perusal.
I also bought a Leonardo Collection cup. You can buy them new online.
It's subject is London in dear old Blighty or England even. There is the Post Office Tower, Saint Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben and a red London painted on the cup.
I like it and it reminds me of the old country and it is added to our collection:
A London Mug.
See you tomorrow. It will be a potatoes planting post.
Continuing our bank holiday trips out. We drove to Inch Beach in County Kerry on Sunday. I have featured this beach a few times over the years on here.
We arrived early afternoon and the pub on the beach was closed again. It wasn't the warmest day but at least it was dry.
Bronte sniffing and exploring the sand.
Cars were filling up the car parks and also driving on the beach.
Inch Beach was a film location for Ryan's Daughter. Other films like Faraway And Away and The Field have been filmed there.
It's a beautiful place and Bronte enjoyed her saunter on the beach and broken sea shells crackled under our feet.
We got back to our vehicle and I typed Minard Castle into Google Maps on my mobile phone and the lady with the posh English voice told us which roads to turn off when we drove through Anascaul.
Up a very very long and narrow winding road for four kilometres the route took us. We met a few cars almost head on in and there were very few pull ins.
I was pressing my invisible brakes in the passenger seat. It was like being on a tarmac roller coaster and not a journey we would like to repeat.
Eventually we reached our destination:
Minard Castle.
Minard castle information sign.
A sign for the Kerry Camino. Pilgrims and merchants use to set off from St James's Church in Dingle to walk the Camino in Spain. The Kerry Camino starts in Tralee. You get your book from the County museum and there are stamping stations all the way. I wouldn't mind doing it some time.
Private land. There were some raised vegetable beds near the big pile of fym. I hopefully will plant my early potatoes this week. Although it is cold and I may put it off. However the rain begins again on Friday.🤔
A meadow for the bees.
This was the tower scene in Ryan's Daughter if you remember?
Ireland is still a very beautiful country. Even though I reside in West Cork most of the time. I/we love County Kerry.
All these photos can be seen if you walked the Dingle Way and avoided cars.
Unfortunately there are a lot of parts of the way that you have to walk on tarmac and pass motorists.
We drove to Doneraile Park in north Cork on Saturday. Bronte was very excited about her new adventures.
It was a lovely cold and dry day and we decided to have a stroll around the grounds of a Georgian mansion landscaped in a Capability Brown kind of way.
He used sheep and cattle to mow his landscapes before the lawnmower was invented.
Some fields are still grazed by rare breed cattle and deer.
It felt like we were in a Jane Austen novel minus the long flowing dresses, tight bodices and horses and traps.
Here's some photos for your perusal:
To the manor born.
I spotted this gate to the once walled kitchen garden. The large gate was locked. I could see an orchard and lawn when I peered down the side of the gate on the hinges side.
Deer grazing.
A fawn.
Swans.
Geese.
A vista in front of the "big house." The house and hundreds of acres of land was left to the Office Of Public Works. Which I believe is the equivalent to the National Trust. The grounds are open and free to visit. There is an admission price to go on a tour of the " big house".
Seeing that's it is Saint Patrick's bank holiday weekend I thought I would play " Roisin Dubh" or "Black Rose". This is a Phil Lynott tribute night video in Dublin fifteen years ago.
Like Phil Lynott. Gary Moore is now no longer with us. I was lucky enough to see Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham and Snowy White and Brian Downey on the Renegade tour in 1981 when I was just seventeen.
I also saw Gary Moore at Milton Keynes Garden Party Rock festival in 1986.
For me "Black Rose" and "Live and Dangerous" are my two favourite Lizzy albums. Black Rose mentions famous legends of old and famous writers like Wilde and even the great George Best.
The song also includes a few famous Irish tunes like " The Mountains Of Mourne".
It's a great tribute to Philo. Enjoy and have a great Saint Patrick's Day. Slainte!
Keeping with my Irish theme and a repost. I first showed this in 2016.
The late great Keith Floyd once owned a restaurant in Kinsale here in County Cork.
I would loved to have dined there and perhaps met him.
He's been described to be Dr Who in a cooking programme. I think it's a very good description.
I found the following tv gem on good old You Tube.
J often makes us Irish potato cakes filled with bacon and served with Heinz baked beans. They are very filling and you will find them on my blog search. You will also see the beaked beans sign in the Algarve.
I was doing some work for an Irish man who owns an holiday home near me the other day. Filling pot holes in his road and fixing fencing.
We talked a myriad of subjects and I commented on looking for Irish pubs when on holiday abroad.
I said I love Irish food like bacon, cabbage and potatoes:
My grandparents staple diet.
I am sure they ate it every day. Well it seemed like it. Even in July when the sun was cracking the flags and we would come on holiday to West Cork for a fortnight.
My father would have his wakes holidays and time off from the wool felt mill and we would go hay making. Piking loose hay on to the horse and cart.
My mother and my grand mother would bring us grub and bottles of cold tea to quench our thirst.
When we visited the Irish pub in Faro on the last day of our February holiday I was feeling rather peckish and so was J. We both ordered the same meal. When we flew home J made the same meal but with Cumberland sausages from Lidl:
Irish bangers with gravy and colcannon or mashed potatoes even.
Shamrock for sale in Woodies diy and garden centre the other day. It was about 6 Euros a pot. We smiled at it but didn't purchase any.
We had gone in to buy some masonry paint for the small bedroom or " Chitting Room or my indoor potting shed. I nearly had an heart attack when I saw the price of paint. So we bought two paint brushes and I decided to look in the garage for some old tubs of paint. That's a Tight Wad DIY tip for you!🤔
Shamrock is a kind of clover and Saint Patrick is said to have used it's three leaves to represent the Holy Trinity.
Saint Patrick is said to have been born in Wales and was brought over here when he was a slave. On his release from captivity he led people to Christianity in 🇮🇪.
Saint Patrick's Day is on the seventeenth and it's the second public holiday of the year.
Saint Patrick's Day is the day he died. I didn't know that until recently did you. He died in 461.
When my heel is full recovered I am going to start hill walking again and get in practice to walk up/ climb Croagh Patrick some time this year. That's the idea anyway.
I will do some more Irish themed posts this week. Maybe a bit of Thin Lizzy? I saw them at Manchester Apollo in 1981 when I was only 17. Now I am 61 and I still love them and play their tracks every week on good old YouTube.
