Smallholder Celts. "Any one for the Bronze Age?"

When I get the chance I like to visit some of Ireland's ancient historical sites.  I especially enjoy visiting the stone circles and forts.  West Cork and Kerry and Northern Ireland have some of the best specimens of them.  There are also quite a few in the South West of England, the Lakes (Cumbria), Wales and Scotland.  This one is near Ardgroom on the Beara Peninsula.

Over the last few years I have developed the gift of water dowsing with a forked stick or with wire.  I have noticed when I have visited these ancient sites that some of the stones give off incredible energy when you place your hands on the stones.  So perhaps the stones are built on top of holy springs?  .  Nobody really knows what the stones are for.  Some say they are an ancient kind of stone computer for fertility and the seasons or even a place of worship.  I have noticed myself that most of them seem to look over the sea.  I like to think they were smallholder farmers who liked to dance and worship and knew how to enjoy life.

Time for a  great Irish band Clannad, another favourite of mine and who I have seen a couple of times in Manchester, England.  They sing a wonderful song about Newgrange and the ancient Celts/Goths who built these stone constructions long before Jesus was in Palestine or the Pyramids construction in Egypt. They left no language and like the lyrics say:  "Forgotten   is the race that no one knows."

Hope you enjoy the song?  You don't have to click on it if you don't like my eclectic taste in music.  I just thought that music adds a bit to the post.

See you later.

"I am Just A Cowboy" And Thanks For The Unthanks.

It's Monday night and I thought I would share two great bands with you.  The first one is the great Thin Lizzy.  I once saw them at Manchester Apollo (Renegade Tour) in November 1981.    The great Phil Lynott was  a great Manchester United fan and his mother was born in Clonakilty here in West Cork. God bless you Phil.

Seeing that I am a smallholding farmer.  Here's one of their great and very appropiate songs:  The Cowboy Song.  What a great band.

A few months ago I was watching the Cambridge Folk Festival on Sky.  A Northumberland band called The Unthanks played a song called:  The King of Rome.  It's incredibly moving and it's my favourite song of the year.  The Unthanks are touring the UK and one night in Dublin this Autumn.  I really want to go to see them but it's a Monday night and I would need to stay in an hotel for the night and it's along way from West Cork and I will have to get somebody to look after the farm animals and...  Tell you what check out this great You Tube video and see what you think.

I forgot to say the Unthanks appear in the video with the Brighouse and Rastrick brass band.  I adore brass bands.  Brassed Off is one of my favourite films of all time.  Do you like Brassed Off?











See you later.

Smallholding and Allotment Telly Heaven.

I am sat here on this Saturday morning looking at the television for tonight.  Disappointingly there is no football (no Manchester United) to watch on Sky, due to the break for international football.  So I will probably watch some of the one day international cricket or even better, there's a repeat of the Wartime Farm on BBC 2.

Yes folks.  The Beeb and the Open University have come up trumps and made a programme about rural life during WW2.  It's the same archaeologists: Ruth Goodman, Alex Langland and Peter Ginn, who made and starred in the excellent: Tales From the Green Valley, Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm.  You can see clips from these series on You Tube.  If you Google: Wartime Farm you can see a clip of it and even get yourself a free booklet produced by the Open University.

It reminds me very much of the excellent Victorian and Wartime Kitchen Garden series a few years ago.  Harry Dodson and Ruth (the cook) are no longer with us, yet they leave behind a fascinating legacy of how to grow vegetables and eat them.  You can see clips of  both series on You Tube or you can even purchase them.   If anything inspires you to get an allotment it's programmes like the above.

Well done BBC.

In Praise Of The Kerry Bog Pony. (Bracken Shows off his new bridle)

That's a photograph of 2 very rare Kerry Bog Ponies.  They live at the Kerry Bog Village in county Kerry.  There was only about twenty left in the 1980's in the whole of Ireland.  They used to be used for drawing the peat (the "Turf") from the peat bogs.  Now due to mechanization (yet again) on the farm and smallholding they have been made redundant.  The British also used them to carry ammunitions and provisions during the Napoleonic wars.  They are said to have a very good temperament and there's a great website with a video of them.  Just type: Kerry Bog Village.

I wonder if I could train Bracken our Shetland Pony to help me round the farm?  He seems quite happy at the moment living with the heifers and bullocks just eating the grass and looking very philosophical.

Here's Bracken:  We bought him the bridle for just 5 Euros and he does looks very posh.

Northsider's One Hundredth Post. Lots of Smallholding Pictures.

 Well folks today is my one hundredth blog post.  The great thing about writing a blog is you publish on the internet what you are interested in.  My main interest is living on a smallholding and vegetable plots.  I also spend hours writing manuscripts and waiting for a publisher to say they will print my work.  I have been published once so why not again?   At the moment I have a manuscript sent to a book publisher and I am starting to get the jitters and wonder if they will reply and say they like it..  In the mean time it's back to writing my blog .  Here's some pictures from the last 100 blogs.  Thanks for reading it.

 Dunno what happened here.  The picture above is where I sit and sup homebrew and Theakstons and watch the bay.  The weather is fabulous at the moment.

"Cows Are In The Meadow" (back to weeding on my veg plot)

  Howdy Folks.  

That picture was taken this merry morn (Monday) of my cattle and Bracken the Shetland pony.  Aren't digital camera's amazing?  Remember when you used to drop your film off at Boots the chemists and some helpful assistant would say:

"They'll be back next week."  

Now thanks to technology everything is almost instant.  I went into Argos in Killarney and purchased my digital camera.  The reason I chose the certain model was because:  

"It was red."  

I then proceeded to ask the helpful Argos lady:

"What film does it take?"

Moving swiftly on.  Any way the weather is brilliant at the moment and the cattle and Bracken the Shetland pony are happily grazing and looking at the view down Bantry Bay.  The field in the background was sprayed the other week with MCPA and all the rushes seem to be dead.  Well I have tried to cutting them and sought organic advice yet it's all been to no avail - so I killed them.  I would never use chemicals near the vegetables but I had to do something with the rushes.  You just can't win.  I keep saying that don't I?

Here's a view of my vegetable plot this morning again.  I have cleared the overgrown onion bed (complete with onions -"No?") with my trusty Azada hoe and gave the weeds to the pigs and ducks and forked over the soil and spread a wheelbarrow of farmyard manure over the soil.  

That lad could do with some Grecian 2000.

Me filling a bucket of grass and weeds while my Azada hoe takes a rest.  That one is called: The 'Crocodile".  Chillington tools make them.  I feel like quoting that old Remington razor advert:  

"I was that impressed.  I bought the company."

They  (Azada hoes) are superb for clearing weeds and grassland.  However, you have to supply the elbow grease and back pain.  Why did God put the ground down there?  

Later this week I will hopefully (if I can get them) plant some 'Japs' or Winter onions.  They are brilliant and grow through snow, rain and ice.  They are normally ready to harvest around June, but you can pick them when ever you want.  Go on give them a go folks.  They are really excellent.  

I'll be back later in the week.  See you then.

A Smallholders Ale Cellar.

That's my stash of Scottish Heavy Bitter resting in our Utility room (Boot room if you're posh) and waiting for me to drink.  That picture was taken last week and quite a few of the bottles are no longer full of bitter.  I have attempted brewing ale in the past but never been really successful.  However due to encouragement from readers of this blog, I have finally managed to grasp the nettle and know how to make a reasonable pint of bitter.  

If you have never attempted to make your own bitter or lager or stout or mild.  Here's a fool proof way of making some of your very own ale.

Get yourself down to a home brew shop or somewhere like Wilkinsons.  Then get yourself a fermentation bin, an airlock, a beer making kit (I prefer bitter), some sugar, sterilize everything and just follow the instructions.  A week later or so your beer will have stopped sending bubbles up and it will be ready for bottling.  So sanitize your bottles and fill them with your grog.  Then leave them for a few days (about a week to ten days) and you will be ready to drink it.  Of course I don't wait that long (7 days) and I have to drink a few bottles.

If for some reason you're not happy with your brew do not despair.  Pour some in a jug and then pour it from an height into a glass and top up with some bought bitter.  I tend to use Theakstons or Newcastle Brown Ale.

C'mon folks.  If I can make my own ale, anybody can.  Plus you will have made yourself forty pints for less than twenty two quid and that's including a bag of sugar.  Not bad eh?