Hedgehog Comes To Visit Our Smallholding

I saw this dear fellow going for a saunter along the drive in front of the bungalow this morning.  I haven't seen one (alive) for a few years.  Apparently their population is twenty five percent less than it was twenty five years a go.  Modern farming methods and the use of pesticides and insecticides are said to be the cause of their decline.

 A rather cute and unassuming Mr or Mrs hedgehog on our drive.  They don't seem to be in the least bit  aggressive and do a great job removing the slugs and snails.

Number 2 son grabbed my other son's welding gloves and carried the hedge hog to safety.

The weather's been "skorchio" here in Ireland for the last few weeks.  Long may it be so.

Have you seen any hedgehogs lately?

We actually sat on the patio last night looking at the bay.  I had a few cans of Newcastle Brown and J had a jug of home made Sangria.  It's great living on the Irish Riviera.  Till it rains of course!

How Much Is That Moo Cow In The Window?

We went up country to get a part for one of our smallholding machines the other day.  A 398 miles (can't work in Kilometres at my age) round trip via good roads, bad roads, country lanes and toll motorways.  The road surfaces on the toll motorways are excellent.  The roads signs in the Republic of Ireland are in Kilometres and the motorways are more like dual carriage ways with only 2 lanes.  There also pretty quiet.  They remind me of old new reel clippage of when the M1 opened in England in the sixties.  

Any road.  We walked round Tullow while they made us a new cable and I spotted this butchers with a fantastic USP.   The animals in the window were a delight to see and somebody had obviously gone to a lot of trouble putting on such a display.  I noticed 2 German supermarkets had moved into town recently and quite a few of the local shops in the high street were closed or seemed to be closing down.  I suppose like so much of rural businesses in Ireland they are dying or on their last legs.  When will the recession ever end?

We often go in the cut price supermarkets ourselves and I think that price seems to be more important than loyalty or perhaps even quality.  Day to day living in the UK and Ireland is far too expensive compared to countries like Poland and Portugal which I have visited twice each in the last few years.  You can get a pint (large glass)of lager in the Algarve for 2 Euros.  You can pay five Euros or more in Ireland.  How much is a pint of beer in Egnland these days?  

On the way home we travelled via Wexford and found ourselves at a toll booth.  We paid the 3 Euros forty toll and a lovely English lady said:

"Thank you very much.  Good bye and God bless and have a safe journey home."

On the return to West Cork we stopped outside Cork at a petrol station.  There were 2 Police vehicles with 'armed response unit' painted on the cars liveries.  We thought:

"Hey up.  It's a siege or a stick up!"  

The good wife filled up the pick up with 20 Euros of diesel and went to pay the cashier.  I looked up to the cafe/restaraunt windows over the petrol station.  The boys in blue looked to being having:

"A nice cup of tea."  

Phew!  

We stopped in Ballineen at the Lantern chip shop.  We bought our selves a large portion of chips (two forks) for 3 Euros twenty between us.  I am sure they gave us five pounds of chips.  Not bad hey.  A day out and a slap up meal for two.  

Enjoying Our Smallholding Flowers.

The weather's been pretty good for the last week.  The hedges and grass are growing like mad and there areolenty of cottage perennial plants coming into flower.  Below in the wall border there are Forget-Me-Nots, Arum Lily's and Aquilegia "Grandma's Bonnets' showing off all their splendour and Array.

The Arum Lilies should have been out around Easter, but they are very late this year.  I love the Folklore connected to so many of our plants names.  Apparently there was an English knight walking by the side of this river (like you do) in full armour carrying a massive posey of forget me nots and they caused him to fall in.  He started to drown and handed over the flowers and said: "Forget me not!"

That's a terracotta ("real plastic") containing 'London Pride' or Saxifrage, "St Patrick's Cabbages." They are said to be the first plants to re-colonize the bomb sites after the blitz.  

Every Hiker And Farmer? Needs A Good Hat.

That's my trusty Sheep's Head Way baseball cap.  I have been advertising the way on my hikes over the last few weeks.  Since we sold the cattle we have been making plans.  

The first one is for me to get fit because I am walking the Dingle Way in August with an old friend.   So I have started pounding the old tarmac, boreens, mountain paths and bog for the last fortnight.  Already I have lost 9 Pounds in weight and feel better physically than I have for many a moon.

The Sheeps Head Way is very peaceful and incredibly beautiful.  Especially when you are on your own on top of the hills looking down at the bay.  It's sounds strange but it's like you become part of the rock, grass, mountains...  Walking on tracks that your ancestors walked probably  thinking the same philosophical thoughts and thanking God that you love in such a beautiful place.  

The other plan was to sell some of the land and buy an house or apartment in Portugal.  Eventually we (me and the missus) will retire there and the two lads will still have an house each and a few acres in Ireland.  

So we contacted a few local dairy farmers and asked them if they wanted to buy a ten acre parcel of land.  They both made us offers which we thanked them for but it wasn't the market price we wanted.  So we paid for two estate agents valuations and one undervalued the land by twenty thousand less than we were offered by a local farmer.    

It looks like we might have to put the land on the market, perhaps even sell the lot.  It's very difficult to remove sentiment from a family farm when you want to move on.  Anybody got any ideas what we should do?  Sol, Rachel or Cumbrian will know what to do?

Hope to catch up with all the other blogs I follow this week.   

A Photo Of Bantry Bay In April?

Been a few weeks since I blogged.  Been busy and life some times gets in the way or gets you down, like the weather.  The potatoes, onions, garlic, lettuce and cabbage plants are in the ground outside and we have lots of trays and plant pots full of Rosemary and pink Fuchsia cuttings in the poly-tunnel.  

These were the scenes across the bay when we woke up yesterday morning.  Talked to an elderly farmer yesterday.  Told me he had never known an April so cold and wet.  It's throwing it down today.  A lot of farmers have to put their cattle back in their sheds.  Some haven't even been in the fields yet.

There's definitely something wrong with the weather.  Climate change an all that.  Me thinks it's time to look at warmer climates.  A place in the sun or even a smallholding in the sun.  I am serious.   I am going to retire to Portugal real soon.  Can you retire when you are 52?

Have you been watching  The Durrells on Itv on Sunday nights?  That house in Corfu is to die for - I love it!  

Where would you like to live other than where you live now?  I will catch up with the blogs I follow over the next few days.  

Another Rock Hero Passes Away.

I received the terrible email news on Saturday morning from a friend in Poland that Keith Emerson had died.  

I fondly blogged recently of the time we (me and the email sender) saw Emerson Lake and Palmer at Manchester Apollo in the early nineties of the last century.  To say they were brilliant would be an understatement.  Keith Emerson is arguably the greatest keyboard player in the world.  Is type will never be seen again.   

I have seen a few famous people in concert who are no more: Phil Lynott, Ronnie James Dio, Gary Moore and Whitney Houston to name a few.  These people left us in their prime and their music lives on.  We recently watched the Amy film/documentary about Amy Winehouse.  It left us floored like Keith Emerson's death left me.  Such incredible talent should be cherished and may they live on when we play their music. 

I read recently that Keith Emerson was born in Todmorden.  It's a town I have passed through many times and uniquely it's in Lancashire and Yorkshire.  I digress. 

Thanks for being one of my rock hero giants Mr Emerson.

Here's one of Emerson Lake and Palmer's greatest tracks for you:

A Run Around For The Smallholding Young and Old Ratters.

The weather is slowly improving and I actuall mowed the lawns the other day.  The new pups also had a run around in one of the fields near the farm houses.  

 Scamp the Jack Russell terrier and Bell the Border Collie.  They are both lady dogs but they seem to get on fine living together.  Notice the cursed rushes appearing in the pasture.  You never seem to eradicate them.  Thinking of paying a man to wipe them with the weed-licker on the back of the quad bike.  Don't like using weedkillers but topping and strimming doesn't work.

 

Time for a lie down and climb over number two son.  Notice the lawns been mowed.  

Did I tell you I managed to mow the lawns? I set the mower on it's top settings and didn't bother boxing off.  This week I will lower the settings another couple of notches.

Fido my old Jack Russell.  She's fourteen years old and one of my best friends.  That's why we got the pups so that we won't be devastated too much when she goes to doggy heaven.  

Domino curled up in my tweed hat.  The natives are taking over the smallholding.