Potatoes Dancing In The Breeze

 I took this photo yesterday:

Aren't they beautiful flowers?

To Ballyshannon And To See My Rock Hero: Michael Schenker And His MSG Band.

 The main purpose of my visit to County Donegal was to visit Ballyshannon for the Rory Gallagher Rock Festival and to see Michael Schenker and his group.

He was a former member of the Scorpions and UFO.  I have seen the Scorpions and former member Ulri Jon Roth live but never seen Michael or UFO.  I have been a fan of his music since the nineteen eighties.  

Here's some photos for your perusal:

Bronze Rory Gallagher statue in the centre of Ballyshannon town/village.  Where he was born and grew up in Cork.   In previous blog posts I have featured his videos and music and visited his grave in Ballincollig near Cork city.  Go into my blog search to see more.

 

                                                 
Cape Daisies. 

A former church now a veterinary hospital.

A band outside a pub.

Flower bed.

Pot pig in a florist shop.

I got quite close to the front.

The Rock God that is Michael Schenker and his band.  He's 68 years old and fit as a fiddle or flying V.

My favourite track was: "Into The Arena".  Well worth a look and listen to on good old YouTube: 

I can't stop playing this and the recent videos from Ballyshannon on You Tube.

You can't beat live music can you?

New Potatoes And Japanese Onions.

 We started harvesting the new potatoes we planted in the potatoes growing bags that we bought at the car boot last year.

The Japanese over winter onions had started to bolt and look like they wanted to set seed.  I'm not surprised with the unseasonally very hot weather that we have had in all of Ireland for the last two weeks or so.

We are eating more of the new potatoes and onions tonight.  My late father would have said that we picked them too small.  But to me that's what a new potato should be. Small is beautiful.

You can rub their skin off with your finger nails.  The new potatoes 🥔 are absolutely delicious and you can't buy anything so fresh in a supermarket or drop.

Once again it resonates with me that you don't need to be Middle-class or have a garden or allotment to grow your own vegetables.

Bundoran And A Carboot Sale.

The sea from Bundoran sea front.

 Cape Daisies like the ones in our rusty milk churns here in West Cork.

Two Wedgewood trinket boxes.

Antique leather Burmese tiger. We paid 15 Euros  for it.  The man wanted 20.  I think Drew and Tee would like this on Salvage Hunters? 

Plastic garden gnome for the patio.  

It was good to be browsing and buying instead of selling.  

I'm struggling to keep my plants in pots alive at the moment.  There's showers for the end of the week and we could get the tail end of Storm Oscar which is about to hit the Canaries.  I noticed a dew in County Donegal on Sunday morning,  I woke up shivering in my tent.   Another roughing it short break.

A Big House And A Visit To A Pet Farm..

Wardtown Castle.  Professor Google will take you up and down a few rabbit holes with this derelict stone structure.

We travelled on to County Donegal and on Sunday morning we visited a carboot sale in Bundoran and then we visited A pet farm.

Talk about a bus man's holiday.  We live on a smallholding with livestock and sure enough we had to visit a pet family.
 

It passed an hour.

Yeats Grave And Benbulbin.

we travelled through county Sligo on Saturday.  I took the opportunity to visit the grave of the Irish poet WB Yeats.    

I took some photos of his grave and church and the table Rock formation called Benbulbin.  It was like the scenery out of a Tolkein or CS Lewis fantasy book or film.

The weather is still incredibly hot and it's more like July or August haymaking weather.

 

Our Dog Gets Bit By A Jellyfish.

 

Bronte our Golden Retriever got a nasty Jelly fish sting whilst swimming in the bay near where we live the other day. Yes it's a sting not a bite isn't it?

She yelped and was very quiet and forlorn looking for a day or two.  We gave her milk and our duck and hen eggs to eat and she's making a good recovery.

The wife gave her baths in Tea Tree Oil in the water.  Our local chemist said that we should make a paste with Bicarbonate of Soda and water.  It takes away the sting.

The exceptional hot weather must have brought the Jellyfish to the Gulf Stream where we live.

Please be careful if you go in the sea this Irish Bank Holiday weekend there are some very big Jellyfish about.