In The Land Of Poets And Seeing Blue Oyster Cult Again.

I'm tired and a bit emotional.  Last night put the tin hat on it with my flight from Brum being delayed from 9.30 to us actually leaving at 12.55.  I got home in West Cork at four this morning.  Rants about cheap flight companies and Travelodge not making the beds or changing the towels for 3 days  are for another day.

I got to see some Coleridge and Wordsworth places in Somerset and Wales.  We saw John Cale in Stroud and visited Slad and Laurie Lee's favourite pub and his grave.  On Saturday we saw a Lancaster Bomber fly over us and saw some heavy Rock bands like Black Star Riders and one of my favourite bands Blue Oyster Cult.  I last saw them in 1988.  We have all aged considerably but they are like a fine wine or malt whisky  that's matured with age.  You rocked BOC.

I have some super blisters and swollen feet.  Hope you're all ok? 

Some photos for your perusal tomorrow.

Butterflies And Buddleia.

June was fabulous weather and many farmers made hay in Cork and Kerry.

July was very disappointing weather wise and hopefully August and September will make up for it and there will be an Indian ☀️ Summer.

Meanwhile out in the garden the old painted ladies and red admirals have been feeding on the nectar of the Buddleias in the gardens around our smallholding.

Today is my last day of work and tomorrow I will pack my rucksack and set off on my journey to dear old Blighty.  I'm meeting an old friend and we are visiting some famous literary haunts and walking, using public transport and watching some Rock icons and drinking so fine real 🍺. 

I hope to take some photos for the old blog and write down a few tales for your perusal.  

Happy days!

 

A Ride Over To The Puck Fair.

 We went for a ride over to Killorglin in County Kerry on Saturday to visit the famous Puck Fair.  It's said to be one of the oldest fairs in Ireland and every year a male puck goat is crowned there.  

The car park attendants wanted ten Euros for parking so we drove and parked along a main road and walked back to town.

Lots of stalls.

Some Diddly Dee music.

A blue Geranium that I need to purchase for my garden.

Street art.

The Puck Fair sign.

We didn't see the Puck goat but we had a good walk round, bought two bags of chips, a mobile phone case and a screen protector.  

Anywhere is worth visiting after lockdown.  Even on a showery afternoon.

A New Kitten On The Block/Smallholding.

 Meet Minnie Mouser:

A drink of milk pop.

Flower arranging.

Another new addition to the livestock that lives with us on our smallholding on the Irish Riviera in West Cork, Ireland.

She's been named Minnie Mouser.  A bundle of fun and full of mischief and devilment.

That's 4 cats 🐈 in total: Domino, Kitty Tiger, Minnie Mouser and Midnight lives in the other house next door with a ginger 😸.  I'm wrong that makes it 5 feline creatures.

Minnie Mouser is a fan (like me) of the England Lionesses.  Millie Bright is our heroine.  Well done lasses beating Nigeria and I hope to see you lift the World Cup when I am in Blighty.

"I've Just Bagged A Bargain. Going Back To My Carboots."

It was our first carboot sale in a month due to the rain.  Not selling plants but buying stuff.

Twenty Euros for the cottage ware   They are from the nineteen thirties and forties and most old ladies had one or two of them in their glass cabinet or Welsh Dresser.  

The man even wrapped them in newspaper and gave me a free shopping bag.  

The newspaper took me back to chippy teas on a Friday in Lancashire and there was always an old lady asking the chip shop proprietor to keep her bowl warm on top of the fish range 

Cds.  Brittany Spears (she's a French lass, Britney even😀), brass bands and Prog Rock. I have very eclectic music taste.  Don't ask me to be the DJ at your knees up or 'Do'.  I'm going to a do at the weekend".  "Potato pie and mushy peas?"  "Happen!"

I bought this vaze or vase for 3 Euros.  It's labelled Wicklow Vale.

Me myself and yours truly picked Daisies and Montbretia from the garden borders 

I couldn't resist buying this title.

Here's some more for your perusal.

It was a good day out and I am forty Euros lighter.

You can't walk past a bargain can you?

 

A 22 Year Old Butterfly Bush.

 Last week was our 22nd anniversary of moving to Hibernia and residing on the Irish Riviera.

We brought a wheelie bin full of perennials and shrubs with us.  One of the shrubs was a newly rooted Buddleia cutting that I had took and succesfully got it to strike and form roots and shoots.

I have made many more plants from this shrub and I have never cut it back heavily like you are supposed to do in March.  

There is always an abundance of purple flowers and 🦋 at this time of year 

A Beetroot Leviathan Of A Vegetable

 Old wifey holding up a big Docking (Northern English expression) a newly picked Beetroot growing in my new polytunnel  'Algarve'.

It  was planted in one of my raised beds 'hot bed' experiments in the polytunnel.

I had no fresh stable manure so I spread some freshish straw stable manure and covered it with an inch of topsoil.  

Look at the result.  It's a whopper.

Anyone else experiment their vegetable growing with fresh stable manure?