The First Shasta Daisies Of Summer.

I noticed the Shasta Daisies have started to flower today.  They are named after the snow capped mountain in California.

I love them and they are very easy to propagate by division or cuttings.  They are quite drought tolerant and they survive the Atlantic gales we get every Autumn to March and sometimes May like this year.

I love perennials because they are such good value for money and best of all they come back every year.  They also make a nice cut flower.

Do you have Shasta Daisies in your garden?  

When The Devil Left His Footprint in A Stone In West Cork.

I've been over that hill more times than I have had hot dinners.  Dave I've told you a million times do not exaggerate.

A friend told me that there was a big boulder with the Devil's  foot imprint not far from where we live.  I know the hill quite well and I have noticed the boulder but never the footprint.

Apparently according to local Irish folklore this stone is the last footprint the Devil left when he visited Ireland:

Sure enough dear reader/s I walked over young Furze ( Gorse) bushes in my Moses get away boots (sandals) to take a photo for your perusal on my mobile phone.

The Lichens on the boulder are apparently a sign that the air is clean because they only live and grow where the air is clean.

It's  probably  been caused by natural erosion but it does look like a footprint.  A very large one at that!

Don't  know if it's  true but I  like the the Irish folklore tales.

Wild Flowers In The Garden.

Aren't the Foxgloves magnificent this year?  I let them seed and grow in the gardens.  Foxgloves have medicinal uses to treat conditions like congestive heart failure but it's also very poisonous to pets if they eat them.

I keep saying I will take an online course in Herbalism.   I have a couple of books on the subject and I have an head full of plants and their uses.

Monastery gardens fascinate me along with walled kitchen gardens like the one at Heligan in Cornwall.  The Monastery gardens produced food to eat and also grew plants for their medicinal uses.  I want to visit Kylemore gardens in Galway.  But Ireland is shut at the moment.  We can go 20 Kilometres from June the eighth.  I think Ireland is much more sensible with the lockdown than the blonde buffoon at number ten.

Perhaps we should go back to using plants on our doorsteps instead of relying on tablets from the petrol chemical industries?

Do you have Foxgloves and other wild flowers in your garden?

Watering In The Garden.

If it could rain at night and be sunshiny in the day time.  But life's not like that is it?

I spent half an hour watering the plants this morning with the gun on the hosepipe.  Then I spent another ten minutes looking for the sprinkler.

Why oh why do they make or paint gardening tools green?  Why not paint them bright red or orange?

Anyway I found the sprinkler and the spudatoes are having a good drink.

My drinking starts early too at the moment.  Three or four O'clock is "Tish" time.  That's  the sound when I open a can of beer.  Yesterday it was a glass or two of Portuguese white wine followed by some cans of Budweiser.

Well if the plants want a drink so do I.

How do you cope with watering chores?  It's good that we have our own well.

The Shadow Of A Bird On The Top Of The Hills.

I went for a walk yesterday along the main road, up a long and winding Boreen and onto the tops of the rocky ridges over looking Dunmanus and Bantry Bays.  Here's some pics for your perusal:

A yellow oak post on the Sheepshead  Way overlooking  Bantry Bay.

 The peaty turf was parched dry apart from the odd place.

 Concrete Trig point with a yellow Sheepshead Way marker painted on it.

 Looking over Dunmanus Bay.

Wild bog cotton.

While I walked over the top the shadow of a bird appeared on the landscape.  

Lonely Sky by Chris De Burgh (we saw him live in Killarney once) started playing in my mental jukebox.  Then funnily enough it came on my daily mix on Spotify.  My companion on my walks:

What A Cracking Month.

I have never known a May so nice.  Here's a photo of one of the borders.  The purple rose my dad bought us before he went to Heaven to see my mother.  It's strange how even flowers have sentimental meanings
isn't  it?

The Osteospermums decided to play out this week.  I lost most of them in the cold snowy 2010 winter.  One or two survived the frost and I have been propagating them ever since.  September is a good month for taking cuttings when it's not too hot and over wintering in a polytunnel or greenhouse.

Don't  the flowers and sunshine give joy to your heart?

Through Your Father's Eyes, Your Mother's Smile.

Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of North American  Prog Rock band Kansas.  If you search Kansas in my blog search you can read my post about how I waited over thirty years to see them.

In 2014 I got on the plane  from Shannon and flew the three hours flight to Warsaw.  I was finally going to see probably the greatest Rock band in the world.

It was a great concert and I literally had tears of joy watching Kansas.  The years have moved on and the great Steve Walsh left the band and Ronnie Platt took over on vocals with another keyboard player and a new guitarist.

In 2017 we were going to see them in Poznan and Loreley but security advisers instructed Kansas to cancel their European tour.  My friend and myself still went to Loreley to The Night Of The Prog music  festival and Marillion headlined instead of Kansas.  At least we got to see Rick  Wakeman and Yes.

Any road.  Kansas have recorded a new album: The Absence Of Presence.  One of the singles is: Memories Down The Line.  It's incredibly poignant and appropriate for our times.  It moved me like the time I saw Kansas live.

Hope you like the video: