Saturday, November 29, 2014

Reluctant Christmas.

Try as we might we find it impossible to ignore Christmas completely, every week in the lead up there are craft fares and we both love these.
Last week we attended one not far from where we live in a small village called Kilmovee, we had gone to this one last year and were quite impressed with some of the crafts that we had seen. This year the intention had been to buy a hand knitted hat for my sister-in -law, from a lady that keeps Jacob sheep and does her own spinning and dyeing, unfortunately she didn't have a stall this year and although there were other knitting stands there they had nothing that excited us.
Lovely turned wood gifts.
We did find a nice hand  crafted book mark, a lovely turned wooden bowl, a beautiful turned mushroom and some hand made ear rings, plus some local honey.
That more or less completed the Christmas shopping with the exception of the hat which is now being knitted for us by a friend who has a source of Organic wool, hopefully this will be done in time for the final date of posting to Canada where my sister-in -law lives. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and we met some nice people but the thing that struck us as odd was most of the stall holders were English, if it had been in a largish town we would have understood it, but this is a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. Very strange indeed.
Jumble sale find.
Today saw us at a jumble sale organised by a friend of ours in aid of the Sligo Donkey Sanctuary, we had expected a lot of people to be there but I guess there is too much else going on elsewhere, there were very few people who turned up and those who did were mainly...... you've guessed it, English. Very very strange. There was lots of  nice stuff, people had been very generous with their donations and lots of real bargains. Once again we met some very nice people who all knew the organiser and all of whom we knew by reputation and it has been decided that we will all meet up once a month for coffee and a chin wag starting off with a Solstice party on the 22nd of December. It should be fun.
Next weekend it's our turn to have a stall, organised by Knockvicar Organic gardens,
A big mix.
I have been up to my elbows making Xmas puddings, a doz in all, far too much mixture for a bowl so the wine making bucket got seconded.
Puddings done, ready for packaging.
All that remains to be done is the packaging and the essential labelling on which I can't state that the ingredients are Organic even though they are! Such are the laws of labelling. I also have to make time to make some Blackcurrant jam and to finish off some glass paintings. We won't be too bothered if we don't sell much, for us the important part is giving support to a very worthy project. We know we will sell one Xmas pudding however, it's already booked by the baker from the farmers market!
Winter veg. are now coming on,
The leeks are delicious.
we have had the first leeks,
Caulis are still looking good.
and the cauliflowers are still standing well, now they seem to be minus the extra protein so I no  longer have to soak them in salt water to get rid of the creepy crawlies.(Slugs)
A blue green house, not quite the right colour.
After twelve years of not having a green house I now have one, mainly made from re-cycled materials it has cost very little, the double glazed widows were completely free, a coat of paint is needed around the windows, ( you can't have a green house painted blue, can you?) Measuring 10X9. I will be able to bring on all of the seedlings in it, leaving the sunroom free of propagators, seed trays ect. The main reason the green house was built was to protected a grape vine that a friend had given us, but there is plenty of room for the vine to share with other things.

16 comments:

  1. They greenhouse looks fab! I'm jealous! xx

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    1. Thanks Bridget, I'm very pleased with it and now I can rest knowing your vine will be protected. I enjoyed yesterday and I'm so pleased you raised so much for the sanctuary, they do a great job.

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  2. I love a good craft fair, and the veg look good.

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    1. Like yourself we try to keep it local, it's a shame to see small villages dying because people think bigger is better when shopping.

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  3. Even the stuff at craft fairs seems to be imported here.

    Those leeks are stunning! And I´m envious of your greenhouse too. What are the dimensions?

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    1. The green house is 10X 9 Coco, it should be big enough for all our needs. We did find last year that some craft fares had a fair sprinkling of imported stuff, we have only been to the one this year and I think it was all local stuff.

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  4. I want the "Weeds For Sale"!
    Try doing a jumble in Feb or March when folks are beginning to go stir crazy.
    Blue greenhouse is fine by me.
    I have noticed a lot of imported stuff at so called craft fairs. It is not worth the price of the stall if you are trying to make a living.
    I love winter veg, it is comfort food.

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    1. Do you paint Irene? If so you could make your own sign, now there's an idea for next years craft fares! I love the winter veg as well, they all do well here.

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  5. Good greenhouse! I also got out to Kilmovee and was impressed by the wood carver and his (mainly) candlesticks. Most of those traders are also at Lisacul on 7th Dec (14:30 I think). Like you, amazed by how many Brits among the traders. Got some lovely mince pies (from an Irish lady!) mind.

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  6. I didn't see any wood carver there, if you mean the chap at the end of the hall, most of his stuff is just soft wood cut on a jigsaw and well sanded, it looks OK but nothing special. I like turned wood products where there is real craft involved.

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    1. That's the guy I meant and yes, you're right - no proper turned wood. I have an Uncle who always turned wood for a hobby and sold it at craft fairs etc - we have some nice pieces from him - he always burned the wood-type into the base of each bowl, so we have them in 'spalted ash' etc. I understand that 'spalted' wood is the callus, scar-grown wood which grows at wound-sites. It has no proper grain but a marble-like finish. The jig-saw guy stuff seemed very expensive - €24 for those little, 8 inch high stands for a single tea-light.

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  7. Glad you got some goodies at the fair! Leeks look impressive...I'm missing winter food! Good work on the puds...just make a note of where you stash them! Lauren x

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    1. I found the one that you and Jason should have had last week! Just a little bit too late, it was in the pine dresser in the kitchen, I'm sure we had looked there!

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    2. I'm sure we had looked everywhere!!! Shame you found it a little too late, but better and not a few years down the line!

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