Thursday, May 18, 2017

Firsts and lasts.

Bringing the countryside indoors.
Spring has quickly gone and it feels like summer. It's been very dry and far warmer than we expect for this time of year.
The spring flowers have quickly been replace by early summer ones,
the tulips are just about over
and are now replaced with
irises and aquilegia,
Gertrude Jekyll.
Zephryn Drune.
 
 
Rosa rugosa.
some of the roses are also flowering,
White Rosa rugosa.
earlier than most years.
We have our first flower on the Lilac that we planted four years ago
and a Montana clematis that we planted last year has rewarded us with flowers.
Strawberries are late this year  probally due to it being so dry but we have now had our first good picking.
We have had our first cauliflower, not as good as normal, but again I think it's because of the dryness,
we have also had the first of the new potatoes, lovely with loads of butter served with a good helping of asparagus, this is doing well this year, it doesn't seem to mind it being so dry.For some reason, our Victoria plum tree planted five years ago has curled up and died, it flowered well and fruit set, the leaves started to appear then dried up and fell. No sign of disease, it just died, so no bottled plums or Old Dower House chutney this year.
In between hospital appointments we have manages a few trips out and about, we had a lovely trip to Cong which is a very pretty small town, it also has a lot of good eating houses, probally because it's a favourite tourist spot, it was made famous by John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in the film 'The  Quiet Man'.
We had a lovely meal out, the good old British staple, of fish and chips
followed by a very nice Pavlova ,
 we were pleased to find that Cong has it's own Craft Beer brewery, which was lovely. Gone are the days when choice was limited to Guinness, Smethwick's (ugh) or cider, many small towns now have their own micro breweries.
The weekend found us on the coast again,
Fishing harbour, Mullaghmore.
one of our favourite places, Mullaghmore in Co. Sligo.
Again we ate out, being a small fishing village it had to be fish or rather sea food, lovely fresh crab claws,
followed by a good homemade cheese cake.
The one thing that we have now become aware of is wheelchair access, although most eating houses have ramps, pavements are a nightmare. The worst place is Galway hospital, you would think that such a place would have easy access, what ramps they  have are still an inch high, and the pavements are full of cracks making it a very hard job to negotiate.
Snowball tree, Viburnum opulus.
We have at last had a couple of days of rain, but nothing to penetrate the soil more than a half inch, but the garden has appreciated it, so have the weeds and slugs.
Waves.
And more waves.
 
Banks of sea thrift.
 
 

6 comments:

  1. Hello, ive popped my head out from under the doona to say hello. I've had the long awaited reconstruction of my foot and yes, i am in a wheelchair. New appreciation for disabled i tell you! I wont be walking on two feet for over six months which means the garden has been put to bed. Lots of manure & mulch feeding lots of worms and microbes until i can get back out there. Our house is not too bad. I'd love another inch width on the doorways. My knuckles on both hands have been black at times. Curse on able bodied people who use disabled toilets. I had to wait ten minutes for a loo at the shopping centre and near had an accident when a perfectly mobile person walked out murmurring "sorry". I had a trial run yesterday to see if i could get around my office at work yesterday and thank goodness i can go back on Monday. Being idle is killing me. I've watches all six seasons of Game of Thrones and read books but i need more.

    I've caught up reading your posts and have loved all the photos.

    Cheers
    Lynda

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    1. Hi Lynda, nice to hear from you, glad to hear that your op. went well. At least you know that you wont need the wheelchair permanently, unfortunately I cant say the same. I miss being able to do my garden and it's doubtful if I every will again, still Simon's doing a good job of keeping it up for me.
      When are you going to start blogging again, I've missed your posts.

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  2. I too am loving all the garden pics. In Illinois cauliflower is barely in the ground but the lilacs bloomed out near three weeks ago. We've been wet and cool here so not enough color in the garden yet. Love all the food pictures as I've been to Cong a couple times and can identify. Miss that wonderful sea food. miss it terribly.

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    1. Hi Donna, we've had very hot and dry weather, several things have failed, we love all the wild orchids that appear each spring, this year we have seen just one early purple, none of the others have shown at all. Cong is a pretty town and has lots of good eating houses, meat I could give up, seafood, never!

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  3. OOh, that food just looks delicious! So do the strawberries! We had our first ones yesterday. Apparently the cherry trees haven't coped well with this year#s weather so they are all quite expensive but there are mountains of nisperos in every market. Flowers are beautiful. The Jacaranda trees are all in blossom here and it's beautiful purple blossom everywhere. Good to hear you've managed the trips out between hospital visits, hope you both have a break soon xxx

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    Replies
    1. Hi yes it's great that there are so many good places to eat nowadays. I love nisperos, never see them here. I remember the Jacarandasa trees, they are lovely.
      Will email soon.XXX

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