Spot the difference.

Last week we learnt the hard way that buying frozen fish is a waste of money and the plastic bag it comes in probally would have more flavour. We  sent an email to 'Donegal Catch' saying how disappointed we were in their product, needless to say, we received no reply. We can only assume  that they are so used to receiving complaints that they no longer bother to respond. This week we took the trip to our real fish man in Ballina,

Fresh cod versus frozen.

fresh cod was on offer at only twelve euro a kg, plaice at two euro a throw and hake at seventeen euro a kg. We now have replenished our stock of fish , this should last us for the next eight weeks.

Third generation.

Although this fishmonger has an overnight courier service, I still like to see what I'm buying, and it makes a nice trip out. This fish shop has been established for over fifty years and our fishmonger is the third generation of the family to run the business. I wonder how long this shop would have lasted if they didn't respond to customers feedback?
There are a few signs that spring is not too far away, bulbs are well up with flower buds on the daffodils,

one of the pulmonarias  is flowering,

Red hellebore.

White hellebore, I also spot a buttercup that needs removing.

likewise the hellebores,

An early Camellia.

there's even a brave camellia with one flower out, many more to come but way behind the first one.
Things are slowly developing in the new tunnel,

the garlic is well up,

broad beans not making too much headway, they are the same size as a couple of weeks ago.

Tiny cauliflower but they will come on.

Tiny cauliflowers have been planted into one of the beds, they look so small but should soon make headway with a few degrees of warmer weather, and increased daylight. Not that it's been cold this winter, so far it's been the warmest and driest for the past four years, although today it has done it's best to deliver a dusting of snow, as long as it stays just that, a dusting I will be quite happy. However, a few days of really cold weather would have been welcomed to kill off some of the nasty's in the soil, slugs in particular.

The apricot, it's got two chances.

The apricot tree gifted to us from a friend has been planted in the new tunnel, whether it survives or not is in the lap of the gods. It seems that we should have moved it late autumn as apricots are so early flowering the sap will already have risen, we are also a bit concerned that there was not enough root on it, still it has two chances, it lives or it dies. 

Unwelcome visitor.

Once again we have had an unwelcome visit from a mink, this time however it  made a thorough job of it's killing spree and completely wiped out our main house which housed our lovely Copper Marans and our Cuckoo Marans, twelve birds in all which should have been my breeding stock for this year. Mink might be small, but they are deadly and strong. This house is a very solid wooden shed with a strong door, however with all the wet weather we have been having the door had very slightly warped leaving a half inch gap at the bottom, this was sufficient for the mink to get it's paws in and force it's way into the house. These birds were all pure bred, to replace them would cost a considerable amount of money, even assuming I could get good stock, so we have gone back to Hybrid birds,

six Copper Stars and six Speckled Marans, they are quite nice birds and far cheaper than the  pure breeds, plus they should lay all year round. As we have a few regular customers for our eggs it was rather a case of having to replace the birds  with something and it's the wrong time of year to obtain pure breeds.

The door has now been doubly secured, with a bolt top and bottom, and we are hopeful that Meg, our young Jack Russell has dispatched the mink as she went missing for over five hours after confronting the mink in a burrow, she couldn't quite get it but as there has been no further sign of it and no mink has taken the fish from the trap we are reasonably sure that this mink has gone, one way or another. Meg is not a dog that roams, the fact that she was gone so long indicates that she was after something. It is so hard to protect birds from mink or Pine Marten, they seem immune to electric fencing unlike foxes, which are simple to control by comparison. The amount of damage that mink have done to the countryside is incalculable, lakes where there should be Coots and Moorhens are devoid of them, they have devastated most of the ground nesting birds, thanks to the release into the wild by animal liberationists, and owners of mink farms, who released these predators when the bottom fell out of the market of the fur trade.

So far this winter we have had nine bad storms, maybe we have noticed them more as some clever person thought it would be a good idea to name them,

the last one was Henry so we decided to take a trip to the coast to see the waves.

They were spectacular, the waves were the biggest we have ever seen,

according to reports they were ten to twelve metres high,

I certainly would not have wanted to be on a ship, quite scary, but very beautiful.

The river at Easkey, Co Sligo

Some of the dwarf daffodils. 

 It is still mild, way above the normal temperatures for this time of year, the garden is totally out of sync,

daffodils are blooming yet snowdrops are still only in bud.

Buds are swelling on lots of the trees and bushes including the Ribes sanguineum, several shrubs have kept their leafs throughout the winter although not evergreen.

This was our first ever Hellebore, it came as a seedling from friends in Spain.

The Hellebores are looking quite spectacular,

I hadn't realised how many different varieties we have,

I love this double white.

I will have to look and see if any of them have self-seeded as according to several other blogs this is something they do quite frequently,

it would be nice to fill up empty spaces with yet more Hellebores without buying them.

  

 

Preparation for the new season.

Last year we decided to cut down on the quantity of vegetables that we grow, there are only two of us and we do not need beds sixteen feet long, eight feet is plenty, but what we did need was for the beds to be higher than ten inch , so the vegetable garden is undergoing a make over.

We now have five raised  beds and one more to go, eight foot by three foot six and twenty inches high. With pathways wide enough to get the wheel barrow between with ease.

Just one more bed to go.

This should make life easier and will certainly help our backs, I should even be able to sit on the edge of the beds for weeding. We still have two long beds, one is the asparagus bed, the other was last years root veg, this will be planted with peas and beans which will help to fix the nitrogen in the soil, the following year it will be planted with leafy things such as spinach and chard. We will still have to do some growing on the flat, potatoes, which need a lot of space and some of the brassicas, which don't like a light and free draining soil.
The broad beans which were planted in the root trainers two weeks ago have now all germinated,  our own seed saved from last year, these will get planted out in March, possible covered with crop cover depending on what the weather is doing. This time next month seed sowing will be in full swing, where did the winter go?

The rhubarb is looking good.

The rhubarb is coming on well we should have our first picking at the start of March, again this depends on what the weather does.

We always look forward to the first of the rhubarb, a real sign that the new season has started.
One thing we are never short of is fresh veg,

Leeks, swede and parsley.

we still have plenty of leeks, swede, beetroot, parsnips, turnip, artichokes, herbs and some cabbages as well,

1st of the purple sprouting broccoli.

the Brussels sprouts should last out until the end of the month and the purple sprouting broccoli has  formed it's flower heads, the Swiss chard is starting to show  new growth.  We  also have curly kale growing but this has rather been overshadowed by the sprouting broccoli, you can't win them all.  We should last out with the onions ,

Sarpo Mira.

we have plenty of potatoes but a shortage of carrots, we lost one entire bed to mice so will have to buy some before the new seasons are ready.
Winter flowers are now starting to bloom, the first of the Helleborus is about to burst out,

I think this one is Helleborus Orientalis, it's very pretty when it's fully out.

Snowdrops are growing all over, even in places that I don't remember planting them, it must have  been the fairies.

Tommy trying to control Meg.

Meg the puppy is now a fully integrated member of the family but shows little respect to any of the cats or even Tess.

The face off.

Tommy our eldest cat tries to control her

she has now found out that cat claws can hurt. Tess today however had had enough, the pup would give her no peace, Tess's solution? Pick up Meg by the scruff of the neck and dump her into her bed. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera at the ready so missed the shot, maybe next time.
 

Natural crafts.

One thing that grows very well in Ireland is Willow, there are around four hundred different types, some more useful than others. Osiers, Salix viminalis is the one normally used for basket making as it grows very long straight stems.

End of the first day.

This weekend we attended another basket making course, we had done one last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, I have done a couple of others throughout the years. This one was slightly different as it was the traditional Irish way of basket making.

Day two, working with fresh Willow.

Instead of working from the bottom up, this way you work from the top up, finishing on the bottom which is in fact at the top of your work. If this sound a bit Irish to you it is! But it works, I'm not sure if it is easier, weaving in the bottom is very hard on the fingers. This way of working allows larger baskets to be made and would have originated from making Coracles, small boats used in Ireland and Wales, the ribs of the boats would have been pushed into the ground, the basket worked from the rim to the base, the structure was then covered with a skin. There were six of us on the course, none ambitious enough to want to make a Coracle, just baskets that would be useful. Day one was making smallish baskets out of dried willow, day two, making larger baskets from fresh willow,

Final results, minus two.

I opted to make a conical plant support for the sweet peas, we have enough baskets now. It was great fun with a nice group of people. Our tutor was the head gardener from the Knockvicar  Organic gardens, he was a very patient man, and very thorough with his instructions. We all came away with two pieces of work finished and cuttings of different coloured willows for planting.

The pig house with end door.

The pig house is now done and in position, the fencing has to be finished and then we will apply for our pig keeping licence.

First entrance.

Looking through the 'for sale pig' advertisements we realise it might not be too easy to get the type of pigs that we want, we want pigs that will forage and thrive well on vegetables and straight grains, not pigs that will require pellets to put on weight. Conventional pellets are full of GMO's in the form of 'Soya' not a natural diet for pigs, and something we will not use. The organic pellets are quite expensive but we will use them towards the end if we feel the pigs are not gaining the right weight, but only if we have to.
Meanwhile we have a egg glut, just far too many to keep up with, we keep coming up with ways to use all these eggs,

Managed to use nineteen eggs on this lot.

but the most we managed to use in a baking day was nineteen eggs and we can't do that every day. We have made pounds of lemon curd and keep on making it, we even have lemon curd frozen, we won't run out for the next year. Cakes, bread and ice-cream all take plenty of eggs, but there is only so much you can eat or store. It will soon be time to set eggs in the incubator, that will take care of a couple of dozen. Daffy duck, our favourite Muskovy has now taken to removing herself from the duck run and coming into our garden, a sign that she is wanting to lay a clutch of eggs for her to brood.
There is now lots of colour in the garden, spring is here.

Daffodils, snowdrops and crocus are all giving a lovely display, wallflowers add perfume although they have rather taken over the beds, primroses and polyanthus all give added colour.

Double blossomed Hellebore.

The Hellebores are giving a lovely splash of colour, they do very well here,

I will have to increase the numbers and varieties of these lovey long blooming flowers, there are so many beautiful ones to chose from.

The ground is now dry enough to work , hopefully the main crop potatoes will be planted by next weekend. The garden has continued to produce for us throughout the winter, carrots, parsnips, leeks,  curly kale and artichokes. Onions and potatoes stored from last year, and now the purple sprouting broccoli has formed it's spears. Rhubarb  continues to give forth it's lovely stems, the strawberries are blooming. We don't go hungry, neither do we need to buy veg.

Time to take it easy, it's hard work watching dad work.

The cats love to supervise what ever is being done in the garden, they then flop in a warm sunny spot to recover from their hard work.

I'm so handsome.