Ireland's glorious past.

Unlike the UK, Ireland has very few quaint houses or villages. With the exception of the landed gentry, houses were of very poor standard, often built of mud or turf which doesn't stand the test of time. However, Ireland is full of ruined abbeys, friary's  monasteries and castles.

We must have viewed Roscommon Castle hundreds of times from the road, but never had time to stop and view it properly. Last week we made time as we had to go to Roscommon to get bread.

It is even more imposing than we had thought set in fourteen acres of grounds,

complete with a natural lake,

home to many waterbirds, and a swallow hole.

The castle itself is Norman, built in 1269 by Feidhlim O'Connor , king of Connaught.

We were very impressed with the ruins, and also with the access to it. Someone has put great thought into making the whole area wheelchair friendly

unlike Roscommon Abbey.

This is in fact a ruin of a Dominican Friary, built around 1290-1300.

Effigy  of the King of Connault.

What makes this particular Friary so interesting is the Royal effigy of O'Connor which is one of only two Royal effigy's in Ireland.

It's just a shame that it is impossible to get to if you are a wheelchair user.
The main purpose for our visit to Roscommon was to buy the next three weeks bread.

Molloys bakery has been in existence for nearly a hundred years and we can truly say it's the best bread either of us have had since childhood. We used to make all our own bread but were finding that the flour was too variable, sometimes the loaf would be spot on, other times it would be only OK, so when a friend recommended this bakery to us we tried it and have stuck with it. We have to go to Tesco every few weeks to stock up with Organic butter, so we kill two birds with one stone, besides exploring a place we haven't been to before.

Most of our apples have now been picked, we had a good crop of Russets, and even the Bramley tree decided to give us fruit. As Russets don't store well we have been making

Dorset Spiced Apple cake, if you can resist eating it the same day as it's cooked it improves,

the flavour becomes more intense and it remains a very moist cake. Apple crumble has also been on the menu, made with oats and flour the crumble is moreish.
Things are beginning to quieten down in the garden, we have probably had the last of the beans and peas, and are now onto winter veg.

P.S.B making up for lost time.

One thing we forgot to plant at the right time was purple sprouting broccoli, so we took a chance and sowed in the tunnel, it is now two foot high, I just hope it's not too warm in there for it and that it will still sprout.

My last two pieces of pottery started life as mugs, but then I changed my mind and they will be soup bowls, I have made two matching mugs as well but as yet they have't been carved or the handles affixed, next week hopefully.

Seasons out of kilter.

Everything in the garden seems early this year,

1st of the Raspberries. 8th June.

I'm sure we have never had raspberries ready at the beginning of June, redcurrants and blackcurrants are also ready for picking, the exception seems to be the strawberries which I'm sure were a month later than normal. We've even had our first courgettes. The vegetable garden is producing an abundance, probally due to the very hot weather that we have had. We have now however had some rain, nothing like normal but enough to keep the garden looking good and to keep the slugs happy, the main damage has been to the carrots, Simon has now sown two lots of carrots, only to have them raised to the ground overnight as soon as they have appeared. We have always been reluctant to use nematodes, it has always seemed odd to us to introduce an alien species to the garden, however after speaking to people who have used them we are now conceding defeat and I have ordered them. Last year we lost over 75% of our potatoes due to slugs and ended up having to buy sacks of potatoes from our Organic meat supplier, we know that he also does carrots as he offered us some last year, but nothing can beat a freshly pulled carrot, so a third planting will be done and the soil watered with the nematodes. I have also been given a sack of wool shoddy so this can be used around susceptible plants. Maybe I shouldn't speak too soon but there are two plants which normally suffer slug damage, Lupins and Delphiniums, yet our slugs have left these plants completely alone.

Day old chicks.

We now have this years supply of chickens on the ground, bought three weeks ago as day olds they are now coming up for three weeks old, today was the day to introduce them to the outside world, they have had a great time pecking at grass, they will still have heat at night-time for the next week, then they will get moved to their big house and run where they will stay until they are ready for slaughter.

A selection of David Austin roses.

The roses have been fantastic this year, again probally due to the warmer weather that we have had,

I had forgotten how many different roses we have, most of them being David Austin roses,

so beautifully scented,

 the poppies

and dianthus are looking great,

and we now have Turks cap lilies flowering. We had forgotten where these had been planted so it was a lovely surprise to find them in full bloom, the perfume from them is lovely.

Arum lilies struggling under a clematis.

We had a trip out exploring the local lanes looking for a wild flower that we had not seen for years, Mountain Everlasting, it comes in two colours, pink and white,

Female Mountain everlasting.

the pink ones are the female plants

Male flowers.

and the white are the male plants. After having been told where to see them we went in search , since then we keep seeing them everywhere, maybe I'm not as observant as I used to be.

Mallow.

Last projects.

The pottery classes have slowed down a bit as my teacher does a lot of Viking re-enactments during the summer months so it's working out to one Friday in three at the moment, this week there is a class but unfortunately I will be in hospital  for the day having a Coronary Angiogram which I'm not looking forward to. My last three peices worked out fine, I'm not too sure what my next project will be, it needs a little thought.

Love this Clematis.

A medley of colour.

Albertine, always reliable.

The store cupboard is groaning.

Second flush of roses/

The last week has been a busy one.

The Victoria plums have all ripened

The first five pounds.

and I have bottled six large jars,

Chutney making.

the remainder have been made into Old Dower House chutney,

in total seventeen jars, most will be for ourselves but a couple are for friends.

Sun Gold, now coming along nicely.

Tomatoes are coming fast now, what had started off as a potentially bad crop has turned into a good one, they were very slow to get started and slow for the first fruits, they are making up for it now, I might even have enough to bottle. We only grow the Sun Gold, I have been tempted to try other varieties, but Sun Gold  are the sweetest tomato so we will stay with what we know.
Peas and runner beans continue to produce, I am once again trying to find a good way to freeze the beans, maybe I just don't like frozen veg but this time I have used the vacuum sealer bags and I have not blanched them at all, we will try one of the bags I have already done later this week and see if there is any improvement to the frozen beans.

Seed grown onions.

The last lot of onions will get harvested in the next couple of weeks, these we grew from seed, rather as an experiment, they have all grown to a good size and it's a far cheaper way to get onions rather than the sets, but we will stick with sets for the early ones that we do in the tunnel.

The Calabrese is now ready for picking, they have also done well this year, the biggest failure has been the potatoes, we grew seven different types, none have done well mainly due to slug damage, these are not the big slugs that you can easily see but the small 'Field Slugs', the damage they have done is incredible, we grew extra potatoes this year as it's nearly impossible to get a decent potato in Ireland, the Irish like flowery spuds that produce potato sludge if you boil them, the only way to cook them is to steam them, even then, they are dull and boring. We had already decided that we would have to do potatoes in the tunnel this autumn to keep us going, we would have been using whatever undamaged potato's we had but a trip to the garden centre yesterday surprised us with Charlotte seed potatoes already chitted ready for planting, Charlotte is one of the potatoes that we had grown this year, and unfortunately lost mostly to slugs.
Today was a bright warm day, we haven't had too many of them this summer, the warmth brought out masses of butterflies,

there were Red Admirals,

Peacocks and Meadow Browns, not the easiest thing to photograph but we managed to get a couple of shots.

The roses are now having a second flush,

they recovered well after suffering black spot,

not something we have had before,

cool damp weather is the perfect breeding ground for all these fungi.
The early autumn flowers are now looking good,

the Echinacea  and Bergamot are looking lovely, so are the obedient plants,

Physostegia virginiana.

Hubbard day olds.

We now have the final batch of Hubbard chicks, they have nearly doubled in size in just a week, that will be the last rearing for this year. it will all start again next March.

Before firing.

The pottery classes are going well, but once again we have three weeks off as my teacher has several shows to do over the next three weekends, after all she does have to earn a living.

After firing.

I finished my last project just in time for firing, I have another project on the go and I must think what I want to do next. It's great fun and I think I'm learning a lot from her.

Suzy hatching, he cant be comfortable.

Freddy relaxing.