I wish all seeking sanctuary a home, where you can simply be a decent human being, with a sense of belonging and dignity.
Moving to Ireland
Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland
One Woman, Three Acres.
I wish all seeking sanctuary a home, where you can simply be a decent human being, with a sense of belonging and dignity.
Beautiful thoughts.
❤️ Thank you, Colette. I hold your life with Mother Nature in my mind as a beautiful goal for myself someday.
I love your photos of your gorgeous garden, your sanctuary in this mad world…. Its wonderful to immerse yourself in nature away from what I heard someone call ‘this age of overload’…Thank you for sharing, Blessings Colette X
Hi Colette, I am in the US wishing I could move to Ireland. I have your quartz and peat bog oak pendants to help me feel a little connected. I live in a town but only go out for groceries and errands. I would be quite content in a rural area of Ireland. The friends I used to have are MAGA so I no longer have friends. I have two small dogs which is better. I despise the way this country is going and don’t recognize it anymore. I am 68 and would love to be able visit you, but I am retired and can’t afford to travel. I love the blue color on the back veranda! It looks so much deeper and more like a room. I live in the home I grew up in and have a nice backyard (garden😀)
You definitely inspire me. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for these beautiful words and pictures. Being from the USA, with all of the terrible things going on here, I feel I need to apologize to anyone I interact with from other countries.
Most of us are appalled at what is happening in our country and how it is affecting our friends and allies. I understand if people hate the USA now.
Everyday there is something new to cause anxiety. Everyday I think the orange buffoon and his followers can’t steep any lower to hurt people. But, they do.
I hope and pray that one day when this evil orange one is gone our country can be forgiven by the rest of the world. This isn’t who we are.
Thank you for your beautiful videos.
Love and blessings to you and Patsy!
Linda
I couldn’t agree more! I love your ocean blue cottage in oceans of green in a land surrounded by ocean! I’m not worldly or travelled but also secluded on an island at the edge of an ocean keeping to one day at a time.💙💚🐇
Hi Colette, my partner, her Mom & I visited Ireland in 1990 & again in 1992 and we immediately began to fantasize about giving up the NYC insanity, jobs & pensions to live somewhere along the west coast. Both trips consisted of 3 weeks of driving from county to county & booking B&B’s as we went. We covered many counties including Belfast where my partners Mom was born. Both of those trips feel really special now because of the spontaneity and the authenticity of the people and old world charm that has sadly become somewhat diluted since. In 2022 my partner and I visited and again we drove from place to place, but it was a far more preplanned itinerary because of Airbnb. That said, the beauty we found at booking #4 in Roscommon where I found myself exclaiming once again “oh, I could definitely live here!!!!” This Airbnb turned out to be a most charming traditional cottage (much like yours)! We ended our days sitting by a crackling wood fire (with some peat) and took morning walks along country lanes surrounded by birdsong, draping greenery & the sweet faces of the local cows. After we returned home from that trip, as if by fate, the owners informed us they were thinking of selling. I shouted “IT WAS MEANT TO BE!!!!”
Sadly, in the end, reality creeped in again; we hadn’t retired yet although very close, which meant the timing was off and then after a time the owners had changed their minds…so our moving to a remote cottage located in the west of Ireland remains a dream. We are both retired now but continue to live vicariously through you Colette. Thank you!
Well, you summed it up beautifully. We are living a nightmare in the U.S. It has been building for decades. If we weren’t well into our retirement, it would make sense to leave. However, we’ll stay and fight the good fight and enjoy our garden sanctuary in Oregon. Hope one day to visit yours.
❤️🙏💫🌱
Dear Colette, your post with the beautiful pictures and the wisdom in words made me hold my breath. Whenever something from Bealtaine cottage pops up on my phone, I have to look at it right away. You are a peace maker! Gratefully from Esther in Virginia, USA. 😘
Thank you so much for sharing the beauty of your life and Ireland! It always grounds me, in a world of what seems such chaos. Being born & living in the states, we’ve met many from Ireland and around the world for which I’m so thankful. We’ve seen our share of ups and downs, protests and celebrations. In the end, we each have the ability to hold peace in our hearts and collectively & as individuals, do what we’re able for others in their time of need. I’m so thankful to live in our great country & for our freedom. Blessings💜
Bless you.. I am trying to escape too but worry about being another American being a burden. It is such a lovely post and it gives me hope. Best to you and your growing garden. Claire from California
As always your home and gardens are so beautiful. I have dreamed of having such beauty in my small space. Only in my dreams can I walk thru amazing landscape such as yours. With appreciation and love I am.
Hi Colette and Patsy. I love your way with words. They paint wonderful pictures. I’m happy in my home place. Grown beyond being a village but still small enough. Thank you…
Hello Colette from our New Hampshire farm. Very well said and gorgeous photo 🎨 art! I grew up on the outskirts of the largest city in New Hampshire. Nothing compared in size to London, but of a similar character. People were mostly strangers passing us by car or while shopping in downtown stores. I was fortunate to have country relatives on my maternal grandmother’s side. She taught me the ” Old Ways” from early childhood. When her brother, Ray, became ill, gram asked me to help out on his small farm. I was around 8 year’s old to start. I would wear my blue denim overalls and wait for his wife, Annie, to pick me up in her 1964 Ford car. The difference in lifestyle was amazing! Theirs was a simple cottage farm, but like walking into a heavenly paradise! Like your beautiful acres, it was lush green woods with pink lady slippers. Tall clumps of orange tiger lilly plants dotted the cottage pathways to the barn. There was a huge sunken vegetable garden down many stone steps that appeared through an opening in the privet hedge. And chickens & rabbits abounded! I fed them and the barn cats. Great Aunt Annie would help me catch a kitten to cuddle. Now I am 75 and living that life style once again on our family farm in central New Hampshire. Our rural town is 2,600 residents. We know most of our neighbors and usually meet the new comers as they appear at town hall or at the library with their children. Thank for stirring up this fond memory of my youth. You and I are blessed. I wish a peaceful down home lifestyle for those who would welcome it. ~ Diane
Hello Colette from our New Hampshire farm. Very well said and gorgeous photo 🎨 art! I grew up on the outskirts of the largest city in New Hampshire. Nothing compared in size to London, but of a similar character. People were mostly strangers passing us by car or while shopping in downtown stores. I was fortunate to have country relatives on my maternal grandmother’s side. She taught me the ” Old Ways” from early childhood. When her brother, Ray, became ill, gram asked me to help out on his small farm. I was around 8 year’s old to start. I would wear my blue denim overalls and wait for his wife, Annie, to pick me up in her 1964 Ford car. The difference in lifestyle was amazing! Theirs was a simple cottage farm, but like walking into a heavenly paradise! Like your beautiful acres, it was lush green woods with pink lady slippers. Tall clumps of orange tiger lilly plants dotted the cottage pathways to the barn. There was a huge sunken vegetable garden down many stone steps that appeared through an opening in the privet hedge. And chickens & rabbits abounded! I fed them and the barn cats. Great Aunt Annie would help me catch a kitten to cuddle. Now I am 75 and living that life style once again on our family farm in central New Hampshire. Our rural town is 2,600 residents. We know most of our neighbors and usually meet the new comers as they appear at town hall or at the library with their children. Thank for stirring up this fond memory of my youth. You and I are blessed. I wish a peaceful down home lifestyle for those who would welcome it. ~ Diane
Your words (and photos) bring such a calm and peaceful feeling to me, despite the turmoil that surrounds us here. Blessings to you, Colette.
Thank you. Your words and pictures are truly an inspiration. They are gentle reminders for us to re-focus on what is real and necessary for a grounded, peaceful, human life.
My dear Colette you cannot imagine how much you have impacted my life. I have never found any meaning in this modern life where all seems to be about money and appearance [career, status, etc.]. I will very soon follow your path at the same age you moved from UK to Ireland. I will move after having lived many years in Madrid and Middle East to Asturias, in Northern Spain. Thank you for all your inspiration [i have all your books now and i really treasure them]. Best regards, Armando
A beautiful story of homecoming. I feel blessed too to have retired to my little house just outside of Bath with my beautiful garden. Far from the madding crowd!
I love your YouTube channel and look forward to all your videos. I am 71 and have tried to create beautiful gardens (on a shoestring budget) whereever I go. I am now in the process of building my last home and will start my last garden. I have learned a lot about growing over the years but all my efforts are driven by my love of nature and beauty. I hope that I still have it in me to build one more garden!
I will be visiting Ireland in September 2026! A lifelong dream to live as you do. Blessings!🍀Sherri Sclafani. Hobe Sound, Florida USA
Such a beautiful post, Colette. I very much appreciate your kind wishes at the end of the writing and I join you in your wish for others. I found my peaceful spot with a slower pace of life thirty years ago: six acres near the Appalachian Mountains. I just wish the political and social landscape matched the peaceful beauty of the land. I well remember my visit and the warmth of your kitchen and your heart and dream often of returning to that incredible green isle that so profoundly touched me. Sending love and wishing you many blessings. Pats and scratches for Patsy.
Hello Colette and lil Patsy, I live in the US in the mid west. Our family is from County Kerry and the beauty of Ireland can take one ‘s breath away. I have followed your journey for the past five years. Bealtaine Cottage is a beautiful, tranquil and peaceful place. I admired your love for
Mother Nature and determination thank you for creating such a beautiful cottage and majestic gardens. I fell in love with “sweet” Jack too. He was a wonderful friend to you. I know how much you missed him and so happy you now have Patsy. You have created a magical place such a haven in the storm. Our world seems filled with chaos all the time and when I check in with you and Patsy I can see and feel at peace in my heart. Thank you for being you and all that you do. You are amazing!
Blessings!
Mary
Hi Colette ,
Thank you for showing up in my life when I needed to connect back with nature. Your beautiful home acres of land flowers trees your story’s , your creativity and watching you create such a beautiful sacred space over the years . You truly are a goddess & Guardian .
I would love to come to visit one day .
Love
Emma .
Agreed. My heart aches for a quiet garden full of mature trees for shade, vegetables for health and flowers for color. Thank you for sharing yours. (My mother’s people are from Enniskillin, Ireland and we did visit that town in 2005. )
My HOA house garden is in containers in front of a man-made pond which houses an alligator. My MIL named the alligator, Al.
A beautiful post
Blessings to you Colette. Thank you for the photographs of your beautiful garden and the space of sanctuary that you open up to us in the midst of these manic times. ❤️
Thank you for dining a light on all things green and growing.