Juicing is a great way to ensure one has the maximum of vitamins and minerals and this is something I do every day. It’s also a reason to keep greens growing all the year around, as even small bits can be added to the juicer and vital vitamins extracted. I’ve used some small bits of Kale that have escaped the frost and storms.
There is no waste in Permaculture, just compost and more vegetables growing! Compost is the food needed to grow food!
Slowly, slowly the Willow is cut and stacked…time is running out as the buds thicken! Baskets, Fedges and Obelisks are standing here!
These beds are fairly sheltered and continue to produce Kale, which is processed in the juicer.
Fine Willow used in basket weaving waiting to be harvested. The gardens look colourful all the way through Winter, as the stems of Willow, Dogwood, Ash and Birch are revealed.
So much rain has fallen here in Ireland this Winter and now, in the early days of Spring, the flooding has begun to dominate the landscape. Here at Bealtaine cottage I spent much time in the early days digging out drains and water channels, as well as keeping them maintained over the past ten years…and it has paid off, as you can see from the lower pond. The water runs free, out into the streams and rivers that take it to the Atlantic Ocean.
In sheltered areas all over the gardens the ferns have remained green, though a little bit droopy. The winter was mild and warm, with plenty of rain!
This is the beginning of the wood pile for next winter. It comprises of coppiced logs of Birch, Ash and Hazel. The twiggy bits are thrown into the back of the pile as they make wonderful kindling! These logs may be small, but are perfect for a small wood-burning stove!
I’ve been stocking up on straw recently, as this makes great mulch around the garden helping to suppress weeds and line paths.
Green Beech hold their leaves right through Winter, adding even more colour and shelter to the gardens!
And look who’s keeping an eye on me as I type…my loyal Jack!
Spent the day learning more about basketry in another great workshop organized by Tom Browne at Corrigeenroe near Boyle, here in County Roscommon. I am tired, but looking forward to day 2 of the willow weaving and basketry, tomorrow.
This is a fabulous, fabulous hen basket woven by Tom, to transport hens in…isn’t this just the best looking and most practical basket you ever did see? It has a gorgeous little door on the front and will hold several hens in pure comfort.
Something worth mentioning is the fact that the hen basket is a completely unique design…Tom’s own craft-work! Admired for sure and perhaps copied as well!
The beginnings of another basket..
Tea…hot, comforting tea…and a chance to put my feet up and contemplate my endeavours…I shall dream of willow and baskets and patterns and possibilities…
I adore Robert Frost and his poetry…this is one of my favourites…I was reciting this in my head as I drove home from Corrigeenroe tonight…
It is, perhaps, one of the most philosophical poems I have ever read and loved!
“The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost
The wind turbines on Kilronan Mountain stand out against the dark blue stormy sky. Anticipating a cold evening I have chopped lots of wood for the sitting room stove for tonight! I have worked out a new site for a big, big compost area, now edged with willow.
I figured that the willow would take up all the extra nitrogen around the edges and provide yet more harvest-able supplies for basketry!
It is always a challenge to work out better ways of doing things…I’m hoping that this will be very productive!
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Coppicing some of the ash trees on the land will be carried out before the sap rises in the wood…this takes place in early Spring, though the ash is the last tree to come into leaf and usually the first to lose it’s leaves.
About half the wood burned in both stoves here at Bealtaine Cottage comes from the smallholding.
This will increase steadily over time. Ash can be burned on the day it’s cut, so is a valuable timber to grow and it’s also a hardwood.
Ash is a very fast growing tree here in the west of Ireland.
The forecast for the next few days promise frost, icy patches and sleet.
At times like these, it’s great to have a stove alight that also heats the water and feed the radiators in the cottage.
It remains fairly mild overall though and the frog spawn in the lower pond appears to be doing fine!
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I popped into the library today while in town and got some interesting books, including one called “The Urban Homestead.”
There’s lots of excellent information from a cursory glance through it…a snuggle up on the sofa night is in order, tea and reading!
On the subject of reading, I was thumbing through ‘Hello,’ magazine in a shop and was surprised to realize that I did not actually recognize anyone in all the photographs…is this because I do not have a television?
There is no waste in Permaculture, just compost and more vegetables growing! Compost is the food needed to grow food!
Slowly, slowly the Willow is cut and stacked…time is running out as the buds thicken! Baskets, Fedges and Obelisks are standing here!
These beds are fairly sheltered and continue to produce Kale, which is processed in the juicer.
Fine Willow used in basket weaving waiting to be harvested. The gardens look colourful all the way through Winter, as the stems of Willow, Dogwood, Ash and Birch are revealed.
So much rain has fallen here in Ireland this Winter and now, in the early days of Spring, the flooding has begun to dominate the landscape. Here at Bealtaine cottage I spent much time in the early days digging out drains and water channels, as well as keeping them maintained over the past ten years…and it has paid off, as you can see from the lower pond. The water runs free, out into the streams and rivers that take it to the Atlantic Ocean.
In sheltered areas all over the gardens the ferns have remained green, though a little bit droopy. The winter was mild and warm, with plenty of rain!
This is the beginning of the wood pile for next winter. It comprises of coppiced logs of Birch, Ash and Hazel. The twiggy bits are thrown into the back of the pile as they make wonderful kindling! These logs may be small, but are perfect for a small wood-burning stove!
I’ve been stocking up on straw recently, as this makes great mulch around the garden helping to suppress weeds and line paths.
Green Beech hold their leaves right through Winter, adding even more colour and shelter to the gardens!
And look who’s keeping an eye on me as I type…my loyal Jack!
