Tag: bluebells
A Year at Bealtaine Cottage…
Not in any particular order…pictures of the year that was…
With the oven hot enough to bake a cake…my beloved Stanley Stove in the kitchen…
Early morning mist sweeps up the valley…
One of the Plum Trees laden with fruit…
The moon rising over the gardens…
Salix Contorta, or Twisted Willow, with Hag-Stones hanging from one of its branches.
Nasturtiums by the veranda.
Back of Bealtaine, near the main production gardens.
The lower pond in the Bog Garden.
My darling Missy…gone from this mortal coil, but her energy is felt…
Firing up the Rocket Stove with a bit of an old fence post…wicked heat!
Early Spring in the gardens near the tunnel.
Washing in the wind!
Home made compost.
Apple blossom…a great apple harvest every year without fail!
The tunnel in May…seedlings in pots and trays everywhere!
Productive gardens, around the tunnel and herb beds, in May
The Hen house…I will definitely get some more hens in 2014!
I miss the girls…hens are very relaxing to watch.
Bluebells under the kitchen window…I shall post some more tomorrow
Happy New Year to you all XXX and Blessings from Bealtaine.
The Magical Garden
The morning is hot and sultry.
The sky is clear blue.
Ireland basks in heat.
Roses on the veranda are making a spectacular show and the delicate scent fills the morning air
As we ascend towards Midsummer plants have suddenly taken off and appear to have grown overnight.
Poppies have opened all over the gardens, even in the tunnel.
These self seed and come up more intensely year on year.
Herbs are filling the beds as bees buzz busily overhead.
The grass within and around the stone circle has turned to meadow.
Cow Parsley vies with Ferns for space around the Stone Circle.
Bluebells are just visible in the lushness of a June morning in the west of Ireland.
There’s a sense of magic in the air around the ancient stones!
Imagine Peace…John and Yoko and Ireland! Notes from a Cottage.
Spent the day in Omagh visiting my mother. She’s well and hearty and looking good! On the way back I stopped outside Blacklion by the lough and spotted this beautiful stone sculpture. It is in the spirit of John and Yoko, which is very appropriate as they visited Ireland and even had tea in the old Mulranny Hotel near Achill Island where I once lived. Imagine was the first album I bought when I went to London and it really is timeless, perhaps even more relevant today than ever…actually, definitely more relevant today! John was a soul of immense wisdom and integrity, which is so lacking today in our leaders!
A plain and simple message…
And there’s the island when you peep through the hole…the size of the world if looking from space. There’s a series of standing stones, so the alignment is important, as in all stone circles…
Home…it’s always good to return! The blackbird was singing the last song of the day. Valerian was almost in bloom along the walls of the cottage and bluebells had opened under the kitchen window.
Home. Tea. Book. Bed…
Fruity Sourdough Bread and Real Bluebells at Bealtaine Permaculture Smallholding.
Made a fruit sourdough bread yesterday. Sourdough skills are developing slowly and the real savings are tangible. Making the traditional soda bread was easy, but more costly. Buttermilk was needed, whereas sourdough requires nothing other than the flour and what one chooses over and above that! Added to that is the bonus of the bread not using commercial yeast, which is detrimental to health for more and more people.
Sultanas and spice were added to the basic dough, along with 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and it’s yummy!
Lots of wild Bluebells have appeared this year at Bealtaine. This single flower is indicative of the natural spread taking place after 7 chemical-free years on this smallholding. Open the door a little, (figuratively speaking), and Nature sweeps in…a much welcomed guest!
Beautiful, elegant Ferns have also spread, especially throughout the Fairy Dell Woodland…
The heavenly, sweet-scented flowers on the Hawthorn trees is in full bloom now. This is the edge of the Fairy Dell, where many of the apple trees thrive. Cherry and Plum are also planted on this south facing edge of the woodland.