Tag: Boyle
A Sack of Diamonds
Sunrise is happening later each morning.
This morning was clear and beautiful.
But also, this morning, I was faced with taking Missy into the Vet…she has not been well and hasn’t eaten for three days.
Anyway, she is in there for the day and I am at home keeping busy!
Coming back home, a journey of about eight miles, I stopped several times to take photos…it is really such a beautiful day here in the west of Ireland!
Mature Beech trees line the road that sweeps along the edge of Lough Key.
Stretches of blue water can be seen from the car.
I have to drive back into Boyle to collect Missy at 6pm.
The day continues fine, so the journey will not be too stressful.
I remain on an emotional tightrope and I’m not looking down!
Last night there was a half-moon in the southern sky.
At 5am the sky was a black velvet sack of diamonds.
The moon had set and the sky was illuminated by stars…endless stars!
The Earth continues to turn.
A Special Delivery from the Postman!
My postman, Tom Benson, was clearing out the cowsheds on his farm in Keadue and kindly offered me an absolute mound of well-rotted cow manure, one of the best additions to the permaculture gardens at this time of the year.
It will boost the fertility in all areas of the land, especially the fruit and vegetable gardens.
The harvest next year will be a good one, for sure!
Spreading it on the earth before the soil cools is also a way of letting it get in around roots before the next growing season.
Never mind diamonds…this is a permaculture girl’s best friend!
And on the subject of diamonds…here’s my little Pumpkin Mouser Missy, sitting beside the pumpkins on the veranda.
These will soon be ready to bring into the pantry and store for the winter, ready for pies, soups and curries.
Grown only on home-made compost, these cabbages continue to develop good firm hearts, ideal for saukeraut and freezing.
The autumn is continuing to be a fair season, dry and mild.
Time to tidy sheds and treat all outside wood with a preservative.
Last night was a full moon and the land was illuminated beautifully.
Tonight promises the same.
I do so love the autumn!
The Road Not Taken…
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
Old Stone Cottages and Windswept Mountains in the West of Ireland…Bealtaine Permaculture
Kilronan Mountain melts away into the valley below on a glorious easter sunday evening… 
The land below stretches west to Sligo Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, south to Boyle and the land of Roscommon and east towards Dublin City. Loughs are too numerous to mention, villages and townlands with ancient names that stretch back into the mists of legends. Beauty that is both exhilarating and tragic… 
Abandoned amidst the bleak beauty of Kilronan Mountain, it’s empty windows gazing out across an early summer landscape.
Ireland is dotted with these beautiful and evocative old stone cottages. It is heartbreaking to think of the skill and hard work involved in building these unique, vernacular style homes…and like this one, sometimes in the most windswept landscapes imaginable.
As the evening draws in and the air begins to chill, it’s time to leave the mountain behind and head home to the warmth of Bealtaine Cottage and a mug of hot tea.