I visited Knockvicar Organic Garden today in search of flowering plants for the new Garden…and here’s what I got…
Tag Archives: flowers
Creating a Bee and Butterfly Garden
A new garden!
A big task is underway. It’s a labour of love for the Butterflies and Bees…so bound to be beautiful, with lots and lots of flowers and flowering shrubs.
This is a garden I have often dreamed of creating, so am very excited about getting stuck in!
The video will introduce you to the task in hand…
Signs of Spring
Life is stirring.
Light shines higher in the morning sky.
Thickening buds cast a haze over the land.
“But there were certain early days in Casterbridge- days of firmamental exhaustion which followed angry south-westerly tempests-when, if the sun shone, the air was like velvet.”
― Thomas Hardy
Colours emerge and birds sing out a joyous, higher note.
We are officially in the season of Spring in the West of Ireland and the new energy is tangible, from rising in the morning to the growing lateness of dusk.
The temperature seems rather unstable, as you can see evidence of in the photograph above.
The morning began very cold and in the space of minutes, the temperature had climbed by 18 F., causing the mirror on the veranda to steam up!
I recorded this as most of the only real information about climate and weather appears to be anecdotal evidence from social media! 
My favourite aspect of Spring is the way the light changes.
If one simply sat in this cottage and never ventured outdoors it would be possible to map the seasons in light play.
I expect birds, animals and even insects are similarly informed.
Living in the glare of artificial light can be dulling to our senses!
“She walks in the loveliness she made,
Between the apple-blossom and the water–
She walks among the patterned pied brocade,
Each flower her son, and every tree her daughter.”
― Vita Sackville-West, The Land
Elsewhere in the woodland gardens at Bealtaine, frogs have emerged from hibernation and busied themselves, as only frogs can in cold ponds!
Frogs in Bealtaine pond have the luxury of a shallow, sheltered, ancillary pond, hand dug by myself, just off the main one.
This water heats faster and earlier, ensuring maximum attention to the detail of frog mating and spawning…a sort of nursery pond!
Anyway, it works a treat and has done for the past eleven years.
As a consequence, the amphibian life force has healthily expanded!
“Woods were ringed with a colour so soft, so subtle that it could scarcely be said to be a colour at all. It was more the idea of a colour – as if the trees were dreaming green dreams or thinking green thoughts.”
― Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Frogspawn at Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland, 1st Feb 2016
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
Diversity of planting not only has created resilience, but bestowed all year round colour to Bealtaine Cottage…so appreciated as Spring emerges…for with this rising of the sap, comes a much defined colour change!
“She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
Catkins have appeared on the Willow…and there’s many different varieties in the Woodland. Pond and even Orchard gardens. Essential food for the bees emerging from a hungry winter hibernation.
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
This Quince grows in the Bog Garden and has begun to flower!
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
― Margaret Atwood
Where would Spring be without the exquisite little Primroses?
Seen here in the Fairy Wood at Bealtaine, surrounded by Spurge!
“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
The Fairy Wood awakens!
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You can place an order for seeds harvested here at Bealtaine cottage, from the plants seen growing here…all strong and vigorous. Click on the link below that will take you to the selection available:
https://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-for-sale/
I’m happy to write, photograph, podcast, YouTube and Facebook on behalf of Mother Earth…it would be great if you could take a second or two to press the LIKE button, leave a comment, or even subscribe to Bealtaine Cottage Good Life…
Into the Turning
The bonfire of Midsummer night has died down.
The midnight sky stays light on the northern horizon.
Bats encircle the cottage, as stars emerge into the darkness.
The day has passed into the Turning…of the light.
As the light passes into the lazy warmth of an enduring summer, visitors to Bealtaine Cottage come and go.
July and August nestle into the promise of sultry heat, with visits to the beach and afternoons spent in the shade of maturing trees.
Berries continue to ripen, as flowers provide a succession of colour.
There is little to concern oneself with, as Nature holds sway.
These are the gentle days of Midsummer.
Irish Cottage Life
The permaculture gardens are very wet today…the rain has been quite relentless!
Never mind!
Lots to do indoors and sorting through boxes of “things,” I was happy to find these lovely Yuletide cards.
Doesn’t she look gorgeous in the snow?
As I am receiving orders for the Bealtaine Cottage Christmas Book, I thought that I would add these lovely cards, as a way for me to send the book to someone you love, with a card inscribed with your message.
Anyway, you can have a peek, using the link at the top of the page!
Missy continues to make a steady recovery, though has refined her taste-buds to a rather expensive prescription cat food, available only from Suzy the Vet, in Boyle.
When I refer to Missy as a “high maintenance gal!” …I’m not kidding!
Please ignore the clothes drying all over the stove today…it is rather wet outdoors!
Makes it really “Shabby Chic” style!
I take Jack into see Suzy the Vet, tomorrow morning, to have his “thumb nails” clipped.
Jack loves travelling in the car and tries to snap every other vehicle he sees on the road!
Which is why he can only ever be walked on a lead!
Dodging in and out, to collect up the logs, my friend Marian delivered to me yesterday, I still managed to get wet!
I’m stacking them under the shelter of the veranda by the lodge.
Despite the dull, rainy day, the gardens continue to look colourful!
As you can see, the potager beds continue in their abundance, producing herbs, vegetables and flowers.
There is never any shortage of work to be done here at Bealtaine Cottage!
Tree coppicing continues along the north bank, in front of the cottage, opening up the view just a little, as well as supplying the stove with kindling and small logs.
The fact is, no matter what the weather is like, it is simply wonderful to be outdoors in the gardens, working here and there!
Have a good week ahead everyone…Blessings from Bealtaine Cottage X
Growing Grapes in Ireland…Outside!
Those who follow this blog will know that I grow grapes in the polytunnel, very successfully.
This recent experiment is about growing a fruitful grapevine outside, in Ireland.
The first thing is to try to emulate the conditions most favourable for grapes and a recent visitor to Bealtaine cottage spent some time giving me lots of good advice to this end…thanks Sigi!
Sigi grows lots of vines in Austria and is very knowledgeable indeed on this subject.
First, the vine detests wet feet…so ensure that the soil is very well drained.
Well in this case I replanted the vine onto the gravel at the back of the cottage, which faces south, banking it up well.
Stone collects the heat of the sun and holds it well…thermal mass! I added lots of stone around the plant.
Sigi advised me to keep to one main stem, so I cut it back and will cut some more too.
Recycling tins…this one has been serving the Sedum for about 3 years now!
Just punch a few holes in the bottom using a hammer and nail!
The experiment with the tomatoes outdoors as opposed to the tunnel is good so far.
This one is cropping earlier than the several in the tunnel!
Everything in the raised bed is growing fast and furious…less than a month after the first stone was set in place!
Plenty of time yet for sowing seeds…I started these off on Saturday.
The Rudbeckia on the left were transplanted from a small pot.
Harvesting seed from Parsley…save seed, it’s our independence and our future!
Borage flowers adorn the water in the tunnel…ensuring lots of bees visit the plants in here, there’s lots of Borage!
Today’s video…and yes, Missy has barged in!
A Sense of Purpose
This is a month of many visitors to Bealtaine.
It is also the month of midsummer.
The ascent towards the solstice is happening.
It is actually visible in the growth all around me at Bealtaine Cottage.
Grass has grown tall and is seeding.
Nettles are almost past their prime, for once the flower heads appear their culinary use is forbidden.
Blossoms are ready to harvest, especially the Elderflower, one of the most delicate and exquisite flowers to use for making cordial, jam and champagne.
Elderflower cordial, once made and safely bottled, will keep easily for a year or more…not that I have ever kept it that long!
It is one of the best tastes of summer, if not the best!
Many of the visitors to Bealtaine Cottage are as interested in the spiritual aspects of permaculture, as the practical aspects of embracing permaculture as a lifestyle choice.
I see both as intertwined, for as permaculture is practised, spiritual awareness deepens and religious thinking diminishes.
A transformation occurs that takes the participant to a higher plain of awareness and understanding.
For me, permaculture has led me quite naturally to a life of simplicity and increasing awareness of the natural world.
It has been a tuning in process that has reached a level of comfortable ordinariness.
In other words, I get it… I feel comfortable within the universe.
There is incredible peace of mind in a permaculture lifestyle.
Most of the time, the brain is in an alpha state, with virtually no anxiety.
There is little to be anxious about, as this lifestyle choice both empowers and disregards.
With little need for money, the desire to consume is abated and diminished.
The consuming society is fast consuming itself and mostly for greed, ego or other negative reasons.
So much of the negativity which once dominated thinking, is disregarded, thrown off.
Life is embraced as a series of sunrises and sunsets and all the day in between, noticing the natural environment, planting, harvesting and simply being.
Many who are unemployed can turn to permaculture as an unlimited resource, fractionalised only by one’s own imagination.
A sense of purpose is easily attained by working close to the Earth.
Here at Bealtaine Cottage, as the night draws in and the rain scatters nourishment upon the plants, I take a final walk around the cottage before reluctantly going in for the night…
Simplicity, Frugality and Thrift…
Made today…
Frugality, simplicity and thrift…cutting down old curtains bought at a Boot Fair, to make new curtains for this window.
Hung on curtain wire…the cheapest and most effective way to hang light curtains.
And cafe curtains on the kitchen windows… These curtains are easy and fast to make, sewing in straight lines and no need for accessories of any kind!
Think twice before you throw away tins…they make wonderful pots for plants!
Floral displays are easy to create from all kinds of cuttings.
Twisted willow wreathes require little or no skill to make and the materials are free and readily collected from the hedgerows.
Candles for Midwinter, made over recent days, using candle scraps collected up over the course of the year.
A string of hearts made from scrap materials…one of those curtain pattern sample books that shops find difficult to dispose of!
Home made biscuits to give as gifts, always treasured as they are unique and and can be wrapped in such beautiful ways!
Tiny pots of home made jam…
Wrapped with home made scones, these make wonderful gifts!
Or home made jellies with herbs added!
Be really adventurous and make fruit wine…
Once in the demijohn, they make themselves!
The kindest and cheapest way to bleach your tea cloths…leave them out in the sun!
Make a big pot of soup, fill some Kilner jars with it and store in the fridge…it will keep for several days and is better than buying factory made stuff in plastic pots!
Happy making and baking…!
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Permaculture Cottage ~ Beyond Consumerism…Life after Debt.
Friday…always a good feeling!
The weekend lies ahead and there lies the potential for something happening and all sorts of possibilities.
Many people look forward to going out and many go shopping, as a form of retail therapy!
However, change is happening…and it is good!
This is a time of change.
The Equinox is upon us and the day itself is changing as we enter the descent towards Midwinter.
An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator.
The day and night are equal…
Consumerism is slowing down.
People are buying less and are turning more and more towards growing and foraging food.
The social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts has failed us all.
This may appear to be a bad thing to some people, but the Earth has been given a break…the first real break in a very long time.
The flowers at the front gate are beginning to replace the concrete walls, iron gates that are closed and an intercom service that you have to speak into in order just to drive or walk up to the house!
The idea of neighbours and helping one another is slowly catching on…
Today has seen several visitors to Bealtaine Cottage, including a neighbour concerned about ‘Fracking’ and wanting more information.
The times we live in are all about change…
