Farmyard black cat in the ditch is a sign of luck Around here these border collies are all known as Shep The Cat Shepherd's apprentice says hello Time to fly away for the Chaffinch too One of these days we will be leaving this sleepy patch for a bit of a . . .
Things that go bump in the night.
Lovely old window in the Farncroft Mill The restoration of the mill wheel and the buildings took 10 years In Memory Antiques in Birr The 6 acre garden designed and built from a green field by Angela Jupe at Farncroft Mill Angela . . .
Angela Jupe
Angela Jupe's Georgian home Bellefield House In March the garden is full of daffodils and hellebores. Wild woodland planting around the house The stable yard stone out buildings have been transformed into rental . . .
Going green
Happy St. Patrick's Day! . . .
Just one more time?
I had a lovely bunch of spring crocuses ready for this week's blog, then on Monday morning we woke up to snow. We were on our way to the National Concert Hall. The Gloaming a group of musical wizards led by Martin Hayes, were about to play to a packed house. It's like Irish traditional music, jazz and trance blended into a new . . .
Comeragh Mountains
The Comeragh Mountains lie towards the west of County Waterford. All year long we can track the sun as it sets further north or south along the high ridges, from one solstice extreme to the other. Like our elders, we tell the season and the hour by it. The weather comes to us from these mountains too and so every . . .
An icy road trip
Our Celitc Tiger motorway from Waterford to Dublin, the M9, bypasses Thomastown, Kilkenny, Carlow and all the narrow villages we used to know so intimately. Unfortunately it's also now against the rules of the road to stop and photograph the landscape. This part of Ireland has it's own story; gentle rolling hills, the flat plains of . . .
To hell or to Connacht ~ Pilgrimage
With the phrase "to hell or to Connacht" attributed to Cromwell ringing in their ears, the native Irish were banished to the west. Their handprints are on every stone, making tiny fields of rock and sand dividing the land between the hungry multitudes. The walls of Connemara still rise up over the highest hills . . .
It’s called friendship
Out west the beauty of the landscape would make you weep, but it's the people and the chat that would warm your heart. It's summer in Kerry and there is no shortage of talk. From morning until night we are discussing the situation in Gaza, the decline of the Labour party and the travails of Johnser. Somewhere in Dingle, girls . . .
When hope is scarce
We come from a harsh history ourselves; 800 years of occupation, a terrible famine which halved the population and the ongoing loss of emigration which goes on to this day. We didn't forget any of it. That kind of pervasive pain is passed down. Sometimes it's their absence that brings home the memories. What they left behind, the empty . . .
