My favourite poem

From the Republic of Conscience
by Seamus Heaney


When I landed in the republic of conscience
it was so noiseless when the engines stopped
I could hear a curlew high above the runway.
At immigration, the clerk was an old man
who produced a wallet from his homespun coat
and showed me a photograph of my grandfather.
The woman in customs asked me to declare
the words of our traditional cures and charms
to heal dumbness and avert the evil eye.
No porters. No interpreter. No taxi.
You carried your own burden and very soon
your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared.
Fog is a dreaded omen there but lightning
spells universal good and parents hang
swaddled infants in trees during thunderstorms.
Salt is their precious mineral. And seashells
are held to the ear during births and funerals.
The base of all inks and pigments is seawater.
Their sacred symbol is a stylized boat.
The sail is an ear, the mast a sloping pen,
the hull a mouth-shape, the keel an open eye.
At their inauguration, public leaders
must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep
to atone for their presumption to hold office –
and to affirm their faith that all life sprang
from salt in tears which the sky-god wept
after he dreamt his solitude was endless.
I came back from that frugal republic
with my two arms the one length, the customs
woman having insisted my allowance was myself.
The old man rose and gazed into my face
and said that was official recognition
that I was now a dual citizen.
He therefore desired me when I got home
to consider myself a representative
and to speak on their behalf in my own tongue.
Their embassies, he said, were everywhere
but operated independently
and no ambassador would ever be relieved.

Oooooops...

Today is the 1st September and I've visitied this blog (that I had great plans for) and realised that it's been two months!!! Tonight I'm at a party with friends and, frankly, a bit bored (they're talking about The Fast Show). Facebook has rather monopolised my attention for the last couple of months but I'm over that now. The garden has toddled on. I've had my best crop of tomatoes so far but it's been a disappointing year otherwise. My runner beans are just coming through now and they're looking good. The cabbages are so tough they take longer then spuds to cook. Is this normal? Most of my herbs seem to be taking time out although the fennel is at least 10 feet high and the seeds are HUGE. I've neglected to sow any sprouting broccoli seeds so now need to source some plants to go into the bed I'm going to prepare this weekend. If all gardeners were as disorganised as me teh whole world would starve.

Summer update

I can't believe it's been nearly two months since I posted anything to this blog! Very remiss of me. As you can imagine there have been a lot of changes in the garden in this time. The broad beans have been harvested - I froze three kilos of beans and ate loads. The runner and French beans have now been planted although they're smaller than they should be due to being confined in pots for too long. However, hoping they'll romp away once they recover. I lost quite a few to slugs but I popped in more seeds when I planted them out so hopefully these will extend the season and fill in the gaps.

I've have a bad year for salad for some reason. Either the seeds I sow don't germinate or the seedlings just disappear or, those that do grow, bolt and go to seed in a matter of weeks. The only lettuce I've managed to grow is in a pot! Don't really know what the problem is but I'm going to try again this weekend.

Tomato plants finally planted out

Beans

Pea and bean bed

Overview of veg plot - I need more space!!

My tree wish list

Elder

Hornbeam / Whitebeam

Willow

Alder

Guelder Rose

Hazel

Damson

This list will be added to

Beans!

Swift update on the state of the bean sowings.  There are now eight runner bean seedlings from the 2 May sowing.  They're Runner Bean 'Polestar'.  This is my third year sowing them (same pack of seeds!) and they crop well and are tasty and stringless until they get very big.  It will be interesting to compare them with a different variety this year.

The very first seedling of the Dwarf French Bean 'Tendercrop', also sowed on 2 May, is poking above the compost this morning.  That's 20 days to germination.  But then, everything seems to be slow to germinate this year.

Also sowed on 2 May were Climber French Beans 'Cobra' and Dwarf French Bean 'Kinghorn Wax',  a yellow bean that I had a great crop from 2 years ago but that got decimated by slugs last year.   There's no sign of these coming through yet but we'll wait and see.  BTW, just discovered that any bean called 'Wax' is yellow.  It's the bean worlds word for yellow!

I also noted that a small patch of rocket is coming through nicely (horray!  first time I've managed to germinate rocket) but carrots (Nantes 2) and radishes haven't appeared yet.  The other good news is that the parsnip seed (Albion) I sowed between the rows of elephant garlic have germinated and are looking good although I sowed them far too thickly and am going to have to thin (sob, sob).  I HATE thinning!  Seems like such a waste.

Enough of gardening for now, it's a miserable wet, windy day again for which I'm grateful as my exam is on Monday and I really need to knuckle down and study for the next few days.  

After the Gales

We had a really bad day here yesterday, gale force winds and pouring rain.  Did a recce of the garden today and, to my surprise (and delight) there is very little damage.  My broad beans were a bit flattened and one plant broke completely.  This is the second year winds have damaged the broad beans in May so I'm now making a note to give the next crop loads of support and NOT REMOVE IT  too early to support fledgling peas!  Although there are loads of embryonic bean pods on the plants there is nothing ready for eating yet.  

There was a thread on the Irish Gardeners Forum this week about the viability of seeds and I discovered that bean seeds are only viable for two years which explained the non-appearance of 

all the beans I sowed a fortnight ago.  I decided an emergency purchase was necessary so off I toddled to the garden centre yesterday and bought a pact of runners, Scarlet Emperor and some climbing Kentucky Wonder Wax, a heritage American variety with waxy yellow pods.  When I went out to sow them in the failed seeds pots what did I find?  Yes, a seedling!  Isn't it sweet??!

The upshot is that I decided to leave the pots alone for another week so I sowed the new purchases in their own pots.  There could be a glut of beans in this house yet.

As I had the camera out I did a photo patrol of the rest of the garden.  Here's some of the highlights.

Purple carrot seedlings 

Garlic!

Herbs:  green and purple fennel, curly and broad leaved parsley, salad burnett, garlic chives, horseradish, oregano, scorzonera (re-growing from last years roots) and a sprinkling of self-seeded welsh poppies

the sister's woodland garden, two months on.

A Lidl cherry tree

Oh, the Joys of Summer!

It's been ages since I posted because I've been working hard getting assignments, etc finished so I've purposely not allowed myself get embroiled in blogs. Handed in the last of my assignments last night so now have 2 weeks to prepare for the exam. However, I've given myself today off and have had a lovely day in the garden. I finally started digging up the lawn as promised for ages. True to the principles of 1 foot gardening I dug up an area approximately 1 yard square. OK, it's triangular but so what! The thing is that I keep buying plants without anywhere in particular in mind to plant them so I've ended up with those I can't bear to part with in pots looking progressively sadder and more stressed as time passed so it was about time I found a permanent home for them. So, today was the day. In case you can't see what's in my new bed there's a lavender I rescued from my sister, the thyme came from the same place, 2 scabious plants, 1 blue (horribly potbound) and 1 red, an echinacea and a geranium whose name escapes me at the moment.










The highlight of the day was the robin who dogged my every dig and got lots of worms for his trouble.

My new flowerbed is next to my vegetable beds and will hopefully attract more insects to this part of the garden. I don't know if it's a result of the hard winter we've had but there seems to be a real dearth of insects this year. Pests as well as good 'uns. For instance, there's not a sign of black fly on my broad beans so far this year and the only aphids generally are all indoors. However, I haven't yet seen a ladybird, and neither has the next door neighbour who usually reports on seasonal visitors earlier than us. Wait and see I suppose, and be grateful for the lack of pests :-)

Planted some Greyhound cabbages at the weekend. They're supposed to be fast growing so hopefully we'll have some edible cabbage fairly soon. The seasonal stuff seems to be getting off to a slow start for some reason (probably the same reason as the lack of pests). Broad beans are only starting to form and the cabbages I sowed in the Autumn are still looking positively juvenile. I suppose we can only wait and see.

Encircled by snow

I was up bright and early this morning to drop the Ma into the seven o'clock bus. On my way out of town again I caught the gleam of fresh snow off in the distance, illuminated by the rising sun. On arriving home I grabbed the binoculars to verify that we were indeed encircled by snow and this is what I saw. OK, so perhaps it's not too obvious in this photo! But, through the binoculars it was quite a bizarre, even surreal sight with green fields suddenly giving way to white fields.

Perhaps these photos give a better idea of the impression this vista made.

Following threads through the web

I want to read this article at my leisure, just not this minute. This is the reminder.

Sunshine and Optimism

There's a shit load of really crap stuff going on in my life at the moment so I've decided that this blog is going to be the happy blog. Only good stuff can be posted here. So, on a happy note, you'd know the breeding season is getting under way. In the last couple of weeks the birds that visit my feeding station have transformed from slightly scruffy, relatively dull, untidy looking birds into brightly coloured, perfectly groomed specimens! Looking particularly dapper are the chaffinches and great tits although the rest are noticeably brighter and and sleeker than they were too. I've been trying to take some photos but my camera isn't really up to it. Instead here's a picture of the frog spawn in the pond. Although still encased in the gelatinous membrane the shape of each tadpole has become apparent. The only casualties seem to be the top layer of the first clump that was frozen solid for several days. These are still the original black dots so I can only assume they've died.

The other good news is that my tomatoes have started to germinate. I can grow them on for a month or six weeks in their current pots but then I'll need to pot them on into bigger pots prior to putting them outside when danger of frost has passed. Don't know where I'll keep them when they're in bigger pots! My sitting room is already looking like a greenhouse and I'm rapidly running of of places to put things.

Some signs of life

There's still no sign of my tomatoes germinating. I was getting worried until I dug out my gardening notebook and saw that I only sowed them a week ago not a fortnight as I'd thought. Whew...:-)

The repotted chili plants are doing fine. New growth on all but two and I had my doubts about them anyway. I did save some seeds from the chilis I used during the winter so I might sow some more. Don't know if these plants could be overwintered for a second time??

Bought a load of 99c perennials in Lidl yesterday. Planted them in the sister's rockery. Also bought a rosa rugosa but not sure where to put it. Needs sun and space.

Spring is here

What a joy it is to wake up in the morning to the sight of sunshine and the sound of birdsong! One of the biggest distractions I referred to in yesterdays post is the garden. I have various projects afoot, one of which is to start deciding what to sow in my vegetable plot this year. On one of my festival forays last summer I picked up a pack of seeds for a Siberian variety of tomatoes, Aurora. I haven't had much success with tomatoes so far but I have great hopes for this year. After all, if a plant can thrive in Siberia it can surely cope with an Irish summer. Anyway, I sowed the seeds yesterday and am now eagerly awaiting the first tiny green shoots.

Another experiment was to try to overwinter my chili plants. They were planted rather late from a pack of mixed seeds that came free with a magazine. They all produced some chilis, all shapes and sizes, but not enough. So, I decided to try to keep them alive over the winter so as to get off to a very early start this year. Unbelievably, it seems to have worked. I started off with thirteen plants, four died :-( so I have nine left. I repotted them yesterday into a soil/compost mix. A couple look dubious but the rest are showing signs of regrowth. One even has a flower bud!

The big project for this Spring is to create a Spring / Winter garden in my sister's front garden. It's a semi-woodland area and has some great trees there already including a copper beech and a couple of green beeches. There's also a cherry and I've just put in another cherry and a crab apple. There's loads of Ash (they literally grow like weeds around here, we're always having to remove them from flowerbeds) and there are far too many sycamore saplings even though I've already removed about 50 of them!

The photos give an idea of what the area looks like. It backs onto a heavily wooded portion of the neighbour's garden so the whole area should be a great wildlife area. It's also one of the places in the garden that gets really good winter sun which put the idea in my head to try to create a winter garden. I've started a hellebore patch and planted loads of tete-á-tete daffs and grape hyacinths in the Autumn. These are just coming into bloom now. There are already primroses (the wild variety) scattered around especially in the bank from the upper to the lower level.

The rockery bit bordering the drive was an afterthought when the sis built a garage last year. There's a bit of soil erosion going on there so, as it's south facing, we're going to fill it with mat forming alpines for a bit of summer colour and to stabilise the ground. It's been filled with lovely sandy soil unlike the claggy clay and builders rubble that comprises the rest. So far all that's in there are a few lonely looking aubretia plants and more daffs. I really want to keep the woodland bit full of native species, wood anemones, lords 'n ladies, bluebells, and the hellebores of course. I have a very clear picture in my mind of how I want it to look but it's going to be a while until it gets there. Something to look forward to.

Still can't find the flow

I'm doing a course at the moment. This course is vital to fulfill the terms of my current five year plan. It involves a career change from general, office based, administrator and dogsbody to freelance IT and English tutor. I've already got a TEFL qualification and am doing a certain amount of teaching. However, I've never expected to be able to make a living teaching English in Ireland. Hence this course which will qualify me to teach IT skills, FETAC, ECDL, etc. There is a lot of work involved and up until Christmas I was doing OK, getting assignments done, meeting deadlines, etc. Since the Christmas break I've been unable to concentrate. My work on assignments has slipped to the extent that I've handed nothing in for the last two months. I've spent most of this evening in front of the computer trying to put together an answer to a question which should have taken me approximately half an hour. It's still not finished and what I've written is disjointed and full of un-backed-up assumptions. I've also got a headache! The urgency I felt about embarking on this course of study has dissipated completely. I still badly want to do what I've planned but what felt well within my grasp six months ago now seems like a insurmountable mountain that I'm ill-equipped to climb. When will I get back my sense of purpose or at least the ability to knuckle down and do what's necessary despite the distractions all around me?

Of things past and present

I've recently signed up to Facebook and have been posting photographs there. This prompted me to dig out the journals I kept during my various travels. It's amazing the number of things you forget. Names, incidents that made an impression at the time, even places you passed through. I was in Cuba in 2006. Hence my fascination with all things Cuban. Incidently, there is an Irish based business where you can buy Cuban coffee and other things. Well worth a visit.

In spite of everything that's written about Cuba there is something about the place that gets under the skin and leaves an impression unlike any other place I've ever visited. In my journal, written in Mexico about a week after leaving Cuba, I've written I MISS CUBA like a physical ache in the stomach. It was the saddest place I've ever been but also the most unaffected in spite of the tour groups, the two-tier system, the jiniteros and jiniteras. The obvious poverty of the many was made worse (if it's possible) by the fact that the high level of education of the people means they know what they're missing out on.

But, the obvious inequities in the Cuban system are mirrored all over the non-first world. In Mexico which, on the surface, is a developed, first world country the ordinary people don't have the same freedom of movement that we take for granted. It's not a case of being prohibited to do something. Sometimes the whole system of visas and the invasion of privacy inherent in applying for a visa to travel is as much a deterrent as an outright ban. How privileged are we with our European passports?

I've been listening to far too much commentary on the radio

All you hear on the radio or television and in the newspapers these days is the on-going litany of the misdeeds of Irish bankers and politicians. To borrow from Kevin Myers in the Indo all any of them are doing is continuing the rich legacy of criminality and self-agrandisement that seems to be endemic in our political system. While America is riding a wave of hope and faith in the integrity of its president, Ireland continues to wallow in a mire of cynicism and despair. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that our government cannot be relied upon to do what's needed in these desperate times. It seems like everyone has an opinion and everyone can see a way out of this mess, that is everyone, bar the people who are actually in a position to make things happen. One thing is certain, the party that has its tentacles in every multi-million property deal, that refuses to recognise its culpability in the materialistic, provincial society that is Ireland is not the party that is qualified to lead us out of this recession. I doubt any party is qualified to do so. Perhaps emigration isn't such a bad option after all?

Of Birds and Other Animals

One of the up sides of the recent cold snap has been the frantic activity around the bird feeders suspended from the branches of an old apple tree outside my study window. I'm lucky enough to have a sparrow roost in the garden so they're around all the time, house sparrows and also dunnocks. Greenfinches, chaffinches, one solitary goldfinch looking colourful and exotic amongst its less exuberant cousins. A pair of collared doves have been regular visitors mopping up the spillage from the seed container. A hen pheasant occasionally puts in an appearance. It never ceases to amaze me how fast she can run when startled. There's the usual complement of great tits, blue tits and coal tits but the biggest thrill has been the visits of a small flock of six long tailed tits, described in one of my bird books as reminiscent of "an animated feather duster". They flit from branch to feeder ducking in under the beaks of the more aggressive finches, grabbing a titbit and making off to a higher perch to eat. They're a lovely dusky pink and black with tails twice the length of their bodies. Completely unmistakable.

The ground feeders are around too. A pair of robins and too many blackbirds to count. My excuse for wasting far too much time when I should be working with a pair of binoculars glued to my face watching the goings on is that one of the cats likes to lurk under a nearby bush waiting for her chance to pounce. I keep a little pile of stones on the window sill to threaten her with whenever she approaches. I'm always amazed by the statistics about how many birds are killed by domestic cats each year. It runs into millions. However, living in the countryside as we do the cats fulfill their function of keeping rodents at bay. Certain compromises have to be made on account of the cats though. Much to my regret I don't have any nest boxes around the garden. Although it's possible to protect the boxes the fledgings are just too vulnerable. Birds do nest here though and every year some inevitably fall foul of the cats.

Keeping them supplied with food during the snow and frost has taxed my ingenuity somewhat. Of course, there's a constant supply of peanuts and seeds but I like to try other things too. Mashed up peanuts are a great draw for just about everything and also attract starlings, the clowns of the bird world. There are lots of starlings around but they don't often visit the feeders. One of my greatest pleasures in my tiny English suburban garden was following the antics of the flock of starlings that visited every day. Starling fledglings learning how to take a bath stands out as the greatest natural comic moment. Fat cakes are great but I ran out of my supply of fat a while ago and keep forgetting to get lard to make some more. Leftover chips and batter go down very well. A wren has taken to using the garden pond as a hunting ground and seems to do very well indeed there.

Much to my delight yesterday I noticed the first clump of frogspawn in the pond. It was frozen solid this morning so I don't know if it will survive. Frogs don't do well in the pond as the goldfish tend to eat the tadpoles before they grow legs and escape. One of my projects for this year is to dig another pond for the frogs and anything else that wants to take up residence. My next door neighbour has newts in her pond so perhaps I can re-house a couple of those. That would be thrilling.

It's been a beautiful bright day here and the river was calm and peaceful when I went for a walk so here a photo taken from the bank.

Obsession and Philosophy

Hello World

I'd like to say that it's a pleasure to be here. However I'm very much a novice to the world of making a public statement about any thing to do with my life. This excursion has been prompted by a complete mental block in the completion of the assignment I'm trying to do. It's a case of anything but and in this case it's either cleaning the house or starting a blog. Guess which won. It's probably too late to start cleaning now anyway.

If anyone's wondering about the title of this blog it refers to my twin obsessions and, I suppose, my philosophy of life. That's what most blogs are about, aren't they? Obsession and philosophy. In the case of this scribe food is always an evocation of places, people, times past and future. It's always exciting eating something for the first time. It's always slightly worrying cooking or being served something that tantalised the taste buds first time around. The second experience often doesn't live up to the memory. It's the same with music festivals. The first time at any music festival blows the mind, the second time is never quite as good. That's been my experience anyway. Perhaps I just don't like repeating things.

Plants, however, just get better and better. Especially plants that have adapted to certain climates and conditions and are an integral part of their world. Of course, there's always the possibility that you can eat them.

Here are some pictures of plants. They may look familiar but they're growing in their natural habitats and look all the more beautiful for that.