Back in February 2014 I published this write up in my blog, I was only writing for one month. Because today was such a beautiful day I decided to re-blog this.
Author: gaiainaction
A LITTLE FROSTY, BUT SUNSHINE
Some of these mornings lately are frosty, and the garden looks a little white, but the nice thing about it is that we get sunshine along with it, so very much needed here in West Cork. Clear the air too. The garden is waiting for attention, but my mind is on other things right now, and it’s all good. All will be in order for a fabulous growing season.
A MEETING OF GIY (Grow it Yourself)
Tonight was the first meeting this spring of the local GIY group in Skibbereen, the town where I live. It was well enough attended and all those there shared some of their own wisdom and garden lore, this made the meeting very interesting and motivating. One of the persons had issues growing coriander and was looking for tips on how to succeed, one of us suggested that he would start showing the seeds straight away, saying that February, is the ideal time to sow coriander because of the short amount of daylight still at this time, and to sow the seeds against a North facing wall. Another person brought up growing basil and yes of course it is not easy to grow basil here because of the climate. There was advice about growing blight resistant potatoes, I was actually surprised that blight is still a problem in these days. There was chat about growing more flowers to facilitate the bees. I brought up the question about trees, should we be growing fruit producing trees, or should we stick with the decorative trees. I am leaning very much towards taking down our larger trees and growing apple or pear trees instead, but the jury is still out on this. Another person said she was looking for ideas to use in the school where she works, for the children. Then there was the person who was disappointed that her rhubarb had disappeared, she was given advice to try and use Rock phosphate but to keep it away from the leaves, other advice I heard was to use fishbone meal and to scatter that around the soil to improve the growth of sweet peas, and lots more. I think of course we need to use discretion, but also to remember that some of these people are well seasoned gardeners and vegetable growers.
The link to the GIY website is:
http://www.giyinternational.org/
But before all this we had been shown a video about the ‘Incredible Edible West Cork’ initiative, this is an initiative where the community is encouraged to grow vegetables anywhere they find a space, be it in containers, in corners, along roads, little plots, elderly peoples gardens etc… and the food produced should all be for people to take away free, it is a lovely initiative and actually all the participants in the meeting showed enthusiasm for this idea.
A link to their site: http://westcorkgardentrail.com/incredible-edible-west-cork/
We also discussed our local community garden and how we see the new growing season, volunteers were requested for a variety of jobs, including taking school groups and showing them around and helping the children to help with the garden work. We were told that last year children grew potatoes there and each child went home with a couple of potatoes at the end of the growing season which of course is lovely and a great encouragement to these kids.
We finished up the night with swapping seeds, and sowing some, and of course more chatting about seeds and growing…
It was a very enjoyable and inspiring meeting. My hands are getting very itchy to start work in our garden, though right now the soil is still too wet, but I will be sowing some seed in the next few days.
FROSTY MORNING
This morning a glorious sun rose over the hills to the East, a bright blue sky welcomed me from my dream-filled sleep. The grass fields across the valley looked like well ironed patches, smooth and very green. And in the garden there I found jewels. Jewels because it had frozen during the night, but already the thaw had set in, some of the vegetables and little plants were still beautifully laced with ice. Texture and colour, a feast for the eye.
A precious new morning, a beautiful new day.
I feel energized from this sunshine,
something to be very grateful for.
LONDON FROM THE WINDOW OF A TAXI CAB
Kings Cross Station – London
It had been a long time since I was in London for any reason, but recently we had the pleasure of being invited to a luncheon with my partner’s brother and cousins, a bit of a reunion you could say, and very pleasant it was. This meant that we would take a taxi ride from the train station to the venue, and sitting in the back of the vehicle I had quite a good view behind me and also from the side windows, so out came my mobile phone and I just snapped away. Not too unhappy about the result I decided to share some of the photos here. All these photos are taken somewhere in the central area. London has so much to see architectural wise, also delightful is to see all the people passing by, normally I am very careful about photographing people, I am always conscious of not wanting to be intrusive, so I was delighted to notice that I got quite a few people in my pictures this time, I find it so interesting, such an amazing diversity of humankind to be seen in this cosmopolitan city. I was very impressed with the beautiful contemporary architecture of Kings Cross railway station. Like being underneath a gigantic mushroom inside!
I am also always very interested in the trees that grow in cities, they make all the difference to and add enormously to the beauty of the buildings, even, and perhaps especially in winter. I am thinking of the boulevards in Paris, the many mulberry trees in Lisbon, the pine trees around Athens, and the plane trees in Antwerp to name but a few. It is also good to see that trees can still form part of modern city planning, more and more so in fact.
I’ve enjoy the short visit to London and after all it’s only an hour’s flight from Cork!
ANGLESEY ABBEY
During last week we were privileged to make a visit to Anglesey Abbey and gardens near the village of Lode in the UK. A faint sun and a slight cold wind made the walk around the gardens pleasant enough. There was so much to be seen, I did not know where to turn may attention first. The lovely fresh snowdrops made a carpet underneath the beautiful ancient trees their branches low to the ground.
Here and there I could see some yellow aconites among the snowdrops. Further along a splash of bright lilac among the borders were the European cyclamen. The hellebores also gave us a most pleasing show, many different varieties.
The lanes and walk ways weave along the shrubs and trees giving off a wonderful woody scent even in winter, now and then there was a gate which opened up into a landscaped space created according to historical values, all along there are interesting sculptures, some of them covered right now against the cold weather.
The abbey itself, was established in 1236 as an Augustinian priory, and is a beautiful Jacobean building in almost white limestone. I did not get a chance to go inside the building but took the tour around it with a guide who told us a huge amount of history about the building. Everywhere I saw beautiful features, the layout of the out-buildings and the surrounding gardens, especially the rose garden, were nice and interesting. I could imagine how nice the scent of all the roses during the summer months.
We did not walk as far as the mill, but I am sure that I will visit this place again as we are due back in the area during the summer. The place is in care of the National Trust by the way.
I do hope that you enjoy my photos, it just goes to show that even during the winter months there is so much to see and enjoy in nature, something to be very grateful for.
WINTER TREES
With the very wet winter we are having here in West Cork, it is rather showing up some beauty all of it’s own, it is how the trees look fresh, bringing out the colours of the trunk and branches, stark against a sometimes grey sky but now and then against clouds and sunsets. We have five trees in the garden, and these photos I took either from behind the glass if heavy rain, or outside, each brings out different aspects in the photo. Some bring out a rather foggy mood, some are melancholic, but some others bring out a bright clarity, it reflects the way that the mind is affected by the dampness, and according to Chinese traditional medicine, the mind is affected by the spleen, and the spleen is in turn very much affected by dampness, cold dampness, and that is what we get here in winter. It follows then that during these winter months the mind might become a little foggy if not careful, CTM advises us to eat warm stews made from root vegetables, with plenty of ginger to counteract this dampness inside… but that is going away from the trees a bit.
I love trees, I might even be a tree hugger, always want to touch their bark and admire their beauty, and beside that there is nothing as nice as using wood in the kitchen or wherever, the feel of it so smooth after it has been sanded, the lines and colourful markings are very nice too. I have wood on the ceiling and wall in one of our rooms, it often gives me pleasure to take in the many knots and lines visible to the eye. The scent also of wood is so pleasing.
Right now our trees are blowing in the wind, it is quite stormy and has been all winter, but they seem able for it. The silver birch moves most of all, it’s high and thin but the branches are very flexible. The Hawthorn moves very little – that is why the birds like to hide among it’s branches. The oak and the pine sway as if to the sound of their own music, while the chestnut watches over it all, stiff and majestic, even despite it has lost some of it’s branches last summer after we cut some down as they were making the garden far too shady. My trees are very much alive to me, I sense their moods, they are powerful and nothing fazes them, but they do like me to touch them when walking around the garden.
The trees, they give me much pleasure, I feel they are a blessing in our garden, and I am very appreciative.
ST.BRIGID CROSS SYMBOL OF EMERGING LIGHT
Making a St.Brigid’s cross, is an ancient tradition in Ireland, people young and old make these crosses from rushes of which there are plenty growing around the country. Tradition has it that the cross will protect the house from fire, hunger and evil if hung above the door. You can often still see them hanging in halls of houses. St.Brigid or as she is known “Mary of the Gael” is the patroness of Ireland, she was born in 450 A.D.
It is also suggested that this cross has pre-Christian origins and is related to the sun cross. The first of February is when St.Brigid’s day is celebrated, this is also the ancient Irish celebration of ‘Imbolc’ which marks the beginning of spring, and indeed spring starts on the first of February in Ireland! (According to the behaviour of the birds this morning in our garden, this must be about right).
Actually Wikipedia gives a real good write up about St.Brigid cross and that is why I am adding a link to it, far more information than I could know or share here, so enjoy if you are interested.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid%27s_cross
I have added some photos to show how the cross is made on request of some of my nice friends that follow my blog. I made some of these crosses tonight. Went to pick the rushes earlier and kept them from drying out, this is important to work with them easily if not using straight away.
So here goes, I will do my best to describe:
First you hold one rush vertical in your hand, and you add another rush with your other hand bending it in the middle and sliding it across the vertical rush as seen in pic 2. you then turn the vertical rush either clock-wise or anti clock-wise depending on whether you are right or left handed. You keep adding one rush at the time constantly turning the original rush, you keep a tight hold of them. When you have added enough and it becomes like pic 6 then you have to cut the ends but be careful as the whole thing might jump loose, so hold tight, fix an elastic band around the end and repeat this with all four sides. Your cross is now ready to hang up.
I hope the explanation will do, and if you try I hope you have much fun.
The rushes or reeds used to make these crosses are called;
Soft Rush or Juncus effuses. http://www.irishwildflowers.ie/pages-rushes/r-07.html
THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY
Yes the sun came out today, and it shone over the valley here in Skibbereen, it was glorious and so welcome after all the days of mist, rain, and stormy weather. So I took a walk along the boreen* and found a few wild flowers making colour, their therapeutic effects did not stay behind, I felt so energized after that walk.
To find the red clover in flower was probably early in the year, but then the temperature is warmer than normal, it has been a steady 10C for a while now and today in the sun the temperature went up to 15C even despite a cold northern wind.
This beautiful little fern grows along rocks even in urban settings all over Ireland. It’s most delicate and very hardy.
The gorse usually flowers twice a year, once in February, and once in the summer. It’s probably early this year, but I did not get any of its scent, we need stronger sunlight for that.
I took this photo behind our houses, it is waste land, the sedges are lovely, I like this sort of landscape too. Soon St.Brigid will be celebrated in Ireland and people will use the sedges to make St.Brigid crosses, I used to teach people in the library to make those, it’s fun to work with the sedges.
It is getting time that I start planning my garden, I have not done anything about it really because the weather has been so wet. Today I started to take stock, and some of the raised beds wood surroundings have rotted! The soil is still very wet.
Roll on warm and dry weather!
* Boreen is an Irish word for a path in nature, (Irish: bóithrín, pronounced [bɔːˈriːn]) it is a rural walking path.
agoyvaerts 