Bless me father.....

Either this was a figment of my imagination or I was in the wrong country!?!

Part ummmmm…..  Twelve and nineteen twentieths…?

Bless me father for I have sinned, it has been two months since my last post…..

But it was a reasonably full and eventful two months.

Once again I crammed my vehicle of choice (in this case the Landrover) full of all sorts, including a glazed noticeboard of the type which used to be found in educational establishments and other institutions (before glass became too dangerous to use in public).

Noticeboard In situ with the chart

Once again the (drugged) dog and I roared off in a cloud of diesel smoke into the sunset. En route this time I called in at my cousin’s to pick up the chart (it had all worked out very nicely and they hadn’t eloped), stopped at a nursery to purchase a few seedlings.. Peas, beans, tomatoes, nasturtiums, that sort of thing, and finally called in at one of the local creameries to pick up some more compost. All went smoothly enough until the last stop. The nice man was not at all sure that two large bags of compost could be squeezed into my already jammed rear (AHEM…). I assured him it would be no problem, he looked sceptical. The dog made a belated bid for freedom, but we achieved our objective. The bloke did wince as I blithely slammed the rear door and flakes of rust and paint showered down… I fear he expected the door to drop off. I was just too tired to care.

On my approach to the house, two concerns were at the front of my mind. The first was, would the silage have been cut, and if so, would my septic tank still be intact, or crushed under the wheels of a tractor? The second was, would I be able to get up the drive in the first place, as I had asked the phantom gardener very nicely to please stop cutting my grass as I couldn’t afford it. Both my fears were unfounded. The silage remained uncut (so the front garden was a jungle which reached beyond my waist), and the phantom gardener had ignored my request and cut the bloody grass anyway. My new fear was now the potential bill for said services.

The weather was hit and miss, mostly it hit me, although, for the first week it was delightful.

Weather

Yet more bloody weather

Even more weather (great sky though, what are those clouds and what do they signify?)

Still more weather (things are looking up though).

And the weather approaches over the mountain....again.

About to deposit it's load

On my house....!

Unfortunately I wasn’t equipped to begin painting the outside of the house as I had not yet managed to track down the man with the ladders. There were many false starts, where the ladders were sure to arrive, but somehow never did. Frustrated, I borrowed a telescopic pole from a friend and got stuck in. Have I mentioned that I loathe painting with every fibre of my being??? Nonetheless, I managed to remove the green goo from the gutters and after a few false starts devised a method of reaching the gables. Those of a nervous disposition should look away….. This involved tying a brush to a long stick, backing the Landrover right up to the wall and standing on the roof. I drew the line at using the ladder from the roof of the Landrover, it might damage the roof!

Eventually I decided that my sanity depended on finding some help in this enterprise. The help was duly employed, I picked him up and we spent the morning watching the rain sluice down the windows as we drank tea and gossiped. This happened on a number of occasions, but we did eventually manage to paint everything but the chimneys. The ladders finally turned up…. At 11pm on a murky misty twilight. This did nothing at all for my nerves.

The house is finally painted.

The yellow windowsills are intended to give the illusion of sunshine (previously they were grey). I reckon artificial sun is better than no sun at all!

I had a couple of visitors, all of whom got lost and almost wrote their cars off further up the track, at the point where the track becomes a swamp with potholes. My front gate is of the standard five barred variety and is generally open while I am in residence. I erroneously assumed it would be hard to miss. In fairness, one five bar gate looks very much like another. I have rectified this fault with a spot of light beachcombing.

Beachcombing with Buffy (what is this seaweed???)

Buffy the explorer.

 I found an assortment of marker bouys which had been washed up, they are now strung along a piece of washing line and tied to my front gate. I hope that it will now be harder to miss me. Apologies to those who didn’t benefit from this innovation.

In lieu of a house name or number.... Not exactly a postcode though, how would you go about putting it on an envelope?

While not painting, drinking tea or walking the dog in the rain (in an effort to appease the weather Gods) I played ‘hunt the onion’. The weeds had sprouted lavishly, so I spent quite a while trying to re discover my assorted veg and herbs. I thought the slugs were unusually voracious until I looked down the drive one morning and realised I was playing host to a re enactment of bloody ‘Watership Down’! I sought the dog’s assistance with this problem, but having exploded out the front door in a cacophony of yaps and whines, she then stood in the middle of my (immaculately mown) drive and looked confused. All the racket had sent the rabbits running for it, and her little short legs just can’t keep up.

The worlds worst rabbit hunter (and those must be VERY big rabbits).

My efforts to improve my knowledge of botany were mostly foiled. I kept finding plants which simply weren’t in the book.

Ok, so I know this is Sheeps bit scabious (not a true scabious apparently), but it does look pretty.

No idea, but it had taken over an entire verge. A garden escapee perhaps?

Snail Thistle????

I thought perhaps a Bugloss, but maybe not?

The little known but sinister Starling shrub....

One which was, was the rather wonderfully named Scrophularia nodosa (or Figwort). The plant itself is undistinguished.

Figwort

Or Scrophularia Nodosa

We also came across a small deceased shrew. According to my wildlife book, they are not present in Ireland... Ummmm...
Big thank you to Brigitte for sending me lots of photos, some of which I've used here. It's great to get pictorial updates :-D