So Many Suggestions!!

Wow! You really put your hearts into all these suggestions!
Thank you so much!


I'll tell you what I've done so far:

After school I went into town and bought myself a gardening magazine, a bottle of nail varnish (coral something or other) and a pair of shoes (€4 from Penny's, blown the Housekeeping I have NOT!).

When I got home I cooked myself a pan of black kale and sun dried tomatoes with LOADS of green coriander and green garlic...found it among the weeds in a veg bed! (the garlic and the kale!) Delish! (no one else likes such an excessively green supper).

Then I had about an hour and a half of pure bliss sitting on the kitchen sofa reading my gardening magazine, whilst drinking tea, painting my nails (when was the last time I did THAT??) and listening to the radio (RTÉ Lyric FM) at a volume high enough to actually HEAR (and a programme of world folk music which I love and the rest scorn).

The dogs were beetling round doing their own thing and Small Dog was trying to destroy the inside tube from the greaseproof paper roll, which is quite a lot longer than him and causing problems....every so often he gives up chewing the ends and decides to go for the kill; stalking it, pouncing on it, shaking it and trying to throw it into the air!
He's a right comedian...

And I realised something: I was, just then, totally and utterly content.

Then Middlest texted to say she was bringing one of her Lecturers over so they could work, so I lept up and threw all the stuff on the dining table down behind the sofa, collapsed the clothes rack (clothes and all) so I could toss it into the bath and pull the shower curtain, and was frantically whizzing round the kitchen with the hoover when they arrived...

AAAAARRRGH...

I really wouldn't say I'm a slovenly housekeeper, a bit here-and-thereish definitely, but anyone who visits must think I'm a regular slattern because NO ONE EVER CALLS WHEN THE HOUSE IS CLEAN!

The Experimental Year Project-cont'd...

I think I must define some parameters, a few ‘wills’ and ‘will nots’, which is a bit difficult with all the ideas jostling for space in my head.


Perhaps some aims would be more constructive?

I want to be well, or as the Book of Common Prayer says, ‘to renew a right spirit within me’, which is a beautiful and succinct way of expressing the desire to be at peace with oneself and the wider surroundings.

I want to live so closely with the Land, the Countryside, Nature (??) that I experience the rhythm of the seasons and can see, smell, touch the changes which go with the seasons. I have an idea that this disconnection, which is part of modern living, is at the root of some of our collective malaise.

I want to grow more of what we eat, and to forage what can’t be grown due to the short seasons and stony soil. I want to learn more about the growing habits of edible and medicinal plants too, and any others which would have been common in the past…preferably without poisoning either myself or my family!

I want to find out more about the country ways, how they evolved and what needs to be kept and remembered against the future- and how I’ll do that I don’t know.

I want to use the camera to keep a record of what there is to see; to see beauty in the everyday and the mundane, not for the sake of ‘art’ but simply because it’s there and I can.


August is a pretty daft time to start such an Experiment, is it not? The end of the growing season, of the Summer, and the beginning of Autumn and the drift into cold and dark. I have always loved Autumn and also Winter, the bleakness, the low sun, the appearance of bare trees and branches against the sky, and the way one can see so much further without any leaves on. I love watching the rain blow up the valley, and sitting by the fire on a stormy night. I don’t like the nor’easterlies we get up in the mountains here, but at least my Rowan tree is good and strong so there’ll be no witches blown into this house!

Yes, August is not really the best time to begin. Have you ever looked at the date of some important event or historical achievement and thought, ‘isn’t that an odd day to have done….?’ It took me the best part of secondary school to figure that history is a progression, and the likes of Walter Raleigh and Henry the Navigator weren’t necessarily looking at the calendar when they finally achieved their dreams.

Not that I rate myself among such august company, it’s just an observation! So, August it is, and so the Experimental Year shall begin…

Two things I need to get this week though, before I start hiking around the bogs and glens- a decent pair of shoes, and a waterproof raincoat, neither of which I own, odd as it may seem.

Job numero uno!

Flower Power Shower!

The Hub was really impressed with me this evening when he went to have a shower after a very weary day and discovered this:
...how else am I to remove the dust off my precious plants?

It was a long day, you know how some are. I have a theory that time is like a concertina and it warps and shifts; just because every day has twenty-four hours doesn't mean that every day is the same length. But then I also think that the roads in Co. Claire move so you can take that as you like...
Anyhow this morning the Hub took Morning Prayer in the Nursing Home at 10 o'c, followed by another Church at 11 o'c. His homily concerned the teachings of Paul and how the Epistles have been passed down to us to help us live a Godly life. The part of the readings which seemed particularly relevant to me was 1 Kings Ch3 v 9, wherein Solomon askes the Lord for a discerning heart. I think it demonstrates how few truly wise and discerning leaders there have been through history in that Solomon remains a giant of excellent judgement. Perhaps if more of us ran decisions before God, or even 'gasp' listened to His wisdom there might be more to write home about.
The organ playing went ok, except in the second hymn when I accidentally knocked on a stop which produced unexpected extra volume, and nearly jumped out of my skin!

One thing was amusing though. After the Service when people were standing around talking a lady came up and asked did I know either of her sons? I recognised one name as being a school-friend of my brother's and said so. 'Ah,' sez she, 'They'd have been ahead of you then, you being so much younger.' Yah-hey! Score! I emailed my bro to tell him and he sent back a denunciation of the lady's eyesight, and a written snort! Reason? I'm nine years OLDER than the bro!!!

Broga nua? In Dublin on Saturday the Hub finally bought himself a new pair of takkies so he's bouncing round like Tigger at the moment! 'Runners?' sez you, 'Trainers? What's so special about new runners?' Forget not, my fellow blogospherics, this is someone who grew up in the African bush and shoes remain one of life's wonders!
The quilt is put together now, and one border on. I can't decide whether to add some more hand quilting, or whether it would look silly with the machine quilting on the main part. Yesterday I unpacked the trunk holding our pictures. This is a MAJOR event! It has been packed since 2000. When I opened it it smelled of our shack in East Africa which was rather nostalgic for all of us. It was such fun though discovering pictures I'd forgotton but meant a lot, and also several of the girls' paintings from when they were little. When we were packing up I tried not to be too ruthless and to save items which I thought would be meaningful to them in years to come. Meaningful? They were roaring with laughter! So much for that notion.

The Hub worked on the shed all afternoon and now has three of the four windows in. Its looking good! I'll give you a photo tomorrow as I am not going out in the drizzle in my pyjamas to take one now! Contain thy souls in patience until then!