Day 15

We are halfway through the month. It’s hard to believe that we’ll be leaving in just over 2 weeks. A sobering thought, as we’ve fallen in love with the Hook of Ireland.

Leaving Ireland, and moving on, was on our minds during our morning walk. The foggy daybreak mirrored our cloudy thoughts, but the beauty of the morning dissipated any scrooginess and took us into a highly productive, exhilarating day.

 

~

 

misty layers

 

Dewey webs~

 

We accomplished a lot. Finished Kate & Ray’s stawberry bed, worked on more steps in the garden, finished organizing the polytunnel, relocated 5 loganberry bushes and, finally, made a mushroom tart supplemented with wild blewits we foraged before sunset.

 

After~

 

Before — Update coming soon…

 

Before! So disorganized!

 

After we swooped in & saved the day~

 

An unbelievably gorgeous mushroom tart.

 

~

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Colclough Walled Garden

One of our favorite places to visit here on the Hook Peninsula has been Tintern Abbey. It’s absolutely stunning. There’s something about the surrounding woodland that puts one’s mind at ease. It is one of the most peaceful places I have had the pleasure of visiting.

The Colclough family owned Tintern Abbey until recently, and their ownership was granted after King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and went Protestant. Their walled garden was built in the 1800’s to accomodate their lordly desires to show off their wealth and enjoy exotic fruits and vegetables year-round.

The garden was abandoned for ages–was completely run-down–and the community received funding in 2009 to revamp it. It really is looking fantastic, and the team is doing their best to utilize the methods of the Victorian-era gardeners.

Some photographs, of course:

 

Modest Entrance

 

Autumn Cozy~

 

It is a simple garden so far…but elegant and welcoming nonetheless

 

Fruit trees ~ Less than half of the total garden area is shown in this photograph

 

A quaint, gurgling stream runs throughout the length of the garden~

 

A still-colorful border

 

Today was a really, really hard day’s work. Lots of weeding, topping off hand-made steps with gritty gravel, and hours of splitting logs. Hopefully we’ll have some more “before-and-after”s up again shortly.

Until tomorrow!

Read Full Post »

Bovine Rejection

Loran and I worked our butts off this morning on that same nasty patch of overgrown weeds & other bits, but no photographs today. Instead I’m sharing a little of our walk this evening. We took a nice, leisurely stroll from the tiny town of Slade, out to the Hook head where the old lighthouse sits. Halfway through I tried to make friends with a cute little bull…but was rejected.

This little bull definitely wants to be pals…

 

Come back!!

 

Rejected~

 

And our breathtaking destination:

 

The Hook Lighthouse in the distance

 

 

 

Read Full Post »