Apple cider.

I've been busy on this fine sunny afternoon.  Picking apples.

And a great crop I got this year.  Twice as many as last year.  I'm looking forward to sampling them. I'm not sure yet what medium I'm going to use to taste them, apple tart, apple jam, apple jelly, apple sauce...  Endless choices.

There are still some left on the tree, but they are too small to pick, and there is about the same amount again on the ground.

The slugs got to the one's on the ground before I did, so they have already been 'sampled'.  I hope they, the slugs that is, enjoyed them.  And I hope they enjoy the with the same relish, the slug pellets that I am going to put down now, and hopefully that will get rid of them before they eat anything else in the garden!  I've heard that a good way to get rid of slugs is to place cans of cider round the garden, then the slugs crawl into them and die.  Probably a better way to go then slug pellets.

I'm still not sure what to do with them.  The apples, that is, not the slugs!

I also have a bumper crop of Begonia's.

Thankfully the slugs didn't eat them!  Actually, it's a pity you can't eat Begonia's, as this lot would make a lovely colorful cake.

Anyway, much as I'd love to give you a tour of all the lovely plants flowering in my garden at the moment, I best get back to the apples, otherwise I will be chopping and peeling all night!

Still not sure what to do with them...

Glass of cider anyone?

The curious incident of the blind date!

I had a date last night!

A blind date!

Intrigued?  Well, before you rush to the phone to call me to find out what is going on, remember I told you some time ago that I was a member of a Facebook book club?  The one run by the 2FM DJ Rick O'Shea?  (No, I didn't have a date with him)  Well that's was where it all started...

We, the book club, had our first official meeting last  night.

It was in the Dubray Book store in Grafton Street, a place I like to frequent from time to time.  It was well attended by patrons of the book club, and there was even a glass of wine.  (I feel like I should morph into Julie Andrews and start singing 'these are a few of my favorite things').

The reason we started the evening in the book store was because Rick was interviewing Simon Stephens, the award winning playwright who has adapted the novel 'The Curious Incident of the dog in the Middle of the Night' for the stage.  A production of which is coming to Dublin shortly, hence Simon's visit.

Well, I tried to take some notes so I could tell you a bit about the interview, but I gave up very early on, as I got distracted by Simon himself.  He is an earnest, engaging, charismatic, funny, articulate guy, who spoke so fast and for so long, that Rick only got to ask a couple of his questions in the hour that we were there.  Simon kept going off on tangents and at one stage he mentioned James Joyce and Shane McGowan in the one sentence.  I could try to explain the context, but I would probably run out of space here...

Simon did also, after some prompting from a journalist in the audience, give us his 5 steps for successful writing.

1. Thinking (Mulling as he called it, and you have to do this for a very long time)
2. Research
3. Planning
4. Structure
5. Writing

As you can see from this post, I went straight to no. 5.  But they are good pointers to have for any aspiring writer.  If thinking was all it took, the I would have been an award winning author ages ago!

So, when the interview sadly came to an end, the book club members relocated to Alfie Byrnes for the main event of the evening.

A blind date, with a book!

For those of you who don't know what that is, here's how it works.  You wrap a book with brown paper, tie it with string, and put a label on it giving a few hints as to what the book is about.  Easy!

I had no problem with the book, but struggled with the brown paper, string and label.  I had to use all my Blue Peter skills to come up with a solution.  (I turned some wrapping paper inside out and drew on the string and label).  John Noakes would have been proud of me and my finished product:

So, after a stroll from Grafton Street through the Green, I found Alfie Byrnes and gathered with the rest of the readers at our reserved tables and waited excitedly for somebody to tell us what exactly we were to do with our books!

After several suggestions, the books were eventually placed in a pile on a table.  The excitement was building with every book that was placed.  (Julie Andrews is singing again, 'brown paper packages tied up with string...')

It was like Christmas!  Except that there were no socks in the parcels, or no Christmas wrapping paper (oh wait, what's that little bit of red I can see in the picture??), or no tree, or no fairy lights, or no pudding.  But the excitement was like sneaking down the stairs on Christmas morning and anticipating something great.

When my turn came, it didn't take me long to chose.  The words 'letters' and 'secrets' caught my eye and my choice was made.

So at last I met my blind date!

First impressions?  Well 'he' looks interesting, obviously has some hidden secrets and is a bit mysterious.  I suppose it beats tall, dark and handsome!!

The other books quickly disappeared, but after the first round, my book along with a few others, was still on the table...  I felt like I was back in school, not being picked for the basketball team.  But, unlike me and the basketball team, it was eventually chosen and opened and cherished.  Phew!

I'm not going to reveal the book title, you will just have to wait until I have my first date (as in read the first chapter), then we will see if there will be more dates (or will I finish the book!!).

Watch this space for my kiss and tell interview!  I wonder will Rick be around for that....

Seeing more stars (and the sun!)

As if to prove a point to me, this was the sky over my house at lunch time today:

The jets were out in force leaving their trails behind them.

Also, you might notice that big shiny thing in the middle of the photo.  That's called the sun, and might I suggest that you take your deck chair, like I did last night, and sit out on it today pointing north, south, east or west, whichever works, and watch that thing shine for as long as it's there.  As, like the shooting stars, it too only appears once a year in Ireland!!

And, I also had an audience for lunch:

They were waiting patiently for me to finish my lunch and give them the leftovers!  For once in his life Rusty didn't chase them away.  Maybe he too was tired from staying up so late last night...

Seeing stars.

I listened carefully to the instructions given by the very knowledgeable lady on the radio yesterday.

It all seemed easy to follow, except I wasn't quite sure which direction north was from my garden. But Dad came to the rescue with a very handy compass app on his phone.  After a few minutes standing outside and shaking his phone to get the right calibration we had established which way we should be looking.

So, I waited until after 10.30pm last night, turned off all the lights in my house, then went outside and set my deck chair to face north.

Did anyone else join me in watching the light show?

Apparently this happens every year, and this year we should also be able to see the International Space Station!

By the way the lady (I can't remember what her name is, or what her qualifications were?) on the radio said that we should see up to 20 per minute.  At least that's what I remember her saying.  But as I can't remember her name that number could be suspect too.

Anyway...  I made a cup of coffee (decaff!  I didn't want to be up all night!!) turned off all the lights and went outside.  I didn't want to miss any of the excitement.

I thought I was going to see something that would look like the man in the moon turning on his Christmas tree lights and setting them to 'flash'!  It was a very still night and there were a few clouds, but I even tho it wasn't quite what I expected, I did see 5 shooting stars in the time that it took me to drink my coffee.  It was nice to see, and a little bit exciting.  I stayed a little while after my coffee was finished, and saw a couple more but I lost count and started to get cold.

I didn't see the Space Station, or maybe I did and didn't realize what it was, but I was most surprised by the amount of planes that went by while I was sitting there.  I didn't know I was on a flight path.  They were quite high up and not very noisy, so maybe that's why I have never noticed before.  Also, I am not usually out that late looking up at the sky!!  And where are all those people in the planes going at that hour of the night??

While I was sitting out there, freezing under my blanket, drinking my coffee to try and keep warm, Rusty kept me company:

He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to be looking at, but he was delighted to be let stay up so late.

I kinda wish I hadn't stayed up so late, as now I feel that although I didn't miss out on the shooting stars, I did miss out on some sleep...

Dublin to Cork with some knitting in between!

I'm on the train home from a very pleasant weekend in Cork.

Yesterday, we had to drive to Tipperary on a top secret mission.  Obviously I can't divulge any details at the moment, but let's just say, that phase one of the covert mission has been accomplished and I'll fill you in when the time comes for all to be revealed.

We took a picnic with us and on our way back took the old road from Dublin to Cork and stopped at some woods that I've forgotten the name of, to eat our food.  We were joined by some ants and a small grasshopper who stowed away in our bags and was only discovered when we got home!  He was quickly dispatched to the garden and sent on his way.

Keeping to the old road and avoiding the motorway, we made a stop at a little place called Kilworth.  In all the times I have driven the old road I have never stopped at Kilworth.  Now I either use the motorway or take the train! Well shame on me for not stopping here before as it it a typically lovely little Irish village.  And it was especially colourful this weekend as there had been a 'knitting bomb' 

Look:  

What a lovely sight.  And, with all that knitting going on I thought I'd better join in! Sure it would be rude not to. 

I was having a great time sitting there knitting, until a little boy came by and asked me was I one of the knitters!  I felt like a bit of a fraud then and had to tell him no.  I quickly packed up my knitting and ran for the hills!  

And speaking of fraud, or in fact fraudsters, look what we spotted In between all the knitted trees,  A small stone monument with this plaque fixed to it.

So, by a strange twist of fate, even though I'd never been to Kilworth before, it seems that my ancestors have. And a notorious one at that.  I wasn't the only Brennan running for the hills!

I did look but, I can find much about him.  Apparently he was the most popular Irish highwayman since the second half of the 19th century, and was immortalized in the ballad "Brennan On The Moor" as it tells you on the monument.  We laughed when we read the bit that said 'brave young highwayman'.  Nowadays he would not be so popular for his brave deeds, he would be brandished a 'thug' for stealing with menace! 

I would liked to have spent a little more time in Kilworth to dig up the dirt on our ancestors, but we had to get home to feed the dogs.

Poor Ellie was being ever so patient waiting on her dinner...

Summer time.

Hello! How have you all been?

I'm just back from a lovely week in Spain, where surprisingly the sun shone and the Cava flowed.  We did have some rain, which was accompanied by spectacular thunder and lightening.  But it was mostly at night time and was very entertaining to watch as with each flash the lightening lit up the sky.  Thunder and lightening in Ireland is usually associated with winter and storms, which is what I came back to!!  Winter like weather.

Well not exactly, slight exaggeration there, but not exactly great weather either for August..

So, to cheer myself up (and to avoid all the post holiday washing and ironing), I decided while still in 'holiday' mode to finish off my vacation with a trip to Cork.

Of course I had another reason for visiting Cork.

These two!

The cutest pups in all of Ireland. (Sorry Rusty!)

They are aptly named. Ellie and Tera.  Ellie, the elegant!  She's the quiet, polite one.  Tera, the terror!  She's bold as brass. While I'm sitting here writing this she pulling and chewing the cord of the dressing gown I'm wearing (probably shoulda got dressed!), and Ellie is sitting quietly beside me.

On Friday evening, we took them for a short walk to the park opposite Deirdre's house and let them have a look at the sea.



In the park, there is a newly constructed sculpture.  And here we are, Sisters with Sisters, standing inside it.

It's called Kindred Spirits, and is a tribute to the Choctaw Indians, who during the Great Famine, while themselves being at their most downtrodden, and having suffered a similar fate, managed to raise $710 (that would equate to approx one million dollars today) and send it to Ireland to help aid the starving people.

Sometimes I don't understand art.  I can appreciate the time and effort that the artist puts in to the piece but I don't always 'get' it.  But this one is easy to get.  It's magnificent!  As it wasn't quite dark when we were there, I didn't see it lit up, but Deirdre says its spectacular.  I'll have to come back when it's dark.

Being pedigree dogs, Ellie and Tera have 'official names'.  Winter Holly and May Sunflower, which to me sound like names that Indians give to their children.  So it was kind of nice that their first big outing was to this sculpture.

Now, if only we had a 'Medicine Man' around, we could use his magic powers to clean up the back garden after these two pups.

Oh yes and an Indian summer so that we could sit in the cleaned up garden...