Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen, sat in the back of a convertible waving in her leather jacket and tiara...

After all the guests had left, the house was a little quiet. Luckily it was also St Patrick's day so we drove down to the St Paddy's parade in Newport, our local town.  I had a green whippy ice-cream from Chamber's and the weirdest parade on the planet commenced. In the 16th Century, the Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley, or the Grainne Uaile, ruled the shores of the West of Ireland. Today she was the town's teenage beauty queen waving at us from a car.  The fat St Patrick (who looks like Santa Claus but wears green) followed and then a whole bunch of old Irish cars and then loads of sport clubs (mainly boxing and fishing), the vintage threshing club and then just some people who it seems wanted to drive in the parade.... The strangest thing about it was how quiet it was, these people just walked down the street to a little bit of clapping and the odd hoot but apart from that it just felt a bit awkward.

A couple of days later and Josh's parents arrived. On the first day we made them walk a bit of marathon but there were no complaints and the weather was amazing and stayed stunning until the day they left (today!). We did all the best things: went to the Beehive in Achill, had dinner at Felicity's, chilled by my (fantastic) fire, went to Nevins, unloaded Josh's brewery they had driven all the way from London! Nigel helped me de-mould the walls and unblock various sinks as well as helping Josh in the brewery and cooking a few stand-up meals and generally we all had a lovely time.

In the garden
I have finally started at St Brendans with my new favourite person James Brendan who is a massive fan of Monty Don so obviously we are bezzers. He also gave me to take back to my garden a grape vine, 5 corn seedlings and rhubarb. I have dug the roots of the grapevine outside the polytunnel and will be growing the stem inside the Polytunnel. I went on a pear grafting workhouse and now have 5 pears grafted and looking for new homes to be found over the next year. I put up a new little Polytunnel which I got free because the last one broke when it blew away (we fixed it so I have two), and have secured it super tight (I hope) and am growing one side as a no-dig bed and one side  as a dig bed as an experiment.
 

I also made a HUGELKULTUR! There was a lot of shlepping of logs and soil - we have no soil so I had to dig some up from the road side but it is looking pretty cool and I put my chives and leaf fennel which were looking very sad in it. The slugs have also started coming out and today's death count is 25.

1 - starting with some cardboard

3 - have covered with earth, is about 3 ft - fennel leaf and chives are on the top

Looking forward to mum and dad coming on Friday! Happy Purim xxxx

I had socks on, but I gave them to a pilgrim....

GUESTS

Achill beach

We have had lots of visitors which has been so lovely for us! Alana flew all the way from New York and managed to get two jumping photos.  She joined us for the week and did what none of us have done before - took the train from Dublin to Westport - which was a success for future reference. We went to the deserted village, back to the Beehive, seeded some things, met a farmer and discussed at great length how everyone shops at Aldi now instead of buying the 99 Euro full lamb that he sells ....

Then Daisy and Gabriel came for a weekend and honestly, after eating ourselves sick, we climbed croagh patrick (the mountain opposite our house)- no joke! 

Daisy

 Well Alana and Gabriel climbed to the top. Daisy and me were going to keep going but the wind got really strong and it turns out I am a bit frightened of wind so we went down at the half way point. On the way up there was this guy who was sitting down because his feet had been shredded by the climb up (he wasn't wearing shoes and the path is just rocks). Gabriel offered my socks to help him on his journey and he was much obliged. (Mum they were those pink socks you bought!) It is a bit of a  crazy pilgrim custom to climb Croagh Patrick barefoot...

In the evening when we got back, Felicity was there. Turns out I invited her for the wrong evening but Gabs and Daisy cooked a feast and she stayed till 11.30!

And tomorrow is St Paddy's day so we are going to the parade. Also the nettles have finally started coming up as have loads of wild 3 cornered leek so for dinner I made foraged nettle and leek pesto which was YUM and Josh made us some Heather tea he is experimenting for the brew with some foraged Heather.

In the garden

The Polytunnel fell down two more times but I have made a wooden trellis inside it so hopefully that will support it - 5th time lucky. It was so hot in Mulranny I have been in A T-SHIRT so I took the risk and planted carrots and broad beans outside. Salad mixes, radishes, cabbages and beetroot all coming up very well and the tomato seedlings I cheated and bought are growing rapidly because the Cushleka living room is an incredible green house and the whole room is now seeds. 

I was wondering why I kept getting the date wrong - turns out my calendar is for 2017..... 

P.s. loads of these photos are courtesy of Alana - even though I always complain when they are taken, I love them

That time Alma ate her first baked beans!

In the garden:

Final resting place.

I have moved the fruit trees three times because I got over excited and kept planting them in bog. Also me and Josh (Josh) built my new plastic zip up polytunnel but it blew away in the first gale and smashed into the Rhododendrons.

Luckily our new friend Cian (who was in the last blog but spelt wrong) is bringing over some gaffa tape tomorrow. I said we could buy some but he thought we didn't need to waste money as he already had some.... So all the seed trays are by the windows in the living room looking grand and some of my lettuce seedlings have already started to come up!

handsome!

In order to know my plants as well as my new Irish friends I have now seeded:
Mustard (golden frills), Rubens red lettuce, speedy salad mix, dwarf broad beans (Sutton), Brussel sprouts(Crispin F1 - don't judge me), Cabbage (Golden Acre), Dill, First early potatoes (Casablanca), Onions, Garlic, Nasturtium, parsley and two types of half hardy Marigolds. I also have 3 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 10 raspberry canes, 3 blueberry plants, 2 gooseberry plants and a woodland area with fennel, woodland and regular sorrel, Jerusalem artichoke, one Rhubarb and alpine Strawberries and horseradish from dad's garden.


They don't seem to sell seed compost here so I have used a mix of multi purpose, rotted woodchip which there is plenty of in the woodland area, and thrown in a bit of sand for good measure because it's free even though I have been warned it's too salty. I tried to sieve it all with an old onion bag but it got a bit boring even with Radio Ulster Gardener's Corner on.

In other news:

We saw some Meerkats in the garden centre/pet shop. We had the most magical weekend with our dearest friends Ephraim, Emma and Alma where we played lots of banagrams and Ephraim put us to shame with his fire making skills (me and Josh have done one successful fire each).

Heinz! Yum!

Emma cooked all the food, even stocking up our freezer so we are currently tucking into her soup. I've made a new friend, the piano teacher, who is coming over at some unknown moment to try the piano because she has to use the one at the school - her boyfriend is volunteering here to protect the old Irish goats who have lived here since pre-historic times. And I had to wheelbarrow down to Ann's to pick up some cow poo which she told me I am welcome to do any time.

 

That time Josh and I only brought the necessities...

After 17 hours and several do-it-yourself costa stops at service stations, we arrived. I actually enjoyed the driving; there are some beautiful moments in Wales. The ferry itself was a bit dodge. The decour was half b movie, 1970s motel and half casino.  I was the only woman in a “canteen” full of trucker men which made me feel a tiny bit uneasy and though the food looked like salad and chips, it only looked like salad and chips.

dinner in a "fancy" restaurant - stir fry and onion rings

We had 3 long hours after “lunch” where I had a nap, caffeined up and annoyed Josh.  Then we drove on and Josh took over some of the driving because my eyelids kept shutting which is sometimes dangerous on the motorway. We pulled in to Cushleka house at 11.30 pm which was amazing although the gates had been left open (so the sheep had been in)

On Friday we unpacked, Josh made a roast and I baked some Challah.  And some of the Mulranny characters who I am sure will make several appearances over the next few months started to introduce themselves.

absolute necessities - argan oil and nail animals

On Saturday I heard a knock on the living room door, it was Ann our lovely neighbour who had come on in to say hi and we had a brief conversation where we both had to repeat ourselves a lot but I think it went well. Josh and I also went for a stroll on Saturday and knocked on Margaret and Pat’s door who my sister Rachel had introduced herself to over Christmas. 

Josh bought with the one thing we can't live without - his Hungary (broken) magnet.

It turns out Pat lived in Child’s Hill for 40 years before moving to Borehamwood with Margaret and coming to Mulranny full time 3 years ago. A small world! Between them, they seem to run several clubs in Mulranny and we are joining all of them. Josh will be off to “men’s shed” and I am starting “craft” on Monday mornings and the “grow your own club” this weekend.

liquid smoke and fancy pasta - obligatory

We have now been to do the obligatory big shop at Tescos and Aldi - we went to both, I also managed to squeeze in an ice cream, sign up and swim in the swimming pool, made two fires in the fireplace and planted some alpine strawberries, sorrel, a few herb plants, horseradish and some fennel leaf.

Luckily Josh and I bought all the absolute necessities of life with us, we couldn’t fit in another thing!

lots of vinegars we brought with us

12 days left to donate to St Brendans care home https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/talia-chain

http://www.irishruralhealth.com/BrVillage.htm