A Dash at Dusk.

We were away on Sunday, a very nice lunch in a very pleasant restaurant but I thought being charged €5 for a cup of coffee was unreasonable - there wasn't even a chocolate or a biscuit on the side and it was a small cup! It's odd how something small can put a spoiler on …

As the Dew Falls

For the photographer there are two "golden hours" in the day, the first hour of the morning and the last of the evening. I am eternally grateful that the latter is available to me for I consider it insane, inhuman and downright cruel to expect me to be out for the earlier hour. The early …

Gardener’s Absence Syndrome

An absence from the garden which extends beyond a few hours seems to engender a certain anxiety in gardeners; certainly it does with me. There is a feeling that "things might have happened" while I am away from the garden for a day with a fear that some of this may be unwelcome and an …

On This Our Wedding Days!

By my reckoning I have had a wedding day on each of the last ten days and this may continue...or it may not. It all depends on the weather, you see, and the Irish weather is anything but predictable. Of course, it also depends on my darling wife, The Head Gardener, for no wedding is …

She Left Quietly and Discreetly.

On reflection, and after the initial shock and upset has passed, she would not have left in any other way for that is how she had lived her life, quietly and discreetly but, of course, there was so much more. Lindy Little was one of the gentle people of this world, a lady who always …

The Total Eclipse and the Single Bed

The total eclipse, the deep darkness, cut a swathe from the southwestern area of continental North America to the northeast. Towns and villages along its path rejoiced in the darkness, rather odd to be celebrating such gloom one might think but it brought a financial bonanza to businesses along the way as hotels hiked prices …

200%

My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life! This may not come to pass but I do feel I am due a break at this stage. It's April, April showers and all that but not constant rain with Storm Kathleen already upping the wind speed in …

“The Bubbles in the Glass of Champagne” – A Year Full of Pots

Sarah Raven has given us another wonderful book, A Year Full of Pots, the third in this series and a perfect compliment and companion to its forerunners, A Year Full of Flowers and A Year Full of Veg. I'm afraid Sarah Raven is quickly exhausting my store of words of praise for her books. Her …

Trench Foot

Thank goodness for the wellington boot, the saviour of our precious feet, for without this wonderful invention I have no doubt but that I would have a serious case of trench foot by now. The weather has continued to be perfectly dreadful and each fall of rain results in lodged water in the garden as …

The Body Suffers…

Conditions finally arrived which allowed me to spend an entire day in the garden. I felt it was a little like Dolly Parton's "Working Nine to Five" but it was "Ten to Six" in my case. A few hydrangeas still remained for pruning, a light but time-consuming job as it is quite fiddly taking all …