A Compensation of Views

Early morning doesn't appeal to me at all - early morning extents to approximately 3p.m. in my mind and I am generally not at my best until that time - but a text from Eir, our telephone and broadband supplier, at 7a.m. to tell me that my "fault was still under investigation" woke me unreasonably …

Just a Little Spot of Pink…

It happens regularly that some little spot of colour in the garden catches my eye while I am doing something in the house and curiosity takes me out to the garden, generally with camera in hand to capture the puzzling plant. While making the bed this morning, a little spot of pink on a raised …

Ushered by the Weather

It wasn't our intention to visit Mount Usher Gardens last week but we ended up there nonetheless and enjoyed it very much. On Wednesday of last week we went to see Corke Lodge and went on afterwards to Powerscourt which is only a short distance away. However, it rained, and continued to rain, as we …

Reprieve, if not Rescue.

This last week has seen a return to normal August weather, warm and generally dry, and this is a relief after the period of scorchingly hot days with no condensation at all which lead to plants drying up, being frizzled and under serious threat of being killed entirely. This last week has come as a …

The Architect’s Garden

It has been on my mind for years - well, certainly since Jane Powers wrote so evocatively about it and husband, Jonathan Hession, illustrated it so beautifully with his photographs in their book The Irish Garden, to visit Corke Lodge near Bray, Co. Wicklow. Click the link above to read background information on the house …

Bee Amazed!

We know that bees are amazing creatures. They can build hives of architectural and structural complexity which astound us. They live in perfectly organised, efficient and hard-working communities. They can communicate with each other - a bee which finds a good source of pollen is able to tell fellow members of the swarm its direction …

Baked Lettuce for Dinner

Samuel Johnson really must have had gardeners in mind when he spoke of his fellow countrymen: “It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy …

Miss Willmott’s Ghosts

Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when as you read the first few pages of a new book you realise you have hit on a treasure and that there are hours of pure bliss and enjoyment stretching wonderfully in front of you. This is how it was for me with Miss Willmott’s Ghosts from Sandra Lawrence …

I Wasn’t Rodin’s First Choice!

There is hardly a teacher who has not been a little irritated by George Bernard Shaw's "those who can, do and those who can't, teach" in his 1903 drama, 'Man and Superman'. It has certainly lasted the years and the test of time and there may, I concede, be a certain grain of truth in …

A Cutting Job!

The big cut comes only once each year and despite the dramatic-sounding description is really not the great deal one might imagine it to be. The yearly cutting back of an area of high grass - a bulb lawn earlier in the year, a wildflower patch later on and a sanctuary for a few native …