whilst waiting on the green green grass of home.....

So I've been up in Dublin awaiting the arrival of our newest family member, who is now a day late I might add, and I've been slowly longing for the green green grass of home as the days have passed. Its very hard to be in pursuit of the good life in a built up overcrowded city, and I can't wait to bring our little family back home to play in the garden, hang out with the dogs and cows and ducks and hens and see what vegetables have grown since I've been away. Luckily my mam is a keen gardener, and even though she must have the tiniest garden in the universe, my heart is happy as I sit here on a grey rainy night(in July?!?!?!?!? whatever thats all about....) and see the vibrant beautiful colours of her flowers - which could brighten up even the dullest of days!And they'll brighten up mine until this precious baby of ours makes its appearance - bringing the brightest light of all! 

:: simply ::

:: inspired by the 'this moment' series from my absolute favourite blog SouleMama, no post just a simple picture - please feel welcome to join in.::

windswept and eh....interesting????

What is going on with the weather lately. I'm not usually a weather complainer normally, and can pretty much cope with whatever is thrown at me out here on the island, but for May it all just seems a little mad!! Wind wind and more wind, and a north one at that which brings the cold! All this does not bode well for my little plants that I'm trying to get hardened off to plant out for this years crop of veg and salads! I've already lost about 20 courgette plants - but being honest, my relationship with these plants are always a little dodgy - but most of my other ones appear to be getting murdered. Ideally I'd love two weeks of sunny May weather, with good heavy rain at night! Ah wouldn't that be blissful! I reckon that would give my plantlings a chance. The pressure to get the garden established is coinciding with the arrival of baby no 3 at the start of July, where I fear at that point tending to the garden will be a distant memory! Albeit being replaced with wonderful ones! So here I sit, looking at various things being blown past outside my kitchen window, and I'll attempt later to secure further some of the bionet and garden fleece that I've thrown over various things to protect for fear of them inflating like balloons and taking my salad boxes and tomatoes across the water to Inis Meain!!

I know, its looking a bit rough and pitiful isn't it....

And just when I think that the weather is the only thing conspiring against me, I walk out my front door and am faced with this...

This planter WAS full of cottage flowery things....now it appears it just full of hen!

the truth of the matter is......

that in spite of all the great plans I had for my garden, in spite of the planning I did , albeit in my head, of where my courgettes would grow happily, my beetroot and chard, my salads and tomatoes, my peas and of all the wonderful flowers I intended on planting, that my garden actually and currently looks like this....

I know, I know, try not to look too long, I'll not be held responsible for any damage caused to your eyes! So yes, this is my garden. And this upheaval has been caused by a little shed. A little shed that I gifted daddy for Christmas a year ago. A little shed that happened to require a concrete foundation which led to the almost complete destruction of the garden I had been working hard on for the last couple of years. I was very sad that day! Or mad, I can't remember which, most likely both. But now the shed is built and this is what I'm left to 'fix' so that we can get at least a little harvest of mammy veg this year - daddy's veg however, consisting of our years supply of potatoes, cabbages and onions is well taken care of, so needless to say we won't starve - but mammy veg is a bit more fun.

So after a good look about the garden on a beautiful afternoon this week, it made me very very happy to see little signs of spring about the place...

To see the strength of the lilies, strawberries, garlic - even though it looks totally trampled...and most probably is, and rhubarb, stretching upwards to the sun out of the huge amounts of sandy soil is all inspiring, and I've decided that if they can get over the mess, well then so can I! And thats what I'm doing, one bit at a time. I've replanted a fruit bed with strawberries, honeyberry and boysenberry. I've sown my courgettes and mixed hot peppers in window propagators, I've sown some Tumbler Tomatoes and almost finished preparing another bed for some salads, and I've planted some bulbs in window boxes. Baby steps but oh so satisfying! And with an ever growing baby bump, baby steps definitely are the ones to take. So while I slowly make progress on my garden, I'm going to keep reminding myself to take a breath and remember that I love Spring. I really do!I love how life starts to appear everywhere I look, and that even on rainy days, it still smells like Spring and thats a wonderful thing. So taking a leaf from the ducks book (see them hanging out below), I'll make sure to have a cup of tea on the bench often, and appreciate whats all around me, and how truly grateful I am to have it! 

Spring is in the air.......

packages, pancakes, pantry & the perpetual quilt...

Ahhh just a few of my favourite things this week. It started with the arrival of this beautiful package on Monday from Donna Flower - now not a complete surprise, I mean I had ordered the fabric, but wowee when it arrived and I opened up such a fabulous assortment of vintage loveliness, well I could hardly contain myself!! I got a couple of her scrap packs of childrens vintage material, and I bought what can only be described as THE most amazing piece of linen (french) I've ever seen or felt in my life. It was a mangle cloth in its former life, and is aged at between 80 and 150 years old. Amazing. I had intended using it to make cafe style curtains in my kitchen (another work in progress) but now I don't want to put a scissors anywhere near it...a bit of a conundrum.....

Another fun bit of post I received with this knitting pattern that I had ordered from School House Press. Its Elizabeth Zimmermans BSJ ( Baby Surprise Jacket) which I had seen on one of the other blogs that I follow. As I'm only a knitting novice (I've made a yellow scarf!! Oh and a neck cowl for Ciarán) I thought it looked simple enough even for me, and the best thing about the pattern is that on the front is the original pattern by Elizabeth herself originally printed in 1968 and then follows a more modern version of the same pattern, plus an older child and adult version. So I should have enough to keep me knitting away....now to learn to read a pattern....

Tuesday was also Pancake Tuesday. This day used to fill me with so much happiness when I was younger, as I remember running home from school/work on pancake Tuesday eve, to my mam's house where on the table greeting me was a giant (well it was giant to me when I was small) oval silver platter piled high with hot skinny rolled pancakes waiting to be devoured by all of us with lemon and sugar! And we did devour them. You'd want at least 5, get through about 3 before thinking you would burst, then keep the rest for lunch the next day. The thing I've noticed now that I'm a mama myself, is that you don't have to wait for this one day of the year to eat pancakes, but once you know how to make them, you can have them any day you like! Although it does takeaway from the specialness of that particular Tuesday! But for us as a family, Saturday is pancake day - every Saturday. I make them for our tea and they are much loved! I'll share with you my recipe if you like....

120g plain flour, pinch of salt, 1 egg, 250mls milk, 2 tablespoons of oil (helps them not to stick) and a dash or 2 of cinnamon because we love it! Whisk until its all bubbly and then pour in the pan - I use the spray oil to cook them but pancakes are traditionally cooked in butter. Very yummy, this recipe makes about 7 or 8 good side plate sized pancakes! Enjoy. 

Wow this is a long post, ok to finish I've two other things that have made me happy this week, firstly the building and completion of my very own pantry - yippee- I've been waiting a long time for this and to finally see it with its lovely ceiling to floor shelving, plus a door that you can hide away the mess that no doubt it will become especially with my two lovely boys who are only dying to put things on those empty shelves, is making me giddy with excitement. I ponder the lovely store I hope to have inside it. So looking forward to my jam and chutney making season, and of course the elderflower cordial making seasons so I'll have a place worthy of their effort. 

And finally this.....

my perpetual quilt - aptly named because I've been 'finishing' it forever. I started this when I was pregnant for the first time - yeah, almost 4 years this has been on the go, and last night I finished it, I thought I was going to end up bringing it with me wherever I went, you see because thats what happens, you bring it places thinking you'll get time to finish it, when really you just end up with it in your craft bag bringing it to lots of places! So here it is. And I've grown a bit fond of the oul thing!!!

le meas

x

flask in a field!

Flask in a field was born a couple of years ago, when yearning for some place we could go together as a family on a Sunday, it occurred to us that it was right there in front of us all along. A field! In fact lots of fields! So packing up a flask and some biscuits and a blanket we headed off to a field. We chose the field we had our cows in, so set up amidst them. And it was just perfect, far enough away to feel like we were 'out', yet so familiar that we could mess amongst the little crevices and climb the rocks and hang out with our bovine pals - whose names happen to be Bertha and Roisin, with Brambles and Easter their gorgeous calves respectively! They tended to wander over after having their fill of hay just to see what we had in our basket! So every Sunday,with the exception of dodgy weather, we set out for our picnic! And when 3 became 4, Ro took to these trips gladly - i mean, who doesn't love licking sea snails in the grass...YIKES!!! And thats the history!
So today we had our first flask in a field of 2012, we would have had it sooner but due to some fairly yukky weather and a growing bump that made me want to just stay home, feet up drinking tea, it got put on hold! So today was it. And since it was such a glorious day, we visited the ladies (that would be the cows...ahem) and took ourselves off to the outskirts of the island so we could hang out by the sea and we had tea and pancakes with syrup and games of chasing (well actually the boys and puppies had games of chasing, mammy sat drinking said tea, taking pictures and generally overseeing...you know, important stuff in its own right :) !!!) and digging, climbling and knocking barnacles from the rocks to bring home to the ducks. Ah yes, a flask in a field brings out the simple pleasures in life......

Hope you had a glorious day wherever you are!

oh the joy of nothingness...

So here I am, in this first week of the new year and I'm experiencing something I don't get to experience that often - the joy of nothingness! Its like I'm living in a hazy dreamy place in between the end of the Christmas festivities and the beginning of this New Years 'things to do in 2012' frenzy. And I like it. In this hazy dreamy place I get to stay in bed with my two boys playing all sorts of jumping games about my head - dangerously close at times, we get to eat hot porridge on the couch with blankets covering our jammie clad legs, we get to paint and draw and do all manner of things, and bake special buns 'especially' for daddy, we get extraordinary dinners from Ciarán's kitchen, that Santa so cleverly knew to bring -which consist of eggs and hot chocolate mostly, and from mammy's kitchen- lots of soup and homemade bread for comfort and with the weather being so stormy and crazy here lately, we just get to hang out together, me and my boys, kicking off our boots (well generally Ronán has lost his somewhere along the way) after feeding all the hens and ducks and cows and and just sitting re-reading books by the fire. It is indeed a lovely week - one that I never seemed to have noticed before, but will take a special interest in from now on!

So this week has got me pausing and reflecting on last year, and what better way to sum up a year than to go through the pictures I'd taken throughout it - so here is a little selection of what summed up 2011 for me...

a little bit of relaxing didn't go amiss.....

 our Sunday 'Flask in a Field' was always fun...

 muddy puddles and a happy drakey...

 evening walks.....

 new kids on the block....

 visitors that brought the best pressi's..

 Galway Hookers on a summers day!

 mammies and babies....

 my new found love of all things 'Elder'!

 a bit of fun with the shadow of the evening sun...

 my little man doing everything he can to be like my big man!

 clouds you could almost pluck from the sky...

never underestimate the joy of arts and crafts!

 co-habitation and contentment in the garden...

 the first signs of spring are always welcome...

 realising how lucky i am to live in such a stunning place!

 touching history - The Plassy Inis Oirr!

 oodles of Red Admirals on a hot window...

 Bluebells....enough said...

 Donkey kisses!

 Scarecrow faces!

 very handsome Spikey!

 the exhilaration of just running..

 very special moments!

 New Arrivals!

 New Ventures!

Hope you all get a little joy out of nothingness this week -and maybe look back over your own years worth of photographs - it'll warm your heart no doubt and remember that cleaning the house, sorting the bills, doing the garden....sure they can all wait a couple of more days I reckon...