Here comes the Sun..

The faint sound of gentle guitar picking in my ears and the soft, liquid caramel voice of Nina Simone singing 'Here comes the sun, little darlin'...ah, bliss. It was there all the time, tucked away in the centre of our tiny solar system. But hidden from us by a barrage of heavy winds and torrents of rain all last week. The winds whipped up last Saturday and - apart from a reprieve on Wednesday afternoon when it seemed safe to unchain oneself from the wind resistant anchors and take a very short, almost daring walk up the road - they pretty much remained the dominant force in the Irish universe up until yesterday afternoon. 

Red - another king of Charleville

And now, here we are, absolutely and 100% surrendering to the awesome presence of the sun. It's the second day of February and January has left the building. Sure it's 99% psychological, but that small difference in the name of the month, those precious extra hours in the evening and today's burst of glorious golden shine - well, it's the most welcome stress and tension dissolver. You can feel the strain of tensed shoulders shivering for the last month just melting away in the warm embrace of the sun. Word of caution though, this morning the weatherman said make the most of it, so we certainly did ;)

The day started with an early trot over to see the famous King Oak - (http://www.treeoftheyear.org/?lang=en vote for it) - over the road on the way up to Charleville Castle. Holly was busy rooting through rotting leaves while I was just enjoying the morning sunrise through the trees, when all in a flash - a flash of russet red to be exact - the fastest Red Squirrel ever, crossed my vision in a blur and scarpered into the safety of the very same King Oak's branches. Great to see, always. It's not so common a sight, and the vulnerable Reds are losing out to the more aggressive Grey Squirrels (a non-native species 'introduced' decades ago as what seemed then a great birthday present idea for some very rich aristocrat, and then escaped into the wilds to reproduce and spread and for various reasons squeeze out Red). 

Red Squirrel - top middle of photo ;)
taking refuge on the King Oak

With my phone I managed to capture the tip of his ears as he watched us for high safety - you'll do well to pick it out in the picture posted here. After that, it was a a late enough chorus to call it dawn, but Blackbirds and Robins were in full voice, and Jays seemed to be popping out of every corner of the wood. The woods in Charleville are pretty special - there's plenty of variety in terms of species, and plenty of hidden corners and secret places to entertain the walker throughout the year. Bluebell time is probably my favourite though. Or that time in mid June when you can walk through the woods as late at 10pm and still see for the shade. Every time we leave the wood, Holly always finds a suitably over-sized schtick to bring home to add to her growing stockpile - today was no exception ;)

more schticks

Basking dog

After that it was time to bask in the sunshine, and we made the best of it. No work today - apart from making the most delicious banana-chocolate chip bread for the returning hard working man of the house. But that wasn't really hard work, and I followed HIS own easy recipe - half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of butter (I used cooking oil), 1 egg, 1 cup wholemeal flower, 1 cup self raising flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon all spice, a dash of rum, enough chocolate chips for your own taste (plenty!!!), four large bananas and milk to make the batter just moist enough - all in the oven at 180deg for just about an hour. A beautiful cake that is perfect for sitting outside - yes outside - with a cup  of tea and soaking in the sunshine on this fine Spring day. 

An Electric Picnic of sorts...

The sun is shining in on Holly Cottage, oh so lovely! It's Sunday evening and time to stop moving and stooping, and picking and getting all the jobs done that get crammed into the fine weather weekends - if and when they come. And when they do come, well, it's all hands and paws on deck trying to keep pace with weeds, thinning, harvesting, cutting back and re-locating ;)

"..a good turn up for the books..."

Yesterday was to be an easy day, but then we got in touch with the weed situation! They're so good at what they do those pesky weeds - they don't mind being trampled, they spread quick and easy and when you pull them they manage to leave just enough behind to fight another day. And so I was stooped for some time to pull the tricksy weeds from the drills of carrots, parsnips and turnips. Some mighty carrots though, sooo tasty; promising parsnips and too many turnips! Those purple giants are so lovely and easy grown but too many for us. Distribution in gift packs tomorrow so - an early Christmas present for some along with pots of last week's relish. Other jobs were pulling the peas and digging over the soil for winter green manure - Holly the dog was distraught at the loss of the peas. We discovered that when we leave her home, those mornings she could be found  gobbling on peas - leaving only massacred shells to bewilder us when we got home from a long day in the office...until that is I caught her red pawed in the act last Wednesday. Who can blame her really? And she hurt her paw this weekend, so we are going easy on her!

Fire-starter.....na, na, na........

So a Saturday of back bending work and the Holly Cottage garden space looks fantastic. Celery are blanching - collared in milk cartons. This is new territory for us - the cartons slipped over the growing crowns should help to train those tasty stems up and up (we hope - I keep you posted); tomatoes are reddening and their stems are buckling under the weight of all that juicy goodness, while Craig's chillies - literally - look like they are on fire. Those shiny red buds, a supernatural colour reminiscent of red patent shoes are just waiting to unlock their firey magic. Nets are up to protect broccoli and sprouts -  why then did I discover to my horror, nearly 100 caterpillars feasting between yesterday and today on our plants? They were blatantly sun-bathing between munching away on green goodness - clearly having slipped the net. Between basking caterpillars and cat sized slugs - it's enough to turn a girl to shop bought broccoli!

Try buy that outfit in H+M!

Along with those less than desirable fauna, we have close on 50 bees - honey and cute bumble varieties - buzzing between the lavender, chives and oregano. These hard working types are usually joined by Tortoise Shell and the odd Peacock butterfly to brighten up the day. We're hoping the bees will find the pumpkin flowers attractive, as back up we'll try a bit of DIY ourselves ;)

Of course you can't expect to work on an empty stomach so this week's treat was a sunflower seed-topped banana bread, yum (and by the way, near disappearing)! Take 10 mins while your oven is heating up - beat 4oz butter and 6oz soft brown sugar, slowly add 2 beaten eggs, mix in 8oz wheaten flour and whatever spice you like (cinnamon and all spice are good). Fold in 6 mashed bananas and a dash of milk with a handful of chopped walnuts (we didn't have any - so we settled for sunflower seeds sprinkled on top). Into the oven for an hour at 170 deg (depends on your oven - hope yours is better than our gremlin infested antique :)) and the sweet, nutty, reviving goodness will save you from passing out on a hard won gardening day.

And so, instead of tripping to the Electric Picnic, we tripped around our own backyard and thankfully the sun shone. Robert Smith will have to wait another day for me -  I hope it was amazing for all followers new and long term devotees, but the memory of The Cure in the then Point Depot in 1992 was enough to keep my green fingers tapping.