Recycled Eco Buildings and Wildlife Friendly Food Forest Garden. Mosaics and Glass Bottle Walls.
Over the last few years we have extended our old cottage, built a conservatory and are now in the process of renovating and improving our shed to use as a workshop and storage facility. Our aim is for our buildings to have as little negative impact as possible on the environment. We have used reclaimed … Read more Building our sustainable home.
Even before we bought our cottage and piece of land four year ago, we were planning our forest garden. Forest gardens exist all over the world and their history goes back for thousands of years. It is a way of growing mostly perennial vegetables, shrubs, trees, vines and other useful plants in a way that … Read more Gardening in harmony.
My name is Maria. Many of my earliest memories are to do with nature and plants. I remember travelling along a road through a forest in the middle of winter in Sweden and every time the moon glimpsed through the trees I would shout out in wonder “Look at the moon”. This annoyed my big … Read more About the author.
As many of you know we are involved in setting up the local Community Garden. Last summer we planted an area close to the entrance with flowers and other plants that attracts wildlife like bees, birds and butterflies. We did not remove plants like dandelions, daisies and clover.
The first part of January was unseasonably mild and we were quite worried as many buds on trees and shrubs started to swell and lots of flowers burst open much too early in the season.
Pulmonaria.
For the second time in the six years we have lived in our cottage, we woke today to miraculous beauty.
First of all, if you are a regular reader of our blog please do not despair. This post concludes our soft furninshings interlude and from next week we will be back to our usual topics!
A couple of years ago we were given some beautiful rattan furniture from friends. They were without any sort of cushions and not really usable in that state.We were lucky enough to rescue some foam from other friends who were getting rid of a sofa and it was easy enough to measure and cut the foam to shape. We then made covers from sturdy cotton fabric.
Two of our girls are planning on going off to College in September. It will be a big transition and will take some getting used to on all parts. To make this a bit less daunting we have decided to make each of them a going off to College blanket, a bit of home to wrap up in while doing homework, watching a film or reading.
When I moved from Sweden to Ireland in 2004 I was most struck by the lack of winter. Coming from a place of snow, ice and soil sometimes frozen solid for months on end, I was amazed when the last leaves falling off the trees and the last flowers of the year were met by hellebores, snowdrops and daffodils without so much as a snowflake to separate them. Read more
As we now have past the winter solstice, it is time to look back, remember and be thankful for all that the year brought.
