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.
We are long time admirers of Mary Reynolds and were delighted when she created her ARK movement. ARK stands for Acts of Restorative Kindness. You can read all about it on the ARK website HERE. People all over the world are now creating ARKS on the land that they have available. It is time to … Read more Let’s build an ARK
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.
The Victorians were known for adding a lot of quirky and artistic aspects to their gardens. Grottoes, unusual water features, mazes and labyrinths. We are particularly fond of the stumpery; a Victorian invention built from a pile of old tree roots and stumps with ferns, mosses and other plants growing amongst and on them. The first stumpery was created by an artist and gardener named Edward William Cooke in Staffordshire in 1856.
There is a saying around here that you can get four seasons in a day and it has certainly been true for some days in the past month. Wet snow, sleet, torrential rain, blazing sun and summer temperatures have all played a role in the very changeable weather of March.
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We are very happy to finally have the stove mosaic in our new conservatory completed. The second hand stove is in place for use during very cold winter weather as a backup system to provide heat and protect sensitive plants from dropping temperatures. During the past winter we had no need for it but it is nice to know it is there and it can also be lit to make the space extra cosy and comfortable for midwinter gatherings.
Work continues in our community for welcoming the Syrian refugees who are to arrive shortly. A pilot project, run by community volunteers has been set up called “Friends of the Centre”, Ballaghaderreen. The volunteers will work in collaboration with the Department of Justice and the Irish Red Cross to support the wellbeing and integration of the refugees into the Irish community.
Young swallows hatched in our garden last year.
February was a busy time for all in the garden. The frogs were very busy down by the pond. For a few days their croaking could be heard in all corners of the garden and it was a delight to watch them.
We had a rare opportunity to spend a couple of hours on a North West Mayo Beach yesterday. If you travel past Ballina along the winding coastal road you soon come upon the Village of Killala, a wonderful place, steeped in history with a round tower and a quay that merits a visit in itself. But yesterday we drove on past the village and reached the beautiful Ross Strand. A large proportion of the beach is sandy but we headed left from the car park into the spectacular rock pool landscape. We are no experts on rock compositions and geological facts but it does not detract from the enjoyment and sheer wonder that can be felt in a place like this.
We have written about willow before. It is truly an incredible inhabitant of the land. We have friends with a river on their land and they have a lot of willow planted along the river banks. They were kind enough to let us coppice some of it for our new willow fence and plant supports. We also coppiced our dogwoods growing close to our cottage and ended up with a selection of beautiful young stems for weaving.
It was quite cold all throughout the month of January here in the West of Ireland. The daffodils poked their heads up and a couple of them even started to turn yellow by the end of the month. The Hellebores flowered beautifully and we fed the birds a lot of nuts and seeds to keep them healthy and content.
As most of you know the last few days we have been working on the artwork for the “Welcome to Roscommon” movements wall to welcome the Syrian refugees soon to arrive in the local community.
Last week we were honoured to be asked by the “Welcome to Roscommon” Movement to create the artwork for the welcome wall project. As some of you know already, Ballaghaderreen has been selected to host a number of Syrian Refugees in a transition centre, where they can rest, recuperate and get to know their new country a little bit before being moved to permanent housing across the country. You can read about the many wonderful projects the Welcome to Roscommon movement are initiating to make this transition as positive and easy as possible on their Facebook page.
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