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.
We have to admit to a love of colours. Our house is full of them. We definitely do not subscribe to a less is more approach when it comes to decorating our house. We are firm believers in that vibrant colours enhance mood and create a happy and relaxed atmosphere in the home.
We are very happy and proud to share our daughters first blog post.
I am a young adult on the autistic spectrum so I see, feel and hear things differently to most people. I just bought a new camera called a Canon EOS 200D and it is in very good quality. I have taken a lot of photographs on my smartphone but smartphone cameras aren’t that good. I decided to buy my digital camera in the Galway camera shop. I have been practicing in the garden with the camera taking very good photographs.
I took photographs of an old tractor, flowers, the ponds and my cats. They have come out in good shots.
I decided to zoom in very closely to the flowers to get the texture.
These are my cats who I love to spend time with.
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.
We are now half way through December and have yet to write our post about the garden in November.
Looking back, it was a rather unglamorous month with many grey days and a few heavy duty tasks to be performed. We did a lot of clearing up in different areas where certain plants were expressing a wish for world domination.
thegreenerdream 