From Parking Lot to Cottage Garden

Phacelia

It is what it is. Newly built houses here in Ireland often look as if they have been dropped  down from a great height with built-in foliage remover into (or should that be onto ?) the landscape.

It was no different for the property we bought and moved into in April 2013. Surrounded by a flat gravely area that could park 15 busses or thereabouts. 

The driveway led straight towards the living area of the house.  I wasn't having any of that.  

That very summer we had a good part of the hardcore gravel dug out.  Hard as concrete it was and it went deep. How deep, we didn't find out. We stopped at about 50/60cm.

It was then filled in with many tractor loads of good soil.  That summer we didn't have plants in it, because by the time we finished autumn had already arrived.

By next spring we added a little seating area. Many plants were put in and a mixture of wildflower and cottage garden flower seeds sown. I cannot tell you how many plants, cuttings and seeds my mother has given me over the years that now adorn quite a few gardens in Ireland, Belgium and France.

And here we are now. Summer 2015. It hasn't been a great summer, but at last, the house looks like it starts to belong in its setting.

View from the house towards old driveway.

After

And again from a slightly different angle. Spring/summer 2014

And this year. A bit windswept but nothing can now spoil my view from the sitting room.

To reposition the driveway there was quite a bit of rock breaking to be done.

On the far right is now the driveway.

Nothing like an abundance of flowers to lift the spirit and feed the bees.

Hope you enjoyed the progress. Come again soon.

Patricia xxx...x

Dolphin Rescue Mission

Never in a month of Sundays was I expecting this mission when I wobbled out of bed this morning !
We were just getting ready to take Bert's sister Imelda and her friend Sonja out for a tour of the Ring of Kerry when Bert ran up the stairs, huffin' and puffin' : " Come downstairs there are 2 dolphins near the house ! " (in the water obviously).
We expect to see seals every now and then but dolphins don't usually come this far up.  Oh the excitement  we felt !
It struck me that what they were doing was not normal. It was soon clear to us that the mother was in distress and the calf (probably from last year) just followed her into shallow water.
Bert and Wen had already taken off their shoes and where in the water in no time, trying to guide them away and into deeper water. To no avail.
Phoned a friend who knew a thing or two about what to do. He arrived not long after, wetsuit, kayaks, more helpers and family and friends.
Mama dolphin was hurt and she was bleeding.  A phone call to Vincent Hyland  from Wild Derrynane  had him here in no time. In the half hour it took for Vincent to arrive the lads tried to keep the dolphins afloat and wet at the top.
Trying to get the pair out into deeper water and out of the bay was impossible. After a stint with dinghy, kayak and a swimming Vinnie, they decided to leave them in the next little inlet where the water is somewhat deeper. There is a neap tide at the moment and that should make things easier. Tomorrow, they'll need checking up on. That is all we can do for now.
It was 9.30 this morning when we first noticed them and 13.30 when the 'rescue team' finally left.

Photo by Wen Chin Ter

 Bert trying to get them into deeper water before all the help arrived

 Unfortunately, the only thing we could do at the time was keep them afloat with belly down

Our friend, Etienne arrived, all dressed up in wetsuit. 

Again, keeping the mama upright. 

The arrival of Vincent Hyland, who is a walking wildlife encyclopedia.

Whenever the dolphins were guided into deeper water they would make it straight back to the water's edge. 

Taking 'swimming with dolphins' to a new level 

 Bert and Michael getting ready for deeper waters

 The others, the supporting team

 Sometimes the only thing one can do is observe. And pet the cat.

Wen, our present volunteer.

"So, what's happening here ? " Xena, the cat who wants to be involved in all the action.

And what have I been doing ? Running to and fro the house for drinking water, coffee, towels to keep the dolphins' backs wet, running to get flippers out of cars. Making coffees, teas and sandwiches, because after 4 hours of rescue, the A-Team could do with a bite to eat.

According to Vinnie, the bleeding on mama dolphin had stopped. Why did they come this far up the inlet will be a mistery. Maybe the mama is sick, maybe they got excluded and chased out of the pod. 

Maybe they thought this was a safe place for them, because there is talk that orcas/killer whales have been spotted in the bay. 

We keep fingers and toes crossed that they will be ok for now, in a deeper water inlet a 100 meters from where we first discovered. them. Because, like Vinnie said, if the mama dies, the calf won't survive on its own.

I will keep you up to date if and when I have more news.

Patricia xxx...x

Thanks to Michael, Etienne, Vincent, Bert - the A-team
To Steffie, Wen, Pam, Ann, Diane & friend, Imelda & Sonja - the supporting team.
Let's add to it and say, this was and international rescue team. Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Ireland, Germany & Belgium.


Update Monday, 24th August 2015
Unfortunately, they didn't make it.  At 1.15pm Bert went out in the boat to check up on them and he found they both had passed away in the same spot where they had been harboured.  It is sad beyond believe..

Mischievous Pigs

Moving on from our first 4 pigs, we found the breed that we wanted, not too far away. Only a 2 hour drive one way - insert a rolleye emoticon here. That was last January.
The Tamworth got its name from the town in the English Midlands. They are a very old breed of pigs that  inhabited the British Isles, but also Ireland.  Over here they are called Irish grazers.
They are ginger ! They have a long-ish body, long-ish snout and prick ears.

The ones we got were again a cross breed. The advert said Duroc father and Tamworth mother. Arriving at the farm in county Cork, we got shown around at made our acquaintance with the parents.
We own a book about pigs and it has a lot of useful info for the wannabe-small-scale pig farmer. It contains the different breed of pigs and I was pretty sure that the father didn't look anything like a Duroc, but more like an Oxford Sandy and Black.  Which didn't matter to us one little bit, but when I said this to the farmer he had also had his doubts, but he bought the boar as a Duroc. Most likely it also is a cross breed.

As you can see here in the photo above, this is 'Smudge' and smudges are a distinct characteristic of the Oxford S & B.
We loaded up the four girls and headed back home with them.
Always planning to keep them in the enclosure in the shed for a day or so till they get used to their comfy environment, before we let them roam their patch of land.

I love how they tuck themselves in underneath the straw and lay there like a packet of sausages. 

Exploring their courtyard.

And then a bit further afield ...

Can you notice the bald patches on their coats ?  Mange ! Just like with the previous lot. Mange or Sarcoptes scabiei mites.

Terrible parasite for the little buggers. It makes them itchy that it is uncomfortable to watch, even more uncomfortable for the animals. They scratch and scratch, and scratch some more. It  depresses growth rate and feed efficiency. What's more, the pigs get depressed too.

With the first piggies I was in a bit of a panic, to put it mildly.  After yet another google session there seemed to be only one solution and that was to treat them with a poisonous chemical, called ivermectin. I sent Bert to the pharmacy (they stock this), he came back, I read the instructions for use and sent him and the product back to the village. I did not want to use this.

Looking for alternative methods I resorted to a blend of olive oil and essential oils (incl. tea tree, lavender, citronella). While this might work preventative or in very early stages, I didn't feel it was effective in a short time frame.

I enquired with friends-with-pigs and they advised me to go for the stuff from the pharmacy in this case. So, Bert got send back again. We treated them and hey presto! after a day or so the pigs were feeling more confortable already.

We have now found Diatomaceous Earth to sprinkle in their bedding against parasites and they get a digestible version in their food daily. It is preventative and so far, so good. Even though we had to treat the Tamworths with the not-so-friendly product as soon as we came home.

Here they are at 8 months old, looking good. photo by Wen chin Ter

I said before, we have this book about pigs. It says about the Tamworth's personality "This mischievous pig is full of character and a good escape artist. It is not for the beginner." *

We were not beginners, were we ? We'd had one lot of 4 pigs before. Right ?

These pigs are full of character and absolutely, unequivocally great escape artists ! Mischievous !

They have escaped their outside enclosure many times. Through the electric fence, by accident or when there is a fault on the fence and the power is off. They don't usually go far. As a matter of fact, they mainly stay close to the fence, but on the outside. Not a snowball's chance in hell will they go back in the way they came out, even when the power has been switched off. Trying to lure them with their favourite treat, like chunks of apple or other fruit, makes no difference. Push them in the direction you want them to go results in a sit-in or lie-down protest.

The only method is to lure them all the way around the perimeter of their enclosure, towards the shed's door-for-humans. Be certain that someone has opened that already, if not they will wander off to somewhere else.

Guiding an escape back to the shed. Photos by Irma Janssens (my mother)

One time, the 4 of them broke out of their pen into the rest of the shed. And they had an absolute ball! They tried the bicycles (or so we think), they made short shrift with a large bale of straw, spreading it all over. They got to their bucket with food that was meant for their dinner.
In short, it was like a funfair for pigs in there.
At the moment we have 2 pigs left and one of them regularly wanders around in the shed. Trying to coerce  her back, opening the gate without the other one going for a dander as well is nigh on impossible. Eventually they go back in after a lot of swearing from me and/or Bert.
They are friendly, inquisitive and funny. But lest we forget, they are also big and heavy by this stage. It is wise to be cautious at all times.

Cute butt. Photo by Manon Wyermars.

Thanks for reading

Patricia xxx...x

Malaysian Curry Paste - Vegetarian Version

That's what I'll call it for now. But it could be from anywhere in Southeast Asia, I suspect.
We are honored to have a lovely young woman from Malaysia staying here as a volunteer. Her name is Wen and even though she has been traveling a good part of the globe for 5 years or so, I feel it is my duty as a host to make our volunteers at home. So, I 'try' to cook something from their homeland from time to time.
Now, I am not a seasoned cook in Asian cuisine.  Oh, I do make Indian curries and kormas and other Indian inspired dishes. And bami goreng is also in my repertoire. Obviously all given the 'Patricia treatment' depending on the ingredients I have in the pantry and spice drawer.
Trawling the internet for a Malaysian curry I came across many recipes that called for 'a jar of Malaysian curry paste'. Yeah, well, that wasn't on the cards living where we live.  I prefer to cook from scratch anyways.
Off to google Malaysian curry paste recipes, then. I was in luck, if only I had some galangal and lemongrass. I didn't have any shrimp paste either, but that was okay, since Wen is a vegetarian.
Looking a bit further I also found recipes for Laksa paste. this paste contains more ingredients  and would give a slightly intenser, albeit different flavour.

Here is my concoction, made with a gathering of internet info.

Ingredients

• 1 medium size onion, peeled & cut into large pieces
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 1/2 chilli, red or yellow, medium heat - I used red serenade chilli. By all means, use a hotter variety if you so wish. Wen is from Chinese descent and doesn't take to overly spicy food.
• a good chomp of ginger, peeled and sliced
• handful of cashew nuts
• 6 fresh or dried kaffir lime leaves
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 level teaspoon paprika
• 1 level teaspoon turmeric
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons of peanut oil

The ingredients I didn't have were galangal & lemongrass. I just used more ginger to substitute the first. The lemongrass would have given it a whole different dimension and I advice you to add 1 stalk, white only, chopped.

Method
Chuck it all in the food processor and blend till you have smooth paste.
I used half of the paste for a coconut milk based vegetable curry and froze the other half for future use.

Wen asked me for the recipe ! She might be just polite, but I believe her when she says the flavours are authentic. She mainly uses jarred pastes and they are way to spicy for her and certainly for her German boyfriend. It is also difficult to find a vegetarian option without the shrimp paste in it.
I believe her, also because she had the leftovers for lunch. Haha.

There, Wen, this is a recipe for you.

Thanks for reading.
Patricia xxx...x

Nosy Parkers

Early summer we witnessed from our sitting room window an awful lot of activity from some birds. At closer inspection I was absolutely delighted that a swallow couple had chosen our house to build their own little 'lean-to'.  

Over the last few weeks we could see flocks of them, sky high, soaring at a much lower altitude  and almost falling out of the sky. It is an acrobatic spectacle I gladly witness from the kitchen windows. 

They are very hard to capture on camera when in full flight.

Sky high. You might need a magnifying glass and look at the tiny black specks. Best noticeable where the cloud is.

And some days they are peeking  through the skylight in the kitchen. Or is it me, peeking through the skylight, observing them ?

Soon, they will leave us for warmer climes and we will have to wait till next year when they make this place their summer retreat once more.

Thank you for stopping by.
Patricia xxx...x

Where do I take up from where I left off ?

I know, I know... I've never had a great routine posting on this blog.  I've tried and failed many a time. But in coming back to Ireland I was intend on getting serious about blogging and creating recipes along the way.
Something happened and stopped us in our tracks with one of our just started projects and it had us knocked for six.  Even though my mind and spirit had been numbed for quite a while, some good has come from our misfortune.
Our present volunteer, Wen, who came to us via HelpX said she was saddened to see that my blog hadn't been updated in a long, long time. This young woman from Malaysia has helped me in finding my motivation again.

Wen

And this is where I take up again...
How many times has Bert vetoed my idea of keeping a few pigs, I can't tell you. He is not a fan of eating our 'pets'. To be frank, neither am I, but this time it was a solution to our 'big' problem. And, ....and, we do eat meat, so let's not be hypocritical about it.
Our first 4 piglets came in the beginning of August last year (2014). They were a cross of 2 old rare breeds, namely Gloucester Old Spot and Saddleback.

 Just arrived in the back of the van.

Finding out where the food is. Notice the elephant head 'tattoo' on the first one's backside.

We were not going to do anything BUT give our piggies the best life we could possibly give them.

They have a lovely dry pen in our shed with lots of straw and they are able to free range on a substantial plot of land.

 Venturing outside for the first time.

Clean... 

Clean...

Not so much... 

We provided them with a wallow and boy, did they enjoy that !

I know I shouldn't name the animals that are destined for meat, but I couldn't help myself naming one of them Pinky.

Two of them, much bigger, in November 2014.

Happy as a pig in muck.

They have gone now and others have come in their place. I will tell you about the next lot later. 

I promise.

Thank you for joining me again.

Patricia xxx...x