December 2024 - Major wind down
...a protest from my weary body....and Happy New Year!
My sickness from November continued - while I had a (good) few workshops in December, I spent a lot of the time in between them trying to recover from a lingering cold - which finally took me down right before Christmas and is just starting to ease now. Nothing serious - a bad cough and a sore throat , and accompanying tiredness. But even with lots of rest its been really hard to shake. My body’s way of telling me to quit for a bit! (So this may be a sorter than usual newsletter)
No New Years resolutions for me - but I will be prioritising self care next year. I’ll let ye know how that goes!
We had a lovely quiet Christmas - I was in no shape to be organising outings or giving todo lists - I expect that the lads were most appreciative. Everyone got on great - including this two - Rusty doing his best not to disturb Shadow, he’s such a gentleman. Note the dirty paw marks on the cover - thats all Shadow. And she just casually sticks her feet and tail on top of Rusty. He’s the picture of forbearance.
Seasonal Activities
We had a gorgeous Dinner in 12 Points, the very posh restaurant at Killua Castle- the Christmas menu was spectacular. We were there for about 4 hours, it was extremely relaxed (except for my coughing) and the 10 or more courses were all amazing. Great service. The attention to detail is on point, and each dish is served on a perfect receptacle - some ceramic, some stone, there’s even a bed of moss for one of the courses. I highly recommend that you check it out. And if you like nice cutlery you won’t be disappointed.
Normally we’d be bird feeding at this time but they are not hungry yet - they are still able to move leaves aside and find worms. And there’s still plants growing! That should change in a day or two - some low temperatures are forecast. I’ll bring the delicate (Italian) herbs into the tunnel - thyme, rosemary, lemon verbena, tarragon. These would probably all be fine if they were in the ground, but they will get too cold in pots if they are outside.
We spent a lovely day on the tree farm - I was foraging for wreath bits - I’m thanking my past self that planted lots of dogwood. The Japanese larch cones are perfect, so we took a lot of that also. There was a Scots pine that blew down in Storm Darragh - we cut that up and brought it home to dry.
I spent a lot of November and December scanning any outdoor areas for wreath material - even while driving on the motorway. (though I didn’t stop) Which actually takes some energy. I took a walk on the canal at the weekend with Rusty, and I consciously gave myself permission to stop scanning and just look and enjoy nature. But I expect that there will always be some low level scanning going on - I’d imagine that it’s genetically imprinted in all of us - it’s probably how our ancestors survived - scanning for food, building materials, etc.
Rocoto peppers are perennial, so I’m bringing them inside to overwinter. For the chilli annuals , I’ll be sowing them soon - will check my stocks and order more from Brown Envelope seeds if necessary. 2024 was a disappointing year for chillis, but we gardeners don’t let one year bring us down - always hoping for a boom year.
Speaking of hot stuff, I made Chilli jam, using pectin made earlier with windfall apples, and chillies frozen earlier - some from a year ago - we had better heat, even in the green chillies - in 2023.
I need to do a bit more freezer clearing - there’s a lot of frozen fruit still. We will be having lots of smoothies and I’ll make more jam. Speaking of jam - nows the time to buy fresh marmalade oranges. You can freeze the marmalade oranges if you don’t have time to make marmalade straight away. But you can also buy a tin of HomeCook Marmalade if you’d like to make life a bit easier for yourself. You can add ginger, cranberries, whiskey, limes - but not all at once - to customise the standard mix to your own special blend.
Also you might like to try using some of your Christmas Tree for flavour - Click here.
Coole Meadow
Only a few visits - mostly focussed on reducing dock strength, and preparing the potato growing area. We have met a neighbour who is delighted for us to take her donkey manure, so we are covering cardboard with that and will cover to all with black plastic till mid March.
We harvested the last of the spuds on Dec 20th, we had some ourselves from a previous harvest for Christmas Day - potato skins , mashed potatoes and roast potatoes all on the menu for the big dinner and ongoing leftovers. We haven’t bought potatoes since July or so - it’s great to have our own.
Workshops
I ran 2 wreath workshops - in Mullingar at Cuige and the Refill Mill. Both were well attended and a lovely time had by all. For the tea and chat portion, I brought mince pie cookies (recipe here) and some sourdough crackers and Faux Gras - it’s a lovely way to enjoy a pate that isn’t meat based but tastes great. So it’s also perfect if you are doing Veganuary.
A couple of wreath photos - but I expect that everyone is over wreaths at this point…
I was delighted to be invited to run a wreath workshop for Parents at Boyne Community School. We anticipated 20 participants, so I asked Bertille from Studio Bleu to help out. We also had the help of many of the TY boys, who carried out all the supplies, and helped with the cleanup and moving everything back into the van. We felt like queens with all the help, and the students were all polite, friendly and interested in what we were doing. We had lovely music while working from the choir and the trad group. All in all, a splendid morning in Trim!
Finally, there was a melt and pour soap making workshop that was part of a staff Christmas party. Lots of lovely scents, and soaps wrapped beautifully as Christmas gifts that are both personal and sustainable.
Flower Farming
Still working on the tunnel project. My son Dara is helping out, which is much appreciated - I wasn’t able to get out over Christmas even though it was really mild. Those crates are full of the soil from the raised beds, we have to remove all that, lift the weed control, remove any scutch roots, and replace the soil. It’s a big project!
The Butterfly Ranunculus is doing great in large pots. I used homemade compost to pot them up, so there’s some weed growth (nigella I think), out will be easy enough to weed that out and then use some of the coffee chaff to make a weed suppressing mulch.
And the regular ranculus is doing OK in a new bed. You can see that they are mulched with the coffee chaff to suppress weeds. The old bed frame bits to the right are my sweet pea trellises. Not that pretty, but effective.
Learning
This month I thought I’d include some of the books I have enjoyed recently
One Garden against the World - a lovely read by Kate Bradbury I borrowed it from the library.
I listened to most of The Overstory on BorrowBox - the library app for digital downloads. It’s very long so I ran out of time, but I’ll be continuing my listen soon. A great one if you had a long journey to go on.
I’m currently reading The Light Eaters - very exciting so far!
Not everything that I read is “climate” related - here’s a few others that stand out:
LOVED Some of our Parts by Laura Kennedy. Subscribe to her newsletter - it’s called peak notions - how could you resist!
Really enjoyed Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer - and looking forward to her Serviceberry book. She’s such an inspiration.
Also I liked All Fours - by Miranda July - I think that this book is generating a lot of chat. It’s a bit of a strange one, but very well written.
This month my main learning has been that I really need to prioritise self care and not wait till I’m felled by illness!
Upcoming events
Mullingar Gathers - New Year Nibbles - still a few places left I think!
So Happy New Year if you’ve made it this far. I really appreciate all my subscribers. thanks for subscribing, for reading and for telling me that you enjoy what I write! Most of you don’t hit the like button or leave comments and that’s OK, because when we meet you tell me how much you enjoy this missive. And thats what keeps me writing it! Not quite 5 years, I’ve been writing since Nov 21, but a girls gotta have goals!