December 2025

The road to recovery is not straight

I’d like to wish all my readers a very Happy New Year - event though you don’t comment or even click on the like button, I keep hearing of additional readers (hello #10) and I’m very happy that my words land. I’ll keep writing, and I hope you’ll keep reading in 2026.

December was a quiet month for me - my focus was on flexibility and strengthening post hip replacement - and if I took focus off that (parties, gallivanting etc) I paid the price. I had one day with a very sore knee where I couldn’t put any weight on that foot at all, and was back on 2 crutches. That only lasted a day, but it made me less gung-ho on the exercising.

I did manage a few sessions of preserve making, the rocoto chillies that I harvested green ripened inside, and while they were not super hot, they were the main ingredient in some chilli jam and some salsa. This year we added figs and/or raspberries to the chilli jam , both were very tasty.

As you may know, I love free food, and creative ways to avoid food waste, so when our neighbours offered us unpeeled peanuts left over from Halloween, of course we said yes. I had thought to give them to the birds, but Brian suggested that we make peanut butter. Shelling them was a bit of a pain, but a good sitting down activity for me, and then Brian roasted them and ground them in the food processor. It took a while but it did make delicious peanut butter - we made one with salt and one without - and now enjoying both in porridge the mornings. The shells are in the wormery, now nicely covered with fungus, and will eventually be consumed by the worms.

My walking has sped up a bit (still not back to pre op speed tho, and maybe that was a bit fast with potential for trips and random bruising?) and I’m covering greater distances - a pre Christmas shopping trip to Galway was 12K steps - but I was good for nothing by 3:30 pm. Here’s the data from my Fitbit - nice to see the progress.

Step count Nov and Dec- Sorry, graphs not aligned!

We had a little outing to the tree farm and got to try out our new fire pit - this years Christmas gift to ourselves. We didn’t use it to cook anything, but can confirm that it lights quickly, and burns well, and isn’t too smokey. We bought our first Kelly Kettle 14 years ago, it’s still going strong - we used it to boil water for tea and hot chocolate with our sandwiches. I highly recommend getting one if you like a hot beverage in the great outdoors!

I was a bit frightened of how I’d get in and out of the van post op, but I managed well at the tree farm and even drove it a bit. So feeling quite positive about my recovery now!

The starlings are back near Lough Ennell - I have seen them in the past, but went out deliberately to see them recently and I highly recommend it. It’s an awe inspiring sight, and they seem to be pretty reliable in murmurating every evening.

Murmuration at Engel. Photo taken by my taller friend Wendy.

Coole Meadow

Still enjoying the 2025 harvest - lots of pumpkins and tromboncino squash sitting waiting to be eaten, and a few potatoes also. You might remember that we had a lot of potatoes with eel worm damage - I was able to salvage some of those potatoes by cutting out the damaged parts. I then processed them for freezing - partially cooked, cooled, dried and put in a freezer bag with some oil - they were delicious roasted in the oven (from frozen) and very convenient. Freezing potatoes puts me in good company, though this is a but too much faff for me.

Planning to get back to the field in January - we have fruit trees ordered, and some coloured willow that will need to be planted. Looking forward to resuming the work and the picnics!

Workshops

No workshops delivered this month. Normally I’d have been delivering wreath workshops, but quite happy not to. Friends were worried that I’d be bored, but with all basic activity (showering, moving, getting dressed) taking a lot longer, with physio exercise, walks and naps or rests, there wasn't really time to be bored.

I’m delighted to be partnering with Red Roots Farm to run a Sourdough Workshop in early February. Based on feedback from a previous newsletter, a Sunday morning is good for workshops, so let’s see how this goes! We have limited spaces and there are bookings already, so phone Tom (087 905 2686) if you’d like to book a place.

Flower Farming

There’s not a huge amount to be done for or with the flowers in December, but I was delighted to get back into the tunnel in the past few days for a bit of work. Last year I removed the raised beds, and this has made the ranunculus planting a lot easier. I took a chance and planted the corms directly - this seems to have paid off, and butterfly and regular plants are sprouting. I put down metal mesh shelves to keep the cats form digging - these now need to be moved up onto blocks to allow the plants to grow unimpeded. Any where that wasn’t protected has been dug by the cats, who are lovely, but a bit of a menace.

There are quite a few volunteer plants coming up too - nasturtium, poppy calendula and sweet peas. The sweet peas I have moved to modules - they don’t love being moved, but since they are free, it cant hurt to try. I think that the nasturtium won’t survive a frost, but the poppies and calendula need to be removed, they will starve the ranunculus. So I was delighted to get that done, and even though I can only work for short bursts, its great to get out.

I let the hens out in the main garden - they did a bit of rooting and weeding for me, probably some fertilising too! They were delighted to be out, and there are no small seedlings at the moment that they can damage.

Learning

I finally buried the woollen strips that we knitted at the “Soil your Scarf” event in Mullingar Library. Jess gave us some extra wool, so I made a few extras. There’s one now in the tunnel, one in a big pot filled with homemade compost, and growing garlic, one in the front garden and another in a worm bin. There’s a final one destined for Coole Meadow. It will be very interesting to see how fast they break down - which is a good indicator of soil health.

Upcoming events

As mentioned above - No Knead Sourdough workshop on Feb 8th in Killucan - phone Tom (087 905 2686) to book your place.

Also. I’m organising an event in IMMA with the Talamh Beo Womens group, February 6th. There are lots of women farmers doing amazing things in spite of our messed up food systems and with climate change disruptions. If you’d like to learn more, details are here.

Looking forward to a Mullingar Gathers community supper in Cuige on Jan 10th.

Also, a Brigids day sound bath with friend of the newsletter Michaela in Fire and Earth on Feb 1st.

Links

An article about a Talamh Beo event I attended in Trinity College.

Chef Sam black talking about fermentation and evolution - a wide ranging talk.

Seed saving - a beautiful video

Seed saving instructions - free

Music

Something lively to see in the New Year - wishing everyone Peace and Abundance in 2026.