Our Favourite Walk

At this time of year, the land isn't used and so we love to walk the dog around the perimeter whilst wrapped up - hats, scarves, salopettes - the big field is the centre point of Islandmagee but also one of the highest places...from the top you can see both Scotland and the Glens of Antrim so the wind is a permanent feature. It's pretty remote and we have seen mainly hares but also badgers, stoats & foxes.

According to some true beaneaters (we're only blow ins, having been here since only 1978) there was a fete held in the big field at the time of the Queen's coronation. I would loved to have been there - Islandmagee was certainly more of a community then - the pub hadn't been demolished, there was no power station (no pylons), no electricity interconnector to Scotland (the size of six football pitches at this end & although we fought it and "THEY" won, it cost £70 million to construct plus £30 million for recent repairs with current faults not fixed and therefore working to only half capacity see here if you really want to make your blood boil), no gas pipeline running through the middle of the peninsula and no underground gas storage  which is the next treat in store for us Islandmagee residents - it will cost £400 million to set up the huge underground caverns before one iota of gas is purchased - how much gas could you buy for £400 million and what will be dumped in these caverns when the gas runs out - we humans in the western world seem incapable of looking beyond the next fifty years - enough enough - this wasn't meant to be no sad post, we've heard enough of that before. PB

 

 To the southwest & Larne Lough

 To the Southeast

 To the Northwest overlooking Larne and the Glens in poor visibility!

 

My favourite - in the snow!

 

Racing Ahead

I have so much to blog re Christmas, I don't know where to start, but I was looking through photos from the summer and getting really excited about new planting plans for the garden, garden visits, workshops etc etc. I'm also trying to go throught the thousands of photos taken and delete all the poor ones - a tiresome job!

Here are a few pics to remind us of midsummer!

I would post more on the festivities of the last week but I can't get off the sofa to go and get the camera card....for tea I had half a duck with pancakes & plum sauce, Jamie's chinese chicken parcels, a bag of prawn crackers and homemade special fried rice, followed by half a box of roses (only stopped cos I'm starting to get toothache). My hubbie's just brought me a wee Baileys - that should help wash it all down :)

One Horse Sleigh

That's me - I'm a one horse sleigh. I knew that I was taking this on as a one man band and I do love it....but I'm exhausted. As I'm drifting off to sleep in the wee small hours, I'm mentally chopping foliage - rosemary, eucalyptus, viburnum, ivy, etc etc. I haven't left the barn all week......except to go into the garden for more foliage. When the weather's good, it's lovely and bright as the windows in the barn face mainly south. On wet and windy days it's pretty dark and depressing......the shortest day of the year and all that.

Tomorrow is to be wet and windy which is a bummer as it's the last workshop of the year - I have been so lucky - since the first workshop at the beginning of June, every single workshop date has been sunny and bright.

It's been so hectic all week that I forgot to bring my camera so must take lots of pics tomorrow.
In the meantime, here are some photos of last week's lovely ladies and their creations.

Busy, busy, busy

making wreaths, wreaths & more wreaths.....promise better posts & pics to come soon. My workshops are fully booked & my hands are like one of those horrendous photos you see when you google strange skin conditions - working with holly and wire all day - the glamorous life of a florist.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

 

On Monday, we bought our Christmas tree and I can't believe how expensive they are now - the Noble Fir were £60! For the first time, I opted for a cheaper Lodgepole Pine at only £40, which is the bottle brush one....but because it had been pruned, it has a lovely full shape and fills the room with a lovely pine scent. I recently ordered lots of different conifers, bare root, to come from Co Cork so I think I will choose a nice one and keep it in a pot to bring in at Christmas - our house is so cold it should be fine. (I am sitting writing this with my salopettes on - is that sad?)

 

We are going to buy a wood burning stove in the new year - that's for another post - it is so complicated - we have spent months researching the best ones as we want a boiler one that will heat the house and I know it will take an awful lot of wood but if the wood is well seasoned and the right type (ash, hawthorn, oak) it should be fine. Sorry....I digress.

 

We also finally put up the decorations on Monday  - I love it...it just makes the house feel so cosy - I hate taking them down, everything seems so bare and stark.

Catch Up

I know it's a cliche but time really does fly when you're busy (and having fun!). I spent all week finshing the barn for Christmas workshops - painted the metal cladding, wrapped the entire barn to keep the wind out. On Friday night, last minute as usual, I moved into the barn so to speak - for the first time in four years, all of my floral paraphernalia (and there was a lot) moved out of my house and garage and into the barn. The house is still a mess - only half tidied but I feel like I'm almost sorted.

My first Christmas Workshop was yesterday and we had a blast - really good fun, Christmassy music, mulled wine, home baked treats from my kind mum and the sun shone into the barn the whole time so it wasn't too cold. It's amazing how the girls all produced such different wreaths - so creative and really talented - I was so impressed!

 

Of course I still haven't got the deccies up...they're out of storage and causing an obstruction in the hall - just to remind me that I'm the world's greatest procrastinator :(