I am currently recording these blogs for podcasts, two at a time so if you would like to hear them they are freely available on Sometimes we sit and talk, happy to relax and enjoy one another’s company.įor us it is a new and lovely Irish tradition. Sometimes we play music – Jacqui has put together some splendid play lists and is terrific at finding new performers and new songs. On Saturday evening we always have a special meal, cooked at home and eaten together in the kitchen-diner. So we reach the end of another very busy fortnight. We may go back to look around when the hurling hysteria is passed and the tourist season ends. We liked it very much though it was extremely busy, even on a Tuesday morning. You get a sense of how small the population is when you see a sign congratulating four local players from a place that small. Some were huge, covering an entire bar with a space cut out for the door. There were flags everywhere, even on the churches. Limerick won and the county was celebrating, none more so than in Adare, I suspect. I guess most of you don’t follow the hurling but last week was the all-Ireland Senior final between Limerick and Kilkenny. The mower is a bit clunky, the levers are very stiff and we couldn’t get the grass box on properly so the cuttings went over the “lawn” but it is such fun.

And the batteries run out too fast as it is rough land still and very overgrown. In the meantime we can actually cut the grass! We’ve been using the strimmer but it is pitiful, what I can manage. It still needs a few parts but he’s waiting for these to be delivered. I know we say it every week but I’m sure they come in groups hoping for safety in numbers! Colin soon got the mower running and gave it a quick service. In the middle of this another Tom, Fergus’s lad, was building a wood store and splitting logs out in the wood. That is another lovely Irish tradition we have encountered. As I have Irish ancestors, albeit from another county, somewhere back I’ll be related to them both too. Finally they land on an aunt who married the son of a distant great uncle and the connection is made. They begin with the surname and move out through occupations, places they have lived and marriages.

There is a verbal “dance” as both parties look to establish a connection. With such a low population everyone tends to be related in some way. It was very interesting watching the meeting between Tom and Fergus. He cut out the long loop, running them through the wall of the Majestic and joining it all up again with a minimum of disruption. Once he got access though Tom performed marvels, re-routing the pipes. Tom and his lad said it would have taken them roughly half a day. Having finally identified the water line it made sense to have him dig it out in about ten minutes. Some of the delay was getting Fergus and the digger in at the same time as Tom the pump man. It’s one of the lovely Irish traditions we have encountered. Very little goes to waste, something Fergus approves of heartily. The reusable blocks will make a decent footing for the polytunnel greenhouse next spring. Next summer we may plant honeysuckle along the back of the Majestic too. Jacqui, who can visualise far better than I can, has plans to fill the gaps with compost and plant flowers – winter pansies, chrysanthemums, whatever she can, along the new “wall”. Fergus bulldozed a ramp for us and lined it with some of the broken blocks. Secondly a lot of the blocks were salvageable. Firstly scarcely a speck of dust landed on the solar array.

Jenny finch