An alternative to Big Brother?

(Linda’s first blog entry)
Well we are certainly getting our farmyard education. Keith the farmer called to say he was going down to see the stallion tonight did we want to come. Sure Richard said, see you at 6pm. Being complete townies hadn’t realised it was to take Lucy to be covered for next year. She’d only given birth to her colt Sean (Linda’s naming) 9 days ago! Lucy got taken into the enclosure and the stallion was brought out. Good looking horse, fawn colour with black boots and a black mane. Foreplay was a nuzzle and some gnashing of teeth together, then it was a quick wham bam thank you mam – sound familiar… Lucy stood perfectly still and took her medicine. By the time we left there were another 2 horseboxes lining up outside and we passed another one on the way – that stallion was in for a good night!

The Burren

This really is quite a magical place – particularly when the sun is shining on the meadow at Gortlecka – in the Burren National Park – or setting over the wedge tomb on the high common at Parkanabinnia. I often wondered about the motivation for my Barbican neighbour Dick Butler who would disappear with his rucksack, sandwiches and camera to search out orchids in the English countryside. However having seen the Gortlecka meadow yesterday absolutely awash with the colours of the wild flowers – including literally hundreds of orchids – I think I begin to understand.

World Class Golf Courses

Having been in Co. Clare almost 3 months now, we made our 2nd visit to the local pitch ‘n’ putt last week. It was another beautiful morning, and with only 3 other players a good few holes in front of us, all was peaceful. However by the end of the 18 holes we were 4 balls down, I had collected a number of irritating horse fly bits and the feeling of peace and tranquillity had evaporated somewhat. So don’t think we will be progressing to any championship golf courses anytime soon, in fact the local pitch ‘n’ putt is in serious jeopardy.

Inis Oirr

Managed our first visit to one of the Aran Islands on a hot sunny day last week. 40 min ferry ride from Doolin and a planned 4 ½ hour walk around the island. By the time we reached the half way point we decided it was too hot to continue and retired to the pub for the obligatory Guinness. Managed a bit more of the walk in the late afternoon before catching the last ferry home. Over-riding impression is of miles and miles of dry stone walls.

Gardening

Have spent nearly 12 hours over the last week or so cutting down the nettles and other weeds on the paddock with a borrowed strimmer. Reckon there was about ¼ of an acre of nettles which were over 5ft tall – have to make sure you lean back when they fall. The place is looking very tidy and was fertilised yesterday to encourage the grass. Will have to keep going with the strimmer to give the grass a chance but hope that we have started to get it under control. A couple of weeks good growth and we will have the donkey and horse back again – along with Lucy’s new colt who was born on Monday. Awwww!

Driving in County Clare

Since we arrived, we have been aware of the relaxed pace of the traffic on our local roads – most of which are less than two lanes wide. This seems to have changed in the last few weeks as the farms are all busy cutting grass for silage and hay. The contractors who are cutting, baling and wrapping, are currently racing around the roads in their tractors as they move from field to field and from farm to farm. Have got used to pulling over to let them pass – I’m not in that much of a a hurry to get anywhere!
Realised this week just how much Linda has settled in. As we drove into Corofin on Sunday afternoon I asked her to stop at the Eurospar to get a newspaper. In true local style she pulled upside outside the shop and stopped to let me out – blocking the only lane and oblivious to the traffic held up in both directions.
Final comment – driving to Killaloe last week to meet my folks, we saw an elderly lady standing at a road junction with her suitcase – waiting for the bus we thought – then saw that she was thumbing a lift and as we passed without slowing, the thumb changed into a two-fingered salute!

Tour de Burren

Had a great day on Saturday, the sun shone and a headwind blew, naturally, as I completed the 60k Tour de Burren - along with about 500 other cyclists - in just over 2 ½ hours. It was a great route and extremely well organised. Tremendous to start on traffic free roads and to complete the climb up Corkscrew Hill without the threat of coaches coming the other way.

Visitors

Have had a busy few weeks with visitors – lots of fun and plenty of good food and drink – but it was quite nice to have a couple of quiet days to ourselves. My folks are over in Killaloe for a few days – so have been there a couple of times but they are heading home on Friday.
Don’t even have the cow and calf any more since the cow decided that the grass really was greener on the other side and jumped the fence, leaving poor little Dougal behind.
Busy training for the 60km Burren cycle challenge on Saturday which includes a ride up Corkscrew Hill – had a trial run at it on Sunday, so just need dry weather without a wind for the weekend and all should be fine. Tried to persuade Linda to join me but she has volunteered to be my support team instead.

Fishing

Chris arrived from London last week after promises of trout and sea-fishing. On day one we headed for Rosroe lake by Rathlahine castle, hired boat, fly rod and spinning rod and headed out on the water. It was a dry overcast day and we were the only ones on the water. Lovely day out but not a sign of a fish all day – had to text Linda to open the two tins of tuna which had been bought as a standby!
Our seafishing trip with John from Cleggan was much more successful. Drove up through Connemara – clear skies, sunshine and wonderful views - with a stop for dinner at O’Dowds in Roundstone – local oysters, mussels, salmon and pan fried cod washed down with Guinness. Early start the next morning for the full Irish breakfast from my cousin Sue – I do love the white pudding! - and onto the boat at Cleggan with 7 others. Another great day – clear skies, hardly a breeze and bright sunshine all day.
Managed to catch a good number of Pollack and some Ling and headed home in the evening with about 4 kilos of fillets. Tinned tuna once a week is enough!

How do you tell the difference between a shag and a cormorant?

Had a couple of trips last week watching seabirds. The first was on the south side of Galway Bay with an ornithologist by name of John Murphy who took us to see a small colony of terns nesting on an islet in Aughinish Bay. In addition to Common and Arctic terns there were a lot of Sandwich terns and black-headed gulls and even a Mediterranean gull. We also saw a pair of egrets on the far shore.
Then Chris and I saw a few different seabirds – including black guillemots - on our fishing trip.
Finally we went to the Cliffs of Moher with Chris and Ali and were watching puffins, guillemots, razorbills. Found that we were standing next to the warden – Tom – who was identifying different birds for us through his 20X telescope. This led to Ali’s question above and probably brightened Tom’s day considerably!

Weather

Tuesday 2nd June was hottest day in Ireland (27.5C) since summer of 2006. We have now had 11 consecutive days without rain although the temperature has dropped back to a more usual 16C. Still warm and sunny during the day so I wonder how long it will be before the papers start talking about a drought.
Neil – our racing pigeon – finally decided to leave after 5 days. We had fed and watered him for the first three days but on the advice of the experts encouraged him to depart by stopping the bird seed. It worked.
Getting used to Dougal and his mum on the paddock. Dougal has become livelier in the last day or so and beginning to chew the grass a little but mum is only interested when it is time for her feed in the morning and evening. They are not really making any inroads on the new growth so they will be joined by two more cows next week. May still have to spring for the ride-on mower – there was a comparison of the latest models in this weekend’s gardening section which I read with interest!
The mother-in-law left on Thursday – as expected she arrived bearing lots of gifts – including a litre of very drinkable malt – and was the perfect house guest. Did a lot of the tourist things and even managed to get her to weed the flowerbeds. Hope our next visitors – arriving on Monday and Wednesday respectively – are as well behaved. Looking forward to some male company and perhaps some trout fishing.

More wildlife?

As Linda was making lunch on Monday I noticed that we had been joined by a pigeon – it had wandered into the kitchen and appeared to waiting to be served food and drink. Noticed its leg ring and registration number and - having persuaded it to take its lunch outside on the deck – managed to identify it as the property of a member of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. According to the RPRA website, a lost racing pigeon will usually be on his way home within 48 hours.
Decided to call him Neil - in light of his namesake’s recent blog comment and the pigeon’s green Hibbie neck – and hoped that he would eat his lunch and bugger off without troubling us further. Unfortunately he is still here after 36 hours and if he doesn’t take wing soon may fall victim to the stoat which appeared for the first time this afternoon – perhaps attracted by a pedigree pigeon too dumb to fly away?
True to his word, Keith had appeared on Saturday morning pushing a wheelbarrow with a day old Limousin calf closely followed by its mother and installed them on the paddock. Our duties now include ensuring that there is sufficient water in the trough and feeding the mother twice a day to enhance her milk production. The calf – unofficially named Dougal by Linda and her mum – is cute but very shy and spent most of the weekend sleeping. However by this evening has become a bit more adventurous and started checking out the boundaries of the paddock.
I suggested steak for dinner but had to settle for fish instead.