A century for Kilfenora, a fortnight for us

The Gala concert at Kilfenora was a great evening – three hours of almost non-stop music from a group of musicians who were all so good that they made it look effortless – not a sheet of music in sight and lots of unrehearsed sets. There were probably 250 people tapping their toes in time to the music in the community hall all having a good time celebrating an incredible local tradition – pity there was no room for dancing – that came later at the ceili at Vaughan’s Barn down the road.

Went back for some of the open air events on Sunday but the rain had set in and there wasn’t room in the hall for everybody – there was hardly room in the village for all the cars. We ended up home in front of the fire with the Sunday papers, a bottle of white wine and some freshly smoked salmon from the Burren Smokehouse in Lisdoonvarna.

Have had a generally dry week – although 14 hrs of non-stop rain over Thursday night left me with a little work to do clearing some of the drainage channels – luckily Friday and Saturday stayed dry so I could finish the work before the heavy rain arrived on Sunday. There are a variety of "indoor" jobs that have been awaiting a wet period and it looks like that’s what we will get for the coming week.

Linda has been demonstrating her – previously unseen – skills in the kitchen and produced some nettle soup and fresh scones on Saturday. Both excellent and hopefully to be repeated soon – we have enough nettles to feed the proverbial 5000! It may be that the cooking is just a displacement activity to avoid cycling on some of our local hills – despite the new bike and a new helmet this week there has only been one joint cycle ride so far. I have been trying out Oli's technique for getting up the hills - get into the lowest gear early and then just pedal away as you enjoy the view. It's not fast but it is effective.

It has also been two weeks with no broadband and only v limited TV – despite previous assurances we will have to settle for dialup internet access since the cost of a satellite installation (the only alternative) seems prohibitively expensive.

At least two pairs ofbarn swallows – definitely not house martins now – are getting settled into some old nests in the outbuildings. I spent nearly an hour yesterday leaning on a spade watching their aerial manoeuvres – breathtaking skills.

Questionable translations
Linda bought some rubber gloves which she thought would be perfect for me when she read the manufacturers warning that they were not suitable "...for use with medical, irritant, toxic or corrosive children." Could have been something I wrote myself!