Airports and stress

Sitting at Galway Airport with a pint of the blackstuff awaiting boarding call for our flight to Edinburgh. This is my kind of international travel -picked up from home at 5.15 by our local taxi man; easy 65 minute drive to the airport; 7 mins from arriving at airport to sitting in departure lounge with a pint (4mins for Guinness to pour)- Linda held up at security removing shoes, belt, jewelry,underwired bra etc...
Off to the UK 10 days - new car to buy, Mother's 80th birthday party to attend and various friends to catch up with - luckily neighbour Keith is looking after the goslings till we are back.
Forgot to mention that congratulations are due to Linda who got a sterling 3rd prize in the knitting section of the Ennistymon show at the weekend and 10 euros in prize money - paid for the beer at the show!

Which little piggies???

Linda has a new dilemma today after we called into see the piglets which were born about 10 days ago. She has to choose which two from the litter of nine will be ours by the end of July.


Of course they are very cute at this age - even the other ones we saw at 16 weeks were hard to resist. The piglets are crossbreed Saddleback / Duroc and should reach more than 100kg at 6 months. In addition to choosing our two, we still have a couple of other steps before we can bring them home. Most importantly, I am still waiting for my Pig Herd Number from the Dept of Agriculture -while the Irish may try to avoid many aspects of their British history, they could probably give the Civil Sevice in the UK lessons in bureaucracy.

Christmas dinner arrived today

Not looking their best at the moment as they lose their down and develop feathers but I am sure they will be plump and juicy by the time December comes!

Of course these are only our three - they were accompanied by a further 18 which we are going to raise for Keith.

After two days, we are still having to watch them when they are on the paddock because some are still small enough to get through the fence mesh. Hopefully they will grow sufficiently in the next few days to overcome this problem.

Wish I had a video camera this afternoon to record Linda's attempts to drive them back into the shed

Customer of the Month

Stopped in at the builder's merchants again this week to find that I was their Customer of the Month for May - mostly timber, cement and hardware but the mains power unit for the electric fencing helped. Linda is still waiting for me to explain how I will use the power unit when we get back to the Barbican!

Glad that most of the joinery and building work is now finished - only 40 metres of fencing to erect - hoping to find someone with a post driver on their tractor to make life easier! In addition to the pen for the geese, I have built 5 gates, 2 doors, a couple of window frames, a sawhorse and a garden table. More carpentry & DIY in the last 5 weeks than I did in the previous 20 years!

Despite the efforts of 5 cows and their calves which followed the sheep onto the paddock, I still had to get the strimmer out to prepare for the arrival of the geese - too much dock, crowfoot, and nettles. Think we may have to resort to spraying them to keep them under control. Would prefer a non-chemical solution but havent found anything that will eat them yet.

In amongst all this work, we have managed a couple of trips around the Burren - had a great walk today along the clifftop from Hag's head to the Cliffs of Moher. Bright and sunny but a strong breeze which kept it cool. Hordes of Spotted Orchids, Sea Campion, Thrift and Bog Cotton along the paths and on the fields. There were also flocks of sea birds including the puffin colony and the auks and guillemots nearby.

With everyone gearing up for the Whitsun holiday, most of the visitors appear to be from northern Europe - including a pack of Dutch Harley riders in leathers and a gay german couple who had matching leathers but no Harley.

Our local agricultural show - the North Clare Show at Ennistymon - this weekend. Linda is busy finalising her entries for the craft competitions so expect news of her successes in my next blog! I chickened out because I didn't think my soda bread could compete with the local ladies.