Rebecca’s Wool

Rebecca is passionate about what she does. She is a lady who loves her work and it shows. I met Rebecca last week when I attended the Foxford Riverfest.

She spins her wool from her own Jacob sheep, which she farms here in Co Mayo. What is more she’s spins each fleece individually so you get the unique colours of each sheep. So Blackie the sheep’s wool (as her name suggests) is almost black, but Lizzie’s (who is black and white) wool is a mixture. You can see the finished product of each sheep here on Rebecca’s website.

As well as her beautiful natural wool, Rebecca sources wool from local farmers (mostly Suffolk or Texel sheep) which she hand dyes using a range of natural Moroccan dyes. This wool comes in a range of beautiful pastel, earthy tones. She also finds time to knit some of her own hats, booties, scarves and more.

hand-dyed wools

booties

Hand knitted

 

You can check out Rebecca’s website here where there is also a link to her Esty shop where she sells the wool and her own knitted goods.

 

Silent Sunday – Little Ms. Muffet……….

 

Little Ms. Muffet…..

Miniature World

A couple of weeks ago the kids decided they would create their own little miniature fairy worlds. With just a little bit of help from me and a whole lot of their own imagination they set to work.

Miniature fairy doors

ladders

flower gardens

Swing

My daughter was adamant that only fairies and elves would be allowed – no pixies. It was wonderful to see how much enjoyment could be got from a few logs, flowers and twigs.

Miniature fairy doors

August Wildflowers

This week in Ireland we celebrate Heritage Week. A week of celebration of all our Irish heritage, nature, history, people and more.

A big thank you to all those who attended the wildflowers walks I was involved in over the weekend at the Foxford Riverfest and Glore Mill near KIltimagh. It was wonderful to see so many interested people, both young and old.

A couple of people mention was how lovely it is to learn the names of plants but then how easy it is to forget, days later. So I thought I’d put together a post of some of what we saw to help.

Purple Loosestrife

Carder bee on looestrife

Purple loosestrife

One of the favourites. A great plant for bees and butterflies. Purple Loosestrife likes damp ground, and can be often seen in large clumps. Meadowsweet (see below), likes similar conditions and they are often found together. Loosestrife has a high tannin content and was used for tanning leather. The flowers were used for making a dye.

Meadow Sweet

Meadowsweet

Loosestrife and Meadowsweet in background

It’s well worth stopping to smell this flower, it has a heavy almost intoxicating scent! It gets it name from “mead sweet” – because it was used to flavour and sweeten mead. It was also added to wines and ales. In folk medicine it was used as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory. It contains salicylic acid, which was synthesized into aspirin.

Tufted Vetch

Carder bee on tufted vetch

Tufted vetch

Another great bee plant. We have many different vetches in Ireland and Tufted vetch is one that flowers later in the season. All vetches are legumes and can fix their own nitrogen.

Willowherb

Willowherb

We have a number of willowherb species growing in Ireland. Willowherbs are also visited by bees. The leaves have been used to make tea. It is popular in Russia and know as Kaporie tea. Some species such as rosebay willowherb can be a bit invasive.

 

 

 

 

Ragworth

Cinnabar moth caterpillar on ragworth

Ragworth

Ragworth with small copper butterfly and hoverfly

Ragworth can be toxic to livestock. They know not to eat it but if cut in hay or silage it can be accidentally eaten. However, quite large quantities need to be eaten for it to have it’s toxic effect. though horses seems particularly sensitive. Cinnabar moth caterpillar use this toxicity to protect themselves from being eaten. These brightly coloured caterpillar that only feed on ragworth. Ragworth has been used in folk medicine too. It’s visited by hoverflies and some some solitary bees.

Silent Sunday

Lough Carra

Pesky birds!

Fruit is ripening but the birds are trying to get them before we do. The plums are coming on nicely, but then I noticed some of the fruit was being attacked by birds (didn’t think to photo damaged plums).

Victoria plum

So I asked the kids to make me some scary faces, which we laminated and hung from the tree. These, with some hawk silhouettes, seemed to do the trick.

Scary face

Hawk silhouette

scary face ii

At least I thought they did. But then I noticed the birds had moved on to the apple tree instead. Beauty of Bath is an old (1864) English early apple variety. Personally I find them a bit sharp but the kids love them! They are supposed to get sweeter as the season progresses. Ours have a lovely pink flush to the flesh.  The apple tree now had it’s own collection of scary faces and a couple of old CDs too. We’ll just have to see where the birds move on to next!

Bird damaged apples being visited by wasps and flies

Beauty of Bath

 

 

Silent Sunday

 

Bumblebee drone sharing Allium

In memory of Jemima

Our duck Jemima was named after the wonderful Beatrix Potter character Jemima Puddle Duck, because of her habitat of trying to hide her eggs. Like all ducks she was at her happiest in the duck pond. She was a plucky little duck, not afraid to let herself be heard particularly if she was hungry.

Jemima with Nelson

Jemima with Nelson

With her mate Nelson she spent hours in the vegetable plot searching for slugs and other food.

Jemima with Nelson

We’ve had her for over six years and we will miss her.

Jemima in her early years with her sister and Nelson not quite sure what to make of the snow

 

Maybe

Maybe if we all just stopped occasionally and took time to look around us, we’d see what an amazing place our mother Earth is. Maybe we’d appreciate it just a little bit more. Maybe even enough to care just a little bit more. Maybe if we could love nature just a little bit more, we could also learn to love ourselves and others a little bit more too. Maybe we could find a bit of harmony. Just maybe.

Keem Bay, Achill

Scenery from the Greenway

 

via Daily Prompt: Maybe

Sea Buckthorn Berries

Back in 2014 we had a good crop of sea buckthorn bu last year we hardly had any. This year we have a another good crop. The berries are small. They have a sharp but pleasant citrus flavour. I find them a bit too sharp to eat on their own but like to mash some up and add hot water for a lovely drink.

Sea buckthorn

The plant is a nitrogen fixer and so thrives in poor soil, but it can be invasive, as on North Bull Island near Dublin. Birds like the berries and therefore spread the seeds. So far (at least) the birds, particularly the blackbirds seems to prefer our Chokeberries. These were just getting ripe but the birds have already stripped most of the bushes!

Aronia berries (chokeberry)

The sea buckthorm berries are supposed to get sweeter on freezing (something I will try this year). They can be made into syrups, icecream, added to porridge, and much more. I also like this idea of rosemary and sea buckthorn vinegar.

Sea buckthorn