All posts for the year 2024

Adjusting to a very different country

Storm Ashley

In the UK there is, in some circles, the idea that Ireland is just “England with a funny accent”. Let me disabuse any reader of this idea. It is a very different country, though the accent can take a while to get used to. There is the weather, of course, though this is not as […]

Stormy days and unwanted visitors

It’s a dark and stormy day in Ireland, though not as bad as it seems to be in the UK. There have been a few brighter days recently however and we were able to get the mower out last weekend. The orchard was in real need of a trim as the weeds had one last […]

It’s that time of year again

I said last year that autumn comes early to Ireland and hey – it’s that time of year again. Actually it seems as if spring has just slipped past summer with barely a glance. It has been the coldest and wettest summer for nine years and we are already getting ready for winter. Still, there […]

Happiness is a working mower and baby swifts

After a rather fraught few weeks it is nice to have some better news to share with you. Our big problem recently is the breakdown of the ride-on mower. This may seem like an indulgence but with the area we have it makes keeping it in order just about possible. My shoulders are not yet […]

August is the cruelest month – in Tipperary

TS Eliot declared April was the cruelest month but I would say this is not the case in Tipperary. Here I think it is August instead. August has the false promise if Eliot’s April – decent weather at last, a time to rest and relax, a break from the harder months – but, alas, fails […]

A few weeks of preparation and planning

After the last few settled days we have found ourselves in the midst of a whirlwind of preparation and planning. As is often the case, we have been expecting some of it but some is new and rather unwelcome. There was some nice weather to begin with so we got out the mower and spent […]

Wildlife rescue, new friends and a different way of life

Last time I wrote about Pip and Squeak, the two tiny bats we found in our bathroom. Well, despite our best efforts we found another a few days later. We called him Wilfred. (I suspect you need to be British and over 60 to understand this by the way). Well, Wilfred was also rescued, placed […]

An EPIC Adventure part 2 – and a batty return

I broke off the last episode part way through my trip to Dublin. Compared to our quiet life here in Tipperary it seemed a very eventful couple of days, too much for the one blog. So, picking up from the second morning, I was stiff and sore from my route marching the day before but […]

The unexpected and EPIC trip to Dublin

Sometimes I sit down to write this blog and I find I’m struggling to find anything interesting to say. Not so this week – I think I’ve got too much to write. It was looking like a fairly normal week when my friend Jon Moore, a specialist make up expert in films, tv and theatre, […]

Very little has happened and it’s very tiring

This last few weeks have been very tiring though it seems very little has happened. We had a few lovely sunny days when the countryside was glorious and the birds shouted their appreciation. The dogs demanded the back door be kept open so they could wander in and out at will. Jacqui had a good […]