Well, life is busy as usual here at our “quiet retirement” retreat. The weather continues to tease us with a few hours of sunshine, occasionally a whole day, with heavy rain in between. The land doesn’t have time to dry out and so when Fergus, our tree surgeon, arrived we were rather worried about his digger, chopper and log splitter and whether they would sink without trace into the wet soil. In the end he managed without mishap, as you would expect from a professional. He did an admirable job on the dangerous leaning trees, felling them and leveling the ground. As we will be putting the last new “twig” trees in there he built a windbreak and dead hedge around the site to protect them. We now have a much more decent wood store in the lean-to and a lot of smaller pieces I will collect and Jacqui will chop into kindling. Busy days in the spring lead to warm evenings in the winter.
The new twig trees are all taking well and a number of them are growing like little maniacs. Native Irish trees, obviously bred for these bizarre weather conditions, look as if they will thrive out in the wood. We have plans to name and dedicate the trees as they settle in. Jacqui would like one of the copper beeches and her favourite maple, liking them for their bright red colour amongst the greens of the other trees. There is one little oak that was only just over a foot high when we arrived but now is a bit taller than I am after some extra care. I think I’d like that for my tree. The tiny pussy willow by the hot bin is, I think, perfect for Chloe. It is small, determined, will feed off the remains of the old compost, “drinks” a large amount of water and has soft, furry buds already. We have trees for both our mothers and plans for other people too.
Speaking of the dogs, they are doing well and adjusting to the loss of Chloe, the mother and granny. Dogs grieve just as we do. We have had dogs continuously since 1984 and seen this every time we lose one. Cynthia especially is doing incredibly well following her stay at the residential facility (ie the vet which is not a word we use in front of her). She has a whole new lease of life and looks and acts like a 5-year-old again. We did spot something wrong in one eye last week and the vet identified a small ulcer. Now she has to endure the chair of torture as we apply eye ointment and gel drops twice a day. The ulcer is shrinking visibly now so we are hopeful she will be fine when she sees the vet on Friday. Charlie is more obviously affected and has episodes of just lying alone and staring. We give him a lot of petting and belly rubs and I try to take him out every day to check on the wood and inspect the boundaries. Even when he is sad he’s still a very good and busy watchdog.
Despite the weather, including flurries of hail, Jacqui is pushing on with flooring the polytunnel. We had some decking planks delivered in fourteen-foot lengths so they needed to be cut to fit. She plans to use the off cuts to make outdoor shelters for the feral cats. Three of them appear regularly on the wood cameras and we are very happy to see them. I suspect the lack of rat sightings over the last year is down to them. They certainly look busy, sniffing, jumping and stalking at night. Hopefully they will take to the shelters and carry on the good work.
Recently we have come to the realization the land, with the wood, orchard and polytunnel, has become central to our lives. We arrived here with a trowel (we left the other one and a small hand fork behind). Now we have a wide and eclectic range of garden tools, more than we ever imagined five years ago and we actually use them. It keeps us busy despite the foul weather but I am finally starting to write again.
I had most of my enthusiasm knocked out of me by events over the last five years. Impress, my publisher, went into receivership, the receivers tried to claim my copyrights and then threatened to pulp all my books. Thanks to some good friends I was able to rescue them but they can’t be sold, just given away. Then a combination of AI and pirates stole the e-books, giving them away and using them for AI training. It seemed pointless writing and publishing anything. I do have a new book in progress however, a different type of book from my previous work. The Society of Authors has done some sterling work negotiating with the UK government and has launched a scheme to identify books written by actual writers, not AI. Please look out to the “Human Authored” logo in the near future and support us!
So, a very busy few weeks that will probably lead to a very busy summer. Well, at least life isn’t boring here in Tipperary.
Thank you for reading – it really does mean so much.
Here’s hoping spring finally arrives for us all. Stay warm and safe and I will see you in a couple of weeks.
Jennie.
PS: This blog is 100% Human Authored!