An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

Happy New Year to all in Blogland, may it be a peaceful wherever you are.

My first attempt at collages simply because there are so many photos to tell the tale! Click on pic to enlarge and then click on individual photo to see what the robin is up to! After the last freeze on the Tues it was sunny and I headed out to the plot, this tiny robin hopped along beside me to see where I was going.He hopped into the shed because during the summer there were usually crumbs etc to be found after the various picnics.I threw him the remains of my sandwich which he pecked at for a few minutes. I left him hopping around where I had dug out the parsnips as the ground was soft after all the frost had thawed. Tues of this week was a different story, I made it out to the plot as I had no snow photos of the allotments.The robin met me in the car park and hopped ahead of me, stopping every now and then as if to say forget the photos and start digging!He knew exactly where I was headed and was there before me!He got into nearly every photo I took as I moved he moved in front of ...

I just finished icing the Christmas cakes.I made two cakes and two puddings, one of each is going to S.Billy and DIL Janice who are having us over for Christmas dinner.Getting out Christmas day is very dependent on the condition of the roads as I cannot imagine there will be any gritting or salting being done. My Christmas tree surrounded by the Secret Santa bags. We do Secret Santa each year as with 8 children and their respective partners and 16 grandchildren the cost of buying presents was going through the roof! Each of us now buys for one child and one adult with a limit of 50e for a child and 30e for an adult, D.Michelle takes on the onerous task of picking the names and matching them each year.The road conditions have meant some have not been able to deliver their presents up to my house or collect as yet, so my sitting room is a bit cluttered! My very uncoordinated Tree especially for niece Catherine!100 multicoloured lights which play a selection of 24 Christmassy tunes, baubl...

Tommorrow is the 21st Dec and the winter solstice will be beamed live from Newgrange in Co Meath,Ireland. Usually it is dependent on the usual wintry clouds to be visible but this year with clear skies it will actually be dependent on people being able to access the megolithic tomb through the freezing conditions we are experiencing. Tonight is supposed to be the coldest night of the big freeze,in fact it has been freezing here all day.Some parts of the country were minus 17% degrees last night! Parts of Dublin are having heavy snowshowers and they will continue into tomorrow around parts of Leinster and north Munster. Roads are treacherous as stocks of salt are so low only main routes are being treated until fresh stocks arrive from Egypt into Cork port on Wed. Mayfield is frozen with only main roads getting any attention, footpaths and housing estates have been left under hard packed icy snow.

Last Tues was a beautiful sunny day, not very warm but more Spring like than wintry. As I am writing this on Fri evening we are under 6ins of snow! I needed to finish off some work on the plot which the last cold spell interrupted.It was quite pleasant from around 12.30 to around 3.30 pm but then I could feel the cold creeping into my bones, a couple of other hardy souls were doing likewise and we wished each other Happy Christmas as we knew we may not be out again with this next cold spell on the way. I dug the rest of the parsnips, one very big one again not quite as big as the last monster and some normal sized ones. I pulled some turnips and leeks and brought home the last of the lollo rosso lettuce from the greenhouse. The sun disappeared behind the old orchard wall at 3.35 pm!It was more to the southwest instead of west which it does in the summer. Once the sun had gone the cold really set in and it was time to pack up and leave. I extended the rhubarb bed as last season it was ...

The frost and ice have left us for a short time it seems, they are forecasting a return to arctic temps for the end of next week but nobody has mentioned 'snow' as yet just mutterings of 'wintry precipitations! Our allotment Christmas night was last night, Zwena holds this every year and opens up her home which she has beautifully decorated. We all dress up and sometimes it is hard to recognise a fellow allotmenteer minus wellies, old jackets and windswept hairstyle!Everyone brings some yummy home baking or something to share, I was late arriving last night so I didn't bother taking photos of the empty plates!Zwena had very kindly organised a little presentation for me for winning the RDS award ,there was much congratulations and good natured ribbing! There was also a presentation for Michael who is leaving us after many years, he was one of the very first plotters before allotments became popular over here.Michael has always been available for advice and giving freebie...

The Dec header photo is of my gardeners, taken way back in 2003.Look how small Aoife is on the right, she was about 3 years old then and she is now ten.Back then, if and when we got any snow to stay long enough on the ground we went out to take photos!This was a very surprising white Christmas morning when we woke up to snow on the ground and the children were amazed! RANT Has anyone else noticed the Advent calenders becoming TV character chocolate holders? Advent calenders were supposed to count down the days of advent until Christmas day, now they are TV character themed and there is no hint of the importance of the Christmas message or why we celebrate Christmas as anything other than a shopping spree.