Not all work and no play

It's not all work and no play when we are in Ireland as this post will show.
I had a little project other than the garden which I was looking forward to doing, and that was recovering the kitchen stool.

I had measured it last time we were over so had all I needed to complete the project. Striping the stool back took quite a long time as it various 'layers' under the cover.

 and after a sand down

it was ready for it's new cover

 definitely an improvement.

We went down into the village most days at some point

 often calling in at Hackett's bar

or Newmans for a well deserved drink.

Saturday is market day in Skibereen and it's a really good market selling all kinds of things from bread and olives to plants and second hand goods

We went home with lots of lovely goodies which kept us going for the next few days.
On the way back we went down to Kilcoe - not really a village, more a hamlet but with a castle and not just any castle - a castle owned by Jeremy Irons no less!
He bought it as this

and turned it into this

There has been some interesting comments from the locals about the colour but I love it. 

It was very hot and humid whilst we were over  which unfortunately  brought out the horse flies and having been bitten badly we had to resort to wearing long sleeved shirts and trousers which meant by the end of the day we were very hot and sticky. However there was a solution to this - just go down to Drreennatra pier and jump off the end!

David and Jonathan also got chance to go out fishing and returned with mackerel and pollock

 which we put on the bbq that night for tea.

We also took time out to visit 'Three Castle Head', just beyond Mizzen Head.

So called because the castle had three towers.

It was quite a hard climb but the views were fantastic and on our way back we rewarded ourselves with a drink from the cafe - what a view that has!

So not all work and we couldn't have had better weather whilst we were there. So we left it all packed up, 

a tidy wood store

with plenty of wood for the log burners next time we go and a garden with a view

and an empty space where a 70 foot tree had been.

What a busy time, an engagement, a graduation, and an overgrown garden in Ireland!

Well what a quiet house here, just David and I. We seem to have gone from one thing to another since I last had down to write to you including a number of celebrations.
Our first celebration was of Charlotte and Angus's engagement. Unexpected, even for Charlotte! but we were over the moon about it. A few tentative plans in that the wedding will be abroad, small, possibly September 2015 but that's all for now.
Second celebration was for Jonathan's graduation from Loughborough. A scorching hot day (I had the foresight to take a pair of very old comfy sandals to walk around in before I had to change into my best ones!) but very enjoyable.

We took a picnic and having parked in the grounds of the hall where Jonathan had lived for most of his Uni life, found a shaded spot under a tree to eat.

A good move - quiet and cool.

After graduation day we were at a family party to celebrate the fact that my cousin was over from America. From there David, Jonathan and I went straight to Liverpool to catch the over night ferry to Dublin. It's a good way to travel for us as we get a good nights sleep plus meals before our drive to Schull. 

Can you Schull on the map? Go to the left of Skibbereen, past Ballydehob and slightly down - yes that's it.

There's a good motorway from Dublin to Cork here it is

Seriously, that's how it was a lot of the way - the main route from Dublin to Cork deserted, how I wish our motorways were like that.! The weather did get worse the nearer we got to the south west and by the time we reached the house it felt like November, rain, mist and fog although warm and it remained liked that the following day too. The garden looked like this when we arrived

in between like this

 there was a lot of this

 till finally it looked like this

Quite an achievement, but there wasn't only the garden work to be done and it's not all work which you will see next time.