Category Archives: Ireland

Aug29

Shoes. Lots of shoes.

Posted on August 29, 2013 by heretherebespiders

I took these photos ages ago, because someone expressed interest in my shoe collection. Now, I have to preface this with the statement that most, if not all, of these Cons were bought because my husband is a sneaker freak. I find them a little narrow for my big duck feet, and my pinkie toe always is unhappy. But! I have some gorgeous, limited edition sneaks because of my husband’s sneaker fetish. It’s great to go shopping with him – he does all the work, knows all the necessary heritage of a kick, and as I’m a size 7/8 (men’s, or European size), most of the time the only good ones left are my size instead of his (11).

My oldest, rattiest pair, bought for about $9 in… Maybe 1998? 1999? I still wear them. Soles are nearly worn down, and they have been put in the washer once – they useta be black.

Pretty sure these are my next oldest purchases – found cheap in an odd shop in southern/middle Ohio in about 2005. Yes, I wear them like this! Unless it is Paddy’s day, in which case I go full green. I really have no need, ever, for yellow shoes. I hate yellow clothing.

Anything from here on down was bought in Ireland, and probably at TK Maxx. I wear these spotted ones a lot; they are slip on (hate messing about with laces, especially as iDJ says the laces have to be ‘perfect.’ Oh god, no. Save me from fashion faux pas! Put my damn shoes on for me, then, if it means so much! Yes, I make him do that when I wear any of these:

The low-rise set. I like the ones on the left, as they match any pair of jeans. But! The ones on the right are apparently really rare and valuable. So says himself. They are an unusual plastic upper, so great when it is wet out – as it often is. But, honey? Should I wear these tonight? NO, it’s raining! Sigh….
Notice that the tag is still on? Yeah. He says that’s important. For fashion.
I say they are shoes, they get dirty, why, why, why…

Terrible pic. They are dark blue, and again, they match any jeans but I can’t be arsed lacing these bad boys up very often.

Possibly my favourite pair. I love the black laces against the white and gold. They look like tiger shoes! I don’t mind keeping these out of the rain – they are flippin’ white, after all. I also don’t mind so much when hubby has to make sure that the laces lie ‘just so’, as the laces are kind of important to the overall look of this shoe. I bet these are his least favourite! Not for the ‘honey help me’ factor, but because they are tacky as hell.

Maybe sometime in the next 8 months I’ll get around to posting pics of my Nike collection. A lot less shoes, but way, way more awesome (according, of course, to Himself).

Aug21

Bloomin’ Late Post

Posted on August 21, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Ugggh, I am incredibly far behind on posting photos of my most recent blooms.

This is the only Tigridia I’ll bother with. They’ve slowed down, but nearly every day there are one or two new ones, shrivelled by the time I get home from work, of course. I have no idea what I’m to do with dozens of photos of slightly different flowers.

You can really tell this was taken with the new SLR camera, wow! Here’s a new one, for Tom (and possibly his mother) – my giant red sunflower, from seed. This was day one that it opened. Day two the petals went droopy a bit, and now it is more of a rust colour, but the centre is getting larger and larger. It’s also not very giant. I can’t be arsed to measure it, but it’s in an 18 inch high pot and barely reaches my shoulder, and I’m 5ft 8in. Can’t be arsed to do that in metric, either – sorry! I’m under pressure to make dinner tonight…

Broad/fava beans. The pic doesn’t give scale – the long one was really, really long. But even it only had six beans inside – a lot of messing about for hardly any bean goodness. The dog loves the pods, so at least they didn’t go to waste.

Cosmos! Of all my seeds it seems only the white ones bloomed. This one has an interesting cupped petal…

…while this is the more traditional form that I’m familiar with.

More rose photos. These two bloomed together. I found it interesting the way they matured. Here, they look very similar.

A day or two later, here is the left bloom.

And this is the right. Both stunning and smell like a little bit of heaven.
Or my grandma.
Not too dissimilar.

The white roses aren’t as big as last year. It’s a climber, and has gotten really leggy. I think I’ll have to prune, and I’ve never done that. No sign of new growth on my lavender rose, but at least the leaves are all still there and I’ve kept the black spot away. Wonder should I try to move it?

I’ve saved my favourites for last, of course. My first dahlia, ever. From the Aldi set of bulbs and tubers. I have to say I’m impressed with the quality and variety Aldi had on offer. Most of the lilies, the dahlias, the Tigrida, the … Oh hell I’ve forgotten! The Babylon 5 spaceship-looking pineapple flowering thingie… Something like Euconomis. Anyhoo, all from Aldi.

Since I’ve never had a dahlia before, I didn’t expect them to be so sloooow to open. It’s been a week and this first bloom still isn’t open all the way.

Getting there! Seems we shoot it daily, it is ever changing. To be honest it is much further along today, but it’s dark out now.

My current favourite – more Aldi lilies.

What I like best about these is that the black has a raised texture as if tar has been spilt on the petals. I need to ask iDJ, with his superior photography skills, to try to capture the texture better. These blooms last a long time, too, but turn more orange red than dark red as they age.

Yes, I have more to come, but it’s my bedtime soon!

Aug18

Mushroom Mutt

Posted on August 18, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Uuuuugh.

Had a slight panic earlier this evening. iDJ was running the BBQ, so I didn’t have much to do but shuttle plates, when needed. I had sunshine for a bit so was out front soaking it in, but when the sun set behind the mountain, I moved to the back yard to be with hubby, his beloved Weber grill, his music, and the very annoying dog.

I expect the dog to be very annoying when we grill. 1: The amazing food smells 2: The hubby feeling guilty about subjecting her to amazing food smells and giving her a ton of treats (usually carrots – but she knows he’s a pushover and works it) 3: Hubby is in and out and in and out and she has to, has to! follow him everywhere.

The last is actually the most annoying factor. She’s an indoor dog, really only outside to do her business in the tiny-ass garden, and for walkies. As such, she’s never unsupervised. But she doesn’t really want to be outside – not unless daddy is outside too. I am not her favourite human, probably because my hands are not made of treats.

Anyway.

The food was nearly done, and I had one eye on the dog who was snuffling around my strawberry / raspberry patch. Hubby and I got talking and I noticed that Neko was near to us and still snuffling. Then she wandered away, and I spotted that something was missing.

There had been a little group of mushrooms in the grass, and now they were gone.

Ohshitohshitohshit.

Our food is cooked and getting drier by the minute, but we both rush to do what we can: me to find my fungi identification and Irish Wildlife books, and hubby to scour the back garden with a flashlight, tongs, and plastic bag for evidence collection. He also did Internet research to see what signs of trouble we should look for.

Neko seems perfectly fine. She ate normally, she’s sleeping normally, and I hear no sounds of intestinal distress (a sign we know well, with her). The thing is: this damn dog loves veggies. Carrots are her favourite treat. Radishes? NOM! The ends of celery, the trimmings of courgette (zucchini!), the rind of a watermelon? Yes, please, and thank you!

So, it really should have occurred to us that she might go grazing in our back garden. It has: but only to the point where we didn’t want her to realise that blueberries are awesome. Or raspberries. She’s already figured out tomatoes, dammit. We never thought she’d realise fungi could be edible…

Not sure if she’s dammed stupid, or dammed smart.

I had a bit of playtime with her, with the intention of sussing out her mental state.

She always splays her forelegs out like that, and yes, she always looks that pleadingly pathetic. No wonder hubby is the big sucker of the family.

That just does not look comfortable, mushroom-highor not.

Aug5

MORE Tigridia

Posted on August 5, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Wowsers, Penny!

The Tigridia bloom may only last a few hours, but they make up for it in sheer proliferation.

That’s hubby’s hand, to give you an idea of size. About the same as a star-gazer lily, or any of my black lilies.

iDJ getting artistic. He took all of these shots.

Every flower is a little bit unique.

Sometimes, the yellow ones are a bit wonky.

Sometimes, not.

The red/pink ones can be wonky, too.

But usually they aren’t.

I was disappointed at first, but the unceasing blooming has certainly made up for the short shelf life. There were more today, and there will be more again tomorrow, I see the buds that are ready to open.

Jul20

And We’re off to Mayo in the Green, in the Green

Posted on July 20, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Where the plants are glistening in the sun!

We’ll start off with a tried and true standard, the cornflower. I have them in many colours this year. There’s pink – very tiny blossoms.

A faded-blue-jean blue.

And, what was described as red.

They aren’t what I would describe as red. Oh well. I’ve planted one box in the red and blue cornflowers, with white cosmos. Red white blue, repeat. Nothing at all had bloomed in time for the 4th of July, so I can just hope I can get a decent photo for next year. None of the cosmos are blooming yet, except for one wonky looking flower I stuck in between my hostas. It has just four petals. I can’t embarrass the wee thing by taking a photo; it’s too sad.

How about some edible stuff? My first ripe raspberry. We ate it Friday morning. I shared. The second one that came ripe I ate all by myself. Shhhh.

Broad beans! I don’t have very many that are ready to eat. When I googled ‘when to harvest broad beans’ I found that you can eat the whole pod when they are young, or let them mature and then they become, through movie magic, fava beans. Shame I don’t like a nice chianti. Or a not-nice chianti. Or any kind of wine. But we did eat six pods on Thursday, which delayed our dinner quite a bit as I decided to cook them in the juice left over from the pork roast (with some extra garlic). I really liked the whole pod, when it was a younger and smaller one. Hubby had the oldest longest one, and I told him to open it up and just eat the beans, to see what that was like. He said it was a whole different taste. I ate his discarded pod. Nom! A bit fuzzy but there’s nothing like fresh veggies, especially when you’re not a huge veggie fan to begin with.

First garlic pulled. Now, this isn’t bought seed garlic, it’s whatever we got at Aldi or Tesco and it went off/started to grow, so I stuck it in the ground. Woot! Looks great.

Roses! These were taken last week, I think the bushes look even better now.

I trimmed off all the leaves that had black spot since these pics were taken.

Hope that helps. I paid for Rose Clear and have been using it, but they still haven’t looked that healthy.

The blooms look great! There are two bushes out front, but they look like four as the colours change between bud and bloom. Salmon becomes soft pink, red becomes a light fuchsia.

The damn white rose out back has bloomed at about 6.5 feet high. I can’t enjoy them way the hell up there! I think I’ll have to cut it back. It’s a climber, and seems dedicated to being a tree more than a bush.

My lavender rose bloomed finally. It’s gone now, so photos are all I have.

The plant is barely a foot tall, but looking good this year due to the feeding and Rose Clear. Fingers crossed I don’t have to worry that it is dead next spring!

Remember these? Euconmis. The packet was spot-on. Little weird pineapple space flowers. I watched this grow, and it amazed me daily. I’ve regretted that I didn’t take a photo a day of it.

But, very late in the game, there is another coming up! So I still have a chance to document.

I’ve saved the best for last. My first black Lilly has bloomed! It did so overnight. The first photo was at about 10 am.

This is around 4, not much change. But just look at it! Wow! iDJ really did an amazing job finding these beauties for me. Wow!

Jul4

Happy Fourth!

Posted on July 4, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Last year…

This year! We now have a full-sized flag (made in Taiwan, bought from a dealer in Ireland). No fireworks for us – banned in the whole of the Republic – but hubby’s radio show will be on tonight, as every Thursday, with a Fourth/Americana theme this time.
Radio 23 channel A

Error FM

EDIT: show is over, but available on podcast.

Jul3

Bloomin’ July

Posted on July 3, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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I have flowers! Not all of my little green friends are awake yet, but I do have my first cornflower bloom:

Soon I’ll be overrun with them, so it’s good to appreciate the very first one to open. Hello!

My violas from seed are blooming – I expect there will be a lot more to come, as they have really increased in height this week – odd, because it is cooler and much less sunny. I think they have cat-whiskers.

The first lavender rosebud. It’s been a bud for days and days and days, and I couldn’t wait any longer to take a picture before it opens. I’m fascinated that the outside of the petals is a dark rosy fuchsia, but it will be so pale when open.
There’s also the dying remnants of my daffodils looking horrid in the background. And…what’s that purple blotch? Could it be? Yes! It is my first clematis bloom. Sadly it was beat to shit by the wind so that’s all you’re going to see of it. But the plant is now one year old, and over 6ft tall in places, so I expect more out if it.

Not flowers, exactly, but my radishes are starting to bolt (make flowers) so I pulled a few. Then, oops, I left them on the kitchen counter for a couple of days and they shrivelled like prunes. Not edible. Not edible for me: but the dog loves them. Go figure.

Do you remember the field full of yellow iris from my last post? Well, they are like a weed here, they’re everywhere right now. Including some we dug up and stuck in our own garden.

First of my lilies. They always bloom before the yellow ones, and no sign of my fancy ones being ready to open, yet (I did have to save those from aphids today). I think I’ll have to split these out next year, that pot is a bit crowded.

What greets me outside my back door – the lilies, and Sweet William. Did I say that it was phlox? I was phloxing wrong. Sweet William. I won’t forget! Even my neighbour complemented me on these, and was surprised to learn I grew them from seed. Hahaha!

Jun30

Rosserk Abbey & St Mary’s Well, Co Mayo

Posted on June 30, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Last weekend hubby took me out for a mystery adventure. A mystery to me, as I had no idea where we were heading. Turned out to be here.

This is Rosserk Abbey, or Friary, built about 1440. There is quite a lot of it left to explore.

I had a friend come over my first year in Ireland, and she wanted to see castles. Well, not so many of those about. But there are lots and lots of religious buildings.

Please ignore the immensely idiotic date stamp. I took this one with Hipstamatic, but had the wrong film set up. I can’t be arsed to remove the dumb-ass date.

We got a tiny bit lost finding the place, but when we backtracked we were the only ones there. Not alone for long, soon we had Spanish and English tourists roaming about, too.

The main tower, from below.

The view from a tiny, tiny room only the two of us could fit into. I got uncomfortable waiting for himself to take the shot and asked him to move so I could escape. He wanted a pic of the fairy tree. That’s an older tradition/belief than what inspired the abbey to be built so long ago.

Incredible stonework detail, holding fast despite being open to the wind and rain. You can still see every feather on those wings. A true marvel.

The only other picture worth sharing that I took at the abbey. I didn’t have the fancy-pants camera, iDJ did, so I was restricted to what I could see with the iPhone.

Next. St Mary’s Well. Now, I expect there is more than one St Mary’s Well in Ireland. However, this was my first ever visit to such a place. I’m going to preface these photos with a reminder that I am not Catholic, and I have little understanding of the faith. That means I have no understanding of what I was about to see. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, exactly, but I was in for a shock.

First, there was quite a long walk to get to the well. Walking access only. There’s the Abbey, across the field of yellow iris. So many iris!

The well itself is inside the small stone building with the tree growing out of the roof. The walkway came in from the right, and you can see the tiny stream running from the building and off to the left, under the little bridge. The stones were numbered, in Roman numerals.

Number V – looking back up toward the statue of Mary where the first picture was taken. I believe the idea is to walk the stones as if they are stations of the cross, or count the rosary. I didn’t think there were enough stones for either, but what do I know?

Jesus, Joseph and Mary (and oooh, Mary looks very Irish, doesn’t she?) a small statue buried in weeds in front of the entrance to the well. Hubby had to tell me it was meant to be Joseph. Because he has a marble for a head. Oooohhhh-kkaaayyy… But that wasn’t what set the hair on the back of my neck to rising.

The main entrance to the well. Clearly it is very small, and choked with offerings. I don’t understand this.

Hair ties, barrettes, watches, coins, candles – antacids? It got weirder.

The tree growing out of the roof is festooned in… stuff.

The bushes up by the statue of Mary had a heavier load.

Mary herself was decked out the most.

It really, really surprised me to see the tokens left behind. Mostly, they were things that were close to hand and could be left behind. But what of the items clearly brought for the purpose? The photo of the baby – it breaks my heart. I can’t imagine the desperation of faith in bringing that photo all that way, to leave in the hands of a plaster saint, in the hopes that it can help in some way. I’m sure most visitors to the well came away feeling something quite different than I did. I was startled, dismayed, and it felt more like we’d visited Tibet and seen a tree bedecked in prayer flags. It was just that foreign, to me.

I am still fascinated how a place that used to be revered as an unusual and unexplained source of fresh water so close to a large salt-water body turned into a place where trolley-tokens and baby pacifiers are left as offerings.

Jun25

Supermoon

Posted on June 25, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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I can’t take credit for these. While I was outside with him, it was iDJ manning the camera on its War of the Worlds tripod. We went down along the side of our neighbour’s house, on the right of way between more (empty since built) houses and a cow pasture (also empty – I think it is going to be used for silage this year).

There was a lot of learning about the camera done that night. I love this photo.

But eventually the cloud cover cleared, and he got ‘the shot.’

It’s funny, but I’ve never been able to see ‘the man in the moon.’ There just is not a face up there for me. It’s only craters and mares. I guess I won’t be seeing Jesus in my toast anytime soon.

Jun21

Greenery and perhaps a Giggle

Posted on June 21, 2013 by heretherebespiders

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Hi, howrya? Please read that in the Mayo accent in which I would say it. I must apologise to all the bloggers I follow: I can’t seem to be able to comprehend very much, my concentration is terrible, and my sense of humour has nearly deserted me (when is the last time I tagged something as humour/humor? It’s been yonks). I do read everyone’s blog, but I can’t seem to summon up much in the way of a response. Sorry, I hate being like this.

What seems to be working for me is visuals. So! More photos. I did a walk through town last time. I’ve taken more shots in town, but I think we’ll go back to purdy flors again. Please read that in the NW Florida/southern Alabama accent in which I would say it.

First photo is a crappy iPad one. But, it is my mystery plant, and the mystery is now solved! First I have to give a shout out to the fabulous website, Shoot, and its plant finder. It didn’t take much time at all to get to the eureka moment and find the answer to what I’ve been wondering for weeks.

Please meet my Mimulus! There are about 150 species and I didn’t have the patience to figure out which one I have. Or is that which ones, as there are three different colour blooms? Common name is ‘monkey flower,’ but I have no idea why.

The rest of my pics are taken on the new fancy-pants camera. Did I mention that it requires you to look through the viewfinder? And actually turn the lens to focus? It has a lovely big screen, like a digital cam should, but since I have to put my eye up to the little hole, the screen is always smeared with nose grease. That’s when my schnozzola isn’t pressing the menu button and changing the settings. Oh! Here’s a picture of the camera itself. I took it for a walk a few weeks ago. No pictures, because the battery, unknown to me, was dead. So I took a pic with my iPhone of the heavy-ass camera I took for a walk, in a bag on my shoulder, like an expensive pampered chihuahua. I thought I should take a pic of it just to memorialise the first time I took it out, since it didn’t bloody well work and I had no other way to record the day’s events. Yes, I stuck it on a stone wall in a cow field. Damn thing.

Okay NOW the rest of the pics are by the pretty Nikon.

Phlox, Phlox, Phlox, Phlox! My other mystery solved. I don’t remember planting this stuff but I have oodles. Really, oodles. Must have been one of those late plantings where I shrugged and said, ‘ah, who gives a phlox?’ It smells heavenly, and every flower seems to be a different colour. Sadly the bees don’t seem to know what to do with it. I have no idea what happens next, as phlox is a biennial and I don’t have any other biennials in my garden. We will see! But if I have to plant again, I will certainly put in fewer seeds. I have this stuff everywhere now. Not that I mind, of course.

My leggy irises. They are already starting to fade, boo. But I love that second bloom, it has white streaks on it when none of the others do. Have I created a mutant?

The weed! I love it. Screw the neighbours and their store-bought plug plants. Weeds are pretty too, and free!

This is a Houttuynia cordata ‘pied piper.’ We, um, kind of stole it from the church’s badly-cared-for gravel ‘landscaped’ parking lot. It’s in a pot and usually lives indoors – but I’ve seen a local garden where it has rather naturalised. I put it outside early this year and it is so very happy. I wish the colours were true to life – they aren’t, even after some tweaking using Perfectly Clear. That one leaf at bottom slightly to the left is amazingly bright! I couldn’t get fancy-pants camera to focus on just that leaf like I wanted it to. Maybe I should read the manual. Hahahah.

Californian poppies! These are blooms on the plants that survived the winter here – I never thought that something with ‘Californian’ in the name could survive so well here. But they seem to be slug-proof and the seeds are numerous and very viable. I’ll have these for the rest of my life, I think!

I’ll wrap up with my broad beans, I’ve never grown these before, and I’m astounded with how beautiful the flowers are. I had the most difficult time getting these photos. Nothing looked in focus, and I just couldn’t seem to capture that pale pink blush at the base of each flower. It shouted at me, that pink, when looking at the blooms. But it was so shy and didn’t want to be caught.

The bees love them, too.

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