News From The Hill


the accidental gardener


Aug 31

I accidentally did some gardening today, I had absolutely no intention of doing anything in the garden, I was just drawn outside after my morning coffee by a strange brightness and found myself blinded and shocked by the sight of the sun shining with no trace of a rain cloud - no really, it was!

Perhaps cobweb season is already over and sunshine season is with us? Dare we hope?

Anyway I found myself wandering through the garden admiring the colours of the flowers and the beauty of the ponds, everything just looked SO different.  If you think I am exaggerating then obviously you don’t live in the northwest of Ireland - the wetlands, soon to be known as the badlands if it keeps up the way it has been - 400% of the normal rainfall this month - that’s not funny.

Yesterday I went for a walk up over the top of the hill and met a neighbour who was moving his cattle to a higher field. He has had to move them a lot recently because the ground is so soft that they are not getting to eat all the grass before they trample it down into the mud and he has to keep moving them from field to field to try and prevent as much damage as possible. He reckons he will have start to feed them silage much earlier than usual this year and may not have enough. I would say that his story is not unusual.

I went astray there - I was talking about the garden - I am still stunned by the surprise beauty of today - as I wandered around the garden I could not help but notice the gooseberry bed that I had been avoiding tending to because it had looked so overgrown and thorny and wet but this morning I just got my trusty leather gloves on and started to work.

As I accidentally gardened I harvested an accidental bounty - I had topped up the gooseberry bed with compost from our humanure pile early in the spring when it was time to turn out one of the compost bins. We had decided to not sow a veg garden this year because we wanted to concentrate on other projects like house building (more on that later) so the only place to make good use of the compost was the fruit bed. I did notice that there were a few potatoes in the compost as I shovelled it around the gooseberry bushes but I had forgotten until today - when I dug out two buckets of lovely looking spuds.

Accidental Spuds

Because I had used the compost from the humanure pile and it hadn’t really rested as long as it would have if I had intended to use it for a root crop I think I will recycle these as seed potatoes so they won’t go to waste. And the goosberry bed really benefited from the spuds growing there, the soil is lovely, the weeds are minimal and the fruit harvest looks good. There was a redcurrant bush growing there that was not great looking at all and it looks great now with a much better crop on it than before - thanks spuds!

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Anger


Aug 30

This post is inspired by reading a post this morning over on Nurtured by Love where Miranda talks about her and her young daughters experience witnessing a display of anger in a public service office and where she wonders about the discomfort felt by her daughter. Reading the post just got me thinking. Thanks Miranda for sharing your experience.

It’s difficult for many people to be around anger I think. Is it easy for anyone I wonder? I know from that even some people who are used to expressing their own anger can be frightened by the anger being expressed by others, while others are desensitized to it.

It takes a long time to unlearn bad or unhealthy habits and of course we can only do something about our own anger, we are not responsible for the anger of others, even when it is directed towards us. Each of us chooses how to react, even when we react so instinctively that it doesn’t seem like a choice, it still is a choice, we get to decide what our reactions are. I am not saying that it is easy but I do believe it (uncomfortably) to be true.

I say uncomfortably because it makes us responsible for feelings that we may be more comfortable blaming on others – she made me angry, upset, sad etc. rather than I am feeling angry, upset, sad etc. It is not always pleasant or comfortable to take full responsibility for our own feelings and many of us have to learn as adults because we did not learn these things whilst growing up.

Often we may need help learning these new habits, it is especially good to chose your companions from emotionally healthy people, those who are really working on positive living, who are really trying to learn or practise integrity and self-awareness.

I notice that many tv “reality” shows and soap operas seem to work very much with a theme of anger running through so that those who watch regularly (phew I am glad I don’t) are subjected to anger on a regular basis and would therefore view it as quite normal. I think that the danger here is that anger can cover so many other feelings which may never be acknowledged, causing many other problems. Why do the media pepper their “popular” shows with anger?

I know that it is the main reason that I watch so little tv. I don’t need my entertainment to foster feelings of impotent anger in me. I want my tv entertainment to charm me, educate me, surprise me. I like to watch shows with some human values of honesty, warmth, healthy emotions being healthily expressed and dealt with, compassion. Perhaps that’s why I mostly watch reruns of old shows and movies and stay away from the current rash of so-called reality tv.

Having said all that I think it is important to recognise that anger can be a positive force for change, for improvement, it should not be viewed as a negative or unhealthy emotion.

Anger is not an unhealthy emotion, it is just an emotion.

It all depends on how we behave when we are angry, how we use the anger we are feeling, whether we recognise where it is coming from, whether it is hiding any other emotions that we should be aware of and how to act appropriately without hurting ourselves or others around us.

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Cobweb Season


Aug 30

I woke up yesterday morning to find that cobweb season had arrived. When I went for my early morning walk I discovered that our land was cloaked in wondrous cobwebs, each glistening in morning mist. All the thistles and rushes and tall grasses were connected by shimmering bridges of silk where there was none the day before. Unfortunately the camera is off travelling with himself so ye will just have to take my word for it!

I have decided that it is absolutely ludicrous to keep calling the seasons by their usual names because those names conjure up images of what we would normally expect the season to deliver and such expectations inevitably lead to great disappointment.

Therefore, the last season was purple season, as evidenced by the glorious purple flowers that surrounded us here on the hill and this season is now cobweb season. My seasons do not last neat numbers of months like the old fashioned ones, they may even be different to the seasons at the bottom of the hill, they only last a little while and then we have a wondrous new season to enjoy and delight in!

What season are you currently enjoying in your neck of the woods?

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Gathering with Women


Aug 21

I am very much looking forward to this weekend. I am travelling to meet some wonderful women and we will spend the weekend together. We will listen to each other, talk about our selves and our experiences and cook together and walk on a beach. I cherish these women and these rare weekends.

I also hope that the weather will be good because a few of us will be camping. If I were to place my order with the weather-making gods I would ask that if they wish to make it rain could they please do so at night? It sounds so lovely to lie cosily in bed at night in a tent listening to the rain - as long as the tent is really waterproof!

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So Hacked Off!


Aug 20

Funny word – hack: a hacking cough; an old fashioned tabloid journalist; an old horse; a horse drawn taxi (hackney); to have a afternoon horse ride (to hack out); a trick or easy method of doing something; computer hacker; to be annoyed, very upset (hacked off)

It’s the final two which concern me here and they are connected. A friend of mine had a look at his website the other night to find that his website was gone and in it’s place was a notice telling him that he had been hacked! There was load of blarney in two other languages which as best as I could translate, between googling and bablefish was a lot of waffle about how America was destroying the world climate and it was time to act.

Well thanks lads – that was really news to me! Fair play to ye, using your brains to upset a really lovely person (who wouldn’t hurt a fly and works with healing) in order to get your message out there that climate change is happening. We never would have known if you didn’t do that. You are all just great – Not!

And by the way, the website destroyed was based in Ireland, not in America. The server being used was in Canada, which funnily enough, also is not in America so if these silly people really wanted to cause distress to American “earth destroying capitalists” (their words, not mine) then they need geography lessons.

These wastrels concentrated on only Linux systems, oh yeah, Linux has capitalism as it’s core, pure evil, the downfall of the world – again – Not!

Many of the websites attacked by these *geniuses* were home-made – designed by the website owners using open source software (more on this another time – I promise) and not all were concerned with making lots of money, but rather to do with hobbies and interests.

For the life of me I cannot understand this form of vandalism. These people obviously do have very useful brains, but they have no sense whatsoever. It really made me so angry.

They spend quite considerable time deliberately causing disturbance to people they will never know and also causing hurt to people they will never know.

Perhaps it is a good thing that I cannot understand this behaviour.

It is fair to say that I am well and truly hacked off!

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Missing Connections


Aug 17

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I have been having problems connecting to the internet recently. I use one of those new fangled mobile modems and while it is better that the dial up which we were stuck with it is not very reliable. The problem is exclusively with the server which this site is hosted on, well not actually with the server, it is fine, the problem lies with vodafone who seem to have blocked the server.

There are days when I can access the website using my laptop in other places, with other connections but not with the mobile modem. It is very frustrating. The server hosts were very quick to respond when the problem first arose and were able to guarantee that the problem was not with them. That’s when we checked access through other means and found that the problem is isolated to vodafone.

Unfortunately we are not getting a great response from our modem providers but I will persevere, a letter of complaint will have to follow up the report that we received from the tech support guys, a lazy report that denies that the problem has anything to do with them.

We’ll see…

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Rare Blue Skies


Aug 17

The deluge continues…

A few days ago the rain eased off for awhile and so I went for a walk bringing my camera with me. You gotta take the beauty where you can find it.

Ash against blue sky

I could not resist this shot of a sun dappled ash tree against a blue sky.

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Red Squirrel


Aug 13

What joy! This morning as we drove down the hill what crossed the road in front of us but a beautiful red squirrel! What a lovely sight.

For a moment we could not make out exactly what we were looking at as this strange little creature ran across the road, he didn’t seem to be aware of us at all. As he scampered away from us all we could see was his blonde tail perched up over his back so that we could not see his little body at all until he turned into the far hedge and revealed his beautiful self to us.

There are not very many hazel trees around us and the hazel is one tree that I have lately been thinking I want to concentrate on planting more of this year so now I certainly have the motivation. I do know some lovely hazel woodlands and have often found nut stashes but over the years that I have walked in those woodlands I had never seen a squirrel, red or grey.

The only time I saw a red squirrel was years ago in Co. Clare so I was thrilled to see one this morning so close to home. The last time I saw one was when I was out for a drive one day in the early eighties. I was heading toward the Ailliwee Caves, driving along a very quiet and small back road, as I slowed almost to a stop to take a turn to the left I glanced to the right to look into a field that I knew contained a fairy ring and a lovely red squirrel hoped over the wall - perhaps a fairy in disguise…

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Do I Have To?


Aug 07

Do I have to? How often were those words uttered in childhood and still they go through my head today? There were a few things I “have to” this week - dreaded paperwork and menu planning. Paperwork - need I say more? Never my favourite occupation - it’s not that I can’t, it’s more that I just don’t like to… Know what I mean?

In fact I dislike it so much that I even got around to doing the second task, the menu planning. It’s something that we have been thinking about for awhile now. The benefits are many - your shopping list makes more sense (hopefully) and you will (hopefully) have the makings of some interesting meals at the end of the shopping trip. Most likely you will also save money at the grocery shops and be less confused, more focused as you wander from aisle to aisle. Another benefit is that you don’t end up looking in the presses (cupboards) in hungry desperation wondering “what’s for dinner?”

How did I solve this menu planning dilema - by reading lost of blogs of course! Aren’t I a good little procrastinator? I wandered over to Small Notebook for a look, knowing that organising skills abound there and guess what was going on over there? You got it- menu planning troubles! So I am not the only one pondering this wonder of old-fashionedness.

I had a good read and then followed the yellow brick hyper-road over to Simple Mom’s blog for a read and wow - she has this whole thing nailed down! Many of the commentators also had good ideas so now here I was armed with solid plans.

I had recently gone through a few magazines, preparing for the trip to the recycling centre and I had torn out quite a few good recipes that I thought would suit us and put them into a folder. I also have a gmail calendar on the go so I went through the recipes and slotted them into various days on the calendar, adding the ingredients needed to the event description so that I don’t have to go through the recipes to get a shopping list organised.

I really like the fact that I can so easily repeat each recipe at odd intervals - every five weeks or every seven weeks so that our eating pattern does not become too repetitive. As I was entering the information I was also writing put a shopping list so it all seemed so easy all of a sudden.

Isn’t that often the way with things that we have been putting off for ages, dreading to do or simply feeling “do I have to?” When we actually get down to it the task does not seem so bad…

Now for that paperwork…

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The Thistle Top Café


Aug 07

Musk Thistle

hungry bees

all to myself

Three’s a crowd…

Networking?

Concentration

Two’s Company…

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Purple Daze


Aug 06

Rose-Bay Willowherb

Purple Beauty

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Waiting To Open

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Simple Living


Aug 01

Here is a lovely piece on simple living in blog by Rural Aspirations, check it out…

Let me know what you think…

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Sustainability


Jul 26

Simple living and sustainable living are not necessarily the same thing, although the terms may seem to be interchangeable for some people. That might sound like a strange opinion (hey, it’s only one of many) but the difference lies in what sustainable means, or indeed what it means to you or to me. It is a word which has suffered great abuse lately, every marketing Tom, Dick and Harriet has (ab)used the word to sell one thing or another – green-washing.

What does it mean to me? I find it hard to define clearly and succinctly but it has to do with living and using earth’s resources in a manner which does not have a negative impact on future generations or the earth herself. Ok, that was my first go and already I can see that I need to edit it to - striving to live and use resources in a manner which does not have a negative impact on future generations or the earth herself.

What does the dictionary say? Check one out here.

I have read quite a few blogs where the two terms are loosely used to mean the same thing, where there is an assumption that people in the “simple living” community (to coin an Americanism) are living sustainably. Some of them probably are but many people who are practising simple living are doing so primarily in order to reduce debt. There is absolutely nothing wrong in that, debt avoidance and debt reduction are very powerful ways to take responsibility for your life.

However it means that these people are making solely financial choices and thinking only in terms of money and how to reduce their living expenses. If this results in their buying fewer toxic chemicals to clean their houses or growing their own veg then that is a great result but the benefit is purely incidental.

Hopefully, for many of these people there will be a change of mind set as they realise that the benefits are not just financial and so begin to look at their life choices (and buying choices) not just in terms of money but in terms of the environmental impact and the impact on their children learning to be more thoughtful consumers.

Taking a little more time to think carefully about buying a product can be very empowering. There are often many things to consider. Where was it produced? How well are the workers paid? Is there a Fair Trade product available? If so can I encourage my local store to stock it instead? Are there lots of toxic chemicals in this product or were nasty things used in it’s production? Do I need it or just want it?

Not buying as much “stuff” does reduce negative impact on the environment in many ways, check out The Story of Stuff.

What does sustainable living mean for you?

I’d would love to hear what you think…

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SUV - Hen House


Jul 24

Yesterday I was sitting in my van in a carpark, writing my shopping list – boy, aren’t I organised? Anyway, there I was, minding my own business for a short while, looking about me for inspiration for the shopping, when I noticed that the SUV parked nearby had a 6 litre engine! Wow, I thought, 6 litres, who needs that?

This is Ireland, we don’t have huge mountain ranges to cross or dangerous deserts, the vehicle wasn’t unusually large and it didn’t even have a tow hitch so pulling large horse boxes wasn’t a the reason that the owner wanted a vehicle with a 6 litre engine. It’s not as though I drive an electric car (yet) or even a hybrid myself, I am no transport angel with my 2.5litre diesel work van. I think that I was just a bit amazed and I admit to still being a bit amazed and confused by an engine of that capacity.

Perhaps I noticed the vehicle because I had recently read a blog about transport and oil (sorry, can’t remember which one it was, read too many that day, if you recognise it let me know) and an SUV driver had been offended. He commented that drivers such as himself were an easy target and perhaps he is right but I think that if you drive to the shops in a 6 litre gas guzzler that really you are not doing yourself, or the planet, any favours.

His excuse for continuing to use the tank was that if he didn’t use it the suv would end up in a landfill (perhaps he hasn’t heard about metal recycling) or some other person would be driving around in it. I guess he does have a point there. He also stated that if someone were to give him a hybrid car he would drive that – nice of him!

I reckon he could always do what we used to do with old cars in Ireland before we discovered the environment (!) - leave the car in the field and use it for the hens…

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We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For


Jul 14

Where we live is considered by some city dwellers in Ireland to be isolated and remote but it doesn’t feel this way to us. Our nearest town is within easy reach by car, about twenty minutes if we don’t stop for a chat with neighbours met on the road. If we were riding horses, or relying on bicycles or even a donkey/horse and cart as was the case just one or two generations ago then it would very quickly seem different for us, it might start to feel a little remote then.

However, I know from talking to the older people who still live near here or those who are sometimes driven up here by family on a sunday outing to reminisce about the old times, that it did not seem so to them. I have spoken with a man who used to work as a telegraph boy over fifty years ago, he had very fond memories of the long cycle up here to deliver news because one of the families living here used to give him a lovely cup of tea and biscuits, common enough now but the biscuits were a very rare treat in his youth and of course the road home to town was mostly downhill.

What would happen if (when) fuel becomes so expensive that we have to ration our use of it? This is not as ridiculous as it might have seemed some 20 odd years ago when my friends and I first watched the films Mad Max and later Waterworld. Isn’t it odd that those stories seemed like such far-fetched fiction to us at the time and now do not seem so outrageous.

Of course, we now have alternative technologies such as electric vehicles but they are not in common use – why? It’s obvious that peak oil has passed, I think that there are no rational thinking people who deny this any longer. We rely on oil for far more than just transport so why have we not started to replace it’s use where we can?

The excerpt below is taken from the website of the relocalization organisation, http://relocalize.net/about/relocalization

I have neither added nor changed it… It is beautiful and so very clear…

Borrowed from another Blog here - seemed apropos for us:

Community Works
A Hopi Elder Speaks

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . .

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.”

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time!”

“There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.

“Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

“The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

– attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder

Hopi Nation
Oraibi, Arizona

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Blogging


Jul 14

I am new to blogging and when I searched for blogs pertaining to renewable energy and sustainable living I found about one quarter of a million! So why add to this list? I really don’t have any particularly good reason. I guess it’s one way for me to communicate that doesn’t involve travel, perhaps I should say that hopefully it will become a way to communicate as the blog develops - and perhaps someone will read it and leave a nice comment.

I did find it difficult to wade through even some of the 250 thousand blogs that came up however I also found some blogs that are really enjoyable to read, I will do my best to add them to the blogroll as I find them.

I noticed that some blogs are so covered with ads that I quickly lose interest and don’t even bother to bookmark them – so you might guess that I am not a big fan of the advertising world, I don’t enjoy things that are over-commercialized. I can handle a blog with a few ads, fair play to anyone who can add to their income by blogging (multiple income streams are great) but please don’t go for overkill, I am sure that there are others who like me will just switch off.

I am more into sharing than buying, I am trying to not be good little consumer.

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Solstice Wolf


Jul 11

We were watching an episode of “Northern Exposure” the other night on dvd (great entertainment courtesy of eBay). Do you remember Northern Exposure? It’s a 90’s drama set in Alaska, great story lines and fantastic scenery, it certainly beats most tv these days, in fact we watch dvds of favourite tv shows more than current tv.

The main story-line was about two of the characters, Maurice and Hawling,  taking a tough trip on horseback through the snowy wilderness to fulfil a promise and bury an old friend in a very remote place. Needless to say the journey was not an easy one, the trials and tribulations were due as much to the interactions with people met along the way as to the harsh weather and environment. The parallel story featured “Chris in the morning” doing his radio show where he read aloud each day from some old Jack London stories.

It reminded me that when I was young I loved reading those sort of stories, Buck, White Fang, Jock etc. I loved all adventure stories – sailing, mountains etc but the wilderness stories were my favourites.

It is so cool that I now live in a hilly quiet rural area where it snows a little in winter even when snow doesn’t stay on the ground elsewhere. There is very little traffic up our way, no-one wanders up here unless they work in forestry or have animals grazing on the hill. Last month we have even had a wolf wandering around, we saw her a few times as she wandered around our property, beautiful creature.

I feel very lucky to live in such a lovely place. I used to have to get into a car and travel some distance to walk in beautiful quiet countryside, now I just have to put on my boots and pull the door closed behind me. Still I don’t do that as often as I feel that I should but when I do — I really appreciate it — the peace, lovely birdsong, crickets and grasshoppers chirping, I have lost count of the different grasses, all looking their best now with their beautiful seed heads blowing in the wind.

I never get tired of looking at the views from up here and everyday there is something different to notice. Some days the clouds are low in the sky and the valleys below us disappear in a sea of grey, the tops of the tallest trees standing up like islands.

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Hello World


Jul 10

For a while now I have been considering starting a blog. Lots of people ask me what I am up to and and I sometimes find that I nearly need to do a newsletter in order to keep them up to date with what’s going on in the mountains.

Some of you know that we live off-the-grid, that we provide and produce our own electricity. We learnt how to do it as we went along, there really were no others doing it at the time, no-one living around here that we could ask. I had always known that I would design my own home one day and building our own power system didn’t seem like such a stretch.

Using renewable energy keeps you in touch with nature in a whole new way. We use a wind turbine and solar pv (photovotaic panels) to produce all of our electrical needs. We started with a small system and have improved it as we learnt along the way.  When the wind blows we know we will have plenty of power in reserve and we have noticed that it is not always windy here, we kind of assumed that living way up on the hill we would have a lot of wind and often but living with a wind turbine has made us really aware of when it is windy and how often it is not.

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