Garden Conversion

after the weeds have been cleared

I have finally decided to do something about the state of my back garden.
The people here before me put down wood bark as a way of keeping the weeds down. Sadly its just not very nice - it looks dark, its mostly damp, and it disappears at a surprising rate given I never see any on the path and its an enclosed garden. I don't understand why its so patchy even though I have topped up the amount of bark a few times already.
Grass would be the best solution, but the poor quality soil would mean I should get topsoil and turf it. If I was going to that effort then I should do the front also but there are buried cables and old tree roots to consider... Of course, I would also have to cut it.

While walking around the garden centre with Fiona I saw some nice granite chips which I thought would make a nice replacement for the bark. This thought coincided with one of the nice days we had. Due t the horrible condition of the bark we don't like to sit out on it  but that corner of the garden tends to get the afternoon sun. A plan was hatching.

removing the old membrane

Ciaran and Fiona measured out the garden and Ciaran then designed a suitable garden for me. Sadly his design was a bit beyond my plans for the moment - water features, split levels and £2500 worth of gas barbeque seems a bit much for 30m² back garden.
I figure if I get the chips delivered mid week, Ciaran and I can have the old bark and membrane lifted and cleared, and the fence painted, new membrane down and the chips added without really stretching ourselves. After all, it is our holidays.

After checking the website I decided that 2 tonne of chips will be enough to cover the garden.

We start out by clearing the weeds. Fiona and I had cleared the worst of them a few weeks earlier but they grow like weeds.

Once that was all done we tackled the bark. Luckily I had a good supply of charity donation bags that we used to pack all the rubbish away. We ended up with a full car load of fragile plastic bags full of bark, stone, and weed roots. I have never seen so many roots at once. Some of the garden looked like a plate of spaghetti had been spilled.

new membrane down

We then took the opportunity to give the fence a quick lick of paint. Sadly the fence is so fragile it won't take too much pressure so it wasn't a great paint job but it does look a bit better. As I share the boundary fences with 4 other houses there is no chance of getting all 5 households to agree to replace it any time soon.
The sheets of membrane were then rolled up and dumped into the bin.

At this point Ciaran noticed what appeared to be a ring of some sort. As he investigated it turned out to be the old anchor for the rotary clothes dryer. The previous owners didn't move their old one, just cut it off level with the top of the concrete and lay the membrane over it. we then decided to remove it, something easier said then done, especially with sandy soil and no levers. As we couldn't get a good grip of it I finally got some old CAT5 cable which was laying about and hauled it out with that. The power of the internet. Of course, we now have a huge hole which we filled with some attempts to level the surface. We also have  a stonking great big lump of concrete that I cannot lift to get into the car and if I could I wouldn't be able to get it back out!

The new membrane then went down. This was the first test of Ciaran's measuring as we had bought just enough to cover the area. Naturally I had forgotten to consider the overlap and we were a bit short, but there was some left from fixing the path at the front of the house so we were fine. Ciaran was relieved that his numbers were right.

serious rabbit problem

Thursday morning the stones arrived in 1 tonne bags on pallets. Luckily the driver managed to get them down the drive which meant we didn't have too far to haul them.
Ciaran was chief lugger and I was on loading. It took only a few hours to move them all onto the membrane and then we managed to level everything out reasonable quickly after that.

This is when I realised my mistake with the gravel order. I naturally overcomplicated it.
A bulk bag would cover between 10m² at 40mm depth and 12m² at 50mm depth. I converted these to a volume and then used my garden area to determine how deep the layer would be. Since the minimum depth would be 30mm I ordered 2 bags. Had I been less clever and just used the info provided - 10m²or 12m²at at least 40mm depth I would have realised I needed at least 2.5 bags to give around 40mm at their worst case scenario. The whole area is covered, but its only a single stone thick in some places. The end result is I'll need to get another bag to put down at some point. The current plan is to wait until next spring. Since its just sand underneath I feel the stone may compress the ground  a bit and then I may want more than just an additional single bag. In the meantime we have moved the picnic table of the drive an onto the 'patio' .

Then the table was christened with a cold beer.

all we need now is weather

All the way home

Finally made it back home tonight after getting our ferry from Larne back to Troon.
We were a little early for the ferry so we spent some time at the beach outside Larne.
The ferry trip back was quite busy with a number of pipe bands that were over for the 12th. I think the 3 of us were a little nervous but in all fairness there was no trouble. There was a noticeable security presence though.
By the time we got back home I had driven 1200 miles, so so much for my walking holiday or having Fiona drive but the three of us seemed to enjoy it. Ciaran and Fiona are both still talking to me and I'm still glad they are both around.
Success all round

Walk like an Egyptian

No trip to Ireland is complete without a trip to Forbidden Planet for Ciaran, but today we also managed to see replicas of some of the treasure found in King Tut's tomb.
Looking at the craftsmanship of these items you get some idea of the lavish lifestyle the very rich had, and of the skill of the people keeping them in the lifestyle they became accustomed to.
I don't know how much of what was found was shown here but just the complexity of how it was all stored is amazing.

We all know that the mummy had the mask, but I never knew there were 3 more nested coffins before the granite sarcophagus, and then that was placed into a set of four nested gold shrines.
This was a very interesting day and we were lucky we caught one of the last days it was in Dublin.

As it happens, Ciaran didn't find anything of interest at Forbidden Planet and seems to have outgrown the need to simply spend his money, just to have spent it on something.

Rock of Cashel

Headed back to Dublin today with the now traditional stop in Cashel.
The Rock is being preserved at the moment so externally its not as impressive due to the scaffolding, at least from some angles. It seems there are very few of these types of structures still upright, and water is their particular poison. A protective roof has been placed over the chapel in order to keep some of the moisture out of the building.

Again our tour guide was brilliant. A local man he kept us captivated for over 90 minutes as he walked us around the site.

Weekend in Cork

Had a great weekend down in Cork with Jacqui and Dara and their 2 girls. They have done some amazing work on their house and the view over Crosshaven marina is incredible.
Saturday evening was a quick tour of Crosshaven followed by fish and chips and then my first pints of the holiday.
Sadly Dara had to travel on business but the rest of us had a great day on Sunday at Fort Camden which involved stairs, face painting and a small cafe.
The fort is being restored by a local conservation group and looking at the work they have carried out in the past year gives great hope for its future.

Kylemore Abbey

Today was our last full day in the cottage and we spent most of it at Kylemore Abbey.
This has been a wedding present, famine relief work, a money pit, a royal hunt lodge, a convent and girls school. The nuns are still there but the sschool has now shut down as its getting too much for the nuns to cope with.

We did our now standard tour of the house and the tea room but spent a lot of time walking around the Victorian garden.
The original garden was left and became overgrown. one of the nuns started to restore it and now a team of students work alongside the full time staff to restore the huge garden.

What was really impressive was to see the class divide. Within the garden was both the Head gardener's house and the bothy for the garden staff. The Head gardener had this lovely house for himself and his family. It was bright and spacious with a beautiful view over the garden. The bothy was in behind the shed, with windows looking out onto an earth bank with 5 or 6 living in less space than the head gardener has for breakfast.

It was dry inside, but dark, cramped and the turf smoke really couldn't get out.

When we got back to the cottage we had another Rummikub session but I was strictly limited to a minute per turn by the other 2.

Down the mine

In keeping with yesterday, today was another geology day. We headed to Glengowla mines. This was primarily a lead mine and was hand dug.
After arriving just after a school trip  and having to wait in the gift shop we were able to head into the mine.

It was as impressive as the caves yesterday, but its incredible to think this was all dug out by hand. With no explosive.
After the mine we headed to Aughnanure Castle.

The central keep was restored with new floors and a roof so you can get some idea of how life in a castle was lived.
Ciaran cooked again tonight, his third night in a row. We had one pot noodles tonight, a type of chicken stir fry. This cookbook was the best present anyone's has ever given him.
After dinner we had another Rummikub session but I kept getting hassle for thinking to much about my moves. Of course, Ciaran sending me texts while playing imploring me to speed up didn't help!

Really dark caves

Ciaran has been a Father Ted fan for quite a while now and one of the pulls of going to the West of Ireland was a chance to see the "Really Dark caves" from "The Mainland". These are Ailwee Caves in Clare.
So we were up early today and off to Clare.
The caves are really impressive and the tour was fantastic. Ciaran being into rocks managed to keep the guide on her toes with some impressive questions and to my surprise didn't mention Father Ted or respond "I don't believe it" (in the episode Richard Wilson from One Foot in the Grave is visiting the caves and typical Father Ted antics occur after Ted uses his catchphrase) to any of the facts. It certainly was his favourite day.

The rain of the yesterday meant that there was good flow in the caves and we only got a little wet after the tour when we went for a short climb up above the cave structure.

Wet wet wet

We got rained on today. Not very often, actually just the once, but it was quite severe.
Although the day started out wet with a Scot, a half Scot and a honorary Scot, we figured we wouldn't let it stop us. Anyway, if you want good weather you wouldn't choose Ireland (or Scotland), you just hope.
We decided to go see Killary Harbour, Ireland's only fjord. Part of this is a fabulous weekend there at the start of 4th year (Ocotober 1995?) with the school on an outdoor pursuits weekend, and because Ciaran wanted to cook dinner and it was close to Westport, our best supermarket option.
When we got to Leenane it was wet so we decided to continue onto Aasleagh falls in the hope it would dry up  a little bit. When we arrived in the car park another couple with their infant were preparing to head off. Well he was and was trying to get the child into a backpack while she looked on unimpressed. Then the raining got really heavy. He looked optimistic for a minute or so and then got back into the car and off they went, but we persevered! and a few minutes later it stopped raining and we headed off to see the falls.

Naturally, as we were enjoying all that nature could show us, as far from the car as we could get, it decided to up the ante and started to absolutely bucket it down.
By the time we got back to the car we were soaked through, and about 10 minutes later the car looked like the inside of a steam room as we began to dry out.
Once we were dry enough to travel (someone's trousers went somewhat translucent) we headed into Westport where we did the now normal task of windows shopping, browsing and cafe visiting.
Having finally found the supermarket Ciaran pulled out his shopping list and started filling the trolley. We then found what seemed like a really nice restauraunt but there was no stopping Ciaran so we had to head back to the cottage for him to cook.
He produced a really good jambalaya from a Christmas present he was given. It was worth missing eating out and the wait.

Inis Mor

what a fabulous day, but we, well me anyway, will pay for it.
Early start this morning as we headed the down to Rossaveel for the ferry to Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran islands. The plan was to hire bikes and cycle round the island and visit Dun Aengus, the ring fort.
The drawback was the ferry trip - though he's better than me, neither Ciaran nor I are great on boats. We arrived in good time and get onto the ferry, careful to pick seats outside. Is a good dry day with a bit of a breeze but the crossing should be quick enough, and having taken the magic pills I was sure I would be OK.
Once we got onto the island we headed to the bike hire and choose bikes for the day and then headed off to get some sandwiches for the trip. Finally we were off.
There are not a lot of roads on the island so choosing a route was fairly easy. The island was amazing. Just the amount of stone was incredible. I would have been a hard life here before electricity and central heating - I bet its a hard life even with all that.

On our cycle we saw seals basking, though they are hard to pick out from the rock. Sadly the zoom on the camera doesn't make them much clearer.

We continued with our cycle for a little further until we came to a quiet place to have lunch after which we came upon the nicest beach I have seen in a long time.

If only Ireland had the climate, it would beat all tourist destinations, but its just too cold on this occasion.
After making it almost to the end of the line - it was almost to the end due to the nasty hill we climbed. Once we started the descent we figured the road just ended and we would have to climb back out and just couldn't face that - after all its our holiday - we headed off to the ring fort.
After cycling as close as we could, which was into the car park, we headed off on foot, with the fort sitting on the hilltop in front of us, with the cliffs beyond and the Atlantic behind.

The fort is essentially a series of concentric arcs of stone enclosing the top of the hill, with the other side being the 100m cliffs.
The effort to build this is not really comprehensible - the walls are 4m think in some places and 6m high.
But the real breath-taker is the cliffs.

The Cliffs of Moher get all the press but they are an extension of this outcrop.
What is most impressive is the completely open nature of it all - nothing except common sense between you and the 300ft drop

After taking in all the view had to offer it was back to the bikes (with the obligatory stop in the cafe) and the cycle back to the ferry.
The one thing I haven't mentioned is the weather. We have been very lucky today especially since we were basically stuck on the island all day. It not only stayed dry but was really quite warm (out of the breeze) and all three of us got some colour ie I am now lobster colour and darkening.

Clonbur

Today was a fairly restful day. After  a fairly late night with intense raving rabbits we had a late start.
We drove in to Cong. This is the village were John Ford's "the Quiet Man" was filmed with John Wayne in the '50s. The village is lovely but very touristy, and being tourists we had a wander around. We saw the pub - "Over here its pronounced Co - Han" - but decided against the Quiet Man tours and just went to the abbey and then a stroll. We got turned round and missed the trail and ended up at  Ashford castle. After a walk around the grounds we headed back t the car and made our way into Clonbur with the promise of another nice walk and then a good meal.
after  a bit of a struggle to find the start of the trail we headed off and ended up at a neat ruined keep.
Since by this point we had walked about a mile and a half and still had to go back for dinner we turned back to the car and went to eat.
Once back at the cottage we decided that tomorrow would be the Aran islands...

Holiday starts here

After a surprising easy drive we have arrived at our cottage - a new built thatched cottage in Galway.

The cottage is on a peninsula in the north end of Lough Corrib. Bit of a funny design though. Downstairs is open plan with two separate bedrooms and a conservatory out the back. Upstairs is a double bedroom on the mezzanine and a second sitting room, with en-suite, and doors onto the sun lounge. To me, it looks like the bedroom and the sitting room should be swapped. The views are amazing though...

Once we got settled in and picked rooms we headed into Clonbur for some dinner.
After getting back tot he cottage we went out for  a quick walk around the cottage. Since the cottage is basically in the lough the scenery is incredible.

Our token exercise complete we broke out the wii for some rabbid entertainment.