All my ladies basking in the sun!

Omagh Hostel

Seemingly Omagh Hostel has been mentioned in dispatches in this new Failte Ireland Guide. Page 61 to be exact. Available from here

Food for Thought : Farm for the future

Some of you may have missed this when it went live on BBC . Here it is again from YouTube.

BBC documentary on the precient global farming and food crisis, filmed in the UK.Featuring Martin Crawford (Agroforestry Research Trust), Fordhall Farm, Richard Heinberg and others.



Part two is here
Part three is here
Part four is here
Part five is here

The Human Rotovator

Our potatoes are growing at last, after a very cold spring they have finally got under way.We spent yesterday making the ridges for the potatoes even bigger by adding yet more soil. This stops the potatoes being exposed to the sunlight and consequently turning them green . We also planted some sprouted potatoes that were lying around up in the barn. Its not exactly weed free and pristine but we are getting there.

Earthing up the Spuds

He does so much around here. He is the source of much of our energy.

Really don't know what we would do without himself , these photographs over the last few days are all a tribute to him and his work . He never stops. The upside of growing your own food are many and varied. The down side is that it requires you to be physically fit and strong and not to be afraid of hard work. He often remarks whilst cutting wood that as an energy source you cannot beat it . It warms us three times the first when it is being cut down, the second when it is sawn up and then finally when you burn it.

TOGETHER ONE VOICE

Songs from all around the world by the Enniskillen 3 part harmony singing group Fundraising CONCERT

Thursday 25th June @ 8pm
The Higher Bridges Gallery
at The Clinton Centre
Enniskillen

*Raising money for Wateraid

(Donations will be accepted at the door)

Supported by Fermanagh District Council's Art of Regeneration Programme & The Arts Office at Fermanagh District Council. Further details available at 028 6632 5050

Weeding a form of meditation?

The abandoned onion patch

weeding as a form of meditation.....it will never catch on ......thoughts from a disgruntled weeder.

The weather here in Omagh continues to be really lovely at least up until this morning when it became a tad colder, even threatening to rain. Actually I am kind of glad, as yesterday I spent too many hours in the garden weeding in the onion patch. As a result today I am sore and tired all over glad to retire to the office and catch on the blog which has been sadly neglected over the past while.

Our lovely new raised beds

The garden continues to grow and all the time we are moving things around and making changes. Replacing beds that have become overshadowed by maturing trees and breaking new ground for the replacement beds.


Our strawberry patch which has been so abundant for the last four years has been replaced with climbing beans .

Looking forward to the harvest

Once upon a hill

It has been a while since any of the regular readers of this blog have made any literary contributions happy to say the Vagabond has awoken from the sleep of winter and sent this.

The setting sun streaked blood down the sky

Distant sounds murmur up from the lazing town

Whose lights sparkled fitfully in the valley's haze

An indigo wash eased down the darkening glow

As the last birdsong hushed with the evening's gloom

A silent bat flittered through the dusky boscage

Warm autumn eve with its soothing aromas

Beckons the weary traveller to his rest

And a stranger no more turns with a silent sigh.

A Vagabond.