Here Come The Girls

Chick, chick chickeeeeeeeens! Oh how exciting! Our girls arrived last Friday and I am besotted already. To say 'arrived' is possibly an overstatement, it implies they jetted in from somewhere exotic with monogrammed luggage and an entourage, though when you see them its not hard to imagine that being the case. Introducing Joan and Zsa Zsa, two fine looking birds named after two fine looking broads (Collins and Gabor, keep up).

In reality there was very little glamour save for that found in the fetishising of all things rural and inefficient, they arrived in an apple box. I picked them up from a man in the village who keeps an outstanding fowl farm beside the allotment of his sandstone cottage (a Hello Dibley moment for me right there). This man had every kind of feathered bandit - lots of which I didn't recognise but was too embarrassed to ask about given how much of the city he could smell off me; in response to my curious "What do you call those blonde dames?" (yes I said that about chickens) he grunted "Chicken". Anywhoooo, I bought four, Fred had given me explicit instructions; I was to buy two chickens to raise as pets, they would be excluded from all egg quotas and would never see a garnish. I was expressly forbidden from purchasing more than two - if my husband sounds like a 1950s throw back, relax! The last time I was tasked with collecting one small animal I adopted two enormous, untrainable labradoodles who have made his life miserable. Thus, caution. The arrival of the chickens has prompted Fred and I am to each utter a senctence we never imagined we would say. I was forced to declare "We do not eat family" in response to a barbaric suggestion of what would happen to chickens who didn't lay. While Fred had to insist that "The poultry stay outside. In all situations." when I became too concerned about the rain and the impermeability of feathers.

As I said, instructed to buy two and bought four. Standard! We have two Silkies and two Cuckoo Marans, and strangely, like the cast of the original Planet of the Apes, they tend to stick to their own. Zsa Zsa (fair haired like her namesake) and Joan (dark like her's) are obviously the Silkies they enjoy eating and running in terror from leaves, the Marans are named Betty and Bitch, they enjoy laying eggs and inflicting small wounds on stray hands they find in the coop. Bitch is, well, a total bitch and Zsa Zsa is, well, a total diva, yesterday she wouldn't come out of the coop because it was raining! I send a lot of my time watching them peck around their pen. They're slowly becoming more friendly and will no longer run from me when I visit them, in fact if they spot that I have something delicious like spinach or broccoli stalks they will run towards me. They're still not keen on being picked up, the first night they were here Fred and I waited patiently for them to go into the coop, however patience was not available in great abundance as were en route to a black tie ball. As it grew darker and darker and the cab honked louder and louder we were forced to capture the chickens ourselves; bow ties, false lashes and feathers flying in every direction, bums high and knees scrapped while a highly amused driver took Snapchats. Such is life.

Hilarity and uncomfortable mental images aside the girls have settled in well. The Marans are starting to lay regularly with about 6 eggs from them this week. The Silkies (or "your two Dilsies" as Fred refers to them) have laid a grand total of one egg between them, but they weren't bred for the drudgery of the nest. These photos sum up their characters perfectly; Zsa Zsa strutting about like she's facing down Tyra, Joan looking a little worried, Betty and Bitch getting on with the important business of chickening. Every home should have chickens!

Back Gardens on Cnoc na Gaire

When it comes to home, a good garden is very important to Fred and I, in fact to me it was more important than the interiors. Perhaps I spent most of my childhood several feet up a tree in a rather marvellous den of my own making! I can tell you in detail the location of every knot and scar on our tallest conifer, the sound it made in the winds, the way it smelt after the rain, the sticky feeling of sap after a heatwave, but I would struggle to recall the pattern of the living room wallpaper! At the moment we have a very small garden but it really is an extension of our home, which is rare in Ireland where its either too wet, windy or dark to use a garden for most of the year!

We kept this in mind when we were designing the gardens on Cnoc na Gaire, we wanted somewhere that our whole family could use, where we could grow plants, food and children, a place to socialise, play, learn and relax in on a daily basis and not just when the sun deigned to shine. We wanted a loose formality, a landscaping with soft edges, a manicured garden into which the surrounding hills had tumbled. We don't plan on having cows in the garden (!) but we didn't want them to look too out of place when they stuck their head over the fence.

The front garden was such a big space that it could comfortably accommodate this (rambling, nonsensical) brief. The back garden on the other hand - well that was a bit of a tougher call! Nevertheless I think it looks amazing! The round patios, potager garden, curving lattice fencing  and kidney lawn keep it reasonably informal while still providing designated areas for all the things we wanted, the chickens in the corner will only add to its charm!

The raw untouched back yard! At this stage it was a grass and gravel! It was hard to imagine what the space was capable of becoming and a part of me loved how rugged it was.

That feeling didn't last long once the diggers moved in! Up came the grass and down went the patio slabs! 

Things really slowed down after the initial spurt, the finer details took a lot longer, the pergola has gone up over the larger patio, eventually this will be covered in gorgeous, perfumed wisteria. I can't wait! 

Aaaaaaaand it's almost finished! The trampoline has been sunk and the lawn has been seeded, the plants are laid out ready for their forever homes and I can't wait to move in!!!!!!! 

This my favourite area! On the left is looking down towards the front garden, through the 'secret' path that runs behind the potager garden and on the right is the view looking up this pathway into the back garden! Eeeek! I'm so looking forward to chasing Alfie and the boys along this path!

Gardens on Cnoc na Gaire

Over 8 weeks ago men with shovels, steel capped boots, a lifetime supply of lucozade and roaring yellow diggers arrived like an invading army on to Cnoc na Gaire. Since then our Hill of Laughter has been a slightly less tranquil and significantly louder place. There's been a whole lot of mud, sweat and rain but the once grassy knoll is emerging from under those steel clad feet as an elegant and refined garden.

This was our garden waaaaay back in July just before Alfie was born, which feels like a whole life time ago! A different person stood on these front steps and looked out at a different landscape, with only the faintest inclination of how drastically the world was about to shift!

The initial growth spurt was the most dramatic as it happened so quickly! I remember a brief moment of panic when I first saw how we had brutalised it, I genuinely felt sad for everything we'd uprooted. A small mercy that the Summer was over we weren't making any bees homeless. As first priority the top layer of soil was pulled away and turned to kill weeds and destroy their roots. After that the levels were set, because of the slope and poor drainage the front garden was divided into three levels. The first will be a gravel turning circle and will sit right under that digger, down three steps will be a rectangular formal lawn and down a further flight of steps, nestled at the foot of the hill will be a round lawn surrounded by a wild flower meadow.

Things had started to take shape by September, you can see where the lawns will be laid, as well as where the steps will eventually go. One of the things I love about Cnoc na Gaire is the light. From every angle it is bathed in warm, living light. This photo makes me so excited to grow our lives there.

Then one day, there was a roundabout! The turning circle appeared over night! On the right you can just about make out the last few feet of what will one day be a secret pathway and down on both lawns there are tiny, grassy spikes nuzzling their way out of the soil! Eeeeek! I can't wait! 

On Tuesday for the very first time we will be donning work boots and rubber gloves ourselves and finally getting our own hands in the soil! Our shiny new shovels are sitting in the garage just waiting to be used! I am speechless with joy!