Sermons and seaweed

Seamus surveys the seaweed harvest

hail on the beach

the wonder of the weird stuff

Sunday, after surviving the ordeal of 1 hour solidly listening to the canon("a lovely man" according to my mother) banging on about catching fish with Jesus in the big boat we finally escaped to the beach.I'm not into religion(going to church for a quiet life), and the gospel this Sunday just annoyed me. Myself and my mother had a funny chat after about how pissed off those fisherman's wives must have been when the men came home and said " right Bridie I'm off to follow that Jesus fellow, the best of luck to you and the children".Dad perked up to ask who left their wives? and tuned out again one he found it was not local gossip. My mother was sure Jesus left the wives well sorted out, Auntie Mary doubted any of them had children at all. You see what I mean? who believes in this stuff? Anyway its all part and parcel of going home, not to mention meeting mums friend Maura outside the church who first congratulated me on getting married last weekend by hugging me exuberantly (I'm married 6 years) and later asked how my young fellow is ( I have no kids)!!! "She was very bad today", Dad commented.Poor Maura, at least she still goes body boarding. She is over eighty and lives close to the beach, but sometimes she misses the tide because she is too busy napping after being out dancing the night before!! I tell you something, the Clare crowd really know how to live!

a bit of a mess

Gingers idea of weeding

So back to the beach I went, poor Seamus in tow for what turned out to be the more colder and wetter of our seaweed gathering excursions. It rained and it hailed, walkers and dogs ran for it, even people on horses made quick their escape while we sheltered in the van and waited for the sky to clear. Later on the sun came out, warming our numbed hands as we filled the last few bags turning the sea green and making it look almost warm. But unfooled I turned my back on it, closed the door and headed home.Later, many months later I will be more than happy to brave the Atlantic and jump right in.

making progress

cleared

Today I got a few hours in the afternoon to clear and clean twin beds destined for this years brassicas. Last summer they grew peas and broad beans, sweet corn, climbing beans, pumpkins and salad crops. Now it was just a tangle of old supports and twiggy remnants. Maybe because of the amount of compost and manures they had received it was pretty easy to get everything pulled out. Maybe it was the moist soil, the lawn audibly squelched as I wheelbarrowed the spoil to the boundary hedge.After I had finished I covered the two beds with a nice depth of the freshly gathered sea weed putting three bags in each 8x4 bed. The only job left is to figure out which of the fruit trees deserves the remaining bags, empty them out and go off in search of Jimmy's stable manure.

filling in the good stuff

finished just as the light started to fade