Hi, I really know the 'visitor' season is here when our regular music sessions start up. Below, we are playing at the market square in Dunmanway.Update on Irish Wreck RenovationsLast month my story was about the kitchen we used when we first arrived...

Hi, Summer is here. There is an abundance of white Hawthorn blossom, like ice-cream soda bubbling out of the hedgerows. Everyone we speak to agrees it's unusual, beautiful, and strange and, in the light of the global weather changes, worrying.We have...

Hi, After a fairly cold start to the spring, the temperature has risen (so has the wind!), and everything is exploding into life. The Blackthorn blossom is abundant, leaves are bursting out on the trees, and we have trays of seedlings growing in the...

Hi, I apologise for the delay in sending this month's newsletter. I was away in England for a family funeral, and had a two-day break in the Porlock Weir Hotel, in a stunning room with a view out over the sea. A cut above my usual accommodation.Then...

Hi, After months of incessant rain bringing miserable, cold, overcast days, floods and soggy fields, the sun has finally shown its face. It's amazing how much it lifts the spirits. We've started sowing seeds in the polytunnel to plant out when the th...

Hi, A Happy New Year to you, one and all!My new year started off with a bang. Straight into ghost writing a memoir for a lady from the Killarney area. Can you imagine being brought up in the house below? It was no different from the others in the par...

Hi, It's blooming cold here in Ireland. Hard frosts, frozen water, icy roads. Set to continue for a few days. West Cork used to be known as a frost-free zone, only having had snow once in twenty years when we moved here, now we have hard frost every...

Hi, Last week I was invited to partake of luncheon with a local entrepreneur, who rose from poor Irish labourer to landowner-millionaire during his 90 years, and who is seeking a ghost-writer for his memoir. My husband and I were royally entertained....

Hi, The weather has become a little chilly, wet and windy in Ireland, making up for the unusually warm, dry summer. We have had some massive thunder and lightning storms and leaves are flying from the trees. One of our dogs ran off in the thunder, an...

Hi, Another busy month has hit the dust, and yet another trip to visit family in UK, including another new grandchild. At eighteen months she is an absolutely delightful addition to the family, and has learned many words including 'no'. Her most ende...