Nice November

Last leaf

I was up Abbey Hill on Saturday and everyone I met, scampering across the rocks like goats, had a beaming smile. It was a lovely sunny day; November has been mild, unlike the ice and snow of last year.

I am going to visit my relations in London on Saturday and will visit the highly rated London Wetland Centre. It is a 105 acre wildlife sanctuary in the middle of London with a café and adventure play area. I intend to steal their best ideas for the Kinvara Nature Park. The only update on the project this week is that I was talking to a lady from the fisheries board who said there could be rare eels in the turlough, I have just been down to look under stones with no success! There were 13 wild duck which was a nice sight.

I have leant over Sunshine, the 3 yr old pony now and he seems happy to accept my weight, his mouth is made and the next step is to ride him. I normally sit up on them in the stable first but I would appreciate any sharing of ideas from ranchers reading this as although we have ‘joined up’ a bit (see video) he is extremely active and can be very wild.

News from Austria is that the grey pony Floyd has been sold on and is going really well for his new owner show jumping.

My poor cow, 79, who got cut at the TB test in September, has never recovered. The small cut became infected and despite two strong courses of antibiotics the infection only got worse. It became an abscess on the joint at the top of her hind leg (the equivalent to our knee) I changed tactics and put her on the recommended homeopathic remedy, silica, and drained it and washed it out with salt and water and everything that was suggested from cider vinegar to tea tree to cayenne pepper. The infection seems to have gone but she hasn’t put that foot on the ground for two months now and the whole muscle of her hind quarters has wasted away. She is eating well in the stable but doesn’t seem to be improving and this morning spent a couple of hours trying to get up. The vet says the joint has seized from a deep infection and she should go to the knackers. She is not in calf which is a good thing and I don’t want her to suffer. Martina, my qi gong instructor is going to do bioenergy on the leg on Friday, but that is her last chance and if it works it will be a miracle. It looks like I will be making that call. She is 12 years old which is a good age for a cow but she has been such a good patient I hate to send her off to the factory.

I was at the Organic Farmers and Growers Association AGM on Sunday and apart from sharing a table with Trevor Sargent (former green party minister for food and horticulture) which was interesting, I also came up with a great idea with the elderly lady sitting next to me. To put eco-pods on our farms (these are timber egg shaped permanent tent like things) and offer people a night on an organic farm with a basket of food to cook! We are going to plot all the organic farms on the map of Ireland and see if we can get a route for bicyclists with a pod roughly every 40 miles. They can come in and get dry by the fire if its raining!

I won’t be posting next week.

Jim McKee's exhibition 'from the hearth' and funding available for Kinvara Nature Park

The Bee Orchid, one of the Burren flowers found on the farm

 Before I left for the meeting with Galway Rural Development last week I went down to the barn to feed the animals. The young doe hare sat up in the long grass and lolloped off into the wintery sun. I knew it was my lucky day. In August we were topping the fields with the tractor (cutting thistles) and my husband came in with a baby hare that had narrowly escaped the blades. It was only a couple of weeks old and so soft and adorable my 7 year old daughter fell in love with it and desperately wanted to keep it. She put her in with the guinea pigs that night but after researching on the internet it seems that the mother hare leaves her young dotted around in different places by themselves for safety sake and most likely would come looking for her. So with many tears we left her back next to the old boat to take her chance in the wild. Sure enough a couple of weeks later I spotted mother and daughter haring around together!

The meeting was a great success. The Kinvara Nature Park ticks all the right boxes for funding and although there is work to be done on the business plan it will go to the board in January and should qualify for the full amount at 50%. We are over the moon as they are the only people with any money and having their support also means a lot of other back up; mentoring, employment grants etc. The biodiversity officer is coming to assess the farm and they will be promoting it as an eco-tourism project. I am really looking forward to seeing the results from the turlough as she is a specialist in them. The turlough is a fresh water lake on the farm which   drains twice a day as it is connected to the underground Blackwater river that disperses at the foot of Dunguaire castle in Kinvara. The tide pushes the river back up into the swallow holes twice a day and this could lead to some unusual species.

Having got such a great response from Jim Mckee’s music a couple of weeks ago I have posted a video below of his exhibition of paintings in the Kenny gallery in Galway. What an abundance of creativity….

I have my own creative person in the house, 5 yrs old and totally wearing me out at the moment. Her ‘projects’ are so numerous it is impossible to keep the house in order. In the last week alone we have had: crayons unwrapped and put in a bun tray in the oven to make new colours and shapes, a penguin made from

scrunched up balls of newspaper and about a mile of sellotape, Christmas decorations made of wet loo paper wrapped around plastic bottles, lots of objects wrapped in cling film and many different items made out of wool and beads.

She has tied all her clothes together and hung them over her bed in a camp and has turned a large pink ball of wool into about 50 small balls. She wants to open a stall on the pavement in front of Geraldine’s knitting shop in the village to compete in the wool trade. Many tantrums ensue when her efforts do not go to plan, her wool gets knotted or she is told that Geraldine might not appreciate a wool stand in front of her window. Let’s hope it all gets channelled in the right direction eventually and maybe even an exhibition in the Kenny gallery!

Searching for finance for the Kinvara Nature Park



Old Irish 3 penny coin



  The original business plan for the Kinvara Nature Park written in 2007 took 4 months to complete. Now that the project is active again I have had to update it in the last week. It has changed from a new 'state of the art' sustainably built, ecocentre to a conversion of the existing barn. It reflects the fact that everyone's aspirations have shrunk. The good thing is that building and labour costs have drastically dropped in 4 years. The bad news is that finance is as scarce as hen's teeth!

It has been early starts to try and get it done before the kids get up as they have been on midterm break. Last Tuesday I had a meeting with the Galway City and County Enterprise Board. I brought the two girls with me and they grilled the receptionist about Santa Claus as I was talking to Breda Fox the chief executive.

I didn't expect any joy from GCCEB as I had heard they had very little funding but as they supported the original feasability study I wanted to approach them first. Our only real chance is with Galway Rural Development, word has it that they have only used 30% of their funding and must use it by December or they lose their quota. Breda Fox is also on the board of GRD and is going to recommend the project. The meeting is at midday today and will  determine the future of the project. They won't need much convincing that facilities are needed around Kinvara but it all depends on whether we tick all the right boxes.

I have also been working on a new logo. It is a line drawing of that mythical Irish animal the hare. I tried to post it but it didn't work so above is the lovely old Irish 3p coin with the hare design.

The concept of the nature centre is to provide an experience of the Burren flora and fauna (including the famous rare wild alpine flowers and orchids) on the nature trail around the farm with information points linking to seasonal exhibits at the centre. The barn will also have an artisan farm cafe with seasonal fresh food to keep the adults happy and indoor and outdoor adventure play equipment for children.

The idea is to motivate children around the nature walk with zip wires and tree houses to play in and information boards to collect information from. It would also be an ideal introduction for hikers wishing to experience the Burren and all its natural wealth and beauty. There have been a few initiatives for education in the Burren such as the Burren centre in Kilfenora which has a great exhibition but it is all done through photographs and film rather than experiencing and connecting with nature and the stone. There are also plenty of guided walks in the hills which are wonderful for active people. The nature centre would really be just a taster of all the Burren has to offer and what better place to start than Kinvara, the 'gateway to the Burren'. Any suggestions as to what visitors would like would be welcome.

BBC2 has been doing a beautifully filmed documentary 'Monty Halls great escapes' He has been in Connemara, where the scenery is looking magical. See below the amazing footage of diving with conger eels in the first episode. This week he was was swimming and trying to tag basking sharks off Malin head.

Michael D returns to Galway and a proper scare at Halloween

President Michael D Higgins opens the Cruinniu na Mbad festival 2011, Kinvara.

5000 people greeted our new president Michael D Higgins in Galway city on Sunday. And there are alot of smiling faces in Kinvara .

Halloween went well, if you judge it by the mountainous pile of sweets the girls managed to accumulate trick or treating. They dressed as a witch and her cat. My seven year old wore her rosary beads with the witch costume, which I thought was edgy (and got a few disapproving looks).

‘It’s my death power’

When my son was 15 he wanted to go and hang around the village with his friends on Halloween night. It’s a tricky age, too cool to trick or treat but too young to party in the pubs. None of the parents would allow it, they had got in trouble with bangers the year before, so the four boys were collected and ended up sulking in our house.

‘Why don’t you watch a scary movie?’

‘Boring’…moan moan…’

‘This is rubbish’…grumble grumble.

Then they had the bright idea of going to sleep down the field in a single skin tent. It was actually a kind of garden gazebo, totally useless in windy, wet, late October. They probably wanted to sneak  into the village when we were asleep.

I sent our neighbour Sean a text

‘The boys are in a tent in the field across from you, go and freak them out’

He took up the challenge with great gusto dressing up completely in black with a long white ghoulish mask.

He sneaked over the wall. He could see the light of a torch in the tent and hear the boys on their mobile phones acting cool.

‘Yeah…. we’re in a tent….’

Sean tossed a stone onto the roof. They fell silent

‘What was that?’

‘Probably just a bird shiteing…’

Sean crouched down beside a rock, hiding his head.

My son appeared out of the tent with a dim torch.

‘Hey lads it’s a badger’

They crept over towards him, peering at the ground.

Then he threw the torch at Sean (lucky it wasn’t a rock)

Sean lifted up his head and started dragging himself across the ground towards them, moaning.

They screamed and four black silhouettes were last seen running as fast as they could over the horizon.

My mobile rang ‘Mum, mum’ pant, pant, ‘someone was at our tent’

They all agreed it was ‘legend’

A proper scare at Halloween.

Planning was granted for the nature centre. We can’t believe our luck. I rang the appeals board on what I thought was the last day and asked if anything was in. They said that an appeal was in the inbox that morning (our objector always leaves it until the last day to drag out things as much as possible) but that the appeal period had ended at 5.30pm the previous day, so it was being sent back as invalid. We can’t believe our luck. Its back to the enterprise board tomorrow. They funded the original feasibility study in 2007, hopefully there might be some support available.

The Berwick and Whooper swans are coming in from Greenland to overwinter on the turloughs. Its lovely to hear their wings whooping above as they fly low, and look up to see their beautiful long necks stretched, searching for a nice calm stretch of water to land on .

Michael D returns to Galway