Organic Colleen Spuds … Delicious!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Vegetable gardening is still new to me. I am learning so much! But I’m delighted that some things have turned out really well, despite my not doing things perfectly correct. Take our spuds, for instance. The early organic variety called Colleens were our first potatoes we planted and we were so excited. But we had more potatoes than allotted space in that bed. So we squeezed them in. Yeah, I know, that was silly. But we’ve just started eating those Colleens and oh wow! They are delicious! Have you ever dug a spud fresh out of the ground and had it for dinner? If your answer is “no”, then you haven’t lived. 🙂 And this coming from a girl who really was not a fan of potatoes before moving to Ireland four years ago…

(For our second planting of potatoes we used more space, by the way.)

Our rainbow chard is finally coming along. We’ve had it a few times for dinner. I sneaked it into some pesto last week. Otherwise I just saute it with garlic and olive oil. I’m still waiting for our peas. They are so pretty, but not quite ready to eat. I have lettuce in planters on our deck. I really like that the kids just pop out the back door and pick what they want for their sandwiches. They also like to raid the strawberry patch, which I am perfectly O.K. with! I’d rather them be eating the fruit than those darn slugs…

My parsley is really doing well. I picked some tonight just to see if it was fragrant. I wish I had a scratch and sniff app on my blog! It smelled so nice! I am going to have to find something to cook tomorrow that calls for parsley. The other greens in the pictures below are my parsnips, and some carrots. Slowly but surely, vegetables are growing.

Ireland has had a very wet summer, so I’m lucky that the veggies haven’t just floated away! I hope you’ve had nice summer weather where you live and garden!

Dana

It was so easy to dig the potatoes up. One plant has enough potatoes for dinner for our family of five. I am so hooked!

My two potato beds. The early organic Colleen variety are on the right, and main crop organic variety Sarpo Mira on the left.

The peas are so pretty, but not quite ready to eat. This organic variety is called Karina.

Rainbow chard with garlic & shallots in back of bed.

Organic Rainbow Chard on the chopping block.

The parsnips are doing really well.

We usually eat parsnips with carrots (more carrots than parsnips), both of which I’ve planted. But only one row of carrots have taken while three rows of parsnips are thriving! There will have to be some creative cooking this fall!

Italian Giant Parsley grown from organic seed. Can you smell it?

From organic seed Buttercrunch lettuce on our deck.

We have a couple of containers of this lettuce on our deck. My father-in-law started them from seed for me and then we put them in these containers. I find that they do better here than in the beds, and it’s easier (for the kids) to quick get some to eat!

These are a few of the uneaten strawberries from our garden. It’s hard to keep them long enough to photograph!

Black Velvet Nasturtium which we grew from seed.

This was my first year growing flowers from seed, so I was happy with the result … flowers!

Black Velvet Nasturtium grown from seed.

You might notice that almost all of the pictures have water droplets in them! We’ve had so much rain, but thankfully there is usually an hour or two which is dry and sometimes even sunny! Such is weather in Ireland – it packs everything into each day!

Black Velvet Nasturtium grown from seed. (not sure how this non-black velvet one got in here!)

Mom in the Garden is …

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Who is mom in the garden? I’ve been thinking about this post for a while, because all of what I’m doing now comes from many years (ok, not THAT many) of amazing experiences and influences. I wanted to give you an idea of who I am and what makes me tick. I have a strong focus on faith, eating well, exercising, and having fun. I’m sure it won’t include everything, but here’s a peek at some of the things I’ve been involved in which have brought me to this place in time, in my garden, in Ireland. Let me introduce myself…

I am a Christian Woman.

I am an American.

I am a wife.

I am a mother.

I am a Daughter, Sister, Sister-in-law, Auntie, Great niece.

I am sister to an Angel.

I am blessed to have wonderful mentors.

I am a Woman of Immaculate Conception (founding member of the most awesome women’s church group).

I am a triathlete. (If you can’t smile and have fun while your competing, it’s not worth doing.)

I am a marathon runner. (I’ll admit that at around mile 20 it became harder to smile. Although, this pic was taken coming into the finish line…)

I am an advocate of breastfeeding.

I am a former P.O.D. (point of delivery) leader for CSA-CNY.
Community Supported Agriculture of Central New York supporting the Organic farmer of Grindstone Farm in Pulaski, New York.
Eat local, Eat Organic, Eat Healthy.

I do my best to feed my family whole foods. Especially desserts. 🙂

I am a swim coach, and mom to two hard working swimmers.

I am a swimmer. I started competitively swimming at 10 and swam all through college.
I still swim.
That is a lot of swimming.

I am a mom to three wonderful Irish dancers.

I am a Thunderbird. (Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix Arizona)

I am a Red Fox. (Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York)

I am a former Study Abroad Student, studying at Dublin City University, Ireland.

I am fortunate to have lived in Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland.

I am an admirer of flower arrangements… and vegetables.

I am a novice vegetable grower.

I am a blogger.

It’s very nice to meet you.

A visit to Tallanstown, Co. Louth, Ireland.

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Yesterday was a great day to go for a family bike ride. The weather was dry and mild which equals perfect! Our littlest one is 8 and well capable of keeping up with the rest of us. We decided to visit our neighboring village, which is called Tallanstown. It was a beautiful and easy 10 minute bike ride. It was fair day in Tallanstown, with lots of people, music, animals, and different fair attractions. We enjoyed walking around, seeing the sights, and catching up with friends. I confess that I didn’t take pictures of the fair (just my kids!). I think the history and beauty of the village are more interesting. I had taken some sunny day pictures of the park previously, and today I went back and captured some of the historical side of the village. It was raining while I took my photos today. Bucketing rain. But I had this blog post in my head, and that was that!

I enjoyed learning about Vere Foster (1819-1900), a man of wealth with ties to Tallanstown, who lived his life helping others less fortunate than himself. The statue is fitting, displaying books, since his efforts brought about great change in the Irish education system. He did this to improve emigrants chances of success in America.

The park in Tallanstown is a lovely, peaceful place. It has pretty paths with so many different plants and trees. I loved all of the different textures, and sizes of plants (that’s what I go for!). It is very well maintained. They are currently putting in a new herb garden.

It came as no surprise when Tallanstown won the national Tidy Towns competition in 2010. The village is pristine and beautified with flowers, lots and lots of flowers! There is a great deal of pride in the community, and it shows.

We really enjoyed our afternoon out and about. We arrived home just as the rain started. Great timing!

I am still figuring out the best way for me to display photos in my blog. I’m trying a different way today. The pictures are small, but if you click on them it’ll open up a slide show. Please feel free to let me know what you think! Is it better to have less photos (I put more in today, to try this out!) enlarged in the blog? or more in a slide show? Thoughts and comments are always welcome!

Enjoy this little tour of our neighboring village!
Dana

Our bike ride to Tallanstown. (Picture taken while biking!)

Our bike ride to Tallanstown.

Failte “Welcome” to Tallanstown.

View coming into Tallanstown.

Water feature in Tallanstown.

Water feature behind Tidy Towns plaque.

Tidy Towns National winners in 2010. They were presented the plaque by then president Mary McAleese.

Vere Foster: A man of great wealth, who put the well being of others first. After he discovered that Irish emigrants were having a tough time due to lack of education, he sought to rectify this. Through his efforts, a much higher standard of education was brought about in Ireland. His statue is here due to his ties to Tallanstown.

The life of Vere Foster.

Center of Tallanstown.

Former National School. There is a sign on each side of the building: one saying “Male School” and the other “Female School”.

The Maguire family’s donation helped fund the park.

The park was partially funded by Program for Peace & Reconciliation.

In the park looking towards the front gate.

New paths in the park. This is being made into an herb garden.

A view of the green within the park.

Cut out stone pathway.

Beautiful stone double seat.

Created sheltered area of garden (around bench).

Lots of shapes, textures, and colors (ok, different shades of green!) in this sheltered garden.

Mom’s three kids.

Mom’s three kids being really good 🙂

Mr. Tayto, an Irish Icon for the Irish owned Tayto Brand crisps (potato chips). There is a Tayto theme park that is quite popular (http://www.taytocrisps.ie/park/).

This is a beautiful home garden in Tallanstown. The back flowers are all white calla lilies! It was bucketing rain when I took this picture, unfortunately, so the view isn’t as clear as I’d have liked.

Weeding … and new blooms in the garden!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Weeding, it’s like housework, it just has to be done! I confess to much preferring being outdoors and weeding to being inside doing housework, though. Today I had the privilege of listening to my kids play on the trampoline with their friends while I was pulling weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. Funny how the kids never want to pull weeds with me. We could make a game of it; something like “let’s see who can pull the most weeds!”. I’ll have to give that one a try tomorrow…

I’ve mentioned that our garden is in a constant state of change as we grow it, learn, and figure out how we want it to look eventually. The area of our “fruit orchard”, I just have to put that in quotes since the area is so small we call it that affectionately, is not the shape we want it just yet. We discovered this year that we’ve planted too close to the fence, so we’ll have to bring that area back a tiny bit. That lovely black carpeting (read: ugly) is where we’ll have stone paths eventually. We planted more asparagus this year, so that space was expanded. We’re planning on two rows of peas for next year, too, since they are growing so nicely. When we get the shape and size finally right, we’re planning on enclosing the area. I really want a small white picket fence. Can you just see the pretty pink climbing roses along the fence with white hydrangea? I’m sure I’ve pinned something like that from pinterest!

Back to reality, and our current garden! The first of my Dutch Iris is blooming, and I think it is so pretty. The first of my roses has also finally bloomed. The sunlight this evening captured it so brilliantly. The mess in the middle of my front yard is my next garden project. I have to kill the grass (with newspapers & cardboard). I’ve also put the sod which was dug up from other places in the yard there, to incorporate it into the new garden. There’s no point in wasting perfectly good sod! I’m glad my husband is a patient man, and doesn’t mind the mess involved with killing the grass the slow way. Good things come to those who wait 🙂

I hope you don’t have too long to wait for blooms in your garden!
Dana

The above picture is the “before weeding” look of the fence line.

Now you can actually see the hedge!

A look at the “orchard” at sunset.

I thought the peas looked so pretty!

I am looking forward to eating our zucchini!

O.K. that’s a lot of pictures for one Dutch Iris … but it feels like I waited forever for it to bloom!

Finally! Roses in my rose garden!

I discovered these in my garden … I think they were given to me, and this is their first year blooming!

We grew a bunch of Calendula flowers from seeds and they are just now showing us how pretty they are!

This is as close as I’m going to take a picture of the big mess in the front yard! At least the sunset is pretty 🙂

The country life for me.

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Mominthegarden

I love living in the country. It’s beautiful, peaceful, and relaxed. I’ve been fortunate enough to live in a few wonderful places over the years. I’m originally from the Hudson Valley region of New York State, a town called Poughkeepsie. It’s beautiful there. Yes, it is! 🙂 I also lived for many years in upstate New York, in a lovely village called Manlius. So maybe that is why I have an appreciation for living in the country. Let’s just say that I am thankful for being able to live surrounded by such beauty.

We live a mile from the village where my daughter goes to school. Our youngest is our last one at the primary school, as her brother and sister have now moved on to secondary schools outside of the village. This is the final week before summer holidays. The weather was so nice yesterday that we decided to walk to school. What a treat! On our way home, we met up with our neighbor. He is such a gentleman. He also happens to have 3 sheep in his front yard. I joke that they are the token sheep, since the area we live in is called “Sheepwalk”. Tootsie Wootsie (what a great name for a sheep!) happened to be near the gate while we were chatting, so she came over to say hello. She is huge and very friendly!

We had some dry days this past week, so I made great progress with painting our front fence. I enjoyed chatting with some neighbors as they’d pass by on their walks. It’s a lovely area we live in, including the neighbors. It was a great feeling to finish painting the front section of the fence! The next few days are supposed to be wet, so the good news is that I get a bit of a break from painting.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on garden planning. I’m very grateful for my husband’s help and input with our garden, especially all of the digging parts! Last night we went over some “new” plans of mine and between the two of us have come up with some really good, workable ideas. I’m appreciating the time and patience that goes along with gardening, especially with creating new gardens! We’re making progress, one small step at a time.

I hope your garden plans are growing along nicely, too!
Dana

Our littlest one on our walk to school.

Our lovely neighbor and his sheep “Tootsie Wootsie”.

The road back from school to our home.

Two beautiful copper beech trees at the entrance to the church (next to the school).

The fence almost completed.

I managed to finish the fence just before the rain came! Such a difference to have some sun in the picture!

Yes, I had to share all of my hard work with you!

This sunset was earlier in the week.

An unsettled sky, but a beautiful sunset.

Nursing Hydrangea Selma back to health.

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Now that is a gorgeous hydrangea. Hydrangea Selma, to be exact. Even the leaves are a beautiful burgundy color. I took this picture when I bought it, just as it was going in the ground two years ago. And that is the last time it bloomed. Even the leaves haven’t really grown well. I’m stubborn, though, and I refused to give up. Recently, a shock treatment of compost seemed to give it some life, but it still didn’t seem quite right.

Nope, the above picture isn’t what it looks like now. This is what it looks like now:

Oh yes, it is not very pretty! I spoke with someone at a nursery this week, and finally decided to take some action. We (I mean my wonderful husband!) dug a circle around the plant, and lifted it up with as much of the roots as possible. Then we dug out a circle 3 feet across and 3 feet deep. Just as suspected, the soil was very heavy clay, wet, and in need of some air. We made a mixture of 60/40 topsoil to peat/compost and added that to the hole. Then we replanted the hydrangea, adding some more compost. I will be keeping a close eye on our patient.

My husband hard at work digging in the above photo.

After we finished with the hydrangea, we planted a few more plants that I happened to pick up at the nursery. (Ever go to a nursery and *not* buy something?) They are rather small, but I really liked their personalities! The first one I call my silver plant (official name Convolvulus Cneorum). I saw it and wanted it. Plain and simple. The next little round one is Chamaecyparis p. “Boulevard”. It is difficult to see in the picture, but the branches have a lot of texture, and the color is a little unusual greenish bluish yellowish (unofficially). The third plant, well, I didn’t get the name of it. But I will be returning to the nursery soon and I’ll get it then!

This garden, unnamed at the moment, gets a lot of wind. It just whips around the house right at this point. Our Japanese Maple has suffered terribly from this. It is completely naked. Not one single leaf. It needs either a lot of wind protection here, or to be moved. I’m planning that we’ll move it this fall.

Below is my silver plant at the nursery, and then in my garden.

Below is a picture at the nursery. I loved the texture of this shrub.

Here is my tiny version.

I liked this taller one to have a variety of shapes in the garden. It should grow to about 1.5m to 2m.

I know they are small now, but I like watching them fill in and grow instead of buying full size (read frugal gardener).

We have had a lot of gray days, and a lot of rain. So I searched through my photos for a cheerful picture to share. I found two pictures from when I visited “Fred’s garden”. He is a friend of my husband, and has an amazing garden. His words of advice to me were to have a master plan on paper to start with, and grow it from there. Here are two pictures of some of his beautiful poppies.

I hope you enjoy some sunny time in the garden! And for all those Dads out there, I hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day today! (maybe in the garden?)

Dana

Matching Stone Walls at the Front Gate.

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Mominthegarden

I have a plan for our garden. A few of them, actually. Implementing them is trickier than thinking them up though! Then of course, there are changes that have to be made after the original plans don’t work out. I’m experiencing it all while creating our garden! Take our front gate, for example. I planted two lovely hostas there that the slugs completely demolished last year. Completely. So this year, I’ve been on serious slug alert. Every night I go out at 9:30 (it’s light here until past 10) and pick off about a half a dozen slugs from the two hostas. Every night. But it’s working and the hostas are surviving! I had also planted some prim roses opposite the hostas, but decided that they were too much work to try and save from slugs. So today I dug them up and cleaned up that little garden. I’m going to wait until the fall to plant something in the prim roses’ place, unless the perfect plant presents itself to me! The climbing roses which I planted earlier this season on both sides of the gates are doing well. Just as the rain came, I was finishing up a second stone wall, which I think closes off the garden (nicely if I can say so myself?). I really like the stones and the fact that they are from the neighboring fields. It was only after I was sorting through the pictures that I remembered that only one side of the gate fence is painted. It’s been a busy time in our family and we’re looking at the fence painting be a summer long project! Good things come to those who wait, right?

I hope you don’t have to wait too long for your projects this summer!

Dana

Here is a look at the painted side of the fence and the new stone wall. There is a small climbing rose plant on this side of the fence, while the peony plant is peeking through from the other side of the fence. (The stone in the middle is covering our water pump cover.)

Looking at the new stone wall from our driveway.

You can see the raindrops on the stones.

The hosta & climbing rose plant (and unpainted fence!).

The second hosta and climbing rose plant (and unpainted fence!). The little teeny guy below kept me company while I worked, despite our cat trying to play with him.

A look at the entrance. I sure like the painted fence better than the unpainted!

The winds proved too much for my purple sensation allium. So rather than leave them bent to the ground, I cut them and put them in my favorite vase. I’m glad I still get to enjoy them for a wee while longer!

Colorful Cakes to brighten this rainy, wet, and terrible weather!

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Mominthegarden

Rain. I know it’s a good thing, especially for our gardens. But enough is enough already. I need to see the sun again! So today, I decided to make my own rainbow. I’ve gathered a bunch of pictures of my baking projects. I have just about every color covered! I’m not an expert baker, although I do love baking. My older daughter is 12 years old, and has taken an active roll in helping me bake. What a huge help she is! It is so nice to have company in the kitchen and a helping hand, too. I wasn’t always so excited for help, especially if I was under any kind of time pressure. But I’ve gotten a little better at being patient (well, a tiny bit better, anyway), and she gets more helpful with every project! I haven’t let go of the icing bag yet, though. It’s my favorite part, and well, I’m not ready to share just yet. I know I’ll have to share that fun job soon, because she is just so helpful, and she really wants to do it. Soon…

I have a devil’s food cake recipe that I love. It’s from The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins. My copy of that cookbook is completely worn from so much use! I love it! I get very attached to recipes that work for me. I think this recipe is good enough to share! As for icing, I use my Wilton recipe with butter, cream cheese and icing sugar. I try and use some different icing tips, but you can tell which are my favorites.

Hopefully the rain will subside soon. Then I’ll be back in the garden! I hope you enjoy my rainbow of baking.
Dana

Kathleen’s Devil’s Food Cake
From The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins

3 oz. good quality unsweetened chocolate
(substitute 3 tblsp cocoa powder + ½ oz butter per 1 oz unsweetened chocolate = 9 tblsp cocoa powder & 1.5 oz butter – add more butter if dry: I usually use 2.2+ oz butter)
1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ¼ cups (packed) dark brown sugar (can substitute light, or use a combination)
3 eggs
2 ¼ cups cake flour
(Add 2 tblsp cornstarch into 1 cup of flour measure if you don’t have cake flour – or just use regular flour)
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. (190 C). Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans – or line cup cake tins (about 24).

Place chocolate in small heavy saucepan, and melt over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Cream the butter and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the melted chocolate.

Combine the cake flour, baking soda, and salt. Alternating between the two, add flour mixture and buttermilk to the chocolate mixture in 3 stages. Then slowly stir in the boiling water and vanilla.

Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (30 minutes for cake – start with 10 minutes for muffins).

Remove the pans from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Then invert the pans over wire racks.

Cream Cheese Icing:
From The Wilton School: Decorating Cakes book.

½ cup (4 oz) butter
8 oz cream cheese, softened (room temp)
4 cups (approx 1 lb) confectioners’ sugar
1 tblsp milk

In medium mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth, add sugar and milk. Beat on high speed until smooth (30 – 60 sec). Use this thicker consistency for piping borders. (I use about 6 cups of sugar to make the icing thick for piping.)

The first color of the rainbow: Red. Victoria Sponge with Raspberries.

Pink.

Peach.

Orange iced sugar cookies.

Next color of the rainbow: Yellow.

These green cupcakes were a bit of a fun experiment.

Pretty Blue.

I just learned how to do two colors for these! Very simply, you put the two colors next to each other in the icing bag.

Purple rose flowers for my daughter’s birthday.

Another two color experiment.

The white cake is my first attempt at a rose cake. I first found this type of cake on I am baker’s blog. http://iambaker.net/rose-cake-audrey-birthday-cake She.is.amazing. Wow! I have to admit that I was happy with my cake, tons of mistakes and all.

This chocolate cake is Nigella Lawson’s very simple recipe, and very delicious tasting.

I just love this color blue!

And that is the end of my baking rainbow! 🙂

A summer peak at the garden: Peas, Potatoes, Parsnips, Carrots, Cukes, & Chard!

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Mominthegarden

When the weather is nice in Ireland, the weather is super nice in Ireland! We were finally free to spend a full day in the garden! I love working in the garden, everything about it: pulling weeds, gathering rocks, planting, weeding, watering (ok, this doesn’t have to be done so much here), getting rid of slugs, more weeding. I just love being outside and being a part of a living, growing, and changing garden. We’ve been “growing our garden” over the past two years. It is in a continuous state of change and development! There have been some learning experiences, too. I have a few plants & trees that aren’t happy where they are and I need to find out what will make them healthy again, possibly just changing their location.

Our raised vegetable beds are starting to look productive. I think the veggies are slow growing this year. We could use more heat, for the plants and for me! My shallots are the happiest! They at least look impressive. Our potatoes are growing nicely, too. I’ve taken some pictures of the baby growth of what I have so far. I like tracking it from a young stage to full bloom. You should see carrots, garlic, onions, and parsnips. My other beds have zucchini & pickling cukes in them, but they didn’t get photographed.

Walking away from the raised beds will bring you toward another part of the yard, what we fondly refer to as the Fruit Orchard. I was happy to see the start of apples and, for the first time, pears! Our two year old blueberry bushes are also looking very good, and are full of fruit. We’ve put a net over the strawberries in the hopes of keeping out the birds. I’m not sure if it is good enough for this job, but time will tell. We’ve added bits and pieces on to this garden continuously! I think it is almost at the right size. Our plans include a few more changes over the next year, and then it will be “done”!

Although called the Fruit Orchard, we do also have vegetables in this section. We have Pacific Purple asparagus, but only 4 plants have survived over the past two years. So we just expanded that section by adding 10 Grolim white asparagus. I know it’s a long slow process with asparagus, but hopefully it’ll be worth it! This year my husband planted peas for me. He used some chicken wire and bamboo sticks for the plants to grow on. Slugs love pea plants, by the way… I visit the plants every evening to save them from being someone else’s dinner! We are attempting to grow some watermelon this year. Ireland doesn’t have the best climate for this fruit, but I guess I have to prove that to myself!

The final set of pictures are just showing my boxwood hedging. I finally cleaned them up a bit. They really needed some trimming. Actually, I just had to take some pictures of the beds that I had spent hours weeding! My star flower of the moment is my Allium (purple sensation)! I love it! I’m afraid that the garden it’s in is not thriving. My hydrangea is only now showing signs of life after some compost shock treatment, and my Japanese Maple has been ruined by being in the line of our (gale force) wind path. Big sigh, lots more work to do!

I hope you are enjoying steps of progress in your garden, too!

Dana

These are pictures of our back yard, including the raised beds and potato beds. I have to say that the kids have really helped in expanding the stone pathway. It’s a tedious job, but I love how it looks! (and it’s character building, right?)

Here are some pictures of the vegetables growing in the raised beds: shallots, garlic, rainbow chard, onions, carrots, and a very fuzzy picture of parsnips.

Pictures from our fondly called “Fruit Orchard”: starting with apples, pears, blueberries, and strawberries.

Pictures of our Pacific Purple asparagus, and peas.

Picture of trimmed box wood plants (in Rose garden, which will hopefully have roses soon!) Followed by pictures of Allium (purple sensation).

Historic St. Mary’s Abbey and St. Mochta’s House in our own little village.

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Mominthegarden

The weather has really been lovely the past week here in Ireland. It’s been sunny, warm and dry. I can’t ask for more than that! As I was driving home last night, the sun setting on our local historic structures made them look even more majestic than I find them on any given day. So I decided to capture some of that beauty today with my camera. Of course today was overcast and the view is not exactly the same, but I find it special none the less.

We have two interesting pieces of history in our little village called Louth Village, in County Louth. The first is St. Mary’s Abbey. The present structure dates back to 1312 when extensive rebuilding took place after a major fire. There were apparently findings to suggest a Romanesque church building existed and was built sometime in the 12th century. There is a stone wall surrounding the Abbey and graveyard.

The second interesting piece of history is St. Mochta’s House. This structure is one of the few remaining connections left to testify to the early existence of a monastery of Irish monks founded by St. Mochta. St. Mochta was a disciple of St. Patrick and there are stories of many meetings between the two which took place right in our village! There is thought that the current structure was possibly built in the 9^th century. It is a two-storey building for an oratory on the ground level and sleeping quarters above. Legend claims that it was built in one night while St. Mochta slept! He died in 543. The surrounding wall was built in 1906 by the Louth County Council, and conservation work on the building took place in 1934 by the Office of Public Works. I was glad to learn that there is an active effort currently going on to continue conservation work.

As an American living in Ireland, I find the history so intriguing! I even took a picture in the graveyard of a Monument built in 1800 which was erected simply for James Carroll and his posterity. The slab was renewed by his great grandson (James Marmion Gilmor Carroll) in 1945. All I have to say it “neat!”.

I finished up the pictures with some views of “the green” around St. Mary’s Abbey. It’s maintained by our local Tidy Towns group of volunteers. They really do a great job of beautifying the area. Tidy Towns is a very successful initiative to clean up local communities to make them a better place to live, work and visit. (for more info on Tidy Towns, click here: http://www.tidytowns.ie/interior.php?id=2 )

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of some of my village! I’ll have to capture some more pictures when the sun is shining!

Dana