Planting Wildflowers - an effort to be bee friendly!

Wildflowers for wildlife

I've been wanting to grow wildflowers for some time now and after our CE gave all staff a token gift of wildflower seeds at Christmas, I decided this was the year to do it.

I've only got a small border in my front garden so there is not much space to grow a lot.  However, there is a piece of wasteland at the end of our cul de sac with a large oak tree and some wild garlic growing, so I decided to put down some wildflowers there too.

Here's some pics including how my border looks currently.  I'll up date when some of the plants start to flower as it is early days yet. It will be interesting to see if the flowers bring bees or butterflies to my garden which is why I was interested in growing them.

I planted a few ready grown plants in order to give my garden an instant lift.  I then put wildflower seed around the plants.

Another ready grown plant in the border - I planted 5 in total and then surrounded them with wildflower seeds.

Here's the seed I am using along with the wildflower seeds gifted by my CE. I've never grown flowers from seed so am interested to see how it all turns out.

Early days - here's some green shoots.  Seemingly wildflower patches are not at their best the first year but get better year on year.  There is a mix of annual and perennial flowers in this patch.

I've moved away from the concept of perfectly manicured gardens and I really hope that my garden begins to look wild and natural as the flowers grow. I also reckon that a more "wild" garden will be easier to start and then maintain overall.

I also started some seedlings in little pots - these are annuals and are starting to shoot.  I'll plant them in the ground shortly.

You can find lots of videos of how to grow wildflowers on youtube if you are interesting in cultivating your own wildlife supporting patch or border. Do let me know if you start growing wildflowers!

Here's the wasteland at the end of the road where I live

And the white flower is the wild garlic growing in abundance - it smells amazing!

It's a nice piece of scrub with a gorgeous old tree in the centre and a newly planted one to the left. Let's see if the wildflowers grow here and what wildlife (bees and butterflies) it brings to the area.

I love reading your comments - let me know what you are up to in your garden these days!

Cena con amigos en Dublin

On Saturday evening we had our Spanish teacher for dinner with her boyfriend. A few weeks previously we had a lovely evening in their apartment and so we were happy to return the favour and have them over in our house.

When we visited them it was bucketing rain and although we planned to cycle (they live near the docks) it was far to wet so we went to get a taxi but struggled as it was so wet and everyone in Dublin was trying to get a taxi somewhere rather than getting wet! And then for them this Saturday, it was raining too! But they managed to get here by taking the Luas and then walking to our house with umbrellas.

So after getting up early and cycling to Rathmines to the Swan Centre to buy all of the food (we brought 2 biks bags and one backpack with us) for dinner, we served a Spanish - Irish mix up. For drinks, we had to go to Supervalu later in the day on a beer run as we had no room in our bags after shopping in Dunnes. On the beer run, we picked up Guinness, Heineken, Malbec wine (for me!) and some tonic for gin. 

For food, we started with a charcuteries of meats along with Spanish (Manchego) Cheese and Irish Cheese (Cheddar) and also some blue Stilton. Our Spanish teacher had given us some Membrillo (Quince) which was homemade in Spain by her boyfriend's mother and we served this with the cheese. So delicious!

We also had olives, hummus and sundried tomatoes which was just lovely with arrival drinks.

After these starter nibbles (which I named "Snibbles" in my head!) we moved in to the kitchen where I served a Wedge Salad with blue cheese dressing topped with bacon bits and tomato. I used the Serious Keto dressing recipe for the base and then added blue cheese to it and it worked out well. The first time I had this wedge salad was in Santiago's Bodega in Key West and it's a big favourite of mine.  Unfortunately I didn't take a phot this evening but it literally is a wedge (a quarter) of an ice berg lettuce, topped with dressing and extras. 

For main, we had Spanish meatballs with some sides.  Sides included Cous Cous and twice cooked hasselbeck potatoes which were divine. 

Postres / Desserts were a few small brownie bites, strawberries & cream and I also made an "Irish" version of tiramisu using choc chip brioche instead of ladyfingers (which were impossible to find) and Baileys instead of Marsala wine.

All in all it was a lovely evening with great company (and great to talk Spanish socially......or in our case, to try) and  a nice thing to do on a Bank Holiday rather than go do our usual of a dinner in Dillingers!

So that was my Saturday night, do let me know in the comment box below what you got up to :-)

Here's the direct link to the Serious Keto dressing video - it's super easy if you want to give it a go, and you can mix it up and add different flavourings if you don't want to do blue cheese.

Edit -

A week later I received a photo from my Spanish teacher of the Hasselbeck potatos that she cooked on Saturday night, with a note in Spanish to say she was making potatoes the way I did. I thought that was a great compliment!

Go Capel Steet!

Capel Street will be Car-Free!

After numerous consultations and receiving thousands of submission (I sent one in!), Dublin City Council with the support of the Councillors will make Capel Street Car Free.

Having been trialled successfully last Summer, though with limited car free hours, it is great news to see this street being permanently made car free. It will be the longest street in Dublin to become car free and will follow in the footsteps of Grafton Street and Henry Street both of which are Dublin's main shopping streets and have been pedestrian only for decades. It seems bizarre to think that buses used to drive down the upmarket paved Grafton Street and I am sure that it will become like that with Capel Street someday in the future with no one calling to have it revert to the bottle neck choked with traffic street that it currently is.

Capel Street has an interesting mix of pubs, eateries and shops. I haven't been on the street in ages but intend to go back as soon as it is made car free. The last time I was there was in about June 2020 (I think when Ireland opened after the first lockdown) where I visited the hardware store there. It's worth mentioning that I cycled to visit this shop and at the time I had my electric bike so I strapped the piece of plastic tubing that I bought in to my panniers (half in half out) and cycled back across the Liffey to Ranelagh from the Northside. 

I sure am looking forward to this big change in Dublin and share a video below which shows the potential for the streets of Dublin but also shows how some of the fears of car drivers is generally unfounded, world over.

Good job Dublin City!

Edit - here's my trip report from my visit to Capel Street on 21st of May, the day after it was made car free

Bike donation!

Donating an unused bike

When my sister moved abroad a few years ago, she left behind a really lovely practically new bike. It had been stored in my parents house but through a former work colleague she heard about a bike shop (watch video here) that was looking for bike donations to pass to people recently arrived to Ireland from Ukraine. Paul from River Cycles fixed bikes for frontline workers for free during the pandemic and now he is fixing up unwanted and unused bikes and making sure they are then given to Ukrainians who are in need of transportation.

So my sister asked our father to take it out of the shed where it was stored and then she asked me to drop it down to River Cycles when convenient for me. I needed to plan to organise the delivery on my day off as I would have to take the bus to my parents house and then cycle the bike to the shop and then take the bus home.

I made a plan to drop the bike today but before it could be dropped to the bike shop I sent a message by What's App to the bike shop owner Paul to see if he needed this donation. He said he did and that he had a lot of requests for bikes.

So with the help of my Dad I collected the bike (and a lock) from my parents house and cycled it down to River Cycles which is on the quays. It was a grand cycle taking only 20 minutes and all downhill!

The bike itself is a "Flourish" by Giant and it has two baskets which makes it really usable for going shopping or doing other chores where you need to carry things on your bike. It's comfortable to cycle on and feels really sturdy. I think someone is going to be really happy when they receive this bike!

Here I am pictured before I set off on my cycle to deliver the bike (I brought my helmet & gloves with me on the bus)

Donate your unused bike!

I have come across two bike shops that are taking donations of bikes for Ukrainian people.  One of them is River Cycles, which I mentioned above, and the other is the Bike Hub in Dun Laoghaire.

If you have an unused bike that you would like to donate, you can contact which ever shop is more convenient for you and see if they want to take it.

Here's the contact details for the bikes shops:

River Cycles:  paul@rivercycles.com or whatsapp 086 265 6258 - great video here that shows the fantastic work that Paul is doing

Bike Hub Dun Laoghaire: upcyclers@thebikehub.ie - see here for more 

Spread the word.....

And if you don't have a bike to give away, you can still help by spreading the word. So feel free to share this blog post with anyone that you think would be interested!

With thousands of refugees arriving in to Ireland there is going to be a huge need for bikes, so let's get all of those unused bikes up and cycling again and used by those who need them.

Or if you are in a different country outside of Ireland, there may be bike shops where you live who will take bikes in and make good in order to donate those that need them.

In addition, I would say that lock and other bike accessories are probably needed too. So if you have any spare bike accessories you could drop the shops an email to see if they need them. They probably have a need for bike seats for babies and kids - so again if you have one you don't need, why not try donate it!

Edit - here's a further update  - Bike Mechanics are now needed to help with fixing up bikes as there is a long list of Ukrainians looking for bikes including a request for an adults tricycle for an older person.

17/12/20220 - A further update can be read by clicking here - look how many bikes have been donated to Ukrainians in Ireland!

There is also a crowdfundraiser in order to raise funds to provide helmets and other accessories with each bike. Click here to support the fundraiser on Go fund Me.

Auto Pilot....it's a funny thing

Ever feel like you are on Auto Pilot?

This morning, I cycled to the train station and took the Dart from Lansdowne to Dun Laoghaire. When I got off the train I planned to go for a cup of coffee in Insomnia before work. 

As I left the the station I went to swipe off with my travel card and as I did that I pondered as to whether I had swiped on. I honestly couldn't remember. I then back tracked my memory and visualised myself cycling up to the station and tried to remember to whether I had swiped on. This all made me realise that I was on Auto Pilot for my commute to work. It wasn't such a big deal because I was on the bike.  But I will say that when I used to drive to work, I often drove to work on Auto Pilot and literally could not remember getting from A to B. 

A tad bit worrying to say the least! But let me know - is this something you experience?!

Birthday Boy!

In other news, Big old Bones turned 14 yesterday. 

Of course everyday is like a birthday for Bones so he had another great day on this planet. 

A great age and in fairness he is in prime condition with not a whole lot wrong with him. Of course he is pretty much blind and deaf but all in all he is in great form generally and loves a daily walk or two (up to Ranelagh village and back along with maybe a wander through the park) and a lot of snoozing throughout the day.  All in all a pretty pleasant life.......as they say, it's a dog's life!

Home of the Year Final 2022

RTE - Home of the Year Final at The Devlin

What a fun evening! We were really thrilled to snag tickets for the screening of the Home of the Year Final" in The Stella Theatre in The Devlin Hotel in Ranelagh.

The event started at 6.30pm and it was easy for us to get there because the hotel is in Ranelagh Village, literally 5 minutes walk away from our house.

Here's a few photos of the event in no particular order.

The event included live music with a DJ to start while drinks and nibbles were served. Then the next part of the event was a Q&A with current judge Amanda Bone and last year's judge Suzie McAdam.

Sponsored by AIB who also sponsor the TV show - thanks AIB!

Here's Amanda talking about her style which is completely different from Suzie McAdam's self-confessed "maximalist" style.

After the Q&A we headed downstairs to the mini cinema where we were greeted by a line up of bourbon (Old Fashioneds) and Gin cocktails

After the screening and when the winner was announced, the winners were then brought out for an interview with Brendan. 

All in all a super evening!

If you want to see which home won - you can click here. Well done to Wicklow couple Kate and Shane and their 150 yrs old farmhouse.

Iron is low low - blood donation is no no

Friday Eye Test

I work every second Saturday, and when I am scheduled for Saturday, I get the day off on Friday. So on my Friday off I always try and line up chores to do on this free day. 

The Friday just gone was my day off and so I scheduled an eye examination in Specsavers on Dawson Street. The really thorough eye test revealed a few things. One thing is that I need a new pair of reading glasses (stronger of course), the second thing is that the eye doctor (is it an optician or an ophthalmologist) found a small clouded area on my left eye. He reckoned it is a spot about the size of 5% of my eye and thought it was not the start of a cataract but was probably something there since birth. This is not something that has been seen or found in past eye tests. Strange!

Then the third thing that was found was that my right eye is very dry. This is something that I hadn't really noticed but I was given eye drops to take for the next 4 weeks which should fix the dryness. 

So that was the test part done with my eyes. The next thing was to select a pair of new glasses. Ciaran gave me a help with this and after trying on about 10 pairs we picked a pair that looked ok. We went with the range that is covered by my PRSI so I didn't have to pay anything extra for the test and glasses other than for the eye drops and my glasses will be ready to pick up in about a week.

Blood Donation

After the eye test we went for a cup of coffee in Butlers on Dawson Street. While we were there I decided that I would go give blood while I was in town. So I rang the Blood Bank and made an appointment (it's all appointment based since Covid) for about 40 mins later. 

When I got to the Blood Bank, on D'Olier Street, I had to go through a kind of interview process with the nurse because it had been so long since I had donated. Then before I could give blood my blood was tested for iron level. Unfortunately my iron level was too low to donate (this has happened a lot before) and it will be another 3 months before I can try donate again. 

A little bit disappointing but sure that's the way it is. Looks like I need to start eating lots of liver and other iron rich food for the next while. So that's what I will do (>> heads off to google to see what are iron rich food) for the next while and hopefully my iron will be up by the next time I try donate blood.