It’s been unseasonably cold here, even for Donegal. It’s the latest I have ever potted up my pots. But the weather is starting to turn, and this afternoon we have an abundance of sunshine.

We were meant to be hosting friends, but sadly their car broke down, and a tow truck was called. We will reschedule.

So we found ourselves with a large amount of sausages, burgers and kebabs to use up. The dogs were eyeing up the sausages as I wrote this.

As humans tend to do, we spent all day yesterday tidying the garden, and the summer house, because of our visitors. Today we cleaned the house, so we find ourselves in the enviable position of just chilling. This of corse included the puppies, spot our black angel, in a cool spot she found for herself!

We have made the summer house a lovely place to sit, even if it does need lots of work on it. It’s the energy in there, no TV’s just a portable speaker and occasionally my IPad or a phone. We often sit in there looking out at the birds on their feeder, or taking a bath (the birds not us!) The sound of birdsong echoing through our fairy hedgerow is a simple joy, and it just feels as if we are at one with nature. We have built quite a nature reserve now. The birds are getting quite tame they even come to tell us when they need feeding.

We have been here 5 years now. This evening when we sat out in the paddock, in the incredibly warm evening sun, I thought about how far we had come, from the overgrown paddock, with that awful old wall, to a place of sanctuary, we have hedgehogs and hares in the piece of paddock we re-wilded, robins, swifts, chaffinch, doves and so much more. That’s not counting our rookery in our tallest trees. The orchard of love is growing well, and the birds love it. We have planted 4 more blossom trees this spring, it just looks so pretty.

This evening the dogs were laying at our feet, and I was reminded of a poignant memory from many years ago, when we would sit in the warm French evening sunshine, under our tree of Tao, with two Welshies at our feet.

Now here we are in Ireland…….

Life goes on.

Moisy