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The Garden in November 2017
The weather has grown cold, but my winter tidy up is complete; it was finished right before the cold snap, to my great relief! Shrubs were moved, perennials divided and given new homes, grasses were released from clumps to make way for new spring growth, and the last of my bulbs (Allium and miniature Daffodils)…
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The Garden in October 2017
October brought two major storms – Ophelia and Brian. Thankfully, my garden remained pretty much intact. This Sunflower and her cousins lit up a corner with their sunny smiles. A few hardy Japanese Anemones survived in the front garden. They have now gone to floral Heaven… I love Fuschia; I have four different varieties. This…
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Clannad
Clannad’s Roots Clannad hail from Dore, a townland around 3 miles from my home here in Donegal. The band’s original members included siblings Ciaran, Pol and Maire Brennan together with their uncles – twins Noel and Padraig Duggan. Ciaran, Pol and Maire’s parents Maire (known as Baba), and Leo had passed their gift for music…
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The Swansong Project
“In a song there is a soul that is eternal.” Ben Buddy Slack watched his grandmother Teresa (my aunt) deteriorate due to Alzheimer’s. “Towards the end me and my uncle sang her favourite songs to her. She was pretty unresponsive because she had Alzheimer’s – but when we began to sing she kind of lit…
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Planting Bulbs for Spring and Summer
Last spring, I removed some Wallflowers which were well past their best, making room for some new planting. All that remained in this little corner of my garden was Rosa glauca and her close friend Clematis jackmanii, with a climbing Honeysuckle and an acid yellow Achillea at the opposite side of the bed. In early…
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The Garden in September 2017
I have been experimenting with the camera on my mobile phone, and I am delighted with the results; I can now post better quality close ups of my flowers. The following are a few of my best blooms during September… James Galway Rose Nasturtium and Cosmos are still flowering. The Nasturtiums are creating LOTS of…
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Sarajevo 2000
Healing Hands Network was formed in 1996 to send volunteer natural medicine therapists to Sarajevo, Bosnia. The Statistics of War In a statement to the UN, it was estimated that during The Balkans War, a total of 200,000 people died including 12,000 children. 50,000 women are believed to have been raped and 2.2 million…
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Miseog
The ruins of Miseog’s Home Peggy Boyle known as Miseog, was a prophetess who lived in the townland of Ballymanus, a couple of miles from my home here in County Donegal. Background Miseog, a native Irish speaker, was born in 1816 and married Paddy Harley, who made several trips to work in the coal mines…
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The Rock
The Cross atop The Rock at Kerrytown On 11 January 1939, The Virgin Mary appeared on top of a rocky outcrop in Kerrytown, Co. Donegal, to Teresa Ward aged 15. Her sister Mary aged 19, had accompanied her outside but was inside an outhouse when Teresa first witnessed the vision. Mary thought Teresa was play…
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This Too Shall Pass
On Friday my sister passed away after a relatively short illness. It was a very powerful reminder of how fragile life can be… I wrote this poem several years ago, seated beneath a giant bell that faces a local graveyard. For Whom The Bell Tolls Seagulls scream overhead, Above the mighty bell, While Inis Caorach…
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Watching the Daisies 