3 pictures of the new vegetable ground Dad is creating in the 'secret garden' at Roscommon. The three rhubarb plants were bought at Castlerea garden centre. The tub between them contains 3 cuttings of the locally frequent species fuchsia which grows around the 'Wesht' in great profusion as roadside hedges. It's one of those 'nearly native' plants which are so well established now, like sycamore in the UK. Mum knew of a place where it grew close to Steak Lady's place so we nabbed a few bits last weekend. We are hoping to establish it as the front hedge of the garden, along the lane, in place of the definitely not native privet hedge which is there at the moment. The new shoots are of lovage, a division from a very vigorous clump in Steak Lady's garden and the general shot is looking north across the ground Dad has managed to dig so far in what will be one of the veg patches. This digging has been snatched in between bursts of building so has not got very far but we do have the onion sets in (nearest to camera) and a few spuds to show willing. Also some asparagus crowns.
Saturday was Dad's 55th birthday so, amusingly, 10 months after he lost his job and 'retired' he is now allowed officially to give up work and retire. The pension rules say that you can start drawing pension from 55, but most policies deduct 5% per annum for each year you start drawing earlier than age 65 (i.e. a 50% deduction if you started at 55) so we're going to hold off that fateful day for as long as possible.
We're down in Silverwoods as usual for the weekend, so it's here that they are laying on the Birthday treats, presents, a lunchtime pint of Guinness or two and a special Indian meal with wine in the evening. Mum has bought him some very appropriate, if not 100% romantic presents of a pair of chainsaw gloves and a 'forest helmet' (chainsaw style hard-hat with ear defenders, mesh visor and flap to protect back of neck from bits of tree going down the back of your shirt) by top brand in these things, Husqvarna. Dad is delighted and will now get brave enough to assemble and try out the chainsaw (when he gets leave from the building project of course!).
The lunchtime drink is taken in the Druid Inn in the Silverwood's local village and is three very nice pints of Guinness while Mum enjoys a glass or two of Merlot. It's all very quiet. Just what the doctor ordered. The evening meal is a work of genius and a labour of love by Mrs Silverwood and Mr S. Three different styles of curry - a Tandoori chicken, a chicken Biryiani and a creamy beef madras. There are two types of rice, white coconut rice and bright yellow turmeric rice. There are home made chippatis and a special thin type of Naan bread called 'Pooris'. There was mango chutney and lime and chilli pickle. None of us are expert in Indian food so if these spellings are wrong or we have mis-named anything then we apologise to the chefs. It all tasted lovely even if it was spelt differently. It looked beautiful too, spread out on the table before we demolished it.
Very nice, too, was all the good stuff on the social networking site, Facebook. A year ago we'd had nothing to do with this but Dad got involved when he left work as a way of staying in touch with ex colleagues and it is now a big part of our 'social' life with friends and relatives on it from Ireland and UK, Faversham folk, barge contacts. We've been using it ever since as a way of telling everybody about progress on the house renovation. If you're on Facebook and you want to get in touch then just go in on Dad's real name. Dad was delighted to be blizzarded all day with greetings and good wishes from all around the place, certainly way more than he would normally get in birthday cards. Made him feel all humble and popular at the same time.
Happy Birthday to Dad.
Deefer
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