We can't claim to be a best seller here but we chug away gently at our standard 20-30 views per post but just by dint of posting so many stories over the 6 years we have been in existence, and have managed to accumulate over 50,000 page views. I am happy with that. I am glad that my regulars keep looking in to see what we are about and that they are, presumably, a bit entertained, or why would they?
The heat wave continued for a few more showings, through Thursday and Friday, but we noticed on Friday night that the breeze had swung round to the North and had strengthened, giving us a beautifully cool night Friday night and a misty, cloudy Saturday morning. Our friend Mentor Anne hates the heat and goes into what she describes as 'hibernation' staying indoors, but even she was able to emerge on the Saturday to enjoy the cool. We were all off to a 'new' Farmers' Market they have discovered in Boyle, a small town in the very north of Co. Roscommon which has a famed butcher's van doing organic and welfare chicken and pork (Peppered pork chops 'to die for' says Anne) as well as plant stalls, herb sellers, a fish monger, bakers and other traders. We fancied some mackerel to go with our home grown gooseberries. Well, as it happened both the mackerel and the pork chops were sold out; you have to get there early or the good stuff all goes. No matter. We grabbed some (organic) chicken livers which Liz will convert into paté, some lovely prawns for supper tonight and some thin beef steaks for a future meal.
We stopped at a nice little coffee shop for a cuppa before going our separate ways. We were concerned to get the prawns into refrigeration before they got a chance to do us any mischief. By lunchtime the weather had heated up again and the cloud and mist had cleared. We think that this is the likely shape of days this week, with no more rain in the fore see able. What a change from 2012 when we seemed to be permanently washed out and prey to crop failures due to the wet. I have now ridged up all my vegetable area and look like having to water stuff! You don't do watering in the West of Ireland, surely?
The time has come round again when the belovéd 2CV needs her NCT test (= MOT) and here the story went to pot a bit. Not good news. She is sound on all the difficult bits we fixed last time (suspension, steering and other heavy metal) but failed on a range of daft, lighter weight stuff all of which, had I still got easy access to my 2CV-fixer man, 2CV Llew in Kent, would not bother me in the least.
The exhaust emissions are slightly too high which, if you know what you are doing around the 2 adjustment screws on the carburettor (idle and mixture) and have access to a gas-analyzer, is a 5-minute job. The rear fog light is out - either a bulb or an earth. There is corrosion on the bottom of a door (a seam-weld) and the boot floor and on one wing; the sort of thing Llew buzzes a wire brush over and then makes good in an hour or so. But without Llew I am at the mercy of our (brilliant, I have to say) local garage, so we are off to get a quote on Monday but realistically, when I have done only 112 miles in the car since the last NCT we are both a bit 50/50 about whether we can justify it. Clara has the tow-hitch which has been useful, but we could probably get a tow hitch for the FIAT if needs be.
No matter, we will worry about making that decision when we have the quote. Whatever happens we are going to hang on to the mortal remains because even as an NCT failure the car has a value and is rare enough that someone might want to invest or, failing that, would make a superb chicken house. Meanwhile she is still 'legal' till the NCT runs out on Wednesday, so her swan song may be our trip to Castlerea to buy one more pallet sized water tank, this one to supply the sheep drinker, fed from the down pipes on the east end of the house. Watch this space for updates on that one.
Finally, our swallows seem to have nearly finished their nest right up in the ridge of our Tígín, well out of the reach of the cats. Sensible swallows.
1 comment:
Unfortunately the butcher does not always have the peppered pork chops, they really were to die for, the great thing about her stall is trying things we would not normally buy, today, lamb chops marinaded with rosemary and mint also lamb sausages, and we got hand made organic butter from another stall, great.
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