403 Points! Go Jorja!

Niece Jorja at her 'Debs' just before hearing her
'Leaving Cert' results. Looking good J-M!

Yes. Even before I mention our success in finishing "that shed" or the recent change in the weather that made us all delighted that we had, I must congratulate #2 Irish Niece, long term Friend of the Blog, Jorja on nailing the Leaving Cert exams (Brits think "A" Levels). Although the Exam Board tell you the breakdown of your result by subject (As, Bs etc) what everyone is interested in is THE POINTS - that is what gets you into the University, College, onto your course or into job that you seek. Jorja scored 403 which is a) brilliant and b) easily enough for her to proceed on her chosen path, so well done Jorja - formerly known in this blog as J-M.

Rudbeckia

So, all growed up now, a responsible adult, though to me she will always be the little swaddled up bundle that got handed to me in Maidstone Hospital, her tiny arms wrapped around close to her body like a straight-jacket. No-one else could stop the little mite from crying but when I took her she seemed to like the bass-y voice or something and went off to sleep like a light-switch being turned off. Elizabeth and the new Mum (Mrs Silverwood) could sneak off for some 'fresh air' knowing she was in safe hands.

The first new 'tin' going on on the yard-side (front) of the shed.

Meanwhile in Roscommon, we got a brilliant result too, in finishing our chicken house roof. K-Dub rocked up nice and early and we gave it the whole day round to about 4 pm. We had the purlins to fit (horizontal stringers which pick up the screws coming through the tin) and then 30 sheets of the 'tin' (corrugated iron) plus 2 transparent plastic ones recycled from the roof before. The tin itself was recycled anyway, having been carefully lifted from K-Dub's house roof in Sligo, when we did the rebuild/new roof on that a couple of years back (well covered in this blog); a very generous donation.

The back of the building. You can see the new front.

The gifted sheets of tin dictated to us where our middle purlin would go because the sheets already had the central screw-holes in them and it was better to re-use those holes than cut new ones and leave the roof leaking and in need of something to seal the old holes. They were also about a foot too long but we had a nifty solution once they were all on, garden string and a 'Sharpie' marker to create a line, then a thin disk angle grinder to create a neat 'fringe' that lined up with the bottoms of the transparent sheets. It worked well.

With all the sheets on, K-dub went aloft once more, 'riding' the new roof like a horse, while he pressed down and then screwed home our upside down 'V' section ridge pieces. The east end of the roof received two more of these 'ridge' pieces to make a capping wrapped round onto the gable end to stop any 'Beast from the East' winds getting in under the roof. The west end would get its tin tucked in under a re-instatement of the concrete "barge" capping. With those dark-painted ridge bits on, framing the whole thing and the tin trimmed to length it all looked very neat.

Trimmed, end-capped and ridged it all looks very neat

With the outside all complete, time to go inside and re-instate the electrics. I was delighted with the look of the place inside. All the wood is brand new and pale in colour and the underside of the tin is shiny 'galvanised' grey or silver instead of rusty red. Also, with the tarps now off, light streams in through the transparent plastic panels. I will barely need my electric lights!

Lovely new looking interior.

We have just one little de-snag to do. The metal "bent straps" which do a belt'n'braces job holding your wall plates down to the walls (so the whole roof cannot lift off in one piece) need fixing to the stone walls by screws/plugs drilled into the hard stones (some kind of very hard sandstone). K-Dub has a drill for this but had not bought the right kind of bits, so he will come back next week and finish this little job off. There we have it. A new roof. Time to adjourn indoors for a cup of tea and a chat. I am delighted with it. Huge thanks to K-Dub and Elizabeth for the massive effort.

Almost Biblical rain tests the new roof.

Just a quick follow-up on this story and some more thanks to give out. My friends from archery, Niamh and Con plus their current "Wwoof-er" (volunteer labour like our Help-X people, but from the "World-Wide Organization of Organic Farmers" (hence WWOOF)), Stefan. These good folk had planned a day of taking Con to nearby airfield for a Birthday Present light aircraft flight round Holy Mountain, Croagh Patrick, or "The Reek". Con and Niamh are mad into the pre-Christian / Druidic history of Ireland and The Reek is positively peppered with ancient sites, cairns and so on.

A friend in the village has a new Grand-child. The Knitter of
this House is joining the baby clothes and layette knitting
effort.

However, pretty much as we finished our roof, the weather took a turn for the worse and we have, we are told, another 'named storm' (Ernesto) coming through this weekend. The wind and rain in front of this storm grounded Con's pilot leaving Niamh and Stefan with a free afternoon. Knowing that my Help-X lad had blown out, Niamh decided to come here with her 'Wwoofer' and do us an hour's work. This was very generous, unnecessary and very welcome - we had the new roof up but the old roof scattered about in various piles of rusty tin, concrete, manky wood, nails, tarpaulins, tyres, string and wire. They all needed tidying off the yard so that was the job I gave N+S, with Elizabeth piling in to help. In a fast-moving hour we had the yard back. Thank you very much, all three.

Erigeron, now finally established in our gravel (we hope)

Which only leaves me with two bits of farm news and a quick 'health' update. Firstly, this back end (of week) was the most likely time for our AWOL Guinea-hen to complete her brooding and hatch out any keets out there in the hedges. We wondered whether she might walk them home all romantically like a little 'crocodile' of school children. No such fairy-tale ending so far. We just have the three 'boys' doing their fox-watch alarms and occasionally obsessing about a patch of East Field where 'she' might be. As time goes by, I guess we will have to accept that maybe Brer Fox intervened and this story did not end well.

Soldier has gone AWOL

New to the AWOL list, our black and white (rescue) cat, Soldier, seems to have gone missing. He has always been an outdoor boy and does not very much enjoy being grumped at by big floofy cat 'Blue', so he may have gone to live somewhere where he is more 'welcome'. We have no reason to think he is dead, he just has not been home for a couple of days. We will keep you posted.

Hen and chicks in the orchard.

So, last but not least, my good self. I am still moseying along in my 'probationary' period, 4 weeks back out of the hospital, sticking to the liquid intake limits and taking the meds, seeing if I can stabilize. This with a review clinic at Sligo hospital set for the 4 weeks when I get reviewed by my 2 consultants, with possible decisions being made about the heart valve replacement surgery. It's going OK but I think I am slowly congesting up again. I am sneaking a bit of that weight back on, my ankles are starting to swell again and most of my nights are interrupted by 'productive' ticklish coughing. We will find out the response to all this on my clinic dates, which have now been advised to me. Wish us luck.

Au Revoir. The Final Chapter.

Madamoiselle d'Armentieres (Parlez vous?)

Readers who have been with me for EVER may recall that I am (was) part owner of an ancient (1960s) Citroën 2CV from the 425 cc era, once a twinning gift from the French town of La Chapelle d'Armentieres, to the North Kent town of Birchington. This twinning happened in 1989 with Birchington giving a red phone-box to La Chapelle while La Chapelle gave 'us' a non-runner 2CV OK for photo-shoots but not much else.

David Austen rose (sorry, we can not recall the name)

This blog took up the story after our 2CV club (The Kentish Hoppers) got involved in a 4-man restoration (during 2007/8) of this car to get it road worthy so that it could be used in the 20th Anniversary (of the twinning) Carnival to be held at La Chapelle in 2009. This we did and we had a great weekend which included us being spoiled like celebrities and driving our car (and 2 other 2CVs) at the front of the carnival parade. Happy days. We four lads owned a quarter of the car each. It would have been worth about £3100.

Sometimes it is not mice and shrews the cats bring in. This is
a dragon fly (Brown Hawker).

With the big weekend over, 2 of the lads wanted out of the project, so Andy B and I bought out their quarters and now owned half the car each. I saw very little of the car but kept my 'end' up by paying half of any garaging, maintenance, MOTs, tax etc). When I moved to Ireland in 2011 I decided to pull out too, but as Andy did not have the spare cash at that stage, we decided I would slowly withdraw by not paying my share of the costs, and Andy would calculate how much this had eaten into my half. 6 years later I am down to about £600's worth of the car owned. In a blog post at the time, I called it the "Long Goodbye".

European lime.

This week, I got a text from Andy and one of the other original four (Ian C) asking if Ian might buy back in by reimbursing me for my cut. Although I will be sad to 'lose' my only remaining bit of 'real' 2CV (I have a gazillion models, toys and dead/used 'souvenir' parts) this seems like a sensible move and will help to keep Madamoiselle where all old 2CVs should really be - in use, on the road, getting regularly driven, not stashed in a dusty lock-up under a bed sheet. So, there you have it. I will receive a cheque shortly and will then join the ranks of 'former 2CV owners'. Good luck Ian and Andy. Cherish and enjoy that Lady as much as I did. Au revoir, Madamoiselle d'Armentieres. Bon chance. [wipes away a tear]

Storm Hector barges through. 

Meanwhile, back in Roscommon we were enjoying, as you know, that lovely warm spell and a bit unimpressed by the rattly but dry thunderstorms which were letting us know that things were about to change. Nobody was quite ready for the announcement by Met Éireann of a winter-style "named" storm charging up the Atlantic. This was, we found out, Storm Hector and he came with the usual Status-Orange weather warnings for winds gusting to 110 kph. Put all those lumps of rock back on the beehives, lads, and anything that might go airborne. Close the poly-tunnel. Batten down the hatches.

The 'Chinaman's Hat' part of a jackdaw pot. Not worth
putting that bit back up, then?

That evening I had to collect The Woman of the House from the train station, back from her stint of house-sitting for Steak Lady, so she was here to enjoy it all too. We spent that night as scared as normal listening to the wind raging round the house in the dark (I can never sleep properly through one of these) and worrying that trees would be blown down and chicken house roofs would go airborne leaving the poultry open to the weather.

A few branches blown down from that
gate-side larch was the worst damage.

In the event we got off lightly. The worst damage was a big branch blown down from that larch that suffered in the last blow (Storm Eleanor?). There were myriad smaller bits of tree strewn everywhere. The metal cone 'Chinaman's Hat' bit of our range-chimney jackdaw pot was sent flying but when I found it, it was so rusty and broken that it is not worth putting back. We'll just go with the 'cage' bit and the fire heat to deter the jackdaws. It is quite new, so I was a bit surprised by the appalling state of the thing. They are presumably not designed for in-use chimneys, which seems a bit lame.

Making the best of foxgloves broken off by
the storm winds

Oh, and we had no power. I had to phone the fault in (they were not 'yet' aware of it) and they managed to get us back on at about half past 2, just in time for Elizabeth getting home from an exam as part of her Horticulture training course. No problem there either - we have the gas hobs on which to boil saucepans of water for tea/coffee and on which to cook if power is still off at supper time.

Dublin Bay rose flowers knocked off by 'naughty' Hector.

The only other damage was the knocking down of some tall flowers (mainly fox gloves and aquilegia) and the knocking off of a lot of the open flowers on our lovely red, 'Dublin Bay' rose. That was as if Hector was just a naughty boy with a stick bashing all the flowers off out of spite. Never mind. The rose will flower again. The foxgloves may not.

The broken branches get tossed in to the sheep for browse. 

It is all over now, of course. The wind has dropped to a light breeze, the clouds have cleared (we did not get much rain off this one, either) and the sun has come out. Tomorrow promises a nice day so we can get out in the garden again and clear up all the debris.

Very little else going on here, so I will finish up at this point. Good luck to niece J-M who is currently sweating through her 'Leaving Cert' school exams (think 'A' levels for the Brits). Knock 'em dead J-M!

Los Chicos están Despiertos

The boys offer to cook for us on Wednesday.

(The Boys are Awake) Finally a proper day off. The Help-X lads are off today on a train-ride adventure to the lovely town of Westport and I am just back from dropping them to Castlerea railway station to which they are not due to return till 07:15 pm tonight.

Chef and Sous-chef (we'll leave them to
argue over who's who). The food was delicious!

Liz has declared this a "Pyjama Day" and intends not to get out of her PJs till, at earliest, when I get the 'please pick us up' call this evening. I, too, am going to do only daily vital chores (live stock etc) and no big jobs.

It's not all dirty jungle-bashing for the lads.
They like a woodwork project for a change.

Don't be fooled, mind, into thinking that nothing will get done. Liz tends to start off with the good intention of a relaxing day and keeps the PJs on but as often as not slings an apron on over the PJs and gets just as covered in flour, the gentle bloom of oven-steam or the 'dusht' of a distraction into 'just tidying this'. I will have to go feed the bullocks for a friend and I also have a newly arrived smallholder couple to see, to sort out some safe storage for a motorbike.

Robbedy (9) gets to shoot a few arrows with the Roscommon
club, under instruction from our very generous coach, Con. 

Our 'days off' normally go this way. Last weekend I'd not long dropped the guys to the bus-stop (they were off to Galway that time) when Mrs Silverwood advised that they would be passing through here en route from home to Achill Island (Co. Mayo). Achill Island is 2 hours further NW from here and is in the Irish speaking part of the country (Gaelteacht) and older niece J-M was off there for 3 weeks incarceration where students are only allowed to speak Irish.

I can never see how this is comfortable but the stairs are a
favourite sleeping perch for dogs. 

Robyn did not fancy the extra 4 hours in the car so opted to stay here for the 6 hours and do a bit of 'farm' with Uncle Matt and Auntie Liz. Parents and grand-parents will know that a lively, excited 9-year-old, given an nicely unfamiliar environment and space to run about out of doors, is more than capable of turning 6 hours of relaxing day off into an exhausting marathon.

When Pedro told me that Spanish bread is mainly baguette-shaped
I had to have a go. Not as easy as it looks!

I took the lion's share of that, including taking her to 'see' the archery gang (which turned into shooting with them under the generously provided supervision of our coach, Con) while Liz realised the whole family would need feeding as they passed back through, and rattled up a splendid curry and the trimmings for 7 appetites. She'd already assembled a magnificent packed lunch for the Help-X lads, (Yay, it is written. No Irish Lady shall ever send forth their 'children' on an adventure to the foreign without a good pack-up!) so there was not a lot of relaxing going on in that kitchen, that day, either. We saved a bit of the curry for Manu and Pedro, who I had to shoot down and collect from Castlerea just after we un-shipped the Silverwood Five.

Beeblebrox (Beebs) with 6 of her chicks

Meanwhile, back on the 'farm' the various clutches of baby chicks are now reaching the 6-week age where their Mums lose interest in them and they are cast off to a life in the flock generally. Connie's three and Big-Red's 4 are pretty much 'flown' now, though Stumpy's 5 and Beebs's 7 are still hanging with Mumma. It is amusing to see these groups coalesce into bigger groups as they move about. Stumpy is regularly seen with 5+3 or 5+4 babies in tow and last night as I went out with the dogs I could see on the (nicely shaved) front lawn a coincidental Stumpy plus NINETEEN chicks. I wish I'd had my camera. Actually Beebs (Mum of 7) was there but hiding behind a tree stump and Connie's three were only passing through but it looked very sweet for that few seconds.

The new lambs, Pedro and 'Oveja' (Spanish for ewe)

We got word at last from Mayo-Liz that my lambs were now weaned and ready to collect from out by nearby town, Kiltimagh. I had 'ordered' these to meet our meat requirements when I accepted that we would produce none of our own this year and the freezers would be lamb-less. My phone call to Mayo-Liz though, found them still as "babies with their Mums", so I'd have to wait while they weaned. This sounded like an adventure the Help-X lads might enjoy. We hitched up the trailer and headed off to Liz and Ray's farm which sits a-top a mini-mountain jutting out of the Mayo plains.

The new pair (centre) in with the aunts.

The two lambs for us were penned but still needed ear-tagging before we could load which led to a bit of fun. Neither Manu nor Pedro had had any experience of handling sheep and between us we let the ewe-lamb escape with a flying leap past Manu's ear - she raced across a small sand-school to be with her gang. Easy enough to catch again and the boys couldn't quite believe their eyes when having cornered and grabbed the ewe, I flipped her up on to her rump while Ray ear-tagged her and then I lifted her up and carried her back to the pen and trailer. Pro-shepherd? Maybe not. The lads were impressed but I must admit I might have been showing off a little!

Photo-bombed by this Soprano Pipistrelle (circled) on a lovely
sunset. 

The new pair needed names, one girl and one boy. We toyed with Pedro and Emanuel  for a while but then went with Pedro and 'Oveja' which is Spanish for 'ewe'. We have a black hen sitting on eggs currently, due this Thursday, so we have told Manu that if he is feeling left out we will name the chicks Manu1, Manu2 and so on. As soon as I saw these beautiful lambs (Mayo-Liz's lambs are always well bred and gorgeous-looking), I wondered whether they might be a bit high quality for use as "just meat". They are Hampshire x 'mule' (which I guess just means they are 'mongrel' or, at best "half Hampshire") and the boy, especially might get saved his trip to Ignatius G (Victualler) and might bide a while here as possible stud-ram for our existing girls. Have to think about that one..... No such luck for Oveja, I suspect, or Liz's freezers will remain lamb-less and we would have to be looking for a butcher who does boxed, butchered, whole carcass deals.

New neighbours. 

What else is new? We have, at last, some new neighbours in the 5 Acre field to our west. Friends of the Blog will know that these fields around us changed hands last winter, so Mike-the-Cows had to take all his cattle off at the end of his tenancy. No cattle have set foot on this since and we have watched, nosily, as the fields seemed to be left to neglect. Occasionally we'd see the new owner's son exploring, taking soil samples or checking fences but he said that they did not have enough animals yet to sensibly use the land. Well, they have obviously been out shopping because a group of 30-40 mainly black animals were walked in there this week and set up with temporary fences and water bowser, "just to eat all that grass off". Welcome to our townland, guys.

Blue takes it easy in the sunshine.

That will do, I think, for this one. I will finish with a few random pictures just because I've taken them and don't like them to go to waste. Enjoy.

Veg garden looking a lot more under control.

If all these plums change colour and are not stolen by magpies
we are promised a bumper crop

Apple with a confusing variety name - "Irish Peach".

...and.... Relax....

As Mrs S pulled up in the car for this latest visit, she joked "Stand by to repel boarders!" We finally managed it at around 2 pm yesterday, bidding a fond farewell to all the Silverwoods till next time. We love them all dearly but Mrs S will not mind me saying we also like the quiet bits in between. They are always easier in the event than in my worried forebodings. I see 4 'children' arriving and I worry about noisy mayhem, doors left open so that livestock escapes or is got at by dogs, livestock harassed by small hands and running legs wanting to do the 'petting zoo' thing, stuff damaged in high spirited play and so on - probably all the things that 'farmer', childless Uncles and Aunts all worry over.

In the event everyone is sensible and careful, no damage is done and all the livestock are unscathed and all my fears prove groundless. The 'children' are, of course, always older now than I remember; children I first knew at aged 4 tend to stay 4 in my head for years, till someone points out that they now have degrees and jobs and 4 year olds of their own! The 'girls' are now teenagers, happy to do 'cool' stuff, hanging out in the caravan, reading, watching movies and so on, and only sometimes reveal a younger side, J-M happy for hours to scratch up worms for Broody Betty and the ducklings with a piece of stick in the raised bed, Em-J sitting cross-legged by the pond identifying water beetles etc.

They are still young ones, though and it does get a bit loud and riotous as games of snap get tense and having your 'man' in Ludo knocked back to the start by your sister is more than a 7-year old boy can bear!

So, we loved having them and everybody had a ball, it was a brilliant family holiday a bit like the gatherings we used to do on the 8-10 berth narrow boats and Liz loves doing all the cooking and 'galley slave' stuff. We like to challenge the young taste buds a bit so they get given mainly the stuff we eat and have them try it rather than pandering to 'kids' food' like chips; we know that Mrs S does the same. We don't want to be like those Uncles and Aunts who fill the kids with sweeties and E-numbers and then hand them back all a-buzz. The young ones love to get involved in the picking of veg - we had an army of helpers stripping peas from the 'vine' and shelling the peas. They also get to keep, at Mrs S's insistence their 'chores', so most of the table laying, clearing, washing up, drying and putting away is done around us.

But now we're done and the Silverwoods have driven off down the lane and peace has returned to the small holding for a while. Bless them all, on their final morning, after breakfast Mrs S had them all doing a special blitz on the house - She had them stripping beds and clearing the caravan and moving stuff to the car while she whizzed a broom around the house. There is far less for us to do in turning the house around ready for the next guests, than there would have been. Tomorrow two friends from my 'Thames Barge' life arrive for the week, Dave and Julie B. We relaxed (and, in fact, gonked out) yesterday afternoon but today we are back in busy busy mode, especially Liz who is a whirlwind of cleaning, dusting and ironing. These two stay their week, then we have a week off followed fairly quickly by an overnight from Sparks's family again (and possibly Steak Lady and Theo), and then a visit from Diamond, John and Mazy. August is not going to be an easy month for us. Well, says Liz, we did buy a nice place in the country!

Miniature Groomers

After yesterday's 11 2cvGB visitors, then a dash of John Deere Bob and then Carolyn and Charlotte in the evening, you'd have thought we'd have had enough of host(ess)ing. Not a bit of it. Today we entertain the Silverwoods where Em-J and J-M have been hungry to get their hands, curry-combs and horse grooming gear round Carolyn and Charlotte's miniature horses since we first posted about them a few weeks back.

Robbedy (6) was also keen to get in on the act so, as it's a Bank Holiday in Ireland this weekend, the whole family decided to make a day of it. Alarms were set. The 'smalls' were dragged out of their beds still in their PJs and loaded into the car to continue their sleep for the 2 hours of the journey and breakfast was planned for here when they arrived at 09:00.

Em-J and J-M are keen enough on the horses that they now help out at the riding school when it is not 'their week' (The Silverwoods do 2 children every other week so that the older ones could help out training the smaller ones, but now that less supervision is needed as their skills improve, the older ones slope off to groom spare horses and have now bought their own grooming brushes). It was these brushes that they brought along to  tackle some of the Miniatures' left over winter coat.

With breakfasts done we rounded up the horses and gave a head collar and lunge-rein to each of the older girls. I kept hold of Romeo. Horses were led out to today's tethering, mowing zone. You can see in the pics how long the grass is here; it wasn't that long by 5 pm! Then all 4 children  with Mum there to help and supervise, got stuck in, rubbing down flanks and rumps, combing through manes and tails and even plaiting a tail in J-M's case. I think everyone enjoyed it and then the horses were just left there to graze till their bellies were so full they needed a lie-down.

The Silverwoods were here from about 09:00 to 19:00, making a good old day of it, enjoying the space, the geese and goslings, the 5 week old chickens and the grown up chickens, plus Liz's roast pork lunch. Charlotte also arrived with baby bro' Henry at one stage and joined in the fun. Mrs S has posted an amusing picture of the children wiped out in the back of the car on the way home. All that fresh air and exercise! We loved having you, Silverwoods, as always and please come back as soon as you can. The girls are booked to help out at the 'real' riding stables tomorrow and Stef, the main lady was anxious that they'd still have some energy!

Meanwhile the pond has been sitting there with its tiny puddle in the bottom since we emptied the bulk tank (1010 litres) into it but the sun came out and all rain stopped. I had been determined to try to let it fill with rain-water being suspicious of the 'chemical soup' that is Roscommon mains water. There is, though, another hot dry week forecast and we could see the little water we had evapourating away and the poor geese and goslings looking hungrily at it but despairing of the steep banks and gosling hazards they represented. We decided to bite the bullet, buy a garden hose and fill it that way. This involves about 15-20,000 litres but, hey, we paid €1600 for the right to connect up so we reckon we can take a wee dram off the pipes. . We nipped out to Connacht Gold for a hose and turned on the flow at about 11 am. We have been watching it slowly slowly fill ever since. It has taken 7 hours or so to fill the 'deep end' and is now expanded out to the full size as the 'tide' came in on the shallow end. We will leave the tap running all night but I do not expect it to be really full till mid morning. I will update you and supply pictures tomorrow. We have also created the flat-stone 'beach' on the orchard side.

J-M's Confirmation

With the house all but complete and 99% handed over to us we all get to sleep in it for the first time on Thursday 26th April 2012. We did not yet have the proper super-king-sized mattress delivered yet by then so we were not going to; we were going to wait till the Friday. By the time we'd done the evening in there though and got it all nice and warm with the stove going, and ourselves full of good food and all relaxed, it was too tempting not to return to the cramped conditions of the caravan which has been 'home' off and on for the last 3-4 months. Dad pulled the single mattresses off the spare room guest-bed and laid those across the big main-bed bed-frame and Mum made a good bed on those, so indoors we stayed. On the Friday the super-king mattress did arrive, so we were able to do it properly on the Friday. Moved in, after all these days and weeks of dreaming of the day. It is very warm and comfortable as well as being black-dark to an unfamiliar degree and very quiet. In Kent you have so much ambient light from street lights it's never really dark and there's road noise. Even in the caravan with it's thin 'skin' every noise from outside comes in (all be it mainly 'nice' noises), the dawn chorus, cattle, a milking machine thrumming away, even voices and tractor sounds from a distance. In the house with its thick walls and double glazing, even this is kept out. More recently we have been sleeping with windows open because we miss the birdsong and dawn chorus. Anyway, with the house christened thoughts turned to Silverwoods and an important booking in J-M's life, being her Confirmation, which all the schools put their children through at the age of 12. It's the occasion of a big party and a big day for J-M so everyone (especially J-M) gets kitted out in new clothes and there are relatives invited from far and wide, friends drop in, masses of food is laid on. J-M will also get some nice gifts of money, so she's more than happy! Mum volunteers to go down the day before to help prepare food. They are actually up til 02:00 the night before chopping up salads and getting the place ready. We are banished for the weekend as the idea of 5 dogs under-foot, especially as one of the main guests is blind, was thought to be just too much so it is arranged that Dad drive down on the day in the 2CV and just stay for the church bit and to take a load of photographs. That way with a 2 hour drive either end, we'd only be abandoned 8 hours, with which we can cope. So, the big day arrived and everyone was up early and getting fettled into their glad rags. The house was full of people. J-M's 4 Grand Parents were all there, Steak Lady and Mr SL down from Dublin, Nanny Morag and Granddad Jeff over from England, J-M's sponsor Ashley with children, Auntie Shiela up from Gorey (Co. Wexford) with kids and no end of friends dropping in from round the estate. Every one is getting under everyone's feet and at one point Dad is posted as 'bouncer' on the kitchen door to stop anyone getting into the kitchen who did not have a specific mission or a job. If yer name's not on the list, yer not gettin' in! J-M looks gorgeous in a blue dress and Mum's even done the cake colour coordinated to the same blue. The day goes well and it is a troop of very exhausted children who are finally wrangled into beds that night while grown-ups relax and Face-book bubbles over with nice photographs and excited positive comment. Deefs