Bloom in the Park 2012

Bloom in the Park is an annual gardening and food event held in the largest public park in Europe the Phoenix Park which is located in central Dublin. It was its sixth year this year, covers 70 acres and attracts about 100,000 visitors. I went for the first time last year, and was impressed. It's no Chelsea but there is lots to do and see for anyone interested in gardening and food ....HELLO!  There are nearly 30 show gardens, produced on a fraction of the budget of a Chelsea garden, but great for ideas. I find its always good to see what you don't like as well as what you do like, so even the mediocre ones are worth a look.

This was the winning garden. Entitled simply 'My Garden' It was nice because it was real.

'Green House' was my favourite. The details of window, gravel, cobble were all just  to my taste.
The planting was perfect. It just looked like a lovely place to sit and chill.

The herbs planted above a cupboard for the bins was a nice idea, as long as your bins  aren't too rancid.

Of course at any of these kind of events there are endless opportunities to shop.(Which i kept to a minimum)

Gardening products galore.

Some of the more interesting products....

.....were ridiculously expensive ...€125!!! for a painted  birdhouse!

Nice, but i'm glad i married a carpenter.

These were lovely, cast iron i think, on a long spike and probably hand painted.

The Grand Pavillion housed the floral displays of plant and bulb sellers from around the country and also over from the UK.

 The smell from these lilies was to die for. 

I love alliums.

Onion envy.

There is a whole are dedicated to Irish Craft. The Irish Crafts Council run workshops for children throughout the 5 days. Demonstrations of woodturning and blacksmithing and 24 retail tents from Irish Crafters. The best in the retail area were a milliner called Rebekah Patterson who created this beautiful silk chiffon headpiece, as well as a whole host of other vintage inspired headwear.

A really lovely girl heads up Karo Art Ceramics, delightful ceramic buttons, garden markers, artwork and tiles. She had adorable little bowls in gorgeous colours, that i was so enamored with i forgot to take a photo, but are available on line in her Etsy shop here . Lovely stuff, really nicely presented. 

This grass design ceramic tile was so incredibly  life-like my poor photography really doesn't do it justice.

The third and last of my nominees in the craft area was an artist called Belinda Northcote 

Very cute little mouse prints.

She also had a butterfly theme. Very pretty.

This was a musically correct version of Dolly Partons 'Love is Like a Butterfly' substituting the musical notes for butterflies.

I took absolutely no photographs in the food area, far too busy sampling and drooling. It was a lovely day out even though the sun didn't shine. We got parking in the park and passed the Presidents residence on the way back to the car.

Aras an Uachtarain - the official residence of the President of Ireland.

Linking to Penny Worthy Project and Coombe Hill

Homemade Granola

Breakfast cereals are generally full of crap, cardboard with added vitamins. When I'm in health mode it always starts with a batch of homemade granola. A couple of spoonfuls over fruit, yoghurt or a combination of both is my favourite healthy breakfast. It is cheaper, fresher, healthier and more to my own taste than anything i could buy in the shops. This is how i make it.

A while ago this brand of oats were on special offer, I had money off coupons AND some packs had 50% extra free and a best before date of  end 2013. I now have about 15 thrifty kilos of porridge oats stockpiled in the shed!  Apart from breakfast porridge and granola, we would use oats for fruit crumbles, smoothies and flapjacks. 

 I would recommend jumbo oats for this recipe.

2 cups jumbo porridge oats

1 cup mixed nuts (hazelnuts, waltnuts and almonds all with skin on because good for lowering cholesterol)

Chop mixed nuts (but not too small)

Roughly half a cup of seeds (sunflower, pumpkin) you could also throw in coconut, linseed and/or poppy seeds.

Two of my favorite ingredients Vanilla extract and cinnamon - couple of teaspoons each. (to taste) 

2 - 3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 - 3 tablespoons of honey 

 Mix it all together in bowl.

Line baking sheet with foil and spread mixture.

 Put in a lowish oven (160 degrees )and check and stir every 10 mins for about half an hour or until golden brown. 

Allow to cool.

If you want to add dried fruit so so at this stage.

 Store in an airtight container.

Two tablespoons over stewed apple will be my breakfast tomorrow. Mr Bee and Little Bee will sprinkle it generously over vanilla ice cream for dessert after dinner.

De-lish.

Linking to FHCS - Ta-Dah Tuesday

Thrift Share Monday

I spent the weekend, once again, buying and selling. Chaos ensued at the bric-a-brac stall at a lovely garden fete, goodness those grannies show no mercy.

 I have got to stop buying retro flasks. I am now officially a collector of them. I really need to sell some on. This Thermos one is for soup, complete with cork stopper and soup bowl, and whacky woven print on the tin outer shell.

I grabbed the coffee tin and asked if there was any more to match, the man beside me already had the Tea one in his bag. He very generously handed it to me. The condition is fairly ropey, but i wish he could see how well they match my new paintwork. Tea/Coffee canisters €1.50

Two floral trays.

 

Another cut glass vase for summer posies, and a silver plated cake server.

Possibly the most appreciated little find was a tripod for my camera for €1, I had been pricing these on line only last week, and although they are not expensive, it was a 'would like' item,  rather than 'we need' item so I had to wait for at least a little while to see if I could thrift one from somewhere. I didn't have to wait long!

Linking to Thrift Share Monday

and Magpie Monday

and Thrifty Love

All that glitters is ...Green

Photographed with very early morning sun streaming through the kitchen window, my midweek thifted finds have a definite green theme. I love green, would go as far as to say that it is my favourite colour. Around this time of year when its has been a bit warm and there has been plenty of rain, I look at the garden and am amazed at just how many different shades of green there are. Grass, kelly, avocado, lime, chartreuse, bottle, army, moss, forest, pine and emerald. Sure it nearly looks like a jungle out there.

Sequin evening bag €3  

Glitter green feather butterfly (needs a pin attachment) 20c

Glass and feather bird ornament 20c! (my favorite)

Linking to Her Library Adventures Flea market finds

Before and After.

  Its been over a week now since the Chainsaw Massacre tree felling. In the end, the taking down of the trees was the quick bit. The logging of them, disposing of the branches and general clear up took several days afterwards.

A neighbour very kindly offered to help stack the rings with the use of his very sweet 1960's Massey Ferguson vintage tractor. 

Isn't it a cute tractor!

And the log pile went from this..............

 To this............very satisfying. There is still a lot of work to get this lot 

to look like this......Having a full wood shed gives me lovely secure feeling, I know as long as i have matches I'll have a warm house, hot water and a range to cook on. 

Meanwhile, indoors I was giving Little Bee's Ikea table a bit of a makeover with some fabulously appropriate oilcloth that Nana picked up, the only other equipment necessary was a staple gun and 5 minutes peace.

 Ta-Dah!

Linking to Faith Hope and Charity Shopping's Ta-Dah Tuesday

Bird cam update (2)

The two Great Tit chicks that we've been following on our  bird camera have grown so fast, it really is a reminder of how fast our own babies grow, although thankfully not quite as fast as this....

May 14th tiny and bald

May 20th hungry and half feathered

                                                          May 31st ........Holy moly as big as Mum!

June 1st....Empty nest. They probably fledged early in the morning. Hopefully they'll hang around and continue to eat hundreds of caterpillars from my veg garden.

Have a good life little ones.....Thanks for appearing on Thrift Bee TV.

Red Leather Day

I only picked up a few things during the week, and they happened to be red and leather. Two lovely round boxes in embossed leather, one big, one small. I can't resist anything that can be used as storage in some way or another. If they don't find a useful home in my home, they will be for sale.

I don't know why i bought these, they are too high for me, and shiney red shoes, although fabulous are really not me. I mean, are these the right kind of footwear for letting out the chickens, pottering in the polytunnel or for doing the school run?

They are lined in the most lovely purple colour, and this colour combination always reminds me of an old friend of mine who, for her wedding  wore a red satin Vivienne westwood knee length outfit and her husband wore this sort of purple shirt. It is a most unusual colour combination that always reminds me of her.

Does every house have a sweetie jar? We do, it has sort of come about because whenever Little Bee is deluged with sweetie offerings (Christmas, Easter, Birthdays, Tuesdays, Halloween, Thursdays, any day) I can divert them to the sweetie jar and dish them out in a vaguely moderate way.  I broke the jar a while back and have been using just one of my regular Le Parfait jars. I found this today for €3, and i reckon having a sweetie jar that you can't see directly into is going to be a good thing.

Little Bee tells me that it is not nearly big enough.!

I arrived late at a Jumble sale this afternoon and there was basically only tat left.  I didn't want to leave completely empty handed so I scoured until i found this grey satin hair pin and the net and bead brooch.

For 20c each, they'll jussh up a vintagey outfit sometime. 

Linking to Her Library Adventures Flea Market Finds
And Thrifty Love
and Penny Worthy Project
and Magpie Monday