Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday – and all is well.

 I do love the wisdom of fridge magnets..... as I am sitting on the patio listening, to the bird song while not understanding a word of it and admiring the first roses which are budding in spite of being woefully neglected and am trying to focus on the laptop and the plan for the day. The weekly invoices are done, my job on  a Wednesday morning while  the bread is being baked by others and I relish my lie in till 6am. Summer is such an amazing time when we spent whatever time we can outside, when we plan the summer holidays and looking at the garden, planning that half an hour – surely that has to be there in the day – to pull some weeds, buy a new pot for the camelia and rescue the strawberries from the ever encroaching grass , brambles and sticky, windy stuff that I don’t know the name off. Summary of progress:  no dawn chorus because I was sick, no running because I was sick and first circuit again yesterday with a first run being contemplated as I write. If progress is not giving up, progress it is. By any other definition, I am not so sure.

Today, everything is coloured by thoughts of the people who wake up today to the first day without their daughter or son, the first day of their life forever changed as they try and deal with whatever injuries they got, the first day of dealing with the fact that your son did all this. Somehow because it happens in Manchester, in a place we nearly adopt as our own, it all comes closer to home. Somehow, because it involves children, it hurts more. None of this should be so. People die violently every day in some conflict in the world and lives are changed horribly every day. But even in this age of total information and easy communication, distance still matters and some things we feel much more intense than others as we settle into this new age of terrorist attacks which are aimed at us, at our lifestyle, our inherent comfort, our entertainment and security. The aim is to spread fear and panic but it will not work. It won’t work because somewhere in all of us, still lives the stubborn hero who won’t be defeated. Somewhere in our so soft culture of an easy life, still lives the instict that says we won’t be beaten. As other generations before us, who rose to wars with death and destruction, to food shortages and hunger, so will we rise to the new war which this time is targeted at us directly. We are the targets and the combatants and we do not know how to fight back because our attackers are invisible. How do we get ready for this, how do we deal with this? Do we  train up on first aid and martial art so we are able to help and kick ass should we be close enough. Do we light our candles today and stand together in strength and compassion? Maybe we’ll do both but can we please refrain from hatred and the senseless persecution of peoples and religions.

I keep coming back to the writers of the blasket islands who quoted a saying of their time which loosely translated goes “We only have our time and when that is done it does not matter whether we row the wild waters in our boats or hide in an anthill”. They lived a very tough life in the firm belief that every life had its time and that time only. I say a special prayer today for those who torture themselves with “had I not bought that ticket” and “had I not put on this gig” – for all those who think that their actions – had they only be different -  could have averted this terrible evening. There is no “if only” in life.

So I reckon, when the pathetic circuit training stops hurting and when I can hold a plank for longer than 10 seconds, I will move onto some kind of martial art and I will practise my first aid and I can’ t think of anything else that could be useful. So I light my candles, I pray and I hope that all people affected by terror will find hope and strength and support in others and I hope that we will all rise to the challenge and never give in to fear. Somehow, this week, the normal struggles and pressures of running a business and a family have become trivial and gratitude has again been returned to its rightful place. For today, for now, all is well in this life and that is enough.

The royal visit and the dawn chorus

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and another week passed – as it invariably does. Three blogs from now, after the bread round will be reporting from the Mini marathon. I’m still running but the  kids, all back for the summer, have now decided that we need to do circuit  training in the evenings and my leisurely training as been upted with “weighted squads”, stepping, skipping, push ups and the hated plank. If you don’t know what that is, don’t go and find out, just leave it!! Apparently it is a good sign that all muscles are sore and apparently I will be fit and slim by the end of the summer. I believe it when I see it and point blank refuse to try “pull ups from hanging” and readily complain that I am way too old for this lark while secretly being thrilled with having found this escape route before middle age came and claimed another lazy one for early retirement of all muscles. 

Anyway, last Thursday was the royal visit in Kilkenny. It was a good day, a sunny day and Kilkenny did look amazing and photographed really well. The Castle was looking its best and hosted, what to all accounts and purposes seemed like a royal garden party from way back when – with ball games, good food and good fun. The market was set up on the parade – inside the barriers which were set up along the road and half way down the parade. Security is of course paramount and in this case probably one big headache so we didn’ t mind coming in early, we didn’t mind the sniffer dog in the stall, we didn’t mind having to come back in through airport security – and we didn’ t mind the long wait either. What I did mind was that whoever organised this didn’t realise that our customers belong to the market. They are people who come every week, some of them coming out especially when the weather is terribly because they know we need them most on those days. We know each other and we work with each other but for this occassion not one of them was considered part of the market. Instead, 20 min before the royal visitors were due, the market was flooded with a very well dressed group of strangers – pretending to be customers. 

Then came the helicopters and the girls around us got excited. Some choppers put down – I presume in the park – and soon the cavalcade of cars appeared at the market – to the girls leaning over the barricades to find out “ What is she wearing? Can you see them? ” Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall wondered over the market, bought things, chatted and genereally did what they came to do – provide a photo op for as many people as they could. Camilla very patiently stood at our stall and chatted until the photographers told her they were happy. I don’t really like the world of photo op, reality tv and pretend but it was very nice that she made the effort and I fully realise that a visit like this is nothing but extremely hard work for her as she must know that for every minute of the day, someone has put a lot of effort into whatever they do. With the best will of the world, she – or Prince Charles cannot possible do justice to everyone but they did try so hard and that is all they can do. Once the market visit was over and the party in the Castle had started, the garda in charge somehow couldn’t find the courage to let our customers into the market and – for us anyway – the day soured a bit as €400 worth of bread sat on the table. We started to sell across the railings, walking along with our sample tray and bringing baskets down to the barrier. When the customers finally made their way in, it was too late for many, lunch was over and a loss loomed for many traders. Such an unnecessary downer after a day where everyone made a big effort. Just a suggestion for future events. We don’t only have the castle and the pretty roads, we also have very reliable, honest and well mannered citizens, real customers who can be relied upon to take part in these events without causing danger or embaressment to anyone. Sometimes, keeping things a bit more real and honest can be a good thing in these days of pretend. 

Anyhow, we have the photograph, we have the experience, we sold the bread and we recovered the sleep and all is well as we look forward to a “normal market” tomorrow.  Oh – and she was wearing a very nice green coat and yes, she paid and yes it was with Euros. I am not sure why, but those are the two most asked questions....

Oh, and if you want to sample an early morning this Sunday – or next – come and join us for our annual dawn chorus at 5am. A bird walk in the woodland of Kilfane – followed by breakfast in the bakehouse.  A free event, we take donations for the Carlow/Kilkenny homecare team. Please book in though, because we can only take 12 each morning.There’s nothing like an early morning spend outdoors, followed by a good breakfast. See you there. 

Royal visit at the market tomorrow

IAfter the bread round, I got an email yesterday from the gardai to say that all traders on Thursday’s farmers market had to be at the parade at 6.30 am. Really? 

Tomorrow Prince Charles and his wife Camilla will be a the Farmers market in Kilkenny. Apparently they are goingto walk over the market as they move from the Castle to Cartoon Saloon. We will be set up by 7.30am and the market will open to the public by 12 noon. Until then you have to be cleared for security to come and shop or be in the official party. I do hope all those setter uppers and security people will be really hungry!!!!  There will be no access to the market to the public until 12pm so we are torn between curiosity and delight to be involved and the need to actually sell our bread tomorrow. Needless to say, the safelty of the Prince of Wales and his wife are the biggest concern. Another concern is that apparently there will be thousands of people hoping to catch a glimpse of them and much as we like customers to be able to get to our stall, maybe with thousands of people there, we’ll be grateful of the barricades yet. Anyway what fun to be part of it all and facinating to see a VIP visit close up. 

We will try and be prepared as well as possible, with warm clothing, thermos flasks and a table and chairs – to get as much paper work done as possible and not waste an entire morning. We have tried to plan ahead and been terrible flexible as the garda directions changed by the day. Seeing that we bake all our product fresh, we will not have an awful lot of bread with us for 7.30am. We start at 1.30am in the morning anyway so there was no leeway to start earlier but a handtruck has been bought

( which - none of my regular readers will be surprised – holds an engine at the moment)   and we will try and bring in the remaining bread on foot to the market and to the shops in Kilkenny that normally stock and sell our bread. None of these shops know either whether any customers will come into town or not. One day loss of trading can’t be that big, you’d think – but margins are tight and if we don’t sell on Thursday, we make a loss that week and that we cannot afford. I’m sure many of the other traders and busnesses are the same. The promise of some vague advertising does not cut it for us. We haven’t had a budged for advertising in a long, long time. 

Anyhow, hold the grumbles, maybe all those royal watchers will go home with lots of street food, fresh fish, organic meet, bread, sauces and olives and organic vegetables. They might cease the day and buy pottery and baskets and a boot full of garden plants. Maybe Kilkenny will be flooded with happy day trippers all day. We’ll find out tomorrow. Until then,  a very sincere welcome to Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to Ireland and to Kilkenny.  Their visit is another big step in the ever improving realtions between our two countries and the particular history we share. I welcome these improvements and the peace we have started to take for granted and I welcome the Prince of Wales also as one of the foremost conservationists, environmentalist and supporter of organic farming in Europe. His famous garden and farm in Highgrove I would love to visit, I would love to chat to him about his ideas for food production and does he grow spelt? Who mills and bakes it for him and does he support the Real Bread movement in England. None of this is likely to happen during a “walk through” but I hope their visit goes well and achieves the many things, thousands of people are hoping that it will. I hope everyone keeps their good humour and I very much hope all our faithfull customers will find their way to the market tomorrow afternoon. Watch this space and I’ll tell you how it went next week.  

Start of Summer – Bealtaine.

I

This week was the first of May, Baltaine and the start of summer. It is a Cross Quarter Day, half way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. In Irish mythology, the beginning of the summer season started with the Fire Festival at Bealtaine. Great bonfires mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, accompanied with rituals to protect the people from any harm by otherworldly spirits.

A good time of year, a beginning and yet another day to plan and scheme on how to better manage life. Running to the tree is going just fine but improving on that in speed and distance is a challenge as the totally unambitious self just plods ot the the tree and back and ticks that box for the day. Have to work on that. The new boy toy also arrived.

Bright and yellow and in way too many individual parts, the Honda civic CRX racing car has replaced the mini in the open shed across from the office. Sadly, the owner of same spend yesterday at a rally car fest in Galway and I can feel him plotting how to race this “investment” from the other side of the country. It’s going to be a long summer.

.After the bread round, at this time of the year,  I used to out into the garden, plant the potatoes, grow the seedlings and enjoy working in the polytunnel while the rain was falling on the plastic of the tunnel. I love gardening and have not done it in at least two or three years. These days I don’ t even pretend anymore that I will have the time as I watch the garden grow closer and closer. The polytunnel has a big rip while the only plant still thriving in spite of all my non-effort is a ginormous rhubarb that comes back year after year in spite of total unappreciation of a family that does not eat rhubarb. Every year I hope to restart the garden and every year it doesn’ t really work. Since the business paperwork has grown with the business, after the bread round time has moved to the office - with a few window boxes and potted plants the extent of my growing success. Since all young adults are back for the summer, we are trying again to make time to have a garden and jobs have been divvied up. The lane is done, the grass was cut ( until the lawnmower broke...) and my jobs remain stubbornly undone. The two car fanatics are trying to keep to the deal of balancing all hours worked on the car with hours done in the garden and we’ll watch this space with the optimism of early spring where everything seems possible. Especially when the first day of summer actually and completely unexpectetly turns into the first gloriously sunny day. It is progress if the tax returns are done in May rather than November, it is progress if I can run again and it is progress if the shed was tidied between cars – or is it? 

We’ll light a fire next weekend ( that Christmas tree is still sitting in the hedge)  and we’ll celebrate Bealtaine with all our plans and hopes and ambitions. It’s the season of hope for a good harvest, which does not only mean food successfully grown. It also means a good leaving cert for some, a good start to college for others, a summer well spent, a business grown another bit and maybe, just maybe some of that garden to be salvaged.