Weeded, watered, minded..the front garden
The ignored back garden..
We live in a funny kind of house – the sun mostly shines on our (non-overlooked) front garden, and only in high summer does it hit the back.
In winter-time, the back garden has been described (by me, mostly) as ‘the place where the sun never shines’. This is factually correct and goes some way, perhaps, to explaining why we’ve never paid the back garden a lot of attention. We get the grass (it’s not really grass – it’s moss and weeds) cut every two weeks in the summer time, and come October we bid it farewell for another year.
At least that’s what we used to do, until our long-time gardener threw in the towel. In the 2 months since its first cut, it’s turned into a bit of a jungle.
It’s a jungle out there..
But today there’s a new man on the horizon, and he’s coming this afternoon.
‘Hurrah’ we said, until this morning, when we wandered out into the jungle and discovered that it had become home to hundreds of honey bees, wild orchids, clover, buttercups plus other stuff that we don’t know the name of..
and, oh yes – even the odd dragonfly..
In a matter of weeks, our boring back garden had turned into WB Yeats’ ‘bee-loud glade’..
A bee’s backside – you don’t see that every day ;)
We stood on the back step, gazing at the ferocious activity and came to a decision. We’d get the new guy to just strim the edges, cut a bit of the grass, and leave the wildlife to enjoy itself for another few months.
I have absolutely no doubt that he’ll think we’re complete eegits; especially since he’s been lent by my no-nonsense, professional-gardener-style sister-in-law.. but we’ll just have to suck up his contempt for the moment.. it will keep the bees happy..
Our organic Blueberries and Gooseberries are coming along nicely too, by the way. No one bothers them out there you see.. 😉
Two days later:
We did as we planned and the kind man said nothing but cut what grass he could.
It’s no great shakes, but it does look a little tidier..
The following morning, Mr Sat Night said to me as I wandered into the kitchen – ‘We did the right thing with the garden’.
‘Did we?’ said I.
‘Yes, I’ve been watching the bees having a ball with the weeds..’
Job done.
And here’s a picture of Fluff enjoying our ‘bee-loud glade..’ 
We’ve also put out a bowl of sugared water for the bees, in case they’re thirsty in this heat. Sadly I can’t guarantee that the cats haven’t slurped it up!
Evening light in the jungle..:)
I started writing down recipes in an old copybook when I was about 16. With 6 children at home, my Mother was always glad of a hand in the kitchen, and really allowed us to experiment - as long as we washed up afterwards, and left the kitchen immaculate! Having a tidy kitchen has followed me through my life, as has the habit of writing down my favourite recipes; except that these days I write them for my website, and add photographs when I can. The website really started when it occurred to me that my daughter might like to have these recipes when I've forgotten them. In my early days of cooking for family and friends, I used to phone my Mum all the time to ask her for the recipe for some of our favourite family dinners. She rarely had a recipe to hand - I think, like me, she made a lot of it up as she went along.. So welcome to Eating for Ireland - these are the recipes that my friends and family having been eating these past 40 years.. yes, I truly am ancient! They are tried and tested, and have worked for me for all that time - I have updated them as new ingredients became available - I really hope you'll find something that you can make into a family favourite of your own. You don't have to tell anyone where you found these great new dishes that you're serving up - it can be our little secret, but I'd really love it if you could give me a sneaky 'follow' on Facebook and Instagram.. So off you go - have a good rummage around, you're bound to find something new! My sincere thanks to all of you who have found a recipe that you liked and dropped me a line to tell me - I really do love to hear from you! Happy Cooking! Becks xx