Kate & Eleanor

Kate flies back to Cambridge today - we'll miss her. It's been a great couple of weeks with them both, lots of things done, people seen, paths stomped and animals loved!

One of Eleanor's many hugs for Charlie

with Julie & Steve on Tuesday

morning coffee on the greenhouse wall

Eleanor too!

fun with everything

with my Grandad

yesterday afternoon - beautiful

the faraway mountains

Kate

Eleanor on a mission

a great pair of helping hands!

sunshine in the gallery

communing with a chicken

Furby - not sure if he's coming or going

Happy Easter

Warm wishes to all this Easter time, a tradition of renewal and optimism for the future. 


The short, bleak Wintery days are (mainly!) behind us, and we look to the long hazy days of Summer


We're privileged to have Kate & Eleanor with us, and have been making the most of our time together

snow on Bearnagh on Wednesday

tramping in the garden - all wrapped up for Winter!

Charlie gazes on

the gallery - now with windows - fantastic

sunshine - but no wind!

now you can gaze at that view in a t shirt

these little ones replace the existing metal windows, the're a treat - looking up to Slievenaboley

looking down to the Mournes

with Slievenaboley behind

on the Strangford Ferry for a trip to the Aquarium Spring is back

some of the inhabitants of said place

Eleanor at large in the Aquarium

playing in the silver sands of Kearney Point

some of the beautiful shells on the beach

Easter Sunday, second breakfast

A Great Leap Forward - we have glass

Whilst the window frames arrived last week, (and are now painted a beautiful green) The can't be truly called windows until the glass is in.


Today in the middle of a blizzard, the glass arrived.


So by tomorrow we will truly be able to be inside the Gallery!

springtime in paradise!

10 sheets of window glass

double glazed, toughened energy efficient K Glass - great!

not a moment to soon

Weather Data for March 2012

This day last week it was 18.6° C. Today it is 1.6° C. Same planet?

weather map for today

 March Weather

click to download the report

Met eireann 's March report says: Mean air temperatures recorded at Belmullet, Valentia Observatory, Malin Head and Phoenix Park were the warmest in over 50 years, with other stations across the country reporting their highest means in 14 to 22 years.

You can download Turnip House's March Weather Data Here 

Perpetual Ocean [hd video]

Perpetual Ocean [hd video] a video by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

beautiful, mesmerising, and surprising

Find of the Year!

Caroline and Paul are here again to help us with the many jobs that we have about the place


With such a crack team, we thought it time to tackle a major job:


 excavate the piece of ironwork that we found buried in the fruit garden back in 2010

poking out of rubble and nettles August 2010

now flowerbed and beginning fruit garden - you can just see the tip of the artefact on the right mid ground

Today - Paul hard at work

gradually appearing

Look what I found!

I am very proud of this!

Gallery Windows!

The windows for the gallery were fitted today. 
Much excitement, lots of oohs and aahs!
They are just as we had hoped - clean style, allowing in that view, whilst giving it a 'frame' and rhythm 

just as we had envisaged

the north end - light on two sides

this will be the entrance, look at the height difference to be made up
- and the view to greet our visitors

looking South to the Mournes

Bearnagh

looking through from one end to the other

is this 'easy clean' glass?

two windows replace existing ones - so clean of line -
we love them!

Now to painting (dark green as with the other windows). 
Glazing should arrive next week.


It will, however, be obvious to the initiated that there's now little likelihood of all this being ready for Easter. Still we are more the tortoise not the hare!

Poetry Day

The Stolen Child

by William Butler Yeats

picture by  Kevin Woods

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand. 

springtime

A beautiful morning - our tour round the garden brings more new growth each day!

this morning: cloudless apart from a little cap on The Mournes

the hawthorn hedge - about to burst!

Cherry trees are ahead of the pack!

Vincent

7 weeks ago today we planted trees. 

A wonderful day with friends, looking to the future, to this spring with the leaves starting to appear, and the years beyond as they grow tall.

Little did we know that this week we would lose our dear friend Vincent, who, with Liz, planted the first tree: an Oak.

Always an optimist,we will miss you dearly Vincent. 

But your Oak and the 50 more that you planted will live on. 

Vincent's Oak gets its new home 28 January 2012

We will not forget you.

Have a Good One!

Hope everyone around the globe is taking the opportunity to lift a glass and have good cheer on this St Patrick's Day

Felt Workshop dates

Spring Dates for our Felt Workshops

You can book by email: info@turniphouse.com or by phone 028 4065 0848

or through Down Arts and Ards Arts for their venues

Look forward to seeing you!

Woodworm!

There's a lot of it about here, and in the wrong places it's a real problem!

But it struck me this morning, as I was cutting firewood, that it can produce a very beautiful effect