Thunder Moon

thanks to spaceweather.com for this brilliant post:

THUNDER MOON: Picture this: The sound of distant thunder draws you to the window. Lightning zig-zags across the night sky, storm clouds part, and a brilliant beam of moonlight lances through the curtain, spotlighting the observer.

Tonight, this could happen to you. There's a full Moon, the "Thunder Moon," named after the electrical storms of summer. David Hoffmann photographed the waxing Thunder Moon last night in Ashland, Oregon:

The Moon reaches maximum illuminattion on Tuesday, July 3rd, at 18:52 UT. Look for it rising in the east at sunset, and enjoy the thunder moonlight.

travel worn

It's July, and we're back in the saddle at the Turnip House, 


As of today we'll be open 7 days a week, from 11am to 5pm


The Gallery is ready for action, and the 'great tidy up' is progressing outside!


We had a reality check when we got home, a message on our answering machine 

" We were looking for your place, but all we found was this burnt out old house"

Oh to see ourselves as others see us!


We need to create more of a 'finished' look to at least part of our empire in order to become user friendly.


More to follow!




Meanwhile, our trip took us to all four / five countries in the British Isles here's a sample:

misty 5am Leitrim Valley

Leaving Dublin with tails

Anglesey

on the Cam outside Trinity College

The Trent, at Littleborough

The Scottish Borders

Stirling University campus

to Belfast by sea

Ready for the Off!

We're away over the pond tomorrow to see Kate Eleanor in Cambridge, visit our friends at  Littleborough Music Fest in Nottinghamshire and attend James and Lauren's graduation in Stirling. A very full and exciting few days awaits us!


When we get back, July will be nearly upon us, and we will be open, in the gallery, 7 days a week. So we've been working feverishly to get things ready, and to get the garden and greenhouse fit to leave to their own devices.


The results are incomplete, but almost there!

the modified bench and table (thanks, Angela & Martin!))

the dresser - still full of tools!

new display stands - and our road signs

a cosy corner

kitchen area

sunshine

we finished the greenhouse - today!

doesn't it look grand!

the picnic lawn,
tamed for the moment thanks to the loan of Frank's ride-on mower, a great toy

Turnip House Trassey Valley c.1800's

Thanks to David from Tory Bush Cottages I saw this picture for the first time today:

To the right middle ground is our old house.  Looking great - at least a hundred years ago!


The Lawrence Collection of pictures is renowned around these parts as a fantastic record of the times. I've been meaning to look them up in the records office since coming back in 1987, but never found the time. 


Now thanks to the National Library of Ireland, they are all online:

Fantastic resource, rightly available to all, thanks to the power of the internet!

The Transit of Venus

No one reading this will still be alive the next time Venus crosses the sun in 2117. That makes today special. On June 5th at 3:09 pm PDT, the second planet begins its historic 7-hour transit of the solar disk.

this quote thanks to Space Weather.com



A great video from Nasa:

The Gallery By Night

This weekend the Gallery has become a hint of what will be: furniture in, old bits of timber. cardboard, tolls and junk cleared away, and the kitchen worktops fitted,. All leads to a real change!


Here's some pictures from today:


Starting at the end. Sitting in the dusk, with the candles lit - we can really feel the quality of this space.

looking through from the kitchen

almost complete

Saturday

Sunday

See you soon!

Furniture

It's time to think about getting the furniture back into the Mourne end of the gallery.


That at least half of the gallery is at that stage is very exciting!


We've been rounding up all the furniture that we made for the old Turnip House. It has been much abused over the last year or so, moved stored and bumped around.


We have spent the afternoon sprucing it up and making modifications:

Charlie, as ever, is not impressed by furniture moving - makes him uncomfortable!

the long bench

This was designed as a corner unit, and fits together at right angles with another short piece. This is not suited to the new place

So, modifications were required 

the insides - used to be two drawers here.

We removed the corner piece, and made a new end piece to match the other side. We were able to reuse part of the corner piece (in green)

 Painted it ...

Just the part!

 Some more chairs and tables - sanding and painting has done the trick


All soon to be viewed in the Gallery!

June approaches - with a storm?

The weather is a bit cooler - high teens Centigrade, more like normal, but it feels almost sultry tonight, and the clouds are building dramatically:

a storm a brewing?
(see how the recent warm weather has brought on the wygelia)

yesterday evening our bovine neighbours: not sitting down because of rain coming,
but lying down because of the heat!

looking west tonight- here come the fronts

the clouds wrap the Mournes in cotton wool

A Hidden View

A Hidden View:

this is a very interesting new site about Irish and Iberian rock art - well worth following I think.


'via Blog this'

a year ago today

Well, almost. It was 2 June last year when we took this picture:

the orange parasol is out again in Benraw, the sun is splitting the sky - fantastic - and the barbecue is finished - just hope that this year we get more use out of it!

Ards Artists

Elaine spent Saturday at Ards Art Centre taking another Felt workshop! 6 lovely participants had a creative day making samples, felt pens, flowers and bags!

Such a fantastic array of colours

Just look at the beautifully delicate combinations of shades inside the flowers

Bags ready for their handles (made at home)

Felt pens make a stunning bunch of flowers

Many thanks to Ards Art Centre for a brilliant venue and yummy lunch. We all had  such fun!

Greenhouse: awaiting windows

We've finished the wooden part of the greenhouse - and are quite pleased with the result:

All it needs now are the windows. We've ordered them and are waiting expectantly.


More later!

The Front Garden - in flower May 2012

 To the front of the house is a remnant of a beautiful formal garden 45 feet square.
It was completely overgrown and impassable, but we have cleared much of it out, uncovering a layout of paths, and many relics of the plants that grew there.


As we'll be putting scaffolding up around the house to replace the roof, alot of the garden will not be redeemable until after that, but we have made our mark on one quarter of it, clearing away the roots and laying a lawn, with flowerbeds.


we've been rewarded these last few days with an increasing abundance of the aliums that we planted back in January


This evenings sunshine picked them out beautifully:

aliums, aqualigia (self set) and raspberry plants (likewise)

bursting out!

work in progress