Bloom in the Park 2011

Today we took the train (early, 07:45!) to see Bloom in the Phoenix Park. Bloom's an annual festival/event organised by Bord Bia, to showcase (from what I saw today) the best of Irish food, drink, plants, wildlife and garden design. As well as the usual retail sales areas that you find at (and that probably pay for) these events everywhere, there's a garden show area with about 8-10 gardens competing for prizes; an Irish food area; an Irish micro/independent brewer/distillers area (yum); information on wildlife organisations and activities for kids - a well-rounded family day out I suppose, even if there's only yourself and herself.... :P

There was lots of relaxing things to do....



I took a few photos, needless to say. I should preface them by saying that either I was confused or the camera was, as many of these pics weren't exposed great....so what you see is a result of a harsher than usual cull.



My personal favourite was a garden on the theme of "Alice in Wonderland," which was built/formed/made from synthetic grass and some plants. Lovely and bright and colourful, perhaps I should have taken more photos here!



My next favourite was the Chinese Garden, which had dancing and music. We arrived just after the dancing though, and didn't hang around till the next one. Mostly because it didn't occur to us to.





And another very enjoyable area....



The Bloom Inn was great - half-pint glasses at €2.50 being very reasonable, and excellent beers from craft breweries around the country. I particularly enjoyed my first taste of Galway Hooker and also of Trouble Brewing's Ór (up Kildare!), both very very tasty beverages indeed. I must also beseech the guys in Dungarvan to brew more of their coffee and oatmeal stout for bottling! My first taste too of Metalman's beer (I had the Windjammer), White Gypsy's and of 8 Degrees, all very enjoyable.

May they all bottle and distribute widely. Or to Kildare at any rate.

There is of course plenty of food to peruse and purchase for soakage. Sorry, I mean, of course, enjoyment. Lots of nice meat providers (can think of 2 sausage stands, and one beef stand in particular), bakeries, jams, preserves, you name it, and many providing a sample or 2 to tempt you!



Not to mention you never know who you'll bump into (or see other people bumping into)



If you go, I hope you enjoy it and that the weather suits you. If you don't have time and remain curious, get thee to pix.ie and have a look at either my few pics, or the pictures of other photographers that have submitted their work!

A serious day - bottling, strawberries, and sausages

So, with the weather being well, ok, and us both having the day off, it being a Sunday, we headed off. Enniscorthy is the target, being the venue for the Enniscorthy Strawberry Festival. Subdue your excitement.

There was an All-Ireland Farmer's Market - consisting of about 17 stalls, not even one per county! Some of these sold strawberries (2), other sold preserves, cheeses, meats and vegetables. So that was ok - we had a sausage roll there made from sausage about 40mm diameter (verging on the too-thick side of cookability I think) which was tasty.

As there was little else happening, bar a cookery demonstration (and neither M or I were interested) we decided to seaside it, and ended up in Rosslare watching the Irish Sea do what it did. We stopped for grub on the way home in the Ramada resort near Tullow - this cannot be recommended as a course of action to anybody and we should have come home and barbecued, though we were absolutely ravenous at this stage.

Decided to bottle the beer tonight. This is a messy operation, and the following were noted:

1: Count your bottles, make sure you have enough. Add about 6 bottles to the "enough" number, because you mightn't actually fill the bottles as much as they claim to hold.

2: Get a no-rinse steriliser/sanitiser for your bottles. This will save on water and time. I had to rinse each bottle a couple of times - wasting water. This is A Bad Thing.

3: Grow some more arms, or else ask a helper to pass by. Someone to hold the siphon in the bucket whilst you're at the other end filling bottles is very brilliant.

4: Check the top of all bottles that you're proposing to use, as some fancy bottles (Wychwood ales for example) won't take a crown cap with the capper I've got.

5: Have a towel or 2 handy. Just in Case.

Photos will be uploaded soon

Those of you who wrote to ask for Rome photos hopefully won't have too much longer to wait. I'll try and get some uploaded this evening.

Some Hiking has been happening, courtesy of the Slieve Bloom walking festival. How I never walked in the Slieve Blooms before I don't know, but there's some nice walking for doing. I met up with a large group of about 60 walkers today for a nice hike at Glenfelly, near Kinnity. We split up into two groups but unfortunately amalgamated again - unfortunate as the reason was someone sprained their ankle. Luckily it was only a minor injury, but it brings home the importance of good quality walking boots for the hills - this woman wore only runners, and there was a lot of muck and stream crossings...Pics later, as I hope to go again tomorrow.

So, M's away in London, gallivanting no doubt. Little does she know she's been enrolled for the year's walking programme in the Slieve Blooms! That'll teach her.

Cross your fingers the rain stays off tomorrow afternoon. Books to be reviewed shortly and pictures to be loaded - watch this space!