Byddi Lee's Blog, page 4

Following the Sliabh Fuait Trail

Just as the covid restrictions relaxed from ‘stay at home’ to ‘stay local,’ I came across the Friends of Sliabh Fuait driving tour on Instagram. There’s nothing as glorious as a drive in the Irish countryside on a sunny April day. So we decided to celebrate our newfound freedom by taking the driving tour. I had lived much of the second decade of my life at the bottom of this sprawling mountain but hadn’t realized that it was a) indeed a mountain and b) that it had a name.

Sliabh Fuait is an area that begins to rise in elevation about two miles south of the city limits of Armagh. For locals, it’s the Ballymacnab, Carrickatuke, Keady area. On Google maps, it’s roughly the area between the Newtownhamilton Rd and the Keady Road as far south as the border between Armagh and Monaghan. Fortunately, we didn’t have to cross the border because… you know…covid…

You can listen to the tour on Soundcloud, but I strongly recommend that you either download it first as the mobile internet coverage is patchy in places. We discovered this the hard way and ended up totally lost and missed one stop – the Giant’s Grave. We drove around in circles for a while and gave up in the end – but it was the only stop we missed – not bad going! You’ll need the premium version of Soundcloud to download the audio tour to your device in advance.  However, there is a free downloadable PDF of the directions on the website that you should download in advance and take with you. Unfortunately, it’s just the directions and not the actual details of the tour, but you can always catch up when you get data again.

I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here. The Friends of Sliabh Fuait do an excellent job with the tour that begins its navigation at the gates of St Malachy’s Church in Armagh City. I’m just going to sprinkle in a few of my thoughts and ideas, along with a few pictures.

This is a tour you could make into a full-day trip if you were to bring along a picnic and hiking boots. When the world opens up, there are a couple of excellent places to eat along the way – my favourite being Basil Sheil’s Bar at Tassagh. But I’m jumping ahead…

The first stop is Lisnadill Church, halfway up Lisnadill Hill. I’ll let the tour fill in the details, but it’s a lovely old church.

This hill was the curse of my lazy youth. My best friend lived at the top of the hill, and I lived at the bottom. Even from halfway up, there is the quare view! (The picture doesn’t do the gradient justice.)

 I’ve had many a long slog up that hill, either walking or cycling – which actually was walking since I had to push my pre-gears-era bike up the steep slope. The very odd time you’d get lucky when a passing tractor would be sufficiently slowed by the gradient so you could grab hold of some jutting out part of it and score a drag up the hill. Something that would have given my parents conniptions had they known what I was up to…

Further up and further in, like a Narnia-esque experience, you delve into deepest Ballymacnab. There’s a stop at the old Bull’s foot. This story always gave me the heebee-geebees even on a sunny day.

Now you can sit by it. The church in the background used to be our parish church. My Sister got married here (that’s not why its on the tour though!)

You can picnic and barbeque at Seagahan Dam, which is strictly not on the tour, but it comes very close. We didn’t steer off course, for a visit, being regular visitors to ‘The Dam’ already. It’s great for photos or clandestine meetings if your grandmother suddenly starts to inexplicably get younger and disappears (sorry, that’s a Rejuvenation Trilogy reference!). It has a lovely wee walk too.

My personal favourite was the Old Ballymacnab Graveyard.

Truly a hidden treasure.

And blissfully peaceful, with the sun warming a bee-buzzed afternoon.

Onwards and upwards to Carriatuke, with its 360-degree views, it’s the peak of Sliabh Fuait, I believe. Talk about staring off into the blue yonder! I’d love to catch a sunrise or a sunset here.

Darkley Forest is another excellent place to walk.

This is where the internet got patchy, and we lost both internet connection and our way! But we did manage to pick up the trail again at Tullynawood Lough, another great picnic spot. The stand out thing for me here was learning that the Children of Lir played here and returned her after spending 900 years turned into swans. It’s one of my favourite fairy tales/Irish legends, and I never realized parts of it took place so close to home!

By this stage, we were getting tired – probably because after a year of going nowhere, the stamina is low! Crikey, what will we be like when we go further afield? We stopped at the Darkley Mill and caught up listening to the parts of the tour we’d missed, then headed for Keady.

I was very impressed with the new arts centre. I hadn’t even noticed it on the few occasions I’d been in keady visiting friends and relatives.

The final stop is the Tassagh viaducts. I’ve loved looking at these since I was a child.

Tassagh road is one of the prettiest roads in Ireland. I’ve blogged about it before with a load more photos like the one below.

From here, it was a quick jaunt home via the Chinese takeaway. After a day like that, in these times, we felt like we were world-weary travellers. All in all, a great day out on Sliabh Fuait. How lucky are we to have this on our doorstep? It is weird to think it was always there, and I’d never appreciated it.

Sometimes all we have to do to see the beauty in our world is open our eyes and ears and more importantly, our hearts and minds.

Lesser Loved Legends

It’s lion season again – Dandelion that is. Check out the story about my mother taking me ‘lion hunting’ here.

I love dandelions – I love how they brighten up an abandoned corner of the yard, or how they sprinkle sunshine through a lawn that is left to lengthen at this time of the year.

I love how they feed bees, and if needed, how they would also feed humans. I won’t repeat all the great things they do, but instead, invite you to read the post I’ve already written about how fabulous they are.

And how clever they are at packing and unpacking all those luscious petals away every night without needing an iron!

If gardens had under-appreciated superheroes then dandelions would be one of them. This post is to highlight a couple more such plants – think of it as a flora version of Marvel’s Avengers with dandelions as Captain America!

Nettles are a much-maligned member of the superhero garden set, understandable given the stinging nature of them but beneath that barbed exterior is lots of yummy food favoured by caterpillars – which become beautiful butterflies. And they are the number one food source for ladybirds too. (in this picture the ladybird is on a strawberry leaf, not a nettle – you take the pictures where you can get them!)

Nettles can be eaten by humans too, and are a rich source of vitamins and minerals with a variety of health benefits including curing hayfever and reducing inflammation. As well as all that, nettles can help feed other plants – this Gardener’s World article tells you all about it.

Ivy is native to Ireland. The berries are toxic to humans but they are a food source for birds, fruiting during the winter when there is little else around. Ivy flowers also provide nectar to many butterflies and bees love the flowers too. I know I’ve often heard my ivy buzzing and this explains why.

Contrary to popular belief, ivy does not kill trees. And it may even protect the buildings it grows over. It provides a home for many wildlife species of birds and mammals – I’m convinced my robins are nesting in the ivy.

Ivy is attractive here, growing in a community of hedgerow species. When I lived in California, I pulled all the ivy out of our yard to put in my California native plant garden. In that instance, ivy was an invasive species. Conversely, I welcome it in Ireland. For more information on why read this article by the Woodland Trust.

A happy little trio of garden superheroes working together undercover to support the local wildlife – notice the holes the leaves – this means that someone has not gone hungry!

And finally, I will sing the praises of the humble lawn daisy because of its simple beauty. You can understand why it is the symbol of innocence and purity.

Apparently, you can eat it, and I have chewed on the stems while making daisy chains without getting poisoned. There’s more information here about the medicinal benefits of daisies (useful if the pharmacy is closed I suppose!)

Sometimes all you need to do to see something in a surprising new way is to look at it from a different angle or up close. This morning I was well rewarded when I sneaked up on this sleeping daisy. the delicate pink tips are just so beautiful.

When I mow the lawn I can’t bear to cut these little flowers down and often mow around them. I’ll never have the perfectly manicured lawn but I don’t mind. The bees are happy in my lawn with its mix of dandelions, daisy and clover and if it looks green enough from a distance, it works for me.

The best thing about these four lesser loved legends is that they quietly exist around us, supporting wildlife, being pretty (yes, even nettles – the shapes/angles of those leaves…wow) and if you take a moment from your day to look closely, I’ll bet you’ll easily find one of them waiting to be discovered not too far away.

Byddi Lee

Focus on the Flowers

I started this week’s blog many times and from many angles, but found it hard to settle on a topic. The riots in Belfast are most unsettling. But I don’t want to write a political post. It’s too complex, too frustrating, too anger-inducing. It feels like these riots are happening in a parallel universe, and in many ways, they are.

When I left the house for my morning walk, the air was cool, crisp and invigorating. The sky was bright and blue and filled with birdsong – they had the volume turned up to 11! There was that damp-soil smell that makes you inhale and go “ahhhhh’. A far cry from the scenes of a bus burning on the Shankill Road in Belfast. (How many nurses salaries or elective surgeries would the cost of a new bus cover?)

I enjoyed my walk and was on the last stretch for home when I passed a house getting renovated. All the windows were open as the workmen set about their job accompanied by the usual too-loud radio. As I strode past, the newscaster’s words, ‘water cannons in Belfast’ broke through into my universe. It felt like a scene from one of those movies/tv-shows set during the Troubles where they used news footage to set the stage.

By the time I got home, I had decided that garden therapy was called for.

Armed with my camera, I set about focusing on my flowers.

Tulips in the rainDaisies awakingTears from a tulip?Taking turns – how the hyacinths then the lilies (buds in the background)

This week had been tense in the garden, too, as it happens. The unseasonally cold dip in temperatures means that my frost tender plants like sunflowers and courgettes have had to be protected. I had hoped to put them in the ground over Easter, but no… not worth the risk of losing them – and it is rather early. I am an impatient gardener.

I’m happy to report that the courgettes not only made it but have produced flower buds – of course, this may be a dying plant’s last stand but we’ll see.

The sunflowers are a bit battered from the wind but their final destination is very sheltered and I think I’ll risk it and plant them out this weekend.

I kept my seedlings in the wheelbarrow so I could move them indoors quickly – mostly lobelia and petunias here that I started from seed because the garden centres are still closed due to covid regulations. Usually, I cheat and buy them half-reared!

The mangetouts are loving their life behind glass. These are old kitchen unit doors that make a good mini-greenhouse.

The peach tree is protected too.

It’s doing marginally better than last year – surviving enough for me not to take it out and replace it with a fruiting cherry, but not robust enough to reward me with any peaches…

The unprotected sweetpeas look a bit spindly on it.

And the sugar snaps are a bit so-so… but the garlic (in the background) is doing great.

As are the onion sets are going well – it’s my first year growing these kind of onions in this garden.

And surprisingly – even with the cold temperatures some seeds have germinated in the soil … from top to bottom of the picture we have pak choi, lettuce and beets. (All broadcast – it’s a lazy and effective way to sow seeds in my opinion.)

I love how the mixed lettuce seed dicotyledons are already the colour their true leaves will be.

I’m happy to see flower seeds doing well here too, with the promise of candy tuff (the rounder leaves) and california poppy (the long thin shoots).

And speaking of promises… the buds on this clematis.

And raspberries yet to come…

These Beauty of Bath apple blossoms deliver during two seasons – summer blossom and autumn fruit.

A chive flower bud looks glossy and sleek before it lets it all hang out with a fluffy lilac flower later. Chives are a great addition to any flower border. You can eat them and they have pretty flowers. You can expect to a picture of this in full bloom when the time comes.

The purple sprouting broccoli is living up to its name.

And I’ve already eaten my first rhubarb of the season.

While I was out taking pictures my robin sat in the water dish and cheeped at me with great indignation because the bird feeder was empty.

I refilled the bird feeder and was rewarded with attendance right away – they must have been hungry this morning. The garden was so peaceful with the birdsong and distant lawn mowing that I felt a recording would capture it best. So if your like me and the news is making your blood boil, take a minute and listen to the birdsong and hopefully, it will bring the ould blood pressure down. I’ll leave this with you and hope you stay safe and at peace.

Byddi Lee

Brilliant Books and Beyond!

Last weekend the weather sucked big time. We had snow, gales and isobars of grumpy! I was fed up wearing the same thing every day – either PJs or yoga gear (fraudulent yoga gear that is rarely used for yoga at the minute) beneath layers of fleece and copycat-gortex. I long to exchange my hiking boots (which I wear for walking the country roads) or my wellies (which I wear for gardening) for sparkly high heels – of which I have exactly three pairs – gold sparkly, black/silver sparkly and red sparkly. I used to have pink sparkly but they have long since died a death of dropped sequence and worn-down heels! Maybe I’d feel better if I had pink sparkly wellies… now there’s a thought!

So there is little to get dressed up for these days, but there were two shining stars on my calendar that pulled me through the week – book launches by friends who had reached that special moment in a writer’s life – releasing their words into the wild – and what words they were!

One of the best things about being a writer is having talented writer friends. Unfortunately they both had to have zoom launches which is such a shame, but that’s what we’re having to doing … for now. When the pandemic is over perhaps we could have one huge festival – the Festival of Lost Launches!

I met Ellie Rose Mc Kee through Women Aloud NI. We were both at the John Hewitt Society Summer School. It is such a great festival for networking. I was drawn to Ellie’s gentle but wry humour. She writes with depth and sensitivity that oozes off the page. Ellie has also read at Flash Fiction Armagh.

Full Term is a young adult crossover story that depicts the hardships faced by sixteen-year-old Mya who has grown up terrorised by an abusive stepfather. When she finds herself pregnant, she doesn’t know who to turn to and hides the pregnancy. The story begins with with Mya going into labour in maths class. Now that’s what I call an impossible problem to solve! It’s a fabulous hook. Here’s the book blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Mya Byrne has three problems: her long-term boyfriend broke up with her over a stupid misunderstanding, her step-dad’s a psychopath who might just try and kill her, and–oh, yeah–she’s just gone into labour two weeks early in the middle of maths class.

As Mya navigates her first month of being a new mum, she resolves to fix her relationship, keep herself and her baby safe, and hopefully get her step-dad put behind bars.

Not too much of a tall order, right?

My 5* Review on Goodreads: From the first paragraph, this book pulls you in and keeps you reading. The characters are engaging and I was captivated by the story. While the plight of the main character is heartbreaking, Ellie Rose McKee does a fantastic job of keeping a hopeful slant on the story. I found it a gripping read – I couldn’t put this book down. Well written and good pacing.

You can read the first chapter of Full Term over on Jo Zebedee’s blog by clicking here.

Two days later, Sue Divin launched her amazing young adult crossover book Guard Your Heart.

This is a Romeo and Juliet style story, set in 2016 Derry about two eighteen-year-olds from opposite sides of the political divide falling in love. It is very much a story of our times and of our place. It spotlights how that generation is still working through the legacy of the Troubles. Here’s the book blurb:

Derry. Summer 2016. Aidan and Iona, now eighteen, were both born on the day of the Northern Ireland peace deal.

Aidan is Catholic, Irish, and Republican. With his ex-political prisoner father gone and his mother dead, Aidan’s hope is pinned on exam results earning him a one-way ticket out of Derry. To anywhere.

Iona, Protestant and British, has a brother and father in the police. She’s got university ambitions, a strong faith and a fervent belief that boys without one track minds are a myth.

At a post-exam party, Aidan wanders alone across the Peace Bridge and becomes the victim of a brutal sectarian attack. Iona witnessed the attack; picked up Aidan’s phone and filmed what happened, and gets in touch with him to return the phone. When the two meet, alone and on neutral territory, the differences between them seem insurmountable.

Both their fathers held guns, but safer to keep that secret for now.

Despite their differences and the secrets they have to keep from each other, there is mutual intrigue, and their friendship grows. And so what? It’s not the Troubles. But for both Iona and Aidan it seems like everything is keeping them apart , when all they want is to be together …

My 5* review on Goodreads: This story really starts with a punch and keeps the reader hooked all the way to the end. I read the book in two days. Couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters. My heart broke for Aidan as he tries to pull his life together against the odds. Iona is a shining star in his crazy world, a strong, independent, intelligent young woman. The backdrop of Derry was really cool and it was nice to see this part of the world in a modern story. Heartrending, compassionate and told with integrity this is definitely a timely read, with universal themes. Highly recommend it.

You can read the start of Guard Your Heart for free on its Amazon page.

Little Acorns Bookstore in Derry, No Alibis Bookstore in Belfast, and The Secret Bookshelf in Carrickfergus already stock author-signed copies you can purchase (buy local – support your local bookshop).

Sue is an amazing writer. We met through Flash Fiction Armagh and she is also a member of Women Aloud NI. Her stories carry a strong message of equality and tolerance. I can see how she uses her experience as a peace worker to give her ethos a voice. Her mission is to instil empathy so we can build a better community on both a local and global level. But the best way to understand how she accomplishes this is to watch her interview with Bernie McGill for the launch of Guard Your Heart.

Both of these wonderful books are a fabulous accomplishment and a gift to the world. They both have important messages about tolerance and how we need to build a better world for the youth of today. I’m grateful for their contribution to literature and for the wonderful hours I spent emersed in their books. If you think I’m biased because these wonderful women are my friends, I challenge you to decide for yourself. Read the free samples you get in the previews. I am certain each book will hook you in so you’ll want to read more. Don’t forget to write a review too – it’s a great way to support writers and as you can see from my reviews, they don’t have to be long-winded. Plus it makes an authors day to get a great review – spread happiness and it comes back to you!

And the beyond bit… just a little reminder that there is an online Book Club event for Rejuvenation where we’ll be discussing the trilogy and answering questions about it on 25th April 2021 at 7.30 pm. To register click here.

I hope that’s you all sorted for reading over Easter. Wishing you a peaceful weekend and hope you get an opportunity to spend some much missed and valued time with loved ones. The end of the pandemic is in sight but until then keep reading, keep your distance and keep safe.

Byddi Lee

Reflections – More than just bouncing light

It has been a week for reflections. I found it difficult to watch all the news coverage of the one year anniversary of the first Lockdown. It made me want to scream to think that if only we’d locked down hard then, we could have been like New Zealand, that perhaps we could have saved so many lives and livelihoods. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. We were naive, unprepared, and totally stunned by the onslaught of Covid 19. Now we know better, I hope.

What is lost is lost. We will mourn the passing of loved ones. We’ll lament the loss of a way of life, a way of thinking. It’s the simple things that get me, like a movie showing a packed restaurant or a bunch of people sitting close together, hips and elbows touching, arms slung over shoulders and around waists. And, oh my goodness, how I long to be in one of those snaking security queues at the airport. You know the ones where they bend the lines of passengers around the belted posts. You keep catching up with the same family/couple/group/weird stranger and either avoid eye contact altogether (not my thing at all) or give a smile, a sigh of solidarity, make a quip, start chatting, and by the time you get through security, you know all about each other. (That’s more me – actually, come to think of it – I’d fall into the weird stranger category!)

One good thing that happened this time last year was that Castrum Press published my book, Rejuvenation Book 1, in the Rejuvenation Trilogy.

We’d planned a big launch in No Alibis Bookshop in Belfast, but that had to be cancelled, of course. At the time, I worked hard to not moan about it when so many more were suffering worse things. But as a friend pointed out, I was allowed to be disappointed – and I was. I figured that by the time Rejuvenation Book 2 was released (summer 2020), there might be hope for a launch party of some kind… but you all know how that played out. But not to fear, there was always Rejuvenation Book 3 (autumn 2020), but by then, things were looking worse on the pandemic front, and my books were sent out in silent launches like ships from a foggy harbour!

But despite the fog, readers found the books and read them and liked them! And for that, I’m hugely grateful. So to celebrate the book birthday this week, I decided to announce a special event. I’m having a Zoom Book Club, hosted by the fabulous Rachel Toner, a local writer and arts event manager. This will be an opportunity to discuss the plot, gossip about the characters and ask me your burning questions about the Rejuvenation Trilogy. (Why did X do Y? Who was the bad guy really? What was Granny thinking when she…?) No holds barred. The readers direct the discussion… though just keep one thing in mind. This is not a critiquing session. If you didn’t like something/someone in the books, it’s too late now for me to change them – they are already published! (Dare I suggest fan fiction?)

Here are all the details if you would like to join us for the Book Club – everyone is welcome, but there will be spoilers, so it would be best if you have already read the Rejuvenation Trilogy.

Sunday, April 25, 2021, from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM (British Summer Time) *

Tickets are free, but registration is necessary at the following link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-club-rejuvenation-tickets-147279225127

Feel free to send questions in advance through this contact form, and you can ask questions on the night too.

I look forward to seeing you there.

In the meantime, I’ll keep writing and blogging…This month’s blog posts have been all about keeping positive despite having had another summer of travel plans cancelled. It helps that spring has come creeping into the garden, unfurling leaves and fattening out buds. My Instagram posts have been dominated by spring flowers.

There is so much to look forward to if we can just push past this next wee while, and hopefully, before too long, we’ll be back to travelling and queues and hugs. Until then, see you on zoom!

Byddi Lee

*7.30PM BST is the following time in other zones –  California 11.30 AM, New York 2.30PM, Paris, France 8.30PM

Time-lapsed Spring

I had the most glorious walk to the Butterwater River yesterday to see this massive tree that was brought down in the storms last year.

It was a beautiful spot to sit and contemplate life. I wondered how old that tree was – hundreds of years perhaps – it was huge! The course of the river is changing as it gouges out chunks of the softer, sandy banks to find its way past this obstacle.

Sometimes that’s how we must also navigate around the hard things in life. Seek out the softness, the tender times, the joy that may only be found in the gentle moments between the bigger events in life. One thing I’ve learnt from the Pandemic is the value in delving into the easily accessible and often overlooked simple things to make me realise how fortunate I am.

I hear birdsong and it cheers me. There is even music in raindrops if you care to search it out. Close your eyes and listen to the wind in the trees, and you can trick your mind into thinking it is waves breaking on a shore.

The smell of daffodils makes me smile. The scent of damp soil lifts the heart even on a physiological level – it’s a scientific fact. When you work with soil, you disturb microbes which, when inhaled, enter the bloodstream and act on the brain to release serotonin, the ‘happy ‘ chemical, which is a natural antidepressant.

Sunshine is such a tonic too. The sun came out this week and warmed my back as I planted gladiola corms – it was glorious. Fresh air invigorates pinkening cheeks as you walk on a crisp spring day – feel the pound of your heart as it pushes blood to your limbs and delight in the locomotion of it.

And perhaps this seems ridiculous, but have you ever savoured the taste of a glass of cold water straight from the tap – just the fact we have this piped to our homes when so many on our planet struggle to get clean water at all. Then there’s the fact that it is so deliciously cold (at this time of year especially) when in other warmer regions it would need to be chilled in the fridge first. There’s nothing like a glass of Seaghan Dam water… except perhaps l’eau de Paris! That was great tapwater too.

But of all the senses, sight is the one most easy to relay in a blog, and this spring I’ve been paying close attention to nature – maybe more than usual in the search for joy because of lockdown. In a few short weeks (I know they didn’t feel that short at times) or even days, buds have burst into blossoms.

My Instagram post on Monday last shows the first shy blossoms peeking open on a flowering plum.

But as I walked past the same branch yesterday the blooms had a more bawdy display.

This flowering current was all neatly parceled up like a jack-in-the-box on the 26th February 2021.

And then today I noticed it had ‘popped’!

Zoom out to see the full bush and it really is ‘wowser’!

On the 21st of February 2021, I was thrilled to see the daffodils’ heads swelling on the Rock Road.

Today the daffodil heads are definitely bobbing along that stretch!

And peas, poking their newly germinated shoots above the soil on 16th February 2021…

…Are cuddling up to their support system unaware of the support they are lending to me as I await my vaccine, the end of lockdown and a glorious summer in the garden with family and friends … and adventures further away than 10 miles too.

The good times are on the way and when they do bloom let’s not forget the thrills we’ve had from knowing that better days are ahead as we wind our way with open eyes and open hearts past the simple things available to us now and always.

Byddi Lee

Unfurling

March certainly has come in “like a lion.” The weather feels raw, the wind blowing with a sandpaper edge, temperatures nipping at exposed skin. For some reason, these blustery days feel angry, like a tempestuous toddler, compared to the more frigid yet serene frosty mornings we braved for our walks during January and February. It may also be that my patience is wearing thin.

But even as the wind makes my chimney moan like a banshee and rattles the trees so they sound more like waves crashing on a shore, I have to remind myself to hold tight – the signs of spring are abundant in the garden. And the hardiest and bravest of plants are giving it their all.

They look like they are shivering as they tremble in the breeze. Their natural colour outdoes the gaudy pots that hold them.

The raspberries are unfurling. Their leaves looking suitcase crinkled after being packed away for winter. It’s hard to imagine the soft fruit that will drip from these branches and the taste of them exploding on the tongue – but it will happen as sure as morning follows night.

The elder flower bush has even unpacked it’s buds in tiny little baubles of hope – how courageous! The birdsong in the garden is at fever pitch too with the promise of new life.

Lupin is like a miracle plant to my mind. At the height of summer, it had brilliant blue and pink flower spikes five feet tall. These die back, then the leaves die and the plant disappears all the way back to the soil. Each year I panic a little. I wonder will I need to buy a replacement plant and then as if from nowhere the lupin makes a comeback. I actually ‘love’ these plants for the joy and refuelling of hope they provide each year, not to mention their beauty in full bloom. The crocus in front gives you an idea of how small the lupin is at this stage.

And there’s these purple sprouting broccoli – finally producing something worth eating.

They have taken so long to sprout, planted with the other seedlings last spring, I was expecting to have harvested them by last September. It was the first time I’d grown them her,e and I hadn’t realised they were an overwintering variety. In California, they would have kept me in veg all summer and winter – or what passes for winter in California. At this time of year in San Jose, there would be fields of wildflowers. The Ceanothus would be in full bloom alongside the poppies. But here I have just tiny purple nubs that promise a show of lilac flowers in the warmer months.

Around now in California, I’d be watching my tomatoes and pepper seedlings grow. There would be lettuce ready to eat and peas and peaches blossoming. Here my peas (the ones that germinated quickly and caught me by surprise) and peaches are undercover for their own protection.

The peach is espaliered and hasn’t actually produced anything other than foliage since it was planted two years ago. Last winter, I protected it against leaf-curl like this and it did better. This year there are pinkish swellings that may blossom… here’s hoping. Add that to the list – there’s so much to hope for these days, isn’t there?

But here, I’m over the moon with the germination of my sunflower seeds this week. That something so small will be six feet tall in a matter of months!

The ‘nursery’ is in full swing with seedlings.

Working from front to back we have cauliflower, brussel sprouts (a family favourite, even with my nephews surprisingly!) and marigolds. Right at the back-left is shop bought basil and to the right spider-plant babies.

On other window sills throughout the house, I have managed to germinate allysum, petunia, lobelia, sweetpea and (my pride and joy) passion fruit vine.

And already some plants on the back doorstep for hardening off – sugar snap peas, thyme, marigolds and allysum. I feel so sorry for these babies having to harden off in this mad March weather.

Gardening is such an exercise of faith. You bury dead-looking pellets (seeds) and they bring forth life. Barren twigs swell at the tips and burst into leaf and bloom. Bulbs and tubers hidden in the depths of cold, wet soil send green spears to the surface, followed by coloured cups and frilly blossom that will feed bees and butterflies. What a wonder filled world we live in! And sometimes all we have to do is notice…

Byddi Lee

Ever The Optimist

Ever The Optimist

One of my friends recently described a cruise as a floating petri dish. I don’t entirely agree with that summation. My cruise line of choice is Princess, and we’ve been on board a ship, the Coral Princess, that had an outbreak of Norovirus. It was quite spine-tingling to hear the captain announce the outbreak over the tannoy as we sat looking out on the ocean without any land in sight! But my goodness, the lengths that the crew went to keeping that virus from spreading was phenomenal. While reports of outbreaks at the time on other cruise lines affecting hundreds of guest were horrific, to say the least, our ship contained the infection to 12 individuals.

I was so sad when Covid 19 broke out on the Diamond Princess at the beginning of the pandemic last year. Over seven hundred people were infected, and sadly 14 died. This tragedy was the result of the disease being so new and not because of poor hygiene standards on board. Wrong decisions made by governments at the wrong time exacerbated the issue. No-one fully understood the disease’s transmission mode, and the asymptomatic aspects further confused the picture. What happened on Diamond Princess has helped contribute valuable information about what is now known about Covid 19.

In the same way that car crashes (including being in a few minor ones myself) have not stopped me from travelling by car, coronavirus will not stop me from future cruises with Princess Cruises again – after the pandemic – of course.

 Last autumn, when news of the vaccine broke, I was straight onto the computer and pricing up cruises. I can hear you all rolling your eyes as I type. I didn’t say too much about this trip to family and friends because I feared the “are you mad?” conversations. Perhaps I was also a bit embarrassed that I was spending money on this when so many are having livelihoods ruined. But two very special people in my life have special birthdays this year, and well – that’s a whole lot of special, and I am confident of one thing – Princess are never going to make the same mistakes they made with the Diamond Princess again. I was happy to book and pay a deposit with them because if they had to cancel, I knew they’d be decent and give us a refund, no quibble.

Last year, we had no big foreign summer holiday booked, so we didn’t experience the disappointment or worry or financial loss due to cancellations. Maybe this made me a bit rash, but when we spotted a cruise due to set sail at the beginning of June 2021 that ticked our boxes and fit our budget, it was all stations go. Princess Cruises were offering balcony rooms for the price of interiors. I’ve never cruised with a window, never mind a balcony! The running joke in our cabin is that we open the curtains with the TV remote control – the channel being set to the webcam on top of the ship. So for us, this was a great deal. Added to the fact that our ‘special birthday people’ would have adjoining balconies to ours, it felt like the best plan ever.

Ever the optimist, I paid the deposits with a heart full of hope and longing! I even yearned to do the things I don’t really like doing on vacation (like lying on a sun lounger by a pool – sorry, not my thing usually!)

Hotels are easy with hotels.com. Their free cancellation policy and the low cost of hotels right now meant we could reserve a gorgeous spot near the port in Southampton for the night before we set sail.

By the end of October, the news of the vaccine was heartening. We booked the flights to Southampton – not so cheap but really handy. If the cruise is cancelled, we joked, we’d go for a trip to Cornwall, something that’s been on our bucket list.

People I knew were getting the vaccine in the run-up to Christmas. Numbers of cases were rising, but that had been expected with a second wave. Still, January felt like a dark underwater cave, but I kept afloat on the dreams of the summer to come. As I went on dawn walks here in frigid air that held my breath in mini clouds before my face, I dreamed of watching the sunrise from my balcony – or better yet, from my bed with the curtains open! Well, I was on holidays, why get up too early?

Then came the drudgery of February – so many seemed to perish and not just from Covid 19. Some snow days brought temporary relief from the mundane. As the days lengthened, the sunlight seemed to promise brighter days ahead. Snowdrops blossomed, seeds in window sills germinated, daffodils began to nod. In the first few days of March, the number of deaths seemed to half every day – reminding me of the half-life of radioactivity, but hopefully, unlike radioactive half-lives, the death number will one day reach zero.

More people are getting vaccinated every day. And while the government seemed to be moving very cautiously on taking us out of lockdown (why, oh why, couldn’t they have done this 12 months ago?) I still clung to the hope that I’d be sailing away to warmer climates come June.

Then the email from Princess came this week – all cruises from Southampton cancelled until the end of September 2021.

I wasn’t devastated (a much-used word this past 12 months.) I wasn’t even gutted. Yes, disappointed a little, but you know what – things could be, oh, so much worse. I refuse to cry about this or feel sorry for myself. I was tempted to … but really, so many have lost so much that I gave myself a stern talking to and realized I must be grateful for what I have.

Princess offered a full refund – no quibble as predicted.

Hotels.com was an easy fix with its free cancellation.

I worried that the Eastern Airline flights from Dublin to Southampton would be a problem because, well, the Cornwall trip isn’t really an option if travel still isn’t allowed. Even if it were allowed, because the flights were out of Dublin, I wondered if we’d be expected to quarantine for 2 weeks on arrival at Southampton. There was over £1000 worth of flights between 6 of us. Would we have to take the hit? Was this the price of our gamble for a great deal?

But I remembered that the airline had sent a notification a few weeks ago that the flight times had been changed. There’d been something in the small print about getting refunds if you qualified, i.e. if the time change was more than 2 hours. With heart hammering, I did the sums and yes! Our flights qualified for a full refund. We were lucky.

I emailed Eastern Airlines, and within 9 minutes, they confirmed the refund – 9 minutes! I’m so impressed with this little airline. I hope they don’t go out of business because of the pandemic. I also hope that Princess Cruises gets through it too.

I would commend all three companies, Princess Cruises, Hotels.com and Eastern Airlines, for their customer service in these trying times.

Half the fun of travelling is in looking forward to it. I’ve valued these 5 months looking forward to the cruise we won’t have. It shone like a bright beacon guiding me through a dark and scary winter, depositing me on the sunnier side with a heart full of gratitude ­for the things I still have in my life. The simple things – like My Husband – not that I’m saying he’s simple! But I mean the things in life that can often be taken for granted, like good people in your life and the love they have to offer. I don’t need a fancy house and a big car (nor can I justify the carbon footprint they’d have because I spend so much on travel – I plead guilty there), but I do need love and laughter. My health is my wealth and a garden to dig in helps keep me sane.

Everything else is the cherry on top – a giant ship-shaped cherry, perhaps? Who knows what the future will bring… we just have to hang in there until things get better, and they will; I know they will because I’m ever the optimist – it’s what gets me through!

Byddi Lee

Simply A Great Story

Have you ever stumbled across a book and been wowed by it – so much so that you want to get everyone you know to read the book? A few months ago, I saw Weep – The Irish Epidemic by Eoin Brady in a sponsored ad on Facebook. I always ignore these ads. Always! But for this one time… I think it was the picture of the girl on the Cliffs of Mohar that did it. Rejuvenation 1 goes on location to the Cliffs of Mohar too, and I’m just mesmerized by the place. This is the image that drew me in and I hope that Mr Brady doesn’t mind that I’ve used it – sourcing it from his Facebook author page profile. Once the Pandemic is over, perhaps I’ll get over to the cliffs myself and take my own photo!

Image from Eoin Brady Facebook page

Now, if you don’t love zombie books, please, please stick with me… keep an open mind… for this is no ordinary zombie story. This is an Irish zombie story – with Irish people, in Irish towns, in Irish weather, drinking Guinness and the zombies wail – like banshees – I mean totally Irish zombies. So please – keep reading – you might just give it a try… It is simply a great story, well told.

Anyway – I was completely pulled in, clicked the link, and was sold by the book blurb:

“There is no evacuation.
Survival will cost your humanity.
Expected death toll: a nation.

Yesterday Fin was a nightporter. Today he is a survivor.
Within days the outbreak devoured Ireland. It started with a fever hot enough to burn away the soul. What remained was violent, deranged and ravenous, no longer human: weepers. At first, they lured victims with anguished cries. Now, the sound causes terror. The sick must hunt.
Death offers no rest from the disease and the infected rise again to spread the plague as zombies.

Fearing pandemic, foreign warships quarantine Ireland, seeking containment at all cost. Chaos and panic engulf a world preparing for the end. While at home, a dwindling population flee ruined cities, forced into a frozen countryside of vacant graves.

Extinction has been stopped — for now.

In what could be the last days of recorded history, Fin must survive amongst the desperate and the dead to find his family — on the opposite side of Ireland, no matter the cost.

How much of yourself would you give to save the ones you love?”

I love the way Kindle lets you read the first few pages for free. Many books don’t make it past this selection – many books – often books by famous authors with big publishers. If I’m ‘Meh!’ by the end of the free section, I simply don’t buy them.

Eoin Brady, from what I could make out on the Amazon page, was an independent author. This dude was going it alone. I wondered if he would have the quality in his product to keep me reading – formatting, spelling, grammar etc., to begin with…

The answer was a resounding YES and then some.

This guy can write! He writes great characters who feel real in situations that are believable on the page, no matter how preposterous.

Weep is no Walking Dead – It’s better!

Fin, the main character is like the kinda boy you knew when you were in your early twenties – ordinary, sweet, liked a pint and scared of the usual stuff – housecleaning, missing last orders, angry girlfriends – not some gun-toting, arse-kicking super-zombie-killer. (Unless you had really strange friends in your early twenties!)

By the time I got to the end of the free read, I was happy to pay for the rest of the book (and let’s face it because we weren’t paying Big 5 Publishers, it was very affordable!)

It’s set in Westport – a seaside town on the West coast of Ireland that I have visited on a number of occasions, so I had a vague idea of the landscape, but not so much as to pick holes in any inaccuracies (if there were any.) The story begins during a named storm between Christmas and New Years. Brady had the setup bang on. I’ve been in Donegal during similar situations. (Minus the zombies – well, I think, minus the zombies, but well, there had been a lot of alcohol consumed, so it depends how you define zombies!)

The story was immersive. Brady has the knack of describing the horror of the situation without an overload of gore. In fact, the most horrific part is Fin’s reaction to the position that he finds himself in and how he continually questions his own humanity as he is forced to make tough decisions to survive.

At the end, I was happy to write a glowing review and post it on Amazon and follow the Facebook page too. I’ve never met the author. We aren’t writing buddies. The only interaction we’ve had is when I was fangirling him on his Facebook page, and he answered my comment! I was thrilled.

Here’s my Amazon review:

“I discovered this book through a FB ad. I usually ignore those but I was intrigued by the concept of the zombies going through a weeping stage. It was a new twist on the zombie theme and it also made me think of the ‘keeners’ who used to cry at Irish wakes. The setting is superb. I’d camped with Girl Guides more years ago than I care to admit to, right in front of Westport House so I knew the lay of the land well enough to feel like I was right in the action. Brady does an excellent job of building believable characters. Fin, the main character, is so realistic in a way that is often overlooked by these types of stories. He’s young, sweetly naive, and not at the peak of fitness. I enjoyed that he wasn’t a gun-toting action hero type. His humanity is a great juxtaposition to the horror that the humans around him turn into.

Brady not only brings the dead to life, he also skillfully brings the Irish landscape to life too. I felt the cold, heard the wind, saw the fog – he makes the weather into another character – another antagonist against which Fin and his friends need to battle.

I also have to mention the low key hum of ironic humour that Brady threads throughout, where he employs everyday objects in a macabre way – I’ll never look at Swan pedal boats the same way again.

All in all a great read that kept me sneaking off to a quiet corner to find out what was happening next.”

All told, I am delighted to see such a well written self-published book on the market and proud it is by an Irish author. He’s done a fantastic job of marketing too.

And guess what – there’s a free follow up novella, A Ring of Oak and Apple

And

Oh

My

God

It is brilliant! It continues Fin’s story but doesn’t give away any spoilers, so it’s safe to read this before Weep. In this story, Fin meets other survivors, and in a clever round-the-campfire style, we get to see a few of the other’s accounts of the outbreak. Again the heart of this is how ordinary, how relatable, and how real the characters and their stories are.

Image from https://www.eoinbradybooks.com/

It’s free – I say give it a go, sure you’ve nothing to lose. And with the light at the end of the tunnel for our own pandemic, perhaps you’ll have the nerve to read about Fin’s epidemic and be grateful we didn’t get worse!

And if you don’t fancy that – have a look – Brady also writes romance. Not my usual genre, but I suppose I must follow my own advice, keep an open mind and give it a go.

Byddi Lee

A Wonderful Paradox

The world feels upturned in more ways than one at the moment, but let’s face it, we’re lucky to be here.

Seriously lucky to be here!

Think about it. There are a gazillion ways to die! There’s disease, and not just covid 19. My mind is blown when I consider how we humans are still on this planet. How did we as a species survive the gruesome Black Death or even the measles? There are all sorts of tiny microbes that can kill us – unicellular animals, fungus, bacteria, as well as viruses. And then there are diseases not caused by microbes – cancer, diabetes, heart disease, the list goes on. Amazingly, the combined efforts of all the various diseases in existence haven’t yet managed to kill all humans. Add to that the number of humans who are trying to kill other humans. And the mishaps we incur against ourselves. Not to mention natural disasters or catastrophes arising from the cesspit we turn our environment into just by being in it. And well, sure, it’s just a miracle that we exist at all…

Life is fragile and robust, all at once. It’s a wonderful paradox.

Here we are at the tail end of winter. The trees look dead. The hedgerows are scraggy twigs. But if you listen, you can actually hear spring in the air – birdsong!

And if you look closely enough, you will see leaves budding on the branches and green shoots emerging from the soil.

I love the way this crocus shoot has emerged within a sheath for protection. Nature is so clever.

And this daffodil has its hood up until it is brave enough to burst into full blossom.

With garden centres closed because of covid regulations and goodness knows what happening with seedling supply because of  Brexit, I decided it was time to get some seeds planted.

Planting seeds is such an act of faith. These little hard kernels appear so lifeless, and then we give then some water, and warmth and TLC (I’m convinced the TLC makes all the difference) and hey-presto, a tiny green leaf is pushed up through the soil.

The above pansy seed is so tiny I can barely get the camera to focus on it. The seeds were so minuscule they made a cloud of fine dust, and I wasn’t even sure they were seeds!

I can’t even explain the joy I feel when my seeds germinate. It’s so life-affirming. My blog is full of posts about the germination thing. I swear it’s the best thing ever…

This alyssum’s cotyledons (first leaves) are still clinging to the seed coat. It reminds me of a child clutching their ‘blankie’.

So a quick tutorial about sowing seeds…

Read the packet and follow the instructions – I qualified as a Master Gardener a decade ago. However, I still read and follow the packet instructions! They will tell you when to seed, where, how deep and how far apart the seeds should be.

My top tip for peas (more about planting peas seeds here) is to presoak the seeds in water for a day or so before planting them.

This makes the seeds wet (obviously), so I have found that if I use a stick to push them into the soil to the correct depth, I avoid a lot of the mess of soil clinging to my fingers. You can see here, I marked on the stick how deep I need to push the seed into the (lovely soft) soil.

Speaking of soil – The first gardening lesson I learned as a Master Gardener was this: If you are spending a dollar on your garden, use 90 cents to buy soil. So I always make sure I have a few bags of good potting compost to hand. Last year when the world was panic-buying toilet paper, I was sourcing compost instead! Don’t plant seeds in the soil from your garden if you can help it because that soil will invariably have weed seeds, moulds, fungus and all sorts of extra soil microbes that probably will interfere with your seedlings.

Label your pots! I bought a white marker especially for writing on the black pots. I keep a list of my abbreviations (just in case!) but SSP = sugar snap peas. MTP = mange tout peas. That’s to make sure I don’t get them mixed up with the inedible but fragrant and ornamental SWP = sweetpeas.

Snow lay outside while I planted my first round of seeds. I turned the kitchen into a potting shed for the afternoon. Well, it’s not like I was going to have anyone drop by for a cuppa!

Less than two weeks later, I was rewarded with my first leaves.

Nearly everything has germinated now, and if I’m feeling a touch of the lockdown blues, I just go and look at my seedlings.

Maybe by the time these sweetpeas are in full blossom, we might have this pandemic behind us – or have at least kicked it well into touch.

Springtime is a time for hope and never more so than this year.

Byddi Lee