I was a bit over enthusiastic when applying a coat of linseed oil to my slate fire place. I had seen the installer apply the oil to make the slate shine and when I tried to replicate his efforts some months later, I ended up with a sticky mess that I couldn’t remove.
The best way to remove the gooey mess is with a combination of cellulose thinner and nail varnish remover! Actually nail varnish remover would probably have worked on its own but would have needed a bit more elbow grease as well.
Phantom of the Opera comes to Bandon
Venue: St Peters Church of Ireland, Bandon, Friday, 25th September, 2009 at 9pm. Tickets euro 10.
As part of the Engage Bandon Arts Festival, The Film Society in Bandon is presenting Phantom of the Opera (1925) silent film, PG, Black and White to live organ accompaniment by Dr Eric Sweeney. Eric is Head of Music at Waterford School of Technology and is the organist and choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford. He has given recitals throughout Ireland as well as in England, Sweden, Italy, France and American. He is also well known as a composter and is a member of Aosdana. Eric gave an identical performance in Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford at the end of July and both nights were booked out.
Book now to save disappointment by calling 086 368 9939
The New Glass House at Wisley
I had the good fortune to visit Wisley on 1st July. Sprawling over 240 acres, it is just 30 minutes drive from Heathrow and an absolute ‘must go and see’ for garden lovers. It surpassed all my expectations in what it had to offer. Just make sure that you allot several hours for your visit.
The gardens encompasses everything from trials fields, a vegetable garden, fruit field, model gardens, wild gardens, walled gardens, lily ponds and arboretum and a recently opened glass house. There are a number of excellent cafes and restaurants as well as a plant centre.
I was particularly interested in the perennial planting outside the new glass house. The plants are cleverly grouped together and striking colours such as various types of hemerocallis, blue salvias, campanulas, heleniums, verbascums, geraniums, scabies and euphoria are all used in abundance. I had no idea there were so many varieties of some of these plants.
Take a look at some of my photos to whet your appetite!
Wisley Annual Display
The Lilly Pond at Wisley
The Trial Garden at Wisley
Mick Flannery will perform at the Bandon Music Festival on Sunday, 31st May, 2009. He hails from Blarney so not too far from here. He writes all his own songs and plans piano and guitar. The band is comprised of the following people:
Mick Flannery – lead vocals, piano, guitar
Karen O’Doherty – violin, vocals
Yvonne Daly – vocals
Hugh Dillon – electric guitar
Brian Hassett – bass
Christian Best – drums
Mick flannery
This blog was posted by Catherine FitzMaurice of Kilbrogan House Guest Accommodation
Plastic ain’t fantastic is the slogan of a project by the transition year students at Colaiste na Toibhairte in Bandon. They have produced an excellent bio-degradable bag featuring a heron on the front which is being sold in retail outlets in Bandon for euro 5.
Plastic bags are virtually unrecyclable and when they are disgarded, they are often found blocking drains and littering the countryside. Plastic kill birds, livestock, seals and marine life.
The waterproof bags introduced by the students are made of bio degradeable hemp and are being imported from India.
Enquiries about the bags are welcome at 023 88 41814
This blog has been posted by Catherine FitzMaurice of Kilbrogan House Guest Accommodation.
Starbucks has started marketing its own brand of coffee – VIA which I find somewhat puzzling. However, perhaps it is not so surprising that Starbucks wants a bit of the instant coffee action when you consider that about 80% of coffee consumed in this part of the world is instant and that the total instant coffee market generates about $17bn in sales.
The chain hasn’t been faring well over the past year and in January 2009 announced the loss of nearly 7000 jobs plus the closure of 300 more outlets. According to a great article by Christopher Caldwell in the Financial Times lately, Starbucks is supposed to be a chain of expresso shops but in reality turns out a poor expresso and instead concentrates on producing an array of steamed milky concotions at superior prices.
A sachet of the instant coffee retails for about $1 which is far from cheap. Christopher Caldwell rightly points out that Starbucks positioned itself in areas with high income, high population and high education but feels that the chain may be challenged in our current economic climate.
On a positive note for Starbucks, as people find themselves out of work, they need to be cheered up and often end up at the coffee house. Instant coffee or otherwise, this should be a ray of sunshine for Starbucks in what has been a rather bleak time for this company. I am still happy that my town still has an array of private coffee shops rather than endless chains.
The G Hotel is located on the edge of a shopping complex on the outskirts of Galway. It overlooks the bay so be sure to ask for a room with a view over the bay if you are staying (The back looks over the likes of PC World etc – not a pretty sight!).
The decor certainly doesn’t disappoint – A glitzy purple theme with a certain wow factor. The bar and dining room do look a bit ‘nightclubish’ during the day time so we chose to sit in the bright seated area next to the reception – This area has a great view over the bay and if you are lucky, you will be serenaded by a pianist like we were.
We tucked into scones, soup and burgers. The food was disappointing aside from the crumbly plain and chocolate scones with a light dusting of icing sugar – These were delicious. The soup was far too watery. The burgers were way below average as were the tired looking chips. In fact, the best part of that dish was the thin lid of crispy pastry used as a decoration.
Two of us had drinks but I tried to plump for hot chocolate to go with my scones – No luck. There had obviously been a run on the hot chocolate as this drink wasn’t available which I considered poor for this class of hotel. I settled for mint tea which was good but it came in the smallest tea pot I have ever seen and was barely enough to fill the cup.
Visit here for the view, the quirky purple decor and perhaps the chance to listen to the pianist in the background. Stick to the scones and definitely avoid the soup and burgers. Personally, I hate to see Pallas foods listed on the menu as one of the suppliers and this was the case at the G hotel. What is wrong with the food in this country now is that we have become far too dependant on bulk suppliers such as Cuisine de France and Pallas Foods. All chefs have to do is open the package and warm up the produce. Perhaps now that the economy is in meltdown, we will see the re-emergence of the artisan bakers, cooks etc. I really look forward to that as I am tired of seeing the same produce showing up in every outlet!
Volunteers from Bandon Tidy Towns have been hard at work all summer. There was many a time we might have thrown in the towel – Why? because
a) many of our plants, shrubs and roses were pinched.
b) our watering pump blew up in July right at the beginning of a dry period causing many of the plants in the new hanging baskets to die and then have to be replanted.
c) the council sprayed the weeds on a windy day killing off many of the plants in our tubs on St Patricks Quay and around the trees on Market Quay, on Kilbrogan Hill and at the top of Ball Alley Lane.
We received the adjudication report from the 2008 Tidy Towns Competition. Many of the criticisms were predictable and sadly beyond our control. The derelict petrol station on the Glasslinn Road and the poor state of the Eircom building opposite the station were commented on. I totally agree with their comment that these buildings are eyesores. The derelict buildings next to the new Riverview development on North Main Street also came in for criticism as did the GAA and the graffitti in the childrens playground. I note that the GAA received lottery funding for euro 150,000 so I really hope that a fraction of this amount (maybe even just euro 20) will be set aside for some paint to spruce up their gates. Just a small job like that could make such a difference to the town.
There was an article in last week’s Southern Star about the Bandon Bypass. In my opinion, we have been left behind and have very little chance of seeing a completed bypass in the next five years. It’s incredible that a small town like Graignuemanagh on the Kilkenny Carlow border with a population a fraction of the size of Bandon can have a superb new bypass yet Bandon and its ever increasing population has to suffer on with very little hope of the bypass being completed.
Whoever in the Council agreed to the construction of such a steep hill on the Clonakilty side of the current bypass should be shot. I don’t blame trucks for still having to thunder through the town along South Main Street and St Patricks Quay and along North Main Street on the Northern side of town. Driving through Bandon on a Friday evening is akin to driving through Waterford and we all know what hell that is. The lucky people of Waterford see light at the end of the tunnel but we have nothing to look forward to. Waterford has the advantage of being located on one of the five inter-urban routes linking the major towns in the country. In the governments opinion ‘To heck with the rural areas, lets keep the cities connected’. So to pacify all, the government allocates the council a few odd cents to tinker with the road between Innishannon and Bandon. This road is fine. Leave it alone and spend the money on the bypass!
There was a good article by Niall Toner in this week’s Sunday Times entitled ‘It was a Stupidity Boom’.
Niall notes that the Celtic Tiger brought us a proliferation and massive expansion of DIY emporiums oftentimes full of uninformed staff or those with little English where you bought loads of stuff you didn’t need or didn’t know what to do with. The boom brought decking, patio heaters and gas fired barbecues (Has anybody in Bandon taken a peak in the metal skip at the local recycling centre to see just how many of these end up there?)
The credit boom brought us cheap equity release to build the extensions that we probably didn’t need. Second hand shops died a death as we all wanted something brand spanking new with all that cheap credit. What about the old Kiddiemart shop that sold second hand children’s goods (cots, prams etc etc) on the way out of Bandon towards Macroom – It had been going for at least 15 years but folded last year because nobody wanted second hand goods anymore.
So perhaps we will now focus on maintenance, repair and maybe even acquiring second hand goods again. Hardware shops like Deanes in Bandon will come into their own again as people realize that you can buy just the one screw that you need rather than a plastic wrapped packet of 20, most of which get thrown into the bin or stored away never to be used again.
