Connemara II: around Letterfrack

The salmon-rich Dawros River



Looking south to Diamond Hill. Bienvenido compadres.








Commercial-scale turf cutting. Peat bricks set out to season before being hauled to market. Most are pressed into rock hard bricks, sold, then burnt in the fireplace.



A grown-over dig. Bog bursts are a problem here. Blankets of peat that cover the earth help hold the ground together, protecting it from lateral slides. When the peat is removed, especially on sloping bogs, its stabilizing function is removed, and the subsoil is let loose, clogging streams and burying valuable topsoil.

Connemara's Twelve Pins

Connemara, which derives from Conmhaicne Mara (meaning: descendants of Con Mhac, of the sea), is a district in the west of Ireland comprising of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway or south west Connacht. The Conmhaicne Mara were a branch of the Conmhaicne, an early tribal grouping that had a number of branches located in different parts of Connacht. As this branch of Conmhaicne were located by the sea they became known as the Conmhaicne Mara, i.e., of the sea.



























Connemara was traditionally divided into North Connemara and South Connemara. The mountains of the Twelve Bens and the Owenglin river, which flows into the sea at An Clochán/Clifden, marked the boundary between the two parts.





Weather was intense. We experienced gale winds, rain and hail. Then in the next instant the sun would shine and light up the mountains. The ever-changing elements gave The Connemara an even more dramatic beauty.




The native Irish hawthorne.

Permaculture in action

A visit to our instructor's property at Derryduff Mor near Bantry. Graham has had the 4 acre plot for over 7 years.
Here is his cordwood roundhouse with attached greenhouse. Our meeting place for the days activities.




An overall view of the property that lies above the flood plain of the Coomhola River. The red-roofed house in the background is Graham's home.






Madeline (France), Eileen (Cork), and Ann (Cork) working on gathering seeds.









We didn't get to see this is action but it is a wood bending system. You would stick a pole into the pipe and add water then light the fire to steam the pole. Then remove it and start turning it around the wheel to shape it.








Patrice (Quebec) and I working on trellising.







Stella (Germany) using a draw knife to peel stakes.

Cordwood & Cob

One of the green building projects is a cordwood roundhouse on the school's premises. Currently we are working on the the walls of the building. They are basically built of cob (a combination of subsoil, gravel, clay and straw) with rounds of wood (Douglas Fir in this case) spaced throughout. In these photos we are mixing together the ingredients for the cob.







Then we mold it into balls or "bricks" to make it easier to handle.





Here's our teacher Graham Strouts giving us a tutorial.




The cordwood roundhouse in the background (current project) and the amphitheater (finished previously) to the right.









I find Permaculture so exciting!

A sort of Ode to The Gray Heron and some of her marsh friends

The European Goldfinch

The seed eating Carduelis carduelis has recently climbed to the 9th most encountered bird in Ireland. Its population crashed in the 70's and 80's as agricultural practices intensified and weed seeds like thistle and teasel declined. Agriculture has not let up. Instead, the practice of installing peanut feeders in gardens has grown, and with it, the goldfinch population and human encounters.



A Rook, one of Irelands seven corvid species.
















The Litttle egret

Egretta garzetta was a rare visitor in Ireland until 1997 when it began breeding along the south coast. It now occurs in almost every coastal county.

Garrettstown beach

We were very excited to see these: Blue-rayed limpets, Helcion pellucidum. Only 1.5 cm long, they attach themselves to kelp but can leave to ... explore (?). They leave a oval scar on the kelp frond and will return to this base. As they age, the blue rays darken and lose some of their vibrance.











Snakelocks anemone, Anemonia viridis. Like other anemone, Snakelocks stings its prey with its tenticle tips then uses them to pass the food toward its mouth. Unlike other anemone, snakelocks cannot retract its tenticles, thus it is vulnerable to death or injury caused by wave action and/or dehydration during low tide.



These folks are known as Beadlet anemone, or Actinia equina. When their tenticles are out-stretched, you would notice a series of bead-like nodules at the base of each.







These sand, shell, and gravel structures are built by the colonial Honeycomb Worm (Sabellaria alveolata). We never saw the worms, but they are 4 cm long and emerge from their combs during high tide to feast. This Beadlet anemone appears to like them enough.