Internally the big news is the completion of Freya's bedroom. Its turned out really nicely and Freya is thrilled with it. She obviously had a large role in the decorative theme for the room (luckily claypaint does come in pink).
The beautiful weather this week was perfect for taking photos of the cottage, and so I thought it was about time I updated this blog. Although I've not been keeping up to date, there has been a lot going on. As you can see from the picture above, the exterior stone walls of the cottage are now lime-washed and the exterior is close to complete, though we do plan to repaint the chimneys and there will be a final change to the front with the re-instatement of the front porch. Internally the big news is the completion of Freya's bedroom. Its turned out really nicely and Freya is thrilled with it. She obviously had a large role in the decorative theme for the room (luckily claypaint does come in pink). Freya's room is in the oldest part of the property and also had one wall where a previous owner had, had the "bright" idea to take down part of the inner skin in order to install a fitted cupboard. Although Brian repaired and stabilized the wall some time ago, it had left this old wall pretty unlevel in places. The solution was a poured render of insulating lime plaster on the two exterior walls, levelling them up and also making the room lovely and cosy. Speaking of lovely and cosy, the other big development since my last post is not easily illustrated in pictures. We've had the stove in for some time now providing heat and hot water and running a single "heat leak" radiator in the corridor, but this winter Brian plumbed in all the other radiators and got the pump up and running so we had fully functional central heating (and an airing cupboard, or "hot press" as they call it here).
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Merry Christmas everyone! We are currently hunkered down waiting out Storm Barbara beside a nice roaring fire. The anti-downdraught cowls have been fully tested today as we've had some serious wind, alongside downpours and hail. The ponies are in the barn and the chickens made the wise decision to stay in their house for the day, so far no damage done. I hope everyone else survives the weather and has a great christmas.
Freya started school this Thursday. She has been very excited about going to school ever since she spent a morning there before the summer holidays, and was also looking forward to getting to wear her new school uniform. She ran off into the classroom happily on her first morning and didn't show any signs of nerves, I think I was more nervous than she was. I mentioned in an earlier post that Freya is attending Gort Jordan school. After visiting a couple of open days and chatting to the teachers, we decided to go with the most local which was about in the middle size-wise of the ones we looked at. They are all tiny though! Gort Jordan has less than 50 pupils split into two classes with a range of ages in each class.
The school enrolment process here in Mayo is very different from that back in Somerset. We actually had a choice of at least four schools. None of the primary schools here are over-subscribed, in fact they are all very keen on getting extra pupils as their funding level is dependant on the number of pupils enrolled. Once you've selected your school you fill in a brief enrolment form and that's the process completed.
Poor Freya and Ronny all worn out! Apart from when she was ill, Freya has slept through the night every night since we moved here thanks to all that fresh air and exercise.
On the renovation side we had a very positive meeting with our building consultant today to go through all the work that needs doing and the changes we want to make.
Sully's tack arrived yesterday in a large box from the online store, so Freya had her first ride today. She enjoyed herself apart from a small argument when she wanted me to ride Sully and I had to point out I would squish him. She had a go at a few short trots, reining back and hopping up a small step. Sully was very well behaved and leads very well, especially considering the neighbour's mare was flirting with him from the field opposite. He is a bit green in standing tied up and feet handling, so I have a few things to work on with him. Freya's new pony (and Trigger's new friend) arrived this afternoon. He is just what I originally wanted - Dinky from Parshalls Farm, only male and without the biting (sorry Dinky!). He's such a chilled out chap, he hasn't made a fuss about anything since he arrived. I will be introducing him to Trigger tommorrow morning, but I'm sure they will get on brilliantly. He's already been introduced to swede and Fast Fibre (which he approved of) and having cream on a bite (which he wasn't so sure about).
Sully is a rescue pony from Hungry Horse Outside, you can read his story on their facebook page here. Trigger gave us a bit of a scare yesterday morning, he broke through the fence and decided to have a play with some 10 year old bales of straw in the barn. This triggered his dust allergy badly and he was pretty ill for several hours, necessitating a visit and injection from the vet. The vet was lovely, but warned me beforehand that he wasn't a horse vet - i.e. he only treats horses whose owners can catch them and get them to stand still. I was able to reassure him this isn't a problem with Trigger! He seems fully recovered now. The offending straw was duly removed and Brian carried on and cleared out the barn more fully. This allowed as to take a better look at the two tractor trailers parked under the hayloft. I think it is fair to say that one of them has had a previous life (probably several). The marriage of a pony trap and the axle and wheels from a Morris Minor is certainly novel. Sadly I think this is beyond rescue, but we hope to be able to do something with the other trailer.
Finally it was Freya's last day at pre-school summer camp, which she has absolutely adored. The lady who runs it turned out to be a neighbour and has been lovely and very helpful. Freya has just had her first day at preschool, thanks to their one week summer camp. She absolutely loved it. There are three preschools all within a short distance of the house, all of which seemed very nice. We chose this one because of the emphasis on being outside. Rather than having a playground where the children spend an hour of play, they aim to be outside the whole time and only go indoors if forced to because of severe weather (light rain does not count). The usual classroom is outside, although it does have a roof. |
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Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
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