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this is the
blog archives page for the Just So Co
1st July 2011
At last we are seeing some
sunshine! We've had a very cold, wet June & July which
was disappointing after such a glorious Easter; just the
odd week-end was sunny (lovely for Waterville's Childrens'
Festival - a huge success!). The honey bees have had a very
poor start; my own are not going to allow me any honey this
year, as there's so little they'll need it all for themselves;
many bee-keepers are reporting similiar stories. The chillies
& peppers are doing well in the polytunnel tho', so
there'll be something to look forward to. We've been very
busy here at The Just So Co, with nearly all of our home
owners in residence; it's lovely to see everybody again
and catch up with all of their news & events from all
over the world....nice to look out in the late evenings
& see so many house lights on across the landscape.
Lough Currane has been a hive of activity, with reports
of some good fishing (see our LINKS page for updated news
on their official website).
............................................
28th April 2011
Waterville has had lovely
weather over the Easter period, lovely for all of our visitors.
Everywhere is green, and there's lots of blossom this year.
The village has been very
busy, and is looking very tidy after a recent "Paint
Waterville" campaign; there is a great tribute to Charlie
Chaplin on the side of the butcher's shop (as part of the
build up to the August Chaplin Festival) & the empty
buildings have also had a facelift.
Our swallows arrived about
3 weeks ago & are busy with their nesting. The honey
bees arrived today, and we're looking forward to some home-produced
honey later this year.
.........................................
31st March 2011
Suddenly Spring has arrived!
the lambs & calves are leaping around in the fields
and the fuschia hedges are green again. The White-Tailed
Sea Eagles have been soaring overhead very regularly, and
the older pair have re-located to a quiet off-shore island
closeby to get on with raising the first Kerry chicks in
over 100 years.
10th
February 2011
Spring is just around the
corner, now - already the Monbretia & Honeysuckle shoots
are showing, along with the first brave crocuses. Although
we've had some strong winds the temperatures have been mild.
It won't be long before we're back out there grass cutting
again..........
The fishing on Lough Currane
is off to a slow start, but they've managed to land a 9-pounder!
Sadly,
a full-grown otter was knocked & killed by a vehicle
recently, but at least it confirms that an otter colony
has become established locally.
......................................
15th
January 2011
We're into the New Year
now, and I still can't believe it's 2011! Last year seemed
to fly by us all, and yet so much has happened here in Waterville
(archived, below). We had a very cold spell of
weather over the Christmas period, with temperatures dipping
to record lows. Sadly, a number of holiday homes that haven't
the benefit of being professionally managed were badly damaged
by these severe weather conditions. We kept a very close
eye on all of the homes managed by the Just So Co., and
had no such problems, thankfully.
This coming year promises
to be the year that Waterville becomes The Place To Be,
as the Charlie Chaplin Festival plans progress....the organisers
anticipate a large number of new visitors coming into our
area for the August event, which has to be good news for
all. The Cork-Swansea ferry service continues to bring additional
visitors into the area, too.
The Sea Trout & Salmon
fishing season re-opens very soon, bringing our regular
fly-tiers back to the Iveragh's loughs & rivers, as
the last of our shooting visitors are heading home.
I love this time of year,
it's great seeing Waterville slowly re-awakening!
..................................................
10th
November 2010
It's the last day of November
today, and this year seems to have flown by even quicker
than most. The weather has been very un-Kerry-like, with
freezing wind, hard frosts, and some snow on the mountain
tops....I don't think this has been seen before in November.
The poor plants in the polytunnel are suffering, despite
being covered over with horticultural fleece, and the bird
feeders are topped up daily now. The forecast is for this
to continue for the next week, so it's wrap up warmly and
keep smiling.
..................................
25th September 2010
Well
Autumn has truly arrived now; there's a tang in the air,
not to say a freshness! The clocks went back 2 days ago
and a sort of hush descends as everything settles down for
a well-earned rest until next Spring....it seems a long
time away but it will soon come around. The deer are shouting
as their rut begins, and anytime now the winter birds begin
to arrive; Fieldfares must be due as the holly trees are
full of their favourite berries - within a couple of days
of the flocks of Fieldfares arriving, all of holly trees
will be stripped.
Waterville is to hold an
Annual Comedy Film Festival Competition dedicated to the
memory of Charlie Chaplin in August 2011.Waterville and
it’s businesses with the patronage of Josephine Chaplin
and fellow patrons and friends are launching the festival
and preparing now for festival opening day. Our aim is to
quickly become and international fixture and bring a ’smile’
to Waterville, Ireland and the World. This should raise
the profile of the area to new world-wide levels - a benefit
to us all. This, coupled with the huge success of the Cork-Swansea
ferry service, will generate much-needed income & employment
for our region.
Waterville village is looking
very smart now, with lots of litter bins, benches and new
information signs around the village; there seems to be
a real 'buzz' of optimism in the air.
..........
2nd
August 2010
Waterville
has been busy, busy, busy over the last 2 weeks - it's great
to see the village so full of holidaymakers! The main street
has been jammed with coaches, cars & cycles calling
into the centre to take time out & enjoy the warm weather,
view the sights, and to admire the newly-restored Millerick
monument. The cafes & restaurants have placed their
tables & chairs outside on the pavements & grassed
areas, so that patrons can take full advantage of the scenery
& holiday atmosphere. The Market is full of local produce,
all top class quality of course. It's a lovely time of the
year.
Many compliments have been paid
regarding the appearance of Waterville centre; a lot of
work has gone improving the appearance of the shop fronts
(especially those that have been unused for a while), and
money has been fund-raised & invested into benches and
bins for all - it's good to hear the appreciation, and makes
the hard work worthwhile. Waterville has a lot to offer
& much to be proud of.
...............................
9th
June 2010
Waterville has been basking
in glorious sunshine over the last few weeks - to the point
where gardeners & farmers were becoming anxious and
looking forward to some rain - well, now we have some! -
just a drop, not too much to spoil things for our visitors,
though. There's been a huge upsurge in interest in Grow
Your Own Produce, and many of us now have extensive raised
vegetable beds as well as polytunnels. The Village Market
has re-opened at The Old Boat House located to the rear
of An Corcán restaurant. It is open Wednesday to Saturday
between 11a.m and 3.00p.m., offering a wide variety of home
produce, crafts, plants etc. Many enterprising locals will
be selling off their excess plants & produce. Having
been lucky enough to get a day away from all of the activity
here, I went up to Bloom at Phoenix Park, Dublin, and came
away inspired to grow more, and to keep bees. There's a
huge deficit of bees, after poor weather conditions and
disease killed so many, and more bee keepers are being called
for. It will be another steep learning curve, but very rewarding;
our Just So Co clients should be lucky enough to get a jar
of home produced honey next year!
.............................
27th
April 2010 Here is the latest news regarding the Tech Amergin
- you may have supported the petition that was raised to
fight the Kerry Education Services action: "Good
news at last! KES yesterday finally made the decision to
reinstate Susan on fulltime hours, starting 1st May until
the end of this year. Of course we hope that it will be
extended well beyond that.
It's a great relief to everyone involved in the Centre.
We would like to thank everybody for the great support that
we got for our campaign since the beginning of this year."
Board
of Management,
Tech Amergin Community Education & Arts
Centre
Waterville
Co. Kerry
White-tailed
Sea Eagles set up home in Waterville!
extract of report from Dr.
Allan Mee, Project Manager
Irish White-tailed Sea Eagle Reintroduction Programme
A
three year old male (tag 9) and a two year old female (tag
•) look like have formed the first pair to date in the reintroduction!
In March-April the pair switched their attention to Lough
Currane and the coast from Hog’s Head to Caherdaniel. In
late March the pair was seen at Derrynane cove apparently
fishing for the first time. Wildlife filmmaker Vincent Hyland,
who lives locally, managed to film the birds at this time.
It seems that mullet entering the cove at high tide are
the focus of the birds’ attention (see link to Vincent’s
website at http://www.vincenthyland.com/seaeagle.htm
).
This has made for spectacular viewing and over the next
few weeks the birds have treated birdwatchers and locals
alike to a wildlife spectacle. It is likely the pair will
continue to inhabit the beautiful coastline and loughs in
this area. Perhaps in 2011-2012, if both birds stay alive,
we will have the first nesting pair in Kerry in over 100
years!
photo courtesy of B Priestley
19th
April 2010 Empty Skies...................we normally see
an interesting sky here in SW Kerry, as many planes travel
West over the sky from mainland Europe, but following the
volcanic eruption in Iceland & the resulting ban on
all North European flights, the skies are eerily quiet -
not a plane in sight! I expect the ban will be lifted within
the next day or so, as the volcanic ash cloud that caused
the disruption will have either dissipated or moved into
another sky zone.
The weather has remained
warm and dry - a real bonus for all those holidaymakers
currently enjoying Waterville and it's surrounding countryside...it's
lovely to see the village centre busy, with people strolling
around eating ice-creams.
The fields are full
of young lambs and calves now, and everything is looking
green again. It's lawn grass cutting time again, and that's
keeping us pretty busy here at The Just So Co - it all grows
very quickly once it gets going!
01
April 2010 We had such a treat today - 1 very majestic
stag, complete with full antlers, with his 4 'ladies', all
peacefully grazing in the field by our home (no, not an
April Fool spoof). We watched them for some time, and they
seem to be happily settled for the evening, still there
as I write this at 6pm. Hopefully we'll get to see some
little 'Bambis' skipping around in the next few weeks.
March
30th 2010 Easter is here all ready, and the landscape
around us has suddenly become very green! After such a cold
Winter, with frosts that we so rarely see in this area,
much of the scenery had taken on a "brown" hue,
so it's good to see the Kerry green returning....even the
roadside honeysuckle and fuschia is sprouting its' green
shoots, too. We have tiny lambs and calves all around us
and it's so entertaining watching them playing in the fields.
The White-Tailed Sea Eagles
seem settled into the area, too; we have an older male bird,
plus a younger female, along with 2 juveniles. Visitors
to nearby Derrynane were treated to a rare spectacle over
the last weekend, when the birds decided to 'go fishing'
just off the Derrynane Bay, offering a wonderful aerobatic
display as they fished for their suppers! You can read a
lot more about this re-introduction project on the website:
http://www.goldeneagle.ie/portal.php?x=2&sid=13d2f99cfc8e44a508d63050ce51e078
It's good to see so many
visitors returning to the Waterville area already. A lot
of those homeowners that we at The Just So Co look after
have already been here for several breaks, getting some
well-earned sunshine after a long dark Winter. A number
of people have been very complimentary about Waterville's
village centre, remarking how tidy and clean it looks after
recent efforts by local business owners. Keep the compliments
coming, please.
________________________________________________________________________________
Feb 22nd 2010
We're having lovely sunny weather
here in SW Kerry this month; although it has been very cold
for this region (below freezing overnight), thankfully there
has been very little rain. The scenery has been at it's
best, with Lough Currane reflecting snow-capped mountains,
all shown off against crystal blue skies - wonderful! Even
the Atlantic Sea has been a lovely turquoise colour.
The cold weather has certainly
brought the wild birds in to the garden and adjoining fields;
we've seen a Jack Snipe as well as our resident Sparrow
Hawk, Buzzard and White Tailed Sea Eagles; keeping the bird
feeders stocked up for the many little finches and tits
is proving a challenge but they do provide endless entertainment
for us!
We're keeping busy checking
for any frost damage for our home-owners; it's always a
worry for people when there's a big distance between here
and their principal home - we're pleased to report no problems
to date, and the cold weather is due to revert to the usual
Kerry temperatures soon.
The Swansea - Cork ferry
service returns on March 1st, and is being run by a co-operative,
Fastnet Line. This service has been much missed by many
visitors coming into Ireland, and Fastnet Line reports bookings
are already exceeding their target levels - over 70 reservations
per day since they opened their Reservations service! This
will make the journey into SW Ireland and back to the United
Kingdom so much easier for all..for full details, visit
www.fastnetline.com
comments
archives
posted by Just So Co.
on Feb 22nd 2010
visit www.thejustsoco.com
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