Home management tip

With Katherine O’Leary

Wearing overalls or “wet weathers” saves your clothes. They too have to be washed periodically. It’s wise to not let them get too dirty.

Always soak them in cold water for a few hours before washing. This takes off the loose dirt. If they are really dirty, soak them in an outside tub so as not to clog up drains. Wash wet-weather and waterproof clothes at low temperatures not exceeding 40°C.

Higher temperatures will damage areas that have been glued. Also use non biological detergent or liquid as biological detergents can damage the water repellent qualities of fabrics. Always spin them using a low spin speed so as not to stretch glued areas. Hang them in the garage or an out-house to dry.

Growing wild

with Dr Catherine Keena, Teagasc countryside management specialist

Water mint.

Look out for water mint, with pale purple or lilac flowers in a pom pom cluster at the top of the flowering spikes. The plants can also be purplish with softly hairy leaves in opposite pairs on square stems. It is easily recognised by the unmistakable mint smell when crushed. Mint has been used in the past to help with digesting food – similar to eating after-dinner mints. It was also strewn on the floor to deter insects with its scent when crushed. Water mint grows in damp places and is part of our native Irish biodiversity.

Rural rhymes

An Irish Grandfather

By Trevor Johnston

He moved into our house

He took the best chair

The one with the deep cushions

And the buttoned back

That guarded the fireside.

Why should an old man

With too many years spent

On this planet

Banish us

To the dark and cold

Recesses of the room?

I did not like him

Nor his ways

Of shuffling round

The room

Disturbing our presence.

What had he ever

Done in life

But outlive

His peers?

Slowly he melted

The frost of my reception

First with the radiance

Of his smile.

It gathered pace

With the way he twisted

Words into a garland

Of love.

His hands shook

But still there was a gentleness

Of touch

When he comforted

And shushed me

In moments of deep stress.

He’s gone now

But I still view his chair

As an altar

Of Remembrance.

To touch the cloth

Fills me with a yearning.

A vacuum

That lies too deep for words.

Quote of the week

Two people couldn’t leave, rural Ireland was very hands-on work, the women usually did the milking and the baking and the washing. And it was expensive and they didn’t have the money either.

Bridie McMahon, who was separated from her parents due to polio in 1954.

Picture of the week

Bobbi Quinlan Hannigan (5) with the Sunflower she planted as a seed at her playschool Clonea Rathgormack Community Playgroup, Co Waterford. Her nanny planted it in a tub for her. It turned out that she got two flowers. The plant measured 4cm when it was transplanted. Now there is a flower 188cm in height and the taller one 245cm in height.

Tweet of the week

Number of the week - 60

The number of talks that members of the Barn Owl Project have completed this year alone.