Diary of a busyish woman

Went to bed last night dreading the thought of waking up this morning. I got a Code Orange warning from Met Éireann for fog. I'll endure rain or snow, but don't ask me to enjoy fog. It's invariably penetratingly damp and depressing. This morning, I'm pleasantly surprised because the sun is actually shining through some light cloud. It's a good morning. You know at this stage how my mind wanders and it took me along the road of mental health. I don't know if all the triggers for mental ill-health have been identified, but I can tell you this that if I was feeling down, it would have been extremely hard to drag myself out of bed this morning after last night's weather warning. Storms on the other hand I find exhilarating. Off to St. Fachtna's Cathedral for 11.30am service and then I think I'll go to see a hockey match in Clonakilty at 1pm. Why am I going? Well you may ask, but I was told last night one of my sisters is an umpire for it. It'll be...

'My Coffee du Jour' Today is my day for catching up with Willie and the lads, and I'm even doing a bit of time in the kitchen/house. During the week, most conversation revolves around business in one form or another and it's easy to get stuck in that rut. What a joy this morning to get up and look forward to a leisurely cup of coffee (trying Cork Coffee Roasters today) Yesterday I was in the motor tax office and realised it's quite a while since I've been there. I truly dreaded going because it was the last working day in October and the queues are always out the door; it didn't help that I was landing there between 1 & 2pm - the busiest time of the day. What a shock to the system and a realisation of how much business is now done online. In front of me stood about 10 people with just three hatches open to customers. In the time I was there however, what came to me was that every one of those customers needed time to sort their queries, and what p...

My post earlier this morning could be construed as depressing and no doubt it is for all caught up in this horrific spiral, and now for something entirely different, last Saturday morning was a busy one in Quish's S.V., Ballincollig with a number of different companies doing tastings. I ended up near the front door so lots of people told me they could smell the pudding, rashers and bacon as they arrived to do their shopping. Hopefully they found our products on the shelf over the weekend and took them home to see if they could achieve the same results. I expected two special visitors, Bill & Janet King ,  from Wales. Bill has to come over here regularly to stock up on things like buttermilk and flour for their Irish Soda Bread which Bill bakes and sells in Wales. I knew they had planned to visit Midleton Market , but their thoughtfulness in bringing me an Arbutus 'pain au chocolat' from the market courtesy of Deirdre meant so much and also gave me a good laugh. ...

It's a busy time in many households, but yesterday I had a few minutes to listen to Seán O'Rourke on Radio 1 , and the piece stopped me in my tracks. I forgot that I was trying to cook something flavoursome for a very health conscious teen and work through some last minute.com stuff. Listen to it: to the couple who have meat at weekends and then it's always mince but during the week eat bread and fruit, and veg from their own garden because they simply don't have the money as they struggle to pay the mortgage to keep a roof over their heads; the man who is being put through hell by his bank even though he has been up front and straightforward when he got in trouble with payments, attended the doctor who wrote a letter to 'the bank' - the response horrified me: he received a 7 day notice to vacate his home with his family from 'the bank'! By calling it 'the bank', we neutralise the noun and that takes responsibility off real people. 'The...

I can't believe we're over halfway through November. Today has been an extra long day in the unit but I'm looking forward to a Harp Recital in Bank of Ireland, Clonakilty, tomorrow. Last week to launch the Bank of Ireland Enterprise Week, they presented cheques to local charities from funds raised through various coffee mornings etc. It was really enjoyable to be there & tomorrow will be very special I have no doubt. All going well, I will have a fully charged phone & will be able to tweet a photo or two. Meanwhile ham orders are starting to trickle in, but I'm trying to ask everyone to have a chat with me before 8th December. I'll come back to this at another time. Meanwhile I'll be in Quish's S.V., Ballincollig on Saturday from 10am-1.30pm; then I'm looking forward to joining members of the newly formed West Cork Coeliac Support Group for Afternoon Tea in the Celtic Ross Hotel . If you're interested, check out the link as soon as possibl...

I love delivering but sometimes wish I could write, talk and drive all at the same time as so many ideas swirl around. I had what I was going to write today all planned and then an email arrived and totally changed my thought processes. I'm a fan of the SLOW Food movement and we are fortunate in West Cork to have Frank Krawczyk spearheading the resurgence of this fantastic organisation. Having attended the dinner cooked by the 4-midable chefs, Karen, Carmel, Tessa & Caitlin, details for the next event were waiting for me this morning: Organico Cooks the Books! Come and join us for a bite to eat and a glass of wine on "Good, Clean and Fair" Terre Mardre Day in the newly and beautifully extended Organico Cafe. Date and time: 10th December from 5pm to 8pm . A celebration of 3 great books and short talks by the authors: Giana Ferguson , Karen Austin and Sally McKenna . A convivial, casual supper in Organico Cafe using inspiration from each book. €20 mem...

It's always busy here on a Monday as orders arrive by telephone, text & email. Production carries on and then there's picking and invoices before the first deliveries of the week head out the door. Woe betide any of the family who might think of an excuse to avoid this routine (in the past few years, I've missed one day due to a medical appointment). The lads are absolutely superb though and would never dream of skiving off. Maybe because all of us have so much of our energy committed to it and our lives revolve around our business. This morning as we were slicing rashers, I began thinking of the variation in the size of the rashers and especially the free range. You'd think I was stuck in a groove as I regularly repeat that our pigs are not a 'one size fits all'. This is reflected in the rashers. Wandering around supermarkets and especially in our larger towns, it's easy to see why there is a disconnect between food production and the packaged product....