Ice Cream

BRAIN FREEZE

I’m sat on a bench in town eating an ice cream in the glorious sunshine. I used to go for the ones that were specifically advertised for grown ups with plain chocolate and a sense of forbidden pleasure. I have gone away from that silly notion and now take great pleasure in the the ice cream cones you get out of those noisy machines in the shops that drive the staff mad. I tend to go for the 99’s with sauce too. And that’s just what I have today.

I’m getting to be quite a connoisseur of them too, I can tell if the machine is at the optimum temperature so when I get delivery of the cone the sugar filled swirl on the top won’t drop to the ground when I get my first lick. Anyway, I’m sat on the Main Street in Buncrana and a stranger greets me.

“Nice looking ice cream you have there.”

“Thanks.” I say in mid lick “It’s my only vice.” I add as the elderly woman, sporting two full Super Valu carrier bags, sits next to me. Just a little bit too close for comfort. I’m convinced she’s after my cornet, so I eat the flake in one go. She’s not having that.

“You’re that gardening bloke aren’t you?” Before I can digest the chocolate she continues. “My Dwarf French bean plants appear to be going a bit yellow. Is this some kind of mineral or trace element deficiency?”

She pauses for a moment to look at me still trying to swallow the chocolate and then continues. “They seem to be growing well, just getting a bit of a yellowish tinge to them. I gave them a top dressing of fish blood and bone about 2 weeks ago. It might be a nitrogen or magnesium deficiency…what do you think?” I nod in agreement, my brain has frozen with the ice cream…brain freeze…...

The carrier bag woman continues. “I’ll just leave them for a bit, maybe a drop of rain will bring them on a bit.” She gets up off of the bench and picks up the bags and as she walks away thanks me for the advice. I get the tissue from around the cornet and wipe around my mouth. “Mo pwoblem.”


GROWING ORGANICS….IE

Last week I was a plonker…plonking plants in any available space in the veggie patch. This week I am a plugger….plugging a new website venture….Organics.ie.

I am celebrating a hugely successful year with the gardening.ie website. It now gets a constant stream of people interested in all things horticultural and I am getting some very good feedback from the site. To date I am getting up to 1000 hits a week. To celebrate I thought I would set up a sister site called Organics.ie.

NEW WEB DIRECTORY
Organics.ie is a new web directory site for anyone wanting to access the ever growing number of people and companies who are producing organic products….or nearly organic produce (I like to call these companies Organics in Waiting) and services. The site will include ethical fair trade products and include micro businesses.

Organic products can range from home baking, gardening, cooking, clothing, jewellery, beauty care products and natural cleaning for the home.

Organic services can range from green building to Irish holiday and ethical investments.

I will also be adding articles, fun stuff and news stories of the day to make the site more accessible.


GROWING ORGANICALLY
I like the idea of the site growing organically like the products and thought that I could start local and add anyone from Inishowen onto the site that is in the trade…all free of course. There are a lot of small businesses in the North West and the present economic climate is ideal for small companies to get together and gain support from one another, the hugely successful Simple Living Fair that was held in Carndonagh at the weekend is confirmation of this growing band of traders who are riding the economic downturn. Companies like Chic-Hens, Glendowen Crafts, Inishowen Bogwood and Inishowen Home Baking to mention a few, are all doing their bit.

Contact me through the website or e-mail me on info@organics.ie if you would like to add yourself to the growing list of companies that are taking advantage of the introductory offer, and if you would like to add an article, you can do that too….