Carraig Dulra permaculture farm

Finally, a post from my 3 days non-stop tour of Wicklow gardens, thanks to Orlaith Murphy. The first stop was Suzie Cahn’s Carraig Dulra Permaculture Farm. The abundance developing here on this hillside site which most would probably be categorized as marginal land reminded me of Mandy Barber‘s Incredible Edible site on previous sheep pasture in Devon!
It’s been a hard year due to the very unusual drought since April until recently. Nevertheless, the deep rooting collection of heirloom apples had produced well! We were there on a blustery day after Storm Ali had battered Ireland that night!

Blackcap on yew berries

The male blackcap (munk) was this morning feeding on yew berries (a garden variety “Hicksii”). This yew is right next to the kitchen window and has attracted several fruit eating species including blackbird (svarttrost), redwing (rødvingetrost), fieldfare ( gråtrost), waxwings (sidensvans) and last night for the first time a song thrush (måltrost).