Excerpt from my Dublin diary...

This has nothing to do with allotments, with buying seed or even thinking about garden design. However I have always wanted Grow Our Own to be about growth, growth of every kind and particualrily personal growth, also, I just wanted to share with you a bit from my wee trip to Dublin over the past 2 days.....

Dublin Nov '10

A melting pot, a cauldron of people, ideas, passions and fun - bag loads of fun. You come to Ireland, North or South and you will never be stuck for a conversation. Go into a bar, one that seems dark, old, dirty even and you walk into another world. Forget wanting everybody knowing your name - this is a place where a stranger is a friend you just haven't met yet. Honestly. There may be differences (political, religious, ideological) but damn it, that can be overlooked over the rim of a pint glass and for the duration of your stay you're with family. Better than that, you are with mates.

Craic can be summed up in 5mins of being in a good bar. Relaxed chat over nothing, nothing important, becomes the most pressing issue. Find something, a common ground of any sort and the relaxed (and sometimes passionate, beautifully passionate) talk and camaraderie flows - like the beer.

Sit alone and you are never alone. Conversations that you can't quite catch envelope you and the occasional burst of laughter, it all equals a comfort blanket where you are safe. You are Home.

I enoyed my time in Dublin and spent a good few hours alone when I just wrote and wrote in my trusty Moleskine. The weather was foul, utterly miserable and I have sore feet today but looking back at my little scribblings and the few photos I did manage to take, I know it won't be too long before I'm back there :)

Here is a vaguely gardeny, 'grow your own veg' related photo - barley (at the Gunniness Factory; but don't worry I didn't sully the next batch of the Black Stuff, this was for tourists to touch!) - see I do think of you when I am away xxxx