Critics don’t watch films in our house, our entire family does. The boys have grown up with the new iterations of Captain America, Ironman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Thor et al. To them, while they understand that the characters are cartoons, they are also real in their imagination. Lego kingdoms are built and destroyed in the Marvel Superheroes’ names; they dress up for Hallowe’en as Thor, and Spiderman.
This film has been anticipated in our house for months and months. The entire family has been watching trailers and sneak peeks together and debating on how the full complement of Superheroes will work together.
This is my mantra. There’s no need to spend a fortune on good, wholesome food for a family. So you’ll excuse me if I have a little rant today. I promise I did sleep on it first though! Read More →
In late 2014, Michael Kelly got in touch to see if I’d like to review his new book; Grow Cook Eat. So I owe him an apology for taking so long to get this review done. Sorry Michael!
Mind you, it’s about the right time of the year to start considering growing your own food. I know that the weather is cold, it may be snowing where you are, but in food-growing terms many of us who like to grow our own food are busy tending to our crops that last through the Winter, and have started to chit potatoes, and propagate seedlings for the Spring. Read More →
I’ve trawled the shops and found a couple of budget gifts for food-lovers that you might be interested in. They are all for under €10 and available pretty much nationwide. Here’s a wee video for you see exactly what they are and I’ll pop details of the stockists and prices below.
Call this post a review of sorts, in effect it is. This is a review of a year in the life of an Irish food blogger, but it also a way of sharing some food bloggingtips and tricks I picked up along the way. This blogpost was originally written in December 2012, now 2 years later I’m updating some of the information. Read More →
Just 24 hours. That’s all we had on Inis Mór. It’s not enough time to do all the things we wanted to do. The last thing we wanted to do was to climb on board a tour bus. Hubby spends enough of his time driving buses so even if it meant we missed out on some of the landmarks, for the most part we walked.
Journey
It takes about 3 hours from Dublin to Rossaveal Harbour, where you can park your car to get aboard the ferry. You can also travel to the Aran Islands via Clare but this was the best option for us.
It’s a further 40-odd minutes to get to Inis Mór on the boat. However do bear in mind that it may take longer if the weather is bad! No matter how sunny it is, a raincoat or wind-cheater is a must for the boat if you intend to stand outside. I always stand out on deck if I can, if you suffer from motion sickness, make sure you’re in the fresh air, even if it’s raining.Accommodation
We stayed in the Mainistir Hostel which is about 2km outside of Kilronan in the townland of Mainistir. They have a dedicated family area where you can book adjacent family rooms, and it’s private to the rest of the accommodation. For the 5 of us, including breakfast, it only set us back €100 for the night. It’s about a 20 minute walk up a hill, 30 minutes if you’re pushing a buggy with bags and cranky toddlers/teens.
This kind of room was not the kind of lodgings I expected to get from a hostel:
Joel (proprietor) will also cook an evening meal for the very reasonable price of €15 per person for a mainly vegetarian buffet cooked from local ingredients. It has been highly recommended to me, but we didn’t get a chance to try it out as dinnertime was a bit too late for the small ones. I do trust the recommendations I got from more than 1 learned person so it’s certainly something to bear in mind if you want excellent food cooked for you on a budget. Otherwise there are ample cooking facilities in hostel.
The breakfast by the way was all homemade. Some freshly boiled eggs, homemade blackberry preserves, muffins still warm in the cases, lashings of toast, fruit compote and yoghurt. There was also a selection of cereals, all eaten in front of a massive window overlooking the sea and washed down with a giant pot of strong tea. I could have stayed there for hours.
Here’s a short video of what we got up and there’s more information our stay below:
I believed that grocery prices in Ireland are expensive; I felt they are steadily on the rise again, spurred on by the report from The Guardian published on Saturday, I’ve revisited my grocery shopping list from a few years ago to see how the prices differ. Read More →
Today I’ve the chance for you to win tickets to Wonderfest, which is taking place on August 16th and 17th in the grounds of Malahide Castle. It’s not just everyday tickets either, it’s a full family ticket with camping included which is worth just under €150 in total. Read More →
The day we packed up our things from carvanning in Kerry, we headed up the road, past Limerick to Mountshannon in County Clare for a 2 night stay. Before I start this blogpost I have to confess, as we didn’t have space for camping gear, thanks to the Irish Caravan And Camping Council, we stayed in a caravan on site. We had as close to a camping experience as we could get! You’ll need to play the video to see more. Read More →
While I was away a few weeks ago a parcel arrived for me from Lidl Ireland filled with items from their new “Too Cute” range which came into stores today.
Over the past fortnight the boys and I have put all the items inside to the test and here’s the verdict of Spiderman Comes To Town. Read More →
For the past 4 years we have organised one of the local Summer Projects instead of going on holiday. This year we knew that we needed to take a break, and decided to staycation around Ireland and in particular in the West. When the opportunity arose to go caravanning in Kerry, we decided to take the Irish Caravan and Camping Council up on their offer, packed the car, and travelled down the country.
The plan was to spend 3 nights in the Glenross Caravan & Camping Park in Glenbeigh, on the Ring of Kerry, then a further 2 nights at another location in the midlands. I’ll be back next week with our account of how we got on when we left Kerry but in the meantime, here’s what you need to know. Read More →
It’s a beautiful sunny day and I’ve some news and reviews to share. Including Lidl’s new Nespresso compatible pods, Bellarom; a pint mug I found for sale (you will want one too); Bloom 2014, toilet training essentials and more! Read More →
