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No Rushes Makes St. Brigid[s] Cross ?

A phone call came to me this morning from Mary a good friend and coincidentally my very first client.

We’re supposed to be making St Brigids Crosses with the children on Sunday and we simply can’t find a supply of rushes. We have a lady who will be showing the children how to… but we just have no rushes to make them with…

Religious or not, knowing how to make a St Brigids Cross is, to me a definitive I was born pre 1980 therefore I am Irish [that makes me smile] type statement 😉 One friend I spoke to told me…..

knowing what the St. Brigids cross is, is like knowing what Atlantic 252 was… at least it was for me in 80’s Ireland anyways

Without dwelling on it too much….  It is suggested the frost has had an adverse affect on stocks. For now Mary needs our help.

  • needs a decent supply.
  • willing to buy them.
  • based in North Dublin.
  • doesn’t have the time to go pick them herself.
  • needs to know as soon as possible that she can have them.
  • As in this week
  • enough for about 50-60 crosses

image and more information courtesy wikipedia

Any information, help or suggestions [anything at all] ?

  • leave a comment below
  • email info@doneganlandscaping.com

UPDATE 3rd February 2011:

I got this email in from Mary

Sunday went very well. Our PP blessed the crosses made from pipecleaners and the older folks nearly killed each other to get at them. The younger children were happy to try
and make their own with the art straws I had. 45 gone in about 2 minutes! We had just four proper crosses made with the few reeds we had and we decorated the altar with those.

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All Posts Good Life

The [Un]usual Planter

Here, you have that. You might be able to do something with it….

...

That’s quite a regular statement I hear actually. Surprised ? I wasn’t. It’s not the most unusual object I’ve ever been handed. I like the odd challenge and this one was a doddle.

Yesterday I filled the container with some pebble. More to weight it down. It also looks really good. I also had a few hand fulls of pebble in my workshop, so it suited. It also saves on compost and in this case I didn’t have enough 😉

Helen had given me some spider plant babies a while ago that had come on really well…. and I had a spot inside where I felt it would look really good.

Total cost. €0.00

Personally, I’d be over the moon if someone gave me that as a gift.

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The Red Exhaust Pipe Bird Feeder

...?

Building a garden recently I was asked for something unusual as a feature for the garden. My imagination being what it is, the idea coming to mind is never a problem. It is however a problem for some clients [?] when they can’t see what has never existed before and ultimately a level of trust and/ or a pre-requisite of an also zany imagination is necessary. The alternate. Buy something off the shelf.

On this occasion it was a small garden. The red dead tree was referred to and also I was told….

I want something that is different, unique, unusual, practical, not 17th century type symetry, a little bit out there… but it’s got to be a looker…

Like I always said the rollling stones on vinyl may cost a fiver second hand… but will always be better than than the €50 double cd remastered

Of course, as simple as it may sound, there’s actually about 3 days work in this thing. The main issue being that it would hold upright with it being so top heavy and the fact that the pipe supporting was not straight…. that said I think it’s really cool.

...

View more images of the Red Exhaust Pipe Bird Feeder here

What I had done, with my good friend and welder genius George was to take the replacement exhaust pipe for my Daewoo Musso jeep [a 2.5 merc engine btw], give it a labotomy in an attempt to reduce the weight of the combustion chamber; weld some re-bar and other bits to the base so that concrete-less it would still stand upright; paint it burning red and rivet some refelective metal to it allowing us to hook in a bird feeder… then we dropped it into a new look and rebuilt garden…. of course there was a lot more to it than that…. but you get my gist 😉

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thanks mr. hollywood

I really can get so caught up with designing gardens and all of that rain a simple love of what I do that sometimes I forget the less green things that happen in my life. Some time ago I got this in the post from a really nice guy called Fran Hollywood.

I put it in the glasshouse and took this photograph.

fran-hollywood polystyrene-peter-donegan
thanks fran...

I had been talking to Fran about polystyrene and some projects I had in mind. I mentioned too him that in the form of packaging some of the community recycling centres refused to take only this. I also explained that I therefore became a little concerned over it’s ability to be recycled. This is what Fran sent me….

Hi Peter,

good to talk with you today. Here are some links relating how polystyrene foam (also known as Styrofoam and EPS) is recycled.

If you need any further info give me a shout.

All the best

Fran Hollywood
Made in Hollywood
Thistle Cross
Mountpleasant
Dundalk
Co. Louth.  Ireland
W.  www.madeinhollywood.ie
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