Monday, August 15, 2011

Summer days

 

 Loving our sweet peas....... It took me all of about 15 minutes to plant out the seedlings on a rainy afternoon in June. They were the last 2 trays left in our local garden centre which I grabbed unashamedly. By most gardeners accounts I was late planting them - no matter this year with our delayed warm weather luck was on my side. With our new business and a very demanding thrill-seeking toddler in tow the Old Rectory garden has had to take a back step this year. I've missed the obsessional side of growing our own veg. In fact I feel like a bit of a traitor, have to apologise to the lettuces that have gone to seed and the gnarly radishes but other delights in the garden have come true and given me the botanical high that marks the summer.  We did manage to get to our strawberries before the birds; potatoes have been blight free which we are enjoying with every other evening meal; The tomato cordons are laden with fruits - I'm sure about to ripen any day and I've not seen so many plums on our trees before...but our sweet peas have won my heart this year. Right now I'm sitting amid jugs of freshly cut bunches which we are able to replenish every day and give in abundance to friends - a 15 minutes well spent back in June.

Old Rectory's Greenhouse

Mum's screen print - Chinese Medley

Looming large every August bank holiday Monday is the Tinahely agricultural show. With only a week to go, the tempo inside the Old Rectory studio goes up a few notches with the flurry of creations coming from family members - This is our mother's terrain which she oversees every year. If you are related to her and can cook, hold a pencil, grow flowers or hold a dog on the end of a lead then your 'in'. With entries from 'Best hand writing' to 'lego creations' to 'best bunch of sweet peas' to' 'best screen printed tshirts' to 'you name it...' there is something for everyone, no excuse not to enter so the boys had great fun designing and printing their own tshirts. They also get the run of the studio and experiment with 2 colour prints or foiling - lucky them! A great day out for all the family. Money prizes all around which is incentive for every child and adult to enter! Check out the show for next year www.tinahelyshow.ie.

1st and 2nd prize tshirts.

Our Italian student Corinna, wearing her basketball inspired print.

Children's print workshops were up and running during the month of July. As well as Old Rectory hosting a workshop in the Mermaid Arts centre in Bray we ran a couple of morning sessions at our studio. Children who had attended our workshops last summer came back for more this year which is a great sign, a couple of them were even wearing their tshirts which they had created last year - such a rewarding activity for children to create your own fashion and get durable wear out of it. We had a really enjoyable time welcoming Corinna, an Italian student from South Tyrol (German speaking part of Italy) into Old Rectory life during July. Corinna came on leaps and bounds with her English, joined in the summer mayhem of kids on holiday and even got to do some printing for herself and her family back home. She now has the bug and went home inspired to re-design her bedroom and maybe do some printing herself. Hopefully we will see her again next summer.


July print workshop

A quiet couple of weeks on the manufacturing front gives us time to finalise the details to our new website. The nitty-gritty of developing a comprehensive website is huge. Postage and packaging is tricky from Ireland due to our geographical position. All do-able but trying to find the best price has been slow. Anyway, we are very excited about launching the new site and doing a small advertising campaign for Autum '11.  James's photography is gorgeous, it really reflects the ideals of Old Rectory brand. Another couple of weeks and it'll be up and running....

Joanna printing with her twins

Wosley clutching our first bunch of Old Rectory grown carrots