All Ireland Scarecrow Championship, Durrow, Co. Laois.

Back during the August bank holiday weekend, we arranged to visit some old friends near in County Waterford. Heading down the motorway, our GPS tells us to turn off the motorway prematurely, but as I was unfamiliar with the area we were going to I did what I was told and left the motorway. By doing this, we were taken through the recently bypassed town of Durrow. But this was not the same Durrow I remembered form the times before the bypass where it was constantly chocked up with traffic, this time it was teeming with festive fun.

Unaware what was going on when entering the town, we spotted a funny looking fellow propped up by the road, who turned out to be a scarecrow, this seemed to be a little odd place for a scarecrow, but ‘hay’ whatever! Then there was another one! Now it was getting a little weird. It was only as we passed a picnic table of scarecrows dining and drinking pints so stout, that we knew something was going on.

'Walking the Owner is a Woof Job' by Adrian Sheppard Winner of Best Overall Scarecrow and Best Street Residence Scarecrow.



This was, as we later discovered the All Ireland Scarecrow Championship, part of Durrow’s annual ‘Howya’ Festival.

With over one hundred and fifty entries there was a lot to see. For those who wish to see the scarecrows in style, there was a Jarvey tour of the scarecrows where adults and children were taken on a tour of the highways and byways of the village on one of the beautifully presented horse and carriage rigs.

Unfortunately for us we did not have time to stop and have a good look around, as we were already running late, so all we could manage is a slow drive through the village, but thanks to Andy Walsh for letting me use some of his photos for this post to give you a taste of what it was like. Here are a few of my favourite entries.

White Lady Rescue' by The Durrow Fire & Rescue Service. Winner of Best Business/Club/ Organisation.

'Status Crow' by Michael Smith, Winner of Best Visiting Scarecrow.

'Lord & Lady Ashbrook' by Kay Downey



'CSI Crow Scene Investigation' by Joe Murphy, John Lappin, Robert Freeman & Thomas McCann, some of the winners of Best Youth/Student Scarecrow (under 16)







So be sure to add this to your list of events for next year, it runs every August bank holiday weekend. If you wish to enter next years competition, you can download a entry form from Durrow’s website http://www.durrowvillage.com/.

There are also lots more photos by Andy Walsh of the festival to see on his photo album http://s801.photobucket.com/albums/yy291/JonathanWalsh/Scarecrows/

Interestingly as we left Durrow our GPS sent us back onto the motorway to continue our trip to County Waterford, this is the first time ever I wasn’t giving out to the GPS for taking us on one of its bizarre detours.

You call that a Rock house....This is a ROCK HOUSE

You may be forgiven for thinking that this is a scene from a remake of the Flintstones by Tim Burton., but believe it or not, it is a real house in the rural settings of the Fafe mountains in northern Portugal.

A Casa do Penedo, or "the House of Stone," was built between four large boulders found on the site.

The house was built in 1974 as a family's rural retreat, but in recent years it has attracted the attention of tourists and architecture enthusiasts alike. Some come to marvel at how this unique house is so perfectly integrated into its natural surroundings, while others just want to come see the 'Flintstones' house (as it has been called by many). Interest in the stone house has grown to the point that the current owner, Vitor Rodrigues, has had to move to find solace from the curious visitors, and has had to install bullet-proof windows and a steel door to prevent the robbery attempts and vandalism it has incurred in recent years.

Although the house lacks electricity and running water, it does surprisingly house an array of amenities, which include a fireplace, a sofa made of cement and the stem of eucalyptus, and a swimming pool carved out of one of the large rocks.

I was unable to find any photos of the interior, however I did take these stills from an interview by the Portuguese media with Vitor Rodrigues.

 

 

For those who are interested in seeing the video interview, it can be found here, but be warned it is in Portuguese and of poor quality.

The guy who built this was not the only person to think of building a house in between huge rocks. Another example I came across is this more formal looking house near Plougrescant, Bretagne, France.

 Castel Meur

Photos of 'Casa do Penedo' by talented Portuguese photographer Jsome1.

Encore from the musical tree, to celebrate arbor day!

Happy Arbor Day USA, Ok I know it’s a bit late, but ye should really make it a week like we have here in Ireland, that way I won’t miss it.

So another short and quirky post today as I have to go to work shortly. This post is for those of you who are (were) celebrating Arbour day.

This video is of a piece of music by Diego Stocco, a sound designer & composer, who creates eclectic musical experiences with custom built instruments and experimental recording techniques.

For this video, Diego said

In the garden of my house there's a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it.

Well here is your answer.

Personally I feel a bit sorry for the tree, but it is entertaining and worth a watch.



See more of Diego's crazy videos on his website www.diegostocco.com/

Shell House 'Nautilus' New Mexico

A few months back while researching for my post The Shell House at Ballymaloe Cookery School, I came across this very different and quite literal Shell House. This story may not be really garden related, but it's so wacky and fun, I'm gonna post about it anyway.

This amazing house, the ‘Nautilus House’ was built in 2006 by Arquitectura Orgánica, for a young couple with two children from Mexico City who after living in a conventional home wanted to change to one integrated to nature. The goal of this project was to make it feel like an internal inhabitant of a snail.

“The metaphor was to feel like an internal inhabitant of a snail, like a mollusk moving from one chamber to another, like a symbiotic dweller of a huge fossil maternal cloister.

This home social life flows inside the Nautilus without any division, a harmonic area in three dimensions where you can notice the continuous dynamic of the fourth dimension when moving in spiral over the stairs with a feeling of floating over the vegetation.”

– Javier Senosiain, Architect

Check out Javier Senosiain website http://www.arquitecturaorganica.com/ to see more of his amazing works.

‘Its fruit Jim, but not as we know it’

So the sun is finally shining here in Ireland and the plant growth, more than a month behind is finally bursting into life. All this good weather means I have very little time for my blog at the moment, so this weeks post is a quick one.

Here is some strange looking fruit I came across on the internet recently.

These Buddha shaped pears are the creation of Gao Xianzhang.

Gao has been working on his pear-growing technique for six years and this season he managed to grow 10,000 Buddha-shaped baby pears. Each fruit is grown in an intricate Buddha mould and ends up looking like a juicy figurine. The ingenious farmer says the locals in his home village of Hexia, northern China, have been buying his Buddha pears as soon as he picks them from the trees. Most of them think they are cute and that they bring good luck.

Their success in China has convinced Gao to start exporting them into Europe.

Another strangely shaped fruit I came across are these watermelons from the southern Japanese town of Zentsuji.

However this one is not a fad. The technique actually has practical applications.

"The reason they're doing this in Japan is because of lack of space," said Samantha Winters of the National Watermelon Promotion Board in Orlando, Florida.

A fat, round watermelon can take up a lot of room in a refrigerator, and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves. But clever Japanese farmers have solved this dilemma by forcing their watermelons to grow into a square shape.

Farmers insert the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.

The square boxes are the exact dimensions of Japanese refrigerators, allowing full-grown watermelons to fit conveniently and precisely onto refrigerator shelves.*

*Source http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/06/15/square.watermelon/index.html