I overheard a visitor to the house recently saying that it was the best year in a long time for growth.

Oh how easily the dire spring was forgotten, where every day seemed to begin or end with rain and for a change at midday it would shower on and off.

After the rain we then had a cold May, where the wind would have a person hurrying back to the house for another layer, as it felt like the chill of winter would never leave.

Certainly we have been blessed with good weather from June onwards, right when we needed it, but it’s usually paid for at either end of the year.

Signs of the heatwave are still to be seen around here and though the fields have greened up after the first wet day, there are still yellow patches to be found near shallow or stony ground. It reminds me of the dreadful scourge of yellow patches which are becoming more common along roadsides where weedkillers have been used to spray off growth.

Now I’m not averse to using it in sparse amounts in our ongoing war against rushes, but I really can’t see how anyone finds a blanket of dead grass and weeds outside their driveway more appealing than a crop of dandelions and daisies, which provide a vital early-season food for our insects along with a splash of colour to break up an otherwise drab road.

With the first sign of rain forecast we were thinking about getting the remainder of our slurry out to push growth on again as though our grass only stalled a small bit in comparison to land down south, we could certainly do with building up a block ahead of the cattle again, especially as the calves are starting to thrive with an increase in meal feeding and the good weather keeping them content.

Breeding is a little hit and miss for us so far

As soon as they were let onto fresh pasture they showed their appreciation, as heads went down grazing straight away on the fresh aftergrass and the creep feeder was forgotten for a few hours.

Breeding is a little hit and miss for us so far, but hopefully now with a bit more humid weather they’ll start to show stronger heats. When our oldest bull suddenly realised females existed and that he was (in his head) the one who had to court anything and everything with legs, we thought we’d have everything caught in a couple of weeks.

However, he appears to be all mouth and no trousers as, when a couple of cows showed heat he was nowhere to be seen and we had to rely on our old reliable matriarch cow to point them out for us.

She and I had to come to an agreement one evening, as she had a bad cut on one teat being plagued by flies and she has previous form in having great aim in her back legs.

As a staunch supporter of ABD (Anyone But Dublin) it was great to see Mayo finally win their All-Ireland title

“Which wheelbarrow will I collect you in” was my father’s opinion of my odds at remaining unscathed in my attempt, but with a bit of patience and luck I succeeded with Cheno Unction, though I don’t think I’ll get near her again for a while and I probably ended up with as much on myself as on her.

As a staunch supporter of ABD (Anyone But Dublin) it was great to see Mayo finally win their All-Ireland title.

Being from Leitrim, we usually have to look further afield for our glory and as I lived in Mayo for a while, I’ve always held a hope they would take the cup home again after so many years of heartbreak.

Though we’re not a footballing family, we all grew up playing at school to make up numbers for teams, along with battering stones across fields with a hurley while waiting in gaps for cattle to pass by. Which, in hindsight, is probably a mortal sin in hurling strongholds, along with the annoyance it likely caused our father, as the clatter of a stone on ash is enough to make anyone wince.