Grow Yellow

L to R: Tirlán chief marketing

and customer experience officer Ann Meaney, Tirlán chair John Murphy, Aware clinical director Dr Susan Brannick and Tirlán horticulturalist Eimear Delahunty. \Finbarr O’Rourke

There are so many therapeutic benefits to gardening, and it is this link between mental wellbeing and growing that Tirlán CountryLife and Aware, a leading mental health charity, are highlighting. As part of their fundraising campaign, ‘Grow Yellow – Brighter days ahead’,

African Daisy plants (€7.50) are being sold in 15 Tirlán CountryLife lifestyle and garden retail stores across the country. The  owers are a distinctive yellow colour with bright purple centres and €2 from every plant sold will be donated to fund Aware’s work in supporting people

impacted by mental health conditions. See aware.ie.

Sweetbaby search is on

Glenisk sweetbaby winner, Micah Muwaniri.

Glenisk has announced the return of their ‘sweetbaby’ competition in

a bid to recruit the country’s cutest faces for their yoghurt pots. Glenisk’s organic baby yogurt range is made with organic milk and real fruit, and is available in natural, strawberry, apricot, and mango  flavours. The competition is open to babies aged six to 18 months, and the previous campaign attracted some 4,500 entries, so you better get your submission in. Upload a picture of your baby and complete a short entry form at glenisk.com/sweetbaby/ by 18 July.

Open garden

Ealma Purcell from the Poppy Garden.

Ealma Purcell caught the gardening bug 17 years ago, and it’s been her life’s work ever since (isn’t she in good company?). Ealma from the Poppy Garden (below) has transformed her 1ac near Loughcrew, Co Meath, into a haven for wildlife, and everything has been done on a budget. Emma propagates plants through cuttings and seeds, and salvages items bought in auctions. Her garden is open to the public and she hosts visits every Thursday to Saturday from 11am-4pm.

Entry costs €6 per adult, children go free.

Find out more @the_poppy_garden on Instagram and Facebook.

A bite of history

Barry Enderwick is speaking in The Academy in Dublin on 18 June.

Some people think sandwiches are overrated. We’re not one of them. There’s so much potential, and, as it turns out – history, in a sandwich, which Barry Enderwick explores in the Sandwiches

of History: The Cookbook. Barry takes the source material for dozens of sandwiches and recreates them, providing recipes for both classic and unique sandwich ideas as well as listing fun facts. If you want to see sandwich history brought to life, Barry will be in The Academy

in Dublin on 18 June. Tickets cost €32.65 and are available on Ticketmaster.ie.

Kerry takes flight

Thinking about a trip away to France this summer? Well, it’s become even more accessible, especially if you’re living in the southwest of the country. Kerry Airport is soaring into summer with the return of Chalair’s popular peak-season routes to France. From June to September, weekly flights will connect Kerry to Brest in Brittany, Caen in Normandy, Pau in the Pyrenees – and, new for 2025, Brive in the

breathtaking Dordogne Valley, starting 29 June. Sunny Spain also feels closer as Ryanair has increased flights to Alicante, in time for the opening of Kerry Airport’s newly upgraded arrivals hall and departures lounge. See Ryanair.com and France: en.Chalair.fr.

Winner

Congratulations to Pauline Lovell from Bandon, Co Cork who is the winner of our Irish Country Living Food competition. She has won tickets for the Irish Yogurts Clonakilty Street Carnival plus a one night B&B stay in Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa.

Poetry Corner

Trunk In a Stream

By Charlotte Joyce

A stream beneath

Earthen tears, bittersweet

Curvature of landscape invites stillness

In its ancient thereness

Draws together my past,

my future

Suspended between

an outer world

And the dark

subterranean earth

Some upon their way,

stop beauty and stillness

to meditate

Soon look at me and think

Endurance, at my

neverending sameness

Pity, at my loss of freedom

No change, only a

lengthy sentence

In a changing world.

My insight, a different story

Within my timber deep

A labyrinth, a treasure of secrets

Wrought from the mystic earth

Music sweet from

rhythmic waters

Chases my sap through

porous veins

Cacophonous sounds,

perfect harmony.

Oh joy, my beauteous peace

Entrusted in noble earth

A lifetime long, yet lingered.

Infused by all around

Air, space, filled by subtleties

My observer, look and see

Fulfilment in just to be.