19th Aug 06 Saturday

Went to the Farmers Market (10-12 Saturdays in the car park across from the AIB). It had a wonderful atmosphere and enough irresistible produce to send me scurrying to the bank machine after pledging myself at several stalls. I bought half a round of smoked Gubeen cheese (it may well take me the month to eat it but it wont be a chore!), chorizo also from Gubeen, a loaf or organic brown soda bead (something I yearn for when away from these shores) a tub of chicken liver pate from ‘On The Wild Side’ which knocks the socks off anything from the supermarket, a bar of delicious Belgian chocolate from a couple who bring it over from Belgium themselves and two necklaces one with semi precious stones and one beaded from a lady who makes them herself. Also had a chat with a gentleman who makes record breaking vegetables www.alaskagiant.com (size wise) but he spoke about the fact that although the vegetables were of an unusually large size they were also of a very good quality nutritionally. He showed me an instrument that checks nutrients that he uses to make sure of this. He has managed to grown such stunning veg through use of a special fertilizing mixture. However he explained that this isn’t something it wants to keep secret but he wants to spread the word to improve crop quality and make for happier gazing animals (cows would only need to eat half the grass for example if it was of a higher quality). I love this market attitude of the people involved in it like John Evans that it is all about quality produce. I wish I lived near it all the time!

Got my photograph taken for the Southern Star newspaper and joined the Library (€2.50 for the year).

Went to the Cinemobile wwww.cinemobile.net, which was visiting Skibbereen for the weekend. They normally visit twice a year but haven’t actually been here for three years! I saw ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ by Ken Loach. Yes it was in essence sitting in the back of a lorry watching a film but you wouldn’t know it once the lights go down. I imagine from the crowd there that some of them were there for the experience of having a mobile cinema in town rather than the film. I hope they make it a more regular event.

Trad session in the Corner Bar (Bridge St, 028 21522). We (lynn Harris and I) arrived around 8.30 to an empty bar and after an hour when only one other person came in we were wondering if there was going to be a session however at 10 o’clock the musician’s arrived with a crowd in tow. After watching earlier a film that portrays an aspect of the Irish struggles in 1920, it was even more moving to listen to the ballads played and sung. The crowd stayed jammed shoulder to shoulder at one end of the bar next to the musicians while the rest of the bar stood empty, it was all about being close to the action.