Argory Pitstop.

 

 

Last weekend saw me make the journey to Tullamore in County Offaly for the Irish Masters Athletics Championships. There was a time and it's not that many years ago that I would have undertaken the four plus hour drive down to the venue, competed and driven home, all in the one day. I must be getting old or soft but it is now a two day jaunt with a couple of stops on the way down, an overnight sojourn and one stop on the way home. If I should continue to make this annual athletic pilgrimage I suspect that a further, "overnight," may have to be added to the itinerary.

 

My pitstop on the journey down was at the Argory just outside the village of Moy. I hadn't visited this National Trust property before. Time didn't permit me to spend more than hour wandering around the grounds but I noted that an antiques and collectables fair is to be held at the property towards the end of the month. I think that I will make that event an excuse to make a return and longer visit. Whilst it is interesting to wander around Estates such as the Argory I cannot help feeling that it is a little sad that it isn't still in private ownership and instead has to submit itself to hordes of visitors.

 

 

A Garden in the Sun.

 

Another weekend and another visit to a private garden opening under the auspices of the National Trust's open garden scheme. This time the garden was situated midway between Ballymena and Larne at Ballynashee Road, Glenwherry. It has been twenty years in the making and this has been the first time that it has opened its portals to the eyes of the public.

 

It is a large country garden extending over five acres and it has the benefit of two large ponds fed from an old mill race. The larger of the ponds is almost half an acre in extent and certainly adds interest to the garden, surrounded as it is with aquatic marginals and containing largish patches of water lilies. The owners, (a Mr & Mrs Rafferty), must spend all of their waking hours keeping nature in check. It is hard to imagine when they have time to actually enjoy their garden.

 

In the wilder areas of the garden they have planted many hundreds of broadleaf trees and created walkways along the adjoining river. Another twenty years and these trees will be reaching maturity and a true woodland will have been created. Even now you can imagine what it will ultimately be like. Hopefully the owners will live sufficiently long to see their garden plans come to full fruition.

 

 

 

Open Garden

 

Two consecutive days when the temperature has been above 68 degrees fahrenheit. That positively constitutes summer in Northern Ireland!

 

With training concluded and a few hours weeding in the vegetable garden clocked up I directed the trusty horseless carriage towards the vicinity of Magherafelt to inspect a garden which was opening to the public under the National Trust's Ulster Garden Scheme. The owners, were in attendance, responding to what were at times rather inane questions.

 

 

Their garden extends to just over an acre and is packed full of herbaceous plants. They must spend most of their days pruning, weeding, cutting grass and attending to their three hives of bees. Hopefully their health will enable them to enjoy their garden for many years hence, but they aren't young, not even middle aged. The male of the matrimonial duo reminded me of Fyfe Robertson in looks, although he lacked a bow tie (probably not a comparison which is understood by anyone who was born less than fifty five years ago). I don't imagine that the garden will be so expertly cultivated and maintained once they have passed on to the celestial garden. That must be somewhat sad for them.

 

 

Spring day at Springhill.

 

Having invested in National Trust membership I decided to recoup some of my expenditure yesterday. Accordingly I wended my way to Springhill House just outside the village of Moneymore. This small Plantation estate had been in the ownership of the Lennox-Conyngham family, albeit not in direct line, for some three hundred and fifty years before economic realities found Captain William Lowry Lennox-Cunningham deciding in 1957 to bequeath the estate to the National Trust. He died three days after the signing of his will. The term , "O'Hagan Clause," springs to mind.

 

It is not a huge house, really nothing more than a substantial farmhouse with more formal rooms occupying the additions to the original seventeenth century seven bay structure. The symmetry is surprisingly pleasing. On a similar vein the replacement beech walk to the rear of the property will be quite impressive when it reaches maturity.

 

I cannot say that I was overly impressed with the National Trust staff that I came across. The house guide was trying too hard. She may have a desire to be a standup comic but her attempts at humour and bonhomie were cringing. In the coffee shop the waitress decided not to clear the detritus from my table's previous resident before delivering my order minus milk for my tea. With a total of three tables occupied she also managed to forget the order of a young couple who had arrived in the eatery in advance of myself. Hopefully these rather obvious mistakes are a reflection of the start of the season and not inherent staff failings.