Thursday, March 21, 2024

Irish Novels on Sale—All 7!

1st Ballydara novel, free everywhere!
Hello everyone! St. Patrick’s Day ☘️ may be in the rearview mirror, but if you like warmhearted love stories and you’re still in an Irish frame of mind, you might want to check this out…

While all my Irish novels are available separately in ebook format, I’ve packaged them up in ebook box sets as well…which gives readers a special deal.

One box set is my first four Village of Ballydara Irish novels…you see I loved this red-haired girl so much she got to be on another book cover! 

This set also includes The Galway Girls, which features not only two love stories, but a little start-up farm, a gardening plotline, and chickens!

Irish Box Set 1

The second set of Ballydara novels contains Dublin girl Emma’s trilogy, plus my two novelette-length connected short stories, set in the misty green hills of County Galway. 

Irish Box Set 2

Kobo Books has selected both sets for their 25% Off March Boxset sale! Promo code MARBOX25. 

Because I think Kobo Books is so supportive of authors, I like to return the favor: this Emma trilogy boxset is exclusive to Kobo.

Of course, most people might like to read just one book in the series before taking on a box set. Here’s a way to check out the series risk-free…

My first novel, It Only Takes Once, pictured above, is free at all ebook retailers—Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo and every other online bookstore you can think of! 

There’s more about It Only Takes Once on my website’s Village of Ballydara page.


You’ll find all about the rest of my Village of Ballydara books and more “Free to Read” homesteady reads and fiction at my website too…

The Kobo 25% off sale won’t last forever though—it’s good through Sunday, March 24!





Saturday, March 16, 2024

St. Patrick’s Day Countdown Finale—The Quiet Girl & More Irish Entertainment!


The Oscar-Nominated film The Quiet Girl

If you’re like me, you might want to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with an authentic Irish experience… . not keen on the same old green beer or leprechauny stuff like Darby O’Gill and the Little People

If you’re looking for something different, and very Irish, here’s a lovely movie you might have missed: The Quiet Girl

Based on the novella Foster, by Claire Keegan, it’s a soft, contemplative film. 

The story is simple—nine-year old Cait goes to stay with relatives for the summer—yet in its simplicity, it’s all about kindness, empathy, and healing.

My heart was wrung by Cait—in her dysfunctional family, she was unloved and neglected. But the story isn’t at all grim. 

Rather, it shows us how even the most silent, inexpressive child can blossom with love and care and attention.

Yes, it’s a DVD, cuz we can’t stream films with satellite internet!

I read Foster last year—in fact, it was so impactful that as soon as I finished it I started back on page 1 and read it all over again. The film’s impact is not only in its quiet loveliness, but that most of the scenes are in the Irish language (with subtitles), which added to the film’s empathy and hopefulness. 

If you’re a fan of uplifting shows—my absolute favorite viewing these days is the new All Creatures Great and Small series—there’s a good chance The Quiet Girl will work for you. For me, it could be the best film experience I’ve had this year. 

Today, I discovered Cait’s story is really making a splash—Foster is on the reading list of fantasy author (Eragon) Christopher Paolini!

More Irish Entertainment

Would you like a bigger selection of Irish movies to choose from?

You can find a great list on my website under Irish Fun—and of course the list includes another “quiet” movie, The Quiet Man

It’s had a special place in my heart since I was a kid—and even more, since my husband John and I visited the little town where the movie was filmed, Cong, in County Mayo. Cong is less a village than a tourist spot, but it’s inviting all the same. 

Here I am in Cong, with the statue celebrating stars Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne


You can explore the ruins of an ancient abbey and a lovely little river, and locations like Pat Cohan’s pub and the Protestant Reverend’s cottage are right at hand. 

The Reverend’s house


Just outside the village is Ashford Castle. Formerly a country hotel and open the public, it’s where The Quiet Man’s cast stayed in 1951. Sadly, after being purchased by a top-end resort enterprise, it’s now private. And off-limits to the likes of me and other casual tourists!

Photo credit: Pixabay

Still, I followed a car track through the woods and snuck up to the grounds for a look at the castle. Impressive, yeah?

The fun was in reliving my 11-year old explorer self!

If Irish cottages ring your chimes, you might like Cottagecore Fun, and for more all-around Irishness, “The Irish Issue: Jane Austen and The Pirate Queen & Writing Irish.”

However you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (if you do!), I hope you have a wonderful time!

Friday, March 15, 2024

St. Patrick’s Day Countdown—Irish Eats!

Thinking of preparing a special meal for St. Patrick’s Day? Cooking the Irish way is what this marvelous book is all about!

Beloved Irish chef Darina Allen is the author of many cookbooks, but Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways are the Best—Over 700 Recipes Show You Why focuses on traditional Irish cookery and methods. 

She emphasizes that homemade food made with high-quality ingredients are what produces the tastiest food, sharing lots (over 700!) of authentic, but very accessible recipes. 

I love this cookbook for Ms. Allen’s non-fussy dishes—she doesn’t use any fancy store-bought condiments, chili peppers, or unlikely herb combinations (mint with cilantro??? I see that a lot, but I don’t get it!) Just simple but beautifully prepared dishes that shine.

She devotes a number of recipes for that Irish St. Paddy’s Day staple: “The great thing about soda bread is that it is made in minutes,” she writes, “you wouldn’t have found your car keys and got down to the village shop in the time it takes to put the dough in the over and take out a fresh loaf.”

If you’re game to bake soda this St. Paddy’s Day, it’s extra easy because it’s made with only a few basic ingredients most bakers will have in the pantry: flour, salt, baking soda, (sometimes currants), and buttermilk, which you can easily make with plain milk soured with lemon juice or vinegar.

2 cups milk + 2 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar = buttermilk substitute

I find regular soda bread far too dry, but Ms. Allen has another slightly richer soda bread, in which you add a bit of butter, a small amount of sugar, and one egg: Railway Cake or “Spotted Dog.” Here’s my experience of making this festive bread, “Spotted Dog is not a Dalmatian.”

She shares a charming note that many “women of the house” sold their farm’s eggs for “pin” (spending) money, so they only used eggs for special dishes. 

My husband John and I visited Ireland a few years back, and I can attest to the quality of the food we found everywhere. Last night, I asked John about his impression of Irish food, and immediately he said, “There was a lot of meat.”

Not a problem for him! He was in hog heaven, having meat three times a day—especially having both sausage and rashers (Irish bacon) for breakfast. Here’s where we first experienced a gargantuan “Irish fried breakfast.”

Racket Hall Country House really was out in the country, in County Limerick 

Breakfast included: sausage, rashers, blood pudding, white pudding (both are sausage type meat), eggs, tomatoes, baked beans (Irish, Scottish and English people eat them for breakie), mushrooms, porridge, 3 kinds of bread with jam, cold cereal, fruit, yogurt… as you see, gargantuan! 

At dinner, I mostly stuck to fish, and having salmon every night for days on end was a huge treat. Here’s the best salmon I had, at the King’s Head Pub in Galway City in County Galway. 

Here’s my roast salmon on a bed of rice

You can find American favorites in most restaurants. Here, John’s hamburger is out of the frame, but we both raved about the super creamy coleslaw.

I also made it my business to test chocolate bars every place we stopped! You could find Butler’s Chocolates in every shop in every county—but although I don’t care of bittersweet chocolate, I found Butler’s milk chocolate way too sweet. And I love sweet things! 

My choice: Brona’s chocolate, handmade in County Kerry—it was just right.

The milk chocolate was to die for!

For more about the Irish food we experienced on our trip, here’s “Cream Cakes, Pub Grub, and Everything in Between”…I hope you have something deliciously Irish for St. Patrick’s Day! 

Tomorrow, Irish movies!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

St. Patrick’s Day Countdown—Irish Supernatural Fun + Irish Books on Sale!

I had such a good time creating a “Christmas Countdown” this past December, I figured I’d give St. Paddy’s Day the same treatment! 

At Christmas, I focused on holiday mythology, particularly Iceland’s Yule Lads’ legend—the highly entertaining Icelandic trolls who create mischief and mayhem in the 13 nights before Christmas. 

Ireland, land of fairies and leprechauns, has an entire world of mythology! There’s all those ancient Irish gods and goddesses; as for other supernatural beings, I never knew just how many there were until I read Irish Folk and Fairy Tales by the famed Irish poet W.B. Yeats. 

Actually, I more like devoured this book, it was so fascinating, and you really got the feeling of being present in ye olde sod—fairies and pookas and banshees abounding everywhere. 

Fairy-lovers will like these!

Irish Cures, Mystic Charms and Superstitions is my other top pick for discovering Irish myths. It has a famous connection too—author Lady Wilde was Oscar Wilde’s mother! 

Now, if you’ve visited this blog now and then, you’ll know I’m a book person. So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I pulled my collection of Irish books together and was kinda surprised, with how many I had—like, enough for a little library. 

Susan’s Little Irish Library

I have read all of these several times, and dipped into many of them over and over, doing research for my Irish Village of Ballydara series. I recommend all of them! 

Well, almost all—I haven’t made it through Teach Yourself Irish. I’ve taken a stab at it several times, but it’s missing the accompanying set of cassette tapes, so kind of a lost cause. I’m forever hopeful that I might dip into it someday, so I  keep it around.

The little blue book, Focloir Poca is an Irish-English dictionary, and while I think of myself as a book person, I can’t see myself reading a dictionary all the way through! Still, like Teach Yourself Irish, you never know when you’re going to need that perfect word in the Irish Gaelic language!

For a deep-dive, go for that thick number on the left next to the red book, QPB Book of Irish Literature. It contains some true supernatural gems, like an Irish vampire novella that predates Dracula (which was also written by an Irish person!). I found so many unforgettable stories in here I wholehearted recommend this too. 

Time being of the essence, with March 17 this weekend, hopefully you can find some of these works in ebook. And for freebies, if you find one of these titles in ebook format, you can probably download it at your local library!

You’ll find a list of wonderful  Irish books (that I don’t own) in “Irish Fun” on my website…

In other Irish book news, I created a new cover for my latest Irish novel, The Fairy Cottage of Ballydara!

Book 7 of the Village of Ballydara series

This new cover, I think, captures the otherworldly quality of the setting of the book: the quaint little village of Ballydara, in the misty hills of County Galway. And the gardener in me loves the flowers!

This weekend, you’ll find The Fairy Cottage of Ballydara on sale, as part of a box set! Kobo eBooks selected both my Village of Ballydara box sets for their March 25% off Boxset Sale!

Here’s the link: Just scroll down to “Find a New Favorite”… 

Ballydara Novels #1-4

Ballydara Novels #5-7 plus two short stories

Coupon code MARBOX25. I hope you’ll take a look!

I also hope you’ll get a chance to dip your toe into a bit of Irish reading, especially the supernatural and magical stuff, in the next couple of days…

Next up: Irish Food!

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

DIY Dryer Fix Update—True Confessions

Last September, I wrote about our clothes dryer that wasn’t drying—plus doing stuff like running for 10 seconds, then quitting—and how my husband and I fixed it. Or maybe I should say, “fixed” it. 

One late summer afternoon, we opened up the lint trap assembly, and to my horror, discovered about a cubic foot of lint had accumulated in the innards of the appliance!

A recap: pulling out lint 
We spent a couple of hours yarding out the lint. Really, there was enough to adequately stuff a throw pillow for your couch. 

Then after placing the trap back in its normal position, I loaded in some towels and turned on the dryer…and Voila! It dried the load just beautifully!

Here’s my September “we fixed the dryer!” post.

But true confessions are in order: our “fix” lasted all of 3 loads of clothes. 

Now, the appliance was 17 years old. It had done a good job (most) of those years and surely it was time to replace it. 

But this was the year where all kinds of stuff fell apart. The dishwasher died. A 15-month old set of tires on one of our cars had gone completely bald while we weren’t looking. (Daughter #2 was using the car—and she wasn’t looking either.) 

The crowning glory: What seemed to be a minor clog in the kitchen drain only took 2 plumbers and $1,000 to unclog.

So when the dryer began to seriously misbehave, maybe you can understand why we resisted calling in a professional. But finally the day came when I caved. “We’d better have someone look at it,” I told John. “At least we can find out if it’s worth repairing.”

John had concluded the same thing: we didn’t have much choice. After my phone call, the next week, a young technician appeared at our back door. But when I opened the door and said hello, he didn’t come inside. 

He simply gazed around at the Foothills surrounding our place. “It’s bootiful here,” he said in a lovely Ukrainian accent. “Just bootiful.” 

John and I agreed, of course. By and by our nice technician stopped gazing around and came into our mud/laundry room. Naturally we had to tell him our tales of woe about how this and that didn’t work. Most annoying of all were the weird beeps the dryer emitted all hours of the day and night.

Well, it didn’t take long before our Dr. Bootiful diagnosed the problem: the heating element was toast, and the control panel was fried. There was no fixing this patient. 

Meanwhile, my laundry pile was getting immense, and threatened to take over the laundry room. Nothing to do but buy another dryer.

John, the online shopper of the family, started looking around. After all our extra expenses over the last few months, our price range was basically the cheapest models out there. 

We picked out the most basic dryer we could find. After you add sales tax, delivery fee, installation fee, and the take-your-old-dryer-away fee, they added on about $300 to the price of the dryer. Our out-the-door cost felt far from basic!

As for performance…Let me tell you, when it comes to appliances, “You get what you pay for” is the absolute truth. 

Dryers don’t get much plainer than this!

The dryer is extremely loud. Curiously, the trap doesn’t seem to collect a lot of lint. So easy prediction: we may be yarding lint out of this puppy a few months down the line. Most annoying of all, there’s a buzzer that goes off when the dryer finishes the cycle.

But it’s not any regular buzzer. It’s a jarring beep that lasts about 6 or 7 seconds. In fact, it seems to go on so long I get a deathly fear that the buzzer is actually malfunctioning and will never stop. 

Worst of all: the buzzer is as loud as a smoke alarm. Say, 60 decibels or so, easy. It gives you a terrible jolt, even when you’re at the other end of the house. 

And here’s the kicker: there’s no way to select “No buzzer”!

Still. This appliance does dry our clothes. So better than no dryer at all. Just beware if you are shopping for an inexpensive dryer: make sure there’s an end-cycle buzzer on/off button! 

On a more pleasant note—I’ve been away from this blog since I’ve been working double-time on a new Little Farm book! Details coming soon.

If you’d like to see what’s going on at our little homestead, including how the garden fared after January’s Big Chill, you can mosey on over to my February newsletter, “Astoria, Arctic Blast Aftermath and Our Feathered Friends.” It’s free and open to all…and no need to subscribe!



Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Winter Storm Aftermath

 Here in the Cascade Mountain foothills, we generally get one majorly-major winter storm every January. But the one that hit this January 11 was a two-fer. 

As forecasters predicted, a Northeast gale hit our region…but this one was a doozie. They expected lows in the low single-digits, which in my “Are You Prepared?” post, I mentioned is really cold for our area. 

But it actually got to about 6 degrees below zero. With winds about 35 mph, gusts to 45. In our 17 years in the Foothills, we have never experienced that kind of cold…and or wind chill factors down to -20 or worse.

The day our high was about 3 degrees, with those gusty winds, I didn’t go outside. Not for a short walk, or to bring in firewood. Normally, I go out in every  kind of weather, so that was a first.

And what was unusual about this storm was that we got only a dusting of snow before the cold hit. So there were no handy snowdrifts around the house to insulate the crawlspace.

Luckily, though, my husband John and I followed our own good advice. We finished every item in the previous post’s checklist. And it helped enormously, or should I say, ginormously, that we only lost power for about a minute.

Yep, it feels unbelievable, but as the cold winds howled, we had one minute without electricity. 

Still, it was so cold that for three or four nights, John and I kept two faucets dripping. Also, we kept the heat on all night long, very unusual for us. And circling back to no power loss—what a huge blessing to have had power. 

What also helped was something we did back in November—which I neglected to include in my checklist—that we had actually done back in November: Covered the crawlspace vents. 

We learned our lesson two years ago, with that year’s major winter storm. We did not cover the vents, and our pipes froze. Solid, as frozen as frozen can be.

The one challenge of this deep freeze was that our shower drain froze up. Not surprising, since that bathroom is the room furthest away from the woodstove. But the drain thawed on its own within a few days so all was well.

Two-foot poultry fencing to keep the rabbits out was nearly covered!

Anyway, I mentioned a two-fer: The temps had just warmed up to a balmy 17 degrees, when the weather site forecast 4-6 inches of snow. Well, we got about 14!

But again, and sort of unbelievably, the power stayed on.

And thanks to the brisk northeast wind, the snow blew off our satellite dish, so we didn’t lose internet either.

That first day, instead of taking my usual 2 1/2 mile walk, the furthest I could go, wading through that snow, was 1/8 of a mile. And Holy Moly, was I tuckered out.

We’re not on a county road, just a private lane, so the county snowplows pass us by. Happily, we have terrific neighbors with snow removal equipment who plowed us out. 

We did goof up with one chore: we’d used all the extra firewood we’d brought in during the uber cold snap. Because we thought we were getting just a few inches, I didn’t think to bring a couple of boxes of wood indoors.

 We did have plenty of chopped wood, stowed safely in two of our woodsheds. Yet again, because we figured we wouldn’t get much snow, I didn’t cover the woodpiles with a tarp. As usual around here, in  major snowstorms, the snow blows right into our sheds.

So while John shoveled snow, I got the small broom we use for the car and swept the snow off our firewood. Then brought in not 2 but 3 boxes of firewood to atone for not being prepared!

All in all, we were incredibly lucky with this winter storm.  But then, after all the years of winter power outages, frozen pipes, wet firewood, and other misfortunes, maybe this time we were due for some good luck!

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Are You Prepared? Winter Weather Checklist

 It’s been a mild winter so far.

In our little corner of the Pacific Northwest, the most dramatic weather so far was a “Pineapple Express” (warmish) windstorm on Christmas night. It knocked the power out all over the county, and around here, gusts might have reached 50 mph.

All I can say I’m glad it wasn’t a Northeaster, because frigid winds at 50 would have broken our area firs like toothpicks. 

However, a major cold front is expected next week—down into the single digits, which is c-c-cold for around here. 

We never get that kind of cold without strong Northeast winds barreling down from the Canadian prairies. And that means a strong likelihood for a power outage. Or several of them. Snow is forecast too.

So with the probability of being snowed in, without electricity for two or three days, tells my husband John and me that preparation needs to happen! 

He’s a fan of “prepper” websites and Pinterest pins, and there’s some really innovative gadgets out there, like a bicycle-powered mini-sawmill. John actually bought us a collapsible wood-burning mini-stove for cooking out in the field. It’s cool, but I’ll stick with indoor camp cooking…with our full-sized woodstove!

Anyway, to get ready for just the usual weather-related power outages, here’s what we do:

Rechargeable lantern, flashlight, and solar recharger

*Have our battery-powered lanterns close at hand, and make sure they’re fully charged.

*Same goes for our rechargeable flashlights—the one in the photo also doubles as a mini-lantern. I use it instead of a headlamp, since headlamps run through batteries like crazy. 

*Put our solar recharger station into our south window to fully charge. 

*Speaking of charging, we make sure our iPads and laptops’ charge is topped up.

*Chop extra firewood, fill both our firewood containers—plus bring two extra loads into the house for backup.

*Start the generator to ensure that it’s in working order, and check the gas supply and oil.

*Gas up the gas cans for the generator. 

*Check our food stores. We normally keep lots of extra food on hand for the winter months—actually, since the pandemic, we keep our fridge and pantry well-stocked generally. But when a storm is on the way, we make a trip to town for staples like extra eggs, milk, and bread. 

*In case we do lose power, two chores I’ve just incorporated into our prep routine is 1) get the laundry done and 2) run the dishwasher—even though it wasn’t 100% full. It’s nice not to face a mountain of dirty laundry and dishes when the power is restored. 

In some respects, we’re better prepared these days. In the past, water was always a problem for power outages—and keeping our water system from freezing up. But now we’ve got a backup solar battery system for our well, we can keep pump house warm with the electric heater, and the water flowing.

In a small way, however, we’re less prepared. We let go of our very expensive landline a couple of years ago, and got on “VoiP”—internet phone service via our satellite. In our landline days, we had an old rotary phone, and we actually could use the phone line, with no electricity needed.

Not any more. Without internet—which of course takes electricity—we’re cut off from the world.

Not that we mind all that much! As inconvenient as losing power is, and being in pioneer mode, it does give us a chance to just be. Read and rest. Though we can’t take a break from chopping firewood…

You’ll find winter wisdom and homesteady garden tips in my January newsletter, “Early Winter Garden & Un-Resolutions”!