Spring News

Yippee! It's Spring. Finally. You know, you come and visit us and it's all sunshine and the garden is in bloom, everyone's sitting outside having tea and scones - it couldn't be more idyllic. But we, well we sit through the long dark winters and count off the hours to Spring and longer days while staring out at the rain. So we tend to get pretty excited when Spring does eventually get here.

We're not the only ones pleased by the warm weather. Little lizards are out and about on the warm crags of the Burren. Tiny, but very pretty up close, if you can manage to sneak up on one, which isn't easy.

Also to be seen basking on stones are visitors enjoying organic cakes and teas outside the Tearooms. One of our winter projects was to build two raised, flagged areas in front of the Tearoooms and to screen the area so that no-one can park there anymore. Basking is really much more enjoyable without having cars driving up to within inches of your table.

In fact, we've decided that cars are better not seen and not heard. To this end we've lowered our car park a metre into the ground so the cars are less visible in the landscape. We've also built new walls and berms (raised banks of earth) planted with trees that will help screen off cars from both the eye and the ear as the trees mature.

Not being huge fans of the straight line, our new walls are all curves and spirals. The new paths and paved areas also have patterns inlaid into them, again echoing the graceful unfurling of fern heads that was the inspiration for the wall shown to the left. Of course, it doesn't say this anywhere, so we see a lot of people gazing thoughtfully at this wall and advancing various theories on its origin!

In the Tearooms we have two new chefs, Rebecca and Julia. New chefs means new recipes: new cakes, new soups, new scones - all of which have to be personally tested by us to ensure they meet our stringent quality standards. Tested repeatedly... Actually our daughter Fionn seems to do quite a lot of independent testing, especially of the chocolate cakes!

The Perfumery has been here for over thirty five years but it's the Organic Tearooms that seems to be putting us on the map. Since it opened three years ago we have started appearing in all sorts of guides: Les Routiers, Georgina Campbell's Good Food Guide, Guide Routard, The Lonely Planet, Let's Go, and the Bridgestone Guide. The Tearooms now has a loyal following of locals who come to relax and read the papers, as well as our visitors from all corners of the globe.

With all the digging, building, planting, weeding and baking going on, one would be forgiven for thinking we've no time left for making perfumes. However we've been equally busy inside the Perfumery during the winter preparing products in advance of the summer season. Our Burren Botanicals range, launched at the end of last Summer has proven to be a great success. The lighter, fresher scents are appealling to those who like to be reminded of the scents of nature and the herb garden. Our regular customers are delighted with the new body lotions that come with Frond, Ilaun and Man of Aran. The new Frond formulation is very popular, although we still prepare the previous Frond in small quantities for customers loyal to that scent.

We've made more handmade soap already this year than in any previous year, both for our visitors and for country house hotels. This is a new development for the Perfumery: bespoke ranges of beautifully packaged natural products for luxury hotels seeking something unique for their customers. We are also developing new plant-based shampoos and conditioners (as part of our Burren Botanicals range), which we hope to have available in the shop and online during the summer.

On another front we are starting a long term project to reduce the environmental impact of the Perfumery. Over the course of the next five years (as and when we can afford it!) we plan to revise or upgrade each of our major systems to be as green as we can manage. This year's project is to install a reed bed for natural treatment of sewage effluent. We aim to reduce our power and water consumption by 50% or more over the next five years, by such means as installing low wattage lighting, making greater use of natural light, using renewable (e.g. geothermal or passive solar) heating, collecting and recycling waste water and roof run-off, using solar panels for water heating and so on.

We consider ourselves very lucky to be able to live and work in such a wonderful and pristine part of the World, and we aim to keep it that way. After all, the longest standing and most loyal customer of the Tearooms is the beautiful fox that comes around to eat scones in the evenings. We need ensure that the Burren remains a safe and clean environment for her and her cubs.

Sadie and Ralph