I apologise for the late delivery of our summer newsletter. In our defence, this summer has been the busiest ever for the Perfumery. 50% more visitors, 50% more sales, 100% less rain. Yes, bizarrely (for Ireland in summer) it didn't really rain here from July through to the end of August. It's making up for it now though; it's been raining for the last four days. Lack of rain can be a big problem here though. Many houses rely on wells, springs, or rain water tanks, and lots of people ran out of water. Very luckily, we didn't, otherwise we would've been the only Tea Rooms with no tea...

This summer brought many good things to us. Our own honey from our own honey bees was one very nice addition. Robin Sheen, our bee-keeper partner also raises organic strawberries. He brought us a few kilos to see whether we were interested in buying any. We tasted them and were dumbfounded. The very best strawberries we have ever eaten. Super-delicious. Fionn, Sadie and I ate the whole lot in about 24 hours. The next consignment was about 10 kilos, destined for the Tea Rooms. We managed to put a a big hole in that batch too, but some made it out to the Tea Rooms to be served with fresh organic cream, much to the delight of our patrons.

Fionn had a big birthday cake of sponge with strawberries, which her army of friends demolished. More strawberries kept arriving. We were starting to slow down. Then a day came when Robin told us that it was near the end of the crop. We all breathed a sigh of relief. It's true what they say about too much of a good thing!

The scone fox became more and more bold as the summer progressed. She (or he?) took to sitting on the flower bed directly outside the tea rooms waiting for lunch. She became so tame that I could fed her brown bread out of my hand. Then one evening I saw another fox coming out of the woods and crossing our car park. A much cleaner, younger looking fox.

It seems that our friendly fox now has a family and is training them in the fine art of scone filching! I wasn't certain that evening, but a couple of nights later I saw mother and cub together, waiting in the bushes for closing time.

Now that I was alerted to the possibility I kept a lookout for more cubs and one morning saw the mother crossing the turlough with two cubs in tow, and I think there might even be a third one around. We're all very happy that she has raised a family. Foxes are very beautiful as well as being important elements of the Irish ecosystem.

Also busy raising families this summer were the many small birds species that live around the Perfumery. The bluetits returned to nest again in a wall in the Herb Garden, seemingly oblivious to visitors walking past with a few feet of their front door. Sitting quietly nearby I was able to watch the pair delivering an endless supply of insects and caterpillars to their hidden nestlings.

All of the nesting boxes we put up this year (around the children's bird hide and in various other corners) were completely ignored in favour of stone walls and crevices in trees. Maybe it takes a while for them to get discovered.

Speaking of visitor attractions: after spending many, many hours building and planting features for children like the maze, the sunken bird hide, the willow tunnel - what has been our most successful children's feature this year? Five tonnes of left over builder's sand. It started with Fionn doing a bit of bucket and spade work on the huge heap of sand and then leaving the tools of her trade in place. Ever since then every time we look around there's a bunch of kids perched on top of the heap, busy digging and piling and planting sticks and flowers and so on. It's great.