It's been a busy summer. Very busy. Last year we thought things might slow down with the global recession, and we ended up having our best year ever. This year we were still cautious, the Irish economy is in the doldrums and tourism numbers were expected to fall further. And yet again, we've had a great year (so far at least). More people than ever came to visit us and the girls in the Tearooms could hardly bake cakes fast enough to keep up. We had some fantastic weather this year (a change from the last two rainy summers!) so maybe that helped.

Along with all the normal hurly-burly of a busy season, Céleste kept everyone on their toes. When she wasn't paddling in the turlough, she was busy trying to re-arrange everything she could reach in the shop. She likes walking and being outside so for most of the day either Ralph or myself was led around by one hand to provide toddling support. Most days this meant a 6 am start and by the end of the summer we were pretty shattered!

The other thing we've been very busy with this year has been the re-packaging and certification of our cream range. We've spent the last couple of years developing this range, tweaking the formulas and listening to what our customers have been saying about them. This spring we decided the time was right to get them properly packaged and at the same time to see if we could get them certified.

We choose the UK Soil Association as the certifying body to work with because we believe they have the highest and most stringent organic standards. We began the process in April and completed it in August, receiving our licence at the end of last month. You can read all about the process, the standard and what it means here.

Gay and Sarah were hard at work in the garden this year and I don't think it has ever looked so good. They changed the layout a little to soften the symmetry and Gabriel built some beautiful new curving walls to lead the eye and frame the beds. The weather probably helped this year too. We had very fine weather through spring and into early summer, though very dry. July was rainy, but it was welcome rain as springs and wells were running dry, and the turlough was lower than we'd ever seen it. Trees that had been wilting and herbs that had been struggling at the end of June put forth new growth and the Perfumery became the leafy green oasis that we have become accustomed to in the summer.

This year's unusual weather seemed to affect the wild flora of the Burren also. We had the coldest winter for 40 years, and the clear weather and frosty nights persisted late into spring. Gentians and early purple orchids, the heralds of the new season, were a few weeks late in appearing, and seemed less profuse than usual, perhaps because of the long dry spell. But then it seemed that with the rain in July, summer released her pent up breath, and suddenly there were wild flowers in abundance everywhere.

In some areas, where cattle had churned up the surface, or perhaps as a result of last November's flooding activating deeply buried seed, the ground was quite literally carpeted with flowers. And the profusion has persisted throughout the summer, with white carpet giving way to yellow, and yellow to purple, as successive species make their appearances: oxeye daisies and yarrow, knapweed and dandelion, harebell and scabious.

I'm sorry that we've been a bit too busy over the last few years to keep up with regular letters. However we now have a facebook page where we post short news updates when we can, recipes from the Tearooms, photos from the unfolding year in the Burren, and the occasional special offer.

To find us on facebook, just search for "Burrren Perfumery" and then click on 'like' to be kept in touch with what we're up to.

Many thanks to everyone who visited this year for the kind words and compliments. It is very encouraging to be appreciated. And please do email us if you have any questions, suggestion, comments or criticisms.

Warm regards,