LA TRAVIATA ALFRESCO: It's not Glyndebourne, but opera on the lawn at Marlfield House, in Gorey, Co Wexford, with a champagne bar close by, could be a pleasant way to while away the hours on a summer evening.
Marlfield House and the Drawing Room Opera Company are coming together for the first time to stage this event on Tuesday, May 23rd. Music from favourites such as The Pearl Fishers, La Traviata, Carmen, L'Elisir d'Amore and Tales of Hoffman will be performed.
A pre- or post-opera buffet can be had in the lovely conservatory restaurant, and those who want to escape from reality for a little longer can stay overnight at a special rate.
An opera-and-buffet ticket costs €145; overnight accommodation costs €110 per person sharing. The performance begins at 7.30pm. The Print Room champagne and wine bar willl be open from 5pm. For tickets, call 053-9421124. Deirdre McQuillan
HOT TIPPS FROM VILLAGE PEOPLE
Infrastructural work on the Village "eco-community" in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary - a project first mooted in 1999 - is due to go ahead in August, and construction of houses is due to start in March next year. There has been phenomenal interest in the project, and all the house plots sold out long before a sod had been turned.
There are still sites left for terraces and apartments, however, says Mike Newham of Sustainable Projects, the not-for-profit company that owns the 64-acre site. The sustainable village will come complete with commercial units, playgrounds, community buildings and extensive horticulture and wildlife areas. Buyers of the fully serviced plots become co-owners of these public facilities, too. More details from www.thevillage.ie or 0505-42833.
If you're interested in sustainable building in general, a six-week course called "The Village Talks" starts at 7.30pm on Wednesday at Cultivate, 15-19 Essex Street West, Temple Bar, where speakers include Duncan Stewart. The course explores sustainable options for designing, building, heating and powering your home. €15 a night or €60 for course, www.cultivate.ie, 01-6745773.
If that's still not enough for you, a series of free sustainability seminars takes place at the SelfBuild show, Galway Racecourse, on May 26th, 27th and 28th. www.selfbuild.ie. Eimear McKeith
JEANS FOR NON DAUGHTERS
All my friends seem to be talking about Tummy Tucks, the "miracle" jeans made by a US company named NYDJ, or Not Your Daughter's Jeans. The trousers, which use a criss-cross fabric to flatten the tummy and lifts the buttocks "for a curved and contoured look", have become a bestseller for the Nordstrom chain. Women with shapely posteriors who hate low rises and have been searching for years for jeans that make them look slim are raving about them. Find them in Pamela Scott, on Grafton Street, Dublin 2, where the Tummy Tucks (some with rhinestone detailing on back pockets) in blue, black and stone denim, at prices from €129. www.tummytuckjeans.com. Deirdre McQuillan
THEY TUCK YOU UP
Freda Kavanagh loves putting people to bed. In her shop in the courtyard of Mount Usher Gardens, in Ashford, Co Wicklow, a large wooden bed is an essential part of the visit. Talk to her about buying a pillow or a quilt and she will have you tucked up faster than you can say "40 winks". Some customers, she says, have become so comfortable that they've dozed off. Whole families have climbed into bed in her shop, and on rainy days many are reluctant to get out, preferring to look at the trees from their comfortable nest.
In 1998, Kavanagh returned from Atlanta, in Georgia, where by day she had worked in educational television and by night slept on a feather bed with a feather-filled mattress topper. Back home, she decided she would make feather beds instead of television. The feather bed supports pressure points such as hips and shoulders, is thought not to irritate asthmatics or allergy sufferers and can be washed. "I haven't met anybody who hasn't liked it," she says. "I had one customer who was never late for work for 15 years. Then, the first week after she bought a feather bed, she was late twice that week."
Kavanagh also sells a range of pillows and three-season down duvets. Prices for feather beds range from €236 for a single to €458 for the super king. Beds of a Feather, Mount Usher Gardens, Ashford, Co Wicklow, www.bedsofafeather.com, 0404-42804. Catherine Cleary
THE MAYO MICHAEL D
It is one of the most stunning routes in the west, yet Doolough is synonymous with heartache and horror. There is no consensus on how many people died on a trek in snow from Louisburgh, in Co Mayo, along the mountain valley to Delphi Lodge and back in March 1849, but it is known that hundreds set out.
It was the height of the Famine, and anyone who wanted to be certified as a "pauper" had to show up for inspection by two "commissioners". The trek became a necessity when the original venue, in Louisburgh, was switched to Delphi, 10 miles away. Contemporary newspapers, which heard about fatalities only some days later, put the toll at between nine and 20; local folklore soon multiplied it.
"Perhaps the truth lies between," writes Leon Ó Morcháin, in the programme for this year's commemorative event, hosted by Afri and Louisburgh Community Project.
Held on the theme of "land for people, not for profit", it will mark the centenary of the death of the Mayo land reformer Michael Davitt and will look at the issue of resources in both the Niger delta, in Africa, and Erris, in Co Mayo, through adults' and children's eyes.
The children get their crack at it on Friday, with a presentation of music, drama and art that night by pupils of Killeen, Louisburgh and Lecanvey schools at Louisburgh Town Hall, at 8pm. Next Saturday, the annual "almost-11-mile" commemorative walk from Doolough to Louisburgh takes place at 2pm.
It will be led by the singer Christy Moore; Dr Owens Wiwa, brother of the late Nigerian writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by the Nigerian military government in 1995 over opposition to Shell's activities; and Vincent and Maureen McGrath. McGrath, also a musician, is one of the Rossport Five, who spent 94 days in jail last year over his opposition to the Corrib gas pipeline.
Castlebar and Westport fair-trade groups will provide tea, coffee and water at a halfway point, and Afri has organised transport from Dublin early on May 20th for budding participants. Contact Afri on 01-8827563 or Louisburgh Community Project on 098-68724. Lorna Siggins
DRESSES FOR DINNER
Spaghetti straps could be on the menu at the Enable Ireland fashion show, at Milano restaurant, on Dawson Street in Dublin. The ticket includes a drinks reception, dinner and wine, and a special viewing of covetable clothes from, among others, Rococo, Noa Noa and Pia Bang. June 6th, 8pm. Tickets €60 from Milano or 01-2615921. Nicoline Greer
OH MY DOG
Ever watched a TV talent show and thought, "My dog could do better than that"? If so, put your money where your mutt is and sign your pet up to www.moviepets.ie, an online animal agency. Tommy Bolton, for whom this is something of a pet project, is looking for all kinds of animals. If your pet has what it takes to star in a film, ad or soap, sign 'em up for €40. EMcK
* Life's givers and takers come together on www.jumbletown.ie, where people offer unwanted items to anybody prepared to collect them. As you'll know if you've ever raided a skip in the dead of night, one person's junk is another's retro chic. NG