Philip Judge

After a month in a high rise in Chicago, life back in the countryside seems quaint

The drawer is packed like Tutankhamen’s tomb but we won’t dispose of anything

The ‘welly tree’ didn’t pass the taste test

Seville oranges are in, but I need to go shopping to improve this year’s batch

The bookshelves in our cottage are full, but some day there’ll be space for more

Philip Judge’s tree is adorned with years of decorations, both tasteful and tawdry

Accumulated years of Irish winters mean crumbling plaster, sweaty floors and wilting newspapers

Dublin Theatre Festival: Intimate snapshots of life in Dublin 15 pair actors with locals. The results are top-notch

‘I often regret my lack of interesting socks – but they’re there. I just can’t find them’

We have dozens, some for making prosecco look like champagne, others for extinguishing fires

You want to grow to love your garden, not hate it. I adore my vegetable patch – but it is too large

Extending could mean letting go of olde worlde touches like headbanger doors

A strong wind took away the cheap gazebos, but a cherry tree gives us just the right shade

Whenever our neighour asked about the troublesome tank I would shrug and think of butterflies

Writer Philip Judge is sometimes visited by the relatives and descendants of others who have lived in his home

I have no technological tools for my small-scale husbandry, but I get a never-failing thrill when I fork over a ridge of dark clay to reveal a spill of new potatoes