Putting Redwood on the map
Redwood – a tiny townland in North Tipperary, very close to the border with Co. Offaly. Not very well known? Well, this week it has been put firmly on the map! The blog A Year in Redwood (ayearinredwood.com) won the Best Lifestyle Blog at the Blog Awards Ireland ceremony in Naas on Saturday last.
The blog – a diary of rural life in Tipperary, written by a city girl – was started 3 years ago by Margaret O’Farrell who moved to Redwood in 2003 having spent all her life living in Limerick and Dublin. Named after the Peter Mayle book (A Year in Provence), A Year in Redwood follows a similar pattern chronicling the ordinary, everyday things that happen on and off the small-holding where 
Margaret and Alfie rear free-range pigs, goats, ducks, hens…. and also have 2 cats and 2 dogs. They share with readers the ups and downs of small-holding living, the trials and tribulations of growing your own fruit and vegetables and all the other aspects of life in rural Ireland.
Margaret said “there were over 1500 nominations for the Blog Awards this year (www.blogawardsireland.com), so it was an honour to be short-listed, not to mind to be voted by independent judges as the overall winner in the Lifestyle Category. I am still over-whelmed and speechless!”
When Margaret started the blog, it was family and friends that read it, now, however, the readership is now global with regular readers in places as far flung as Canada, USA and Australia. You too can follow at www.ayearinredwood.com, www.oldfarm.ie, on facebook at www.facebook.com/OldfarmPork or on twitter @oldefarm.
