Thankful...oh! Its Friday!

Has it been Thursday all day? Sorry! I was busy and I seem to have missed it....whoops!

1) Thankful for busy days of achievements- even long awaited chores need doing at some point!! I think...

2) Thankful for friends who come and stay, especially easy-going people who take us as they find us!

3) Thankful for a house with elastic walls and carpeted floors! Even when we run out of bed-space, there's always the floor!

4) Thankful for a Hub who is such a handyman, and willing to deal with his wife's stupidity...(see previous post!!)

5) Thankful for my mad, bad, crazy dogs who are company, entertainment and a daily lesson in living every day to the full: they are never tired, or bored, or fed up: every day is a joyous new beginning, outside the front door is a wonderful new fresh world, each walk is full of new smells to investigate, running with the wind in their ears is always wonderful, and they are always always ALWAYS delighted to see us.

Is there any better way to live?

Challenge Check #5

First- yesterday our Rector began his sermon by reading out this...you've just gotta read it!!

Dottie Angel Challenge- two items:
A Barter/Swap Scheme- for the idea see here, and for the follow up see here.
You people are so encouraging that I’m going to run with it on Wednesday this week and see what happens! Keep me posted please?!

For the Fertilizer Factory now set up in my back kitchen see here!

Creative Every Day Challenge

After some thought about February’s topic ‘Home’ this is where I’m beginning:

For me the idea of home doesn’t revolve around a house but the places where I feel at home. Until I was five we lived in the States, in Virginia, then California, returning to Ireland in 1969. Then in 1977 when I was 13 years old, my family left Ireland due to Dad’s work, and I didn’t live here again until July of the year 2000. I lived in London, Malvern, Bath, Nairobi, the Rift Valley and Thika, worked or spent time in Paris, the Pyrenees, Donegal, and other places I’ve since forgotten. I was privileged to come into contact with people of many nationalities and faiths, to become relatively fluent in French and Kiswahili, to mix with cultures I hadn’t previously encountered, and to travel all over East Africa.

But, and to me as the years progressed it became an increasingly huge ‘but’, in all those years I felt displaced, disconnected, a free radical ?! I gave the problem a lot of thought and it seemed to me that perhaps at heart I was actually Irish, and I needed to try living there to see.

As you can imagine, uprooting an African husband and three bush babies was no joke, but we did it and not one of us regrets the change. The Hub is still an African, but since the Irish in general are utter eccentrics he fits right in, and two of the bush babies turned out to be more Irish than African. The eldest bush baby revels in her dual personality and knows she can return to East Africa whenever she likes.

So to me, ‘home’ is an ordinary seaport town in the west of Ireland with river, mountains, lakes and ocean all around me:

Hazelwood.
Benbulben.
On Keelogyboy looking towards Lough Gill and the Ox Mountains.
Streedagh beach, this morning.
Streedagh beach looking towards Gleniff.

A lonely beech tree in Grange Village, this morning.

Rosses Point Village.

Hyde Bridge, Sligo town facing down stream to the sea.
Yes, here, I’m home.

Home again-jiggety jig!

We got back from London yesterday with no hitches, though I have to say that Aer Lingus' check in routines in Gatwick were a bit chaotic, but we found our way, really by Mum accosting people and asking. Then she was most put out when we went downstairs to go to the Departures gate to discover another level of shops! So she did a quick detour whilst we went on!

Monday we each spent doing errands, I had to buy new music for the School Nativity this Christmas as I have used up everything I own. I found two suitable books in Chappell’s which was great. I also visited John Lewis, Liberty, HMV, and then, as I had nearly two hours before meeting the others I headed to the V & A Museum, which is one of my favourite places! I visited the Theater Exhibit, Textiles and the gallery housing Owen Jones’ sketches. I took quite a few photos to work from, and lots of ideas for quilt patterns are milling around in my head. (Don’t you find Ideas take on a life of their own and the jostling can become fairly noisy and acrimonious? Sometimes I wonder who is in charge of the inside of my head- me or the Ideas?)

On Monday evening we went to see the Musical ‘Wicked’, a recent prequel to the ‘Wizard of Oz’. It was brilliant! Set design and costumes were phantasmagorical and intricate, and the technical side was spectacular. We were sitting right up in the gods and I think we lost nothing by being so far from the stage. I’d go again, and in fact it was the bro’s second time.

ceiling of the Apollo Theater, Art Deco design and very evocative of that era, I thought.

Victoria and Albert Museum
Theater exhibit- the detail on this was beautiful but the photo is not good; it gives an idea though.
part of the Theater exhibit
this and below, some of Owen Jones' drawings. They were meticulous, detailed, and the colours really vivid still- I'm going to research him further.

inner courtyard of the V & A Museum

chandeliers in Liberty. Its such a beautiful building.

galleries in Liberty

The Royal College of Organists by the Royal Albert Hall, I had to take a photo of that!

Kew Gardens

canna lillies outside the Palm House, just look at the pattern on those leaves!

the Water Lily House- it was beautiful and a lot of lillies were flowering.

agapanthus and phlox, can't remember which section

eucalyptus bark

rock pool in the Alpine section with the Princess of Wales Glasshouse behind

anthurium in the Palm House.

waterlily.

It was wet and windy at Knock, but more rain on the wind than lashing, if you see the distinction! I was quite amusing as the plane taxied to its place a loud and indignant small (English) voice exclaimed: 'It's raining!' Everyone laughed. Anyhow, as soon as Mom had the case, we opened it and got out jerseys and anoraks, before even leaving the baggage hall! Yes, well, we knew we were home...