So Where...?

'Heavy rain led to flooding in parts of Country Tyrone and motorists were advised to drive with care or avoid roads altogether due to the adverse weather conditions.' 

Strange advice for Met Eireann to be giving motorists...I wonder how the farmers will feel having to tow random cars out of their fields?

If they'd meant motorists to take to the boats they should have been specific.

Honestly guys?!

Rain and River

We've had real feisty April showers this week and the river has risen considerably:

I took these with my phone as the light was failing and I didn't think there was time to run and get the camera- hence dodgy quality!
Last week the water was so low that the ducks and seagulls were walking up and down, paddling.

I WorkWorkWorkWork...

....work the whole day long...

Isn't that the dwarfs song from Sleeping Beauty?

Well believe it or not, there have actually been enough dry spells in the last ten days for me to get some work done in the garden! A few drenchings too when I had my head down amongst the weeds and didn't notice the growing blackness of the sky, but maybe if I stand in the rain often enough I'll grow.....? Faint chance at this stage!

Firstly I weeded all along the montbretias, front and back, and was a bit disappointed when I realised how much of the growth was weed, not flower! Oooops! However in the last five days they have come along beautifully and are now just about flowering.

The grass and weeds along our verge were almost waist height as the strimmer is banjaxed. I took out the good old 'slasher' and hacked them down to a reasonable size. Its still all weeds, but its tidy weeds- a step in the right direction!!

 The blackberries are flowering ever so late; if we don't have an Indian summer nothing will ripen, but if we do we'll be inundated. Last year's crop was very patchy so we could do with plenty for jam!

 And I detest pulling up thistles even worse than nettles as they always seem to get me. Mind you, I was plenty stung too- anyone would think I was growing a nettle farm here. I lined the thistles up to put on the fire in the hopes of killing off any potential seeds, so alas alack but this fella is no more!

It doesn't look much does it, but the growth this summer has been something else with the wet and warm temperatures. I've done a fair bit of work around the patio and the beds along the walls but you can't really tell.

Oh well, I know everything is a bit tidier!!

...And How's YOUR Ark?

Thank you all sooo much for your lovely comments! Very kind and encouraging too when the doubts set in at 4am!!

But d'yez want a laugh? A real cackle, now?

Last week I signed the lease and met several of the people who work in the same building (who are lovely, but then aren't most craftspeople?) and there I am all excited, just waiting on my very own set of keys...

So today when I leave school I head into town to see whether the keys are cut and I'm met by one mortified owner...yesterday afternoon there was an absolute deluge in town and...the studio flooded!! A drain at the lower end of the yard blocked up and the water rose until it was over the lintel of the studio door and In.It.Went!

Can you believe it?? I'm afraid when she told me I started laughing- it is so absolutely the sort of thing which happens to me! You've heard of Murphy's Law ('If it can go wrong it will go wrong!'), well I really believe there should be the Law of Heckety too, something along the lines of 'If its bizarre, unbelievable, or so ridiculously unlikely that no one would believe you, then it will happen to Heckety.'

Should I have warned my new Landlady that I am a bit of a hazard? Even when I'm not there??

By this morning the water had all been siphoned out, mopped up and the extractor fans were going full blast to get rid of the smell. The owner is in the process of getting the blocked drain dealt with where it extends beyond her property and the door lintel built up higher, but for the moment I guess I'd better hold off moving anything...unless it on stilts or waterproof!!

Quite Quackers

We've had a good bit of rain recently, including a sudden deluge yesterday just before I had to leave the house. Not so surprising in Ireland...its how we stay green, right?

I delivered Youngest to town and was returning home on our usual country road, dodging surface water, puddles, floods, and oncoming vehicles doing similar...when I came around a corner to find THREE DUCKS merrily swimming in a large puddle in the MIDDLE of the road!!

Quite Quackers!

PS. We didn't have duck for dinner, no oranges!
Just joking! I swerved and avoided them, not that they paid me any heed...

THAT sort of day...

If the rain is blowing in on the wind, would you call it a windy day?...or a rainy day?...

If you drove to school with the headlights on, had lights on inside all day because it was so grey and dark, and then drove home in the dark, would that be a day's work?...or a night's work?...

Is a duck allowed to use a zebra crossing?...and if you are as wet as a duck, but not officially a duck, are you still allowed to use the zebra crossing?

And if, driving along the street in town, you come up behind four soggy people carrying canoes and paddles, does that mean you've strayed into the river?...or are they taking a short cut ?...

Its been that sort of day really.

Add in: a small boy throwing his coat in the air for fun, and it being blown over the school roof, and road, into the hotel next door...losing the school telephone (twice...)...going into the chemist to buy school supplies and being loudly asked whether I've been banjaxing the children AGAIN...and forgetting my errands list on the desk in the office...

Some days are just like this.

I'm ready for tomorrow now, please?

But I did get a pair of 5.5mm knitting needles, so I can begin my sister's shrug! So it wasn't a total washout!

Of Saucers

So you know the way Ireland is saucer shaped, geologically speaking, mountains around the edges and all them bogs and flat farmland in the middle?

D'you know why it’s so?

I’ve a theory...it’s to keep all the water in and to make sure we float.

Put a saucer in a bucket of water and you'll see.

But here's the thing now; if you get too much water into the middle of the saucer what happens?

It sinks.

So I’m just thinking here, that if anyone has immediate access to the climatic tap that's doing the unending dripping on Ireland, they might want to take a wrench to the valve and shut it off for a bit, before we either drown or sink???

And no, I wouldn't fancy living in the Sahara, and yes, I kinda like the emeraldishness of this island, but c'mon haven't we enough water to be going on with for now?

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday strikes again! Please visit Greg's to read his Thankfuls as they are always worth reading!

I think today's Thankfuls are a bit of a mixed bag...

1. Thankful that I've had some or all of my girls at home recently, on and off, now and then, occasionally- you get the gist! They ebb and flow like the tide but its just so good to have them around.

2. Thankful for my garden even if it remains mostly uncharted jungle...you know on Medieval maps when they wrote over the unexplored territory 'Here Be Dragons!'? Well they may have been referring to my garden you know! Its hard work but really good for the soul.

3. Thankful that the Hub has two week's leave at present and I get to spend all of every day with him. He's catching up on his weariness and also doing heavy work in the garden, and its just really good to have him at home.

4. Thankful for the rain this last fortnight, even if we seem to have moved rather abruptly from 'Summer' to 'Monsoon season'...bet you didn't know there was a monsoon season in the west of Ireland!! Ha! Ha! There isn't normally!! But the rain is good, very good.

5. Thankful for ripe raspberries! Straight from the bush...odd how seldom there are enough for everyone to have a good serving! Only a gardener knows the real delight of grazing the veg patch on a summer's day- ask Greg! He frequently says the very same thing!!

6. This is an extra, and a bit of an odd one perhaps:

Yesterday afternoon the Hub was working in the Cathedral so I went along and did some clearing in the Graveyard. Our Church is right in the middle of town but it was really peaceful working there despite cars and people on the other side of the wall.

As I weeded my way round slabs and headstones and crypts and doors I was thinking of the history of the place and all the people who have gone before us; the folks who have worshipped in the Church, who have mown the grass, who have carved the headstones, who have wept, laughed, feared, prayed, trusted; who have entered that place since 1245 to speak to God and been heard.

The first Rector was appointed after the Reformation in 1625, prior to that its possible the Church was served by the Friars from the Abbey, records are a bit sparse. Consider 1625 to 2010 as a modern Parish Church? That's a lot of people- that's some tradition we follow folks.

So then, I'm thankful for the past Parishioners of our Church who kept it in good repair and have preserved it so that each Sunday we can follow their footsteps and worship there.

Tinkful Toisday!

Thank you to Greg for hosting Thankful Thursday! He gets up REALLY early to do it you know!

This week's Thankfuls:

1. Thankful for this amazingly warm weather we are having, and also that it rained over the past few days- good growing conditions. For us, this warmth is wonderful!

2. Thankful for all the flowers, wild and cultivated, which are presently blooming; they do so brighten up the hedges, the countryside, the garden, and my day!

3. Thankful that when the car has been in the Garage recently they have been able to lend us one of their run-around vehicles. Being a rural one-car family has its challenges!

4. Thankful for the Sunday School children in Church and the fun of being with them. Last Sunday was the Sunday School Prize giving and the children did a play and sang- all four of them! It was great! (Our Congregation would consist almost entirely of retired folks, and of those of us with children they are mostly Secondary School and College age.)

5. Thankful that with all the 'away' activities my girls are into, that I can trust God to keep watch over them and to hold onto them. I've said it before but I'm saying it again- how do parents cope with their children's antics without a faith in God's love and providence?


Well, that 's my Thankfuls for this week- if you want to join in do visit Greg? He welcomes everyone at his place!

Challenge Report # 4

Please click here for my One World One Heart Giveaway.

If you follow 'Timeless Treasures' I'm changing things there a little...

D'you see the Google whatsit on my sidebar? Well if you stick your email address in there you'll receive my fortnightly 'ish' Newsletter from the Shop, along with Nifty Thrifty ideas!

And now to business:

How’s your week been? All I’ve to show for Dottie Angel’s Challenge is a Great Big Mess:…six pairs of old jeans in mid-? up-? re-? cycle…and since I’ve sent out the call for more I guess I’d better get these finished soon! My sister in the Foreign Office has sent out a request, Dilly has put a notice and basket backstage in the Theatre where she works, and Sos has put out the word to all her friends in the Institute…
Raw material coming up, I hope!

And Creative Every Day?

Well, since the Body theme probably ended last week, I’m doing a final posting today to wind up- but a bit different, not just the five senses, but one memory for each as well.

Sight and Sound

Early on Sunday morning I sat for a while and watched the snow falling. It always amazes me that it it so quiet, and it also seems to hush the usual country sounds. It was so beautiful, big white flakes thickly falling and hardly a sound anywhere.

Memory: In East Africa we used to go on safari to the Game Reserves sometimes (expensive!) and the quality of the silence out in the bush was more than just a lack of sound. The soughing of the breeze in the dry grass, distant honks and growls and sudden flap of wings, the cries of birds of prey, and the huge African emptiness. In the evenings there were crickets, cicadas and animals closer, tree frogs, birds and the sudden scream of unknown things.
Sounds once heard, not soon forgotten. Sounds which settle inside you forever, I think.
(Sorry about the zebra- my sisters have a 'thing' for zebras...I was looking for a photo of just savannah but zebras keep popping up everywhere when I enlarge the thumbnails!)

Smell

Here in the West of Ireland each season has a smell, and even coming snow has a scent, dank and raw and bitterly cold. The spring smells of mould, the summer of harebells and wet hedges, the autumn of smoke and dead leaves. This last week has had that dank winter smell to it.

Memory: The dusty musty smell of the first shower of rain on the earth after a dry spell, mmmm.

Taste

On Saturday evening the Hub and I had a Chinese takeaway…it must be over a year since we did that and it was fun! I really like Chinese food.Memory: In Nairobi there was an old restaurant, The Hong Kong, where we used to go to eat out as it was relatively inexpensive there. It was still a treat and afterwards we would drive through the city looking at the lights. To me Chinese meals and city lights still go together!
(photo of Koinange St, the HK is on the left there somewhere!)

Touch

Texting…those of you with family and friends far away, don’t we appreciate the ability to text? Yesterday I had texts from-
...my sister in Buenos Aires complaining that it was pouring rain on the one day she was invited to a pool BBQ…
…the folks to say they’d arrived safely in south of Spain, AND found their hotel…
…Dilly in Dublin to say she had done the Theater ‘Getin’ and was now relaxing in a pub where a Trad Session had just begun, and she was so happy…
…B to ask to be collected after Church from a friend’s house, and to say Sos wanted to come home to lunch…

Memory: I would have loved that luxury in East Africa!
Mom wrote to me every week for 15 years, and that was the only contact I regularly had with home and family. Phone calls were one every six months from the Head Office if lucky (we never had a phone), and we never had access to a computer. There was no English radio, local newspapers were sporadic, and we didn’t have TV.
Cut off? Yes, but it was completely normal.

And I guess that completes the study of the Body Beautiful!!!!

Let me tell you- its lucky I started this early as the post has just been delivered with the latest Permaculture Magazine so you won't see me for dust the rest of today! Yippee!!

The Morning That Was!

Thank you Andrea for the 'Circle of Friends' Award which she gave me! In return I have to list five things I love doing (in no particular order):
1. Sewing- especially patchwork and quilting.
2. Walking on the beach in Winter with half a gale blowing.
3. Playing the piano when no one is listening.
4. Baking to the (loud) sound of Andrea Bocelli!
5. Reading.

This morning I had quite a few messages to do before going in to School. It started out just not my day and then turned into...well, you'll see...

B had to stop at the College shop on the way to school to buy a scientific calculator as someone stole hers on Friday and she had a Maths Exam this morning. After that I went on to park in town and got out of the car to find it was sleeting- eurgh! Put my €2 in the parking disc yoke and it spat out a BLANK docket! Well I was mad.
Went to the ATM, wouldn't accept my card. Went to another, it had been removed since I was last in town. Went to another, wouldn't take my card. Went to a third and finally got money.
Crossing the footbridge I stopped to take some photos as the river remains really high. It was still drizzling so I'm surprised the photos came out at all.
As I was taking them a voice remarked in my ear 'Tourist!'- it was our Churchwarden. We had a brief conversation and as we parted company the Vegetable Man went past so I walked to the Bank with him and caught up on the state of the Market Garden, spring planting, and the best shop for Second-hand clothes- he says Oxfam, I say Enable Ireland!

When leaving the Bank I accidentally shut the delayed lock door on an old man whom I thought was further away, and the Postman laughed at me. 'That'll larn him to move faster,' sez he, 'and get on with you, ye did it on purpose!' I truly didn't.

On the bridge by the old weir I took some more photos.
Pure Guinness- huh?
Came round the corner and found the school Principle in kinks of laughter- a squad car had come belting round the corner onto O'Connell St., siren blaring, hitting a bollard as it took the corner, screeched to a halt outside the Building Society, two Guards lept out, dashed into the place, and then proceeded to leisurely withdraw their money and have a laugh and chat with the clerks...Only in Ireland I tell you!

And at 10.20am I arrived at School!

Vintage? Old? Passed down?

This is the front page of 'The Irish Times' today, taken in Galway. Many places in Galway, Clare, the Lee Valley, Cork, Kerry, Longford, Mayo and Leitrim are flooded with numerous people put out of their homes, houses under water, roads closed, hospitals and homes for the elderly under threat of flooding and folks cut off.
Meanwhile 'Concern' and other charities have appeals out for drought victims in Kenya, parts of Australia are suffering their worst drought in a long time,and a great number of places would love some of our rainfall. Things really are topsy turvy and people at both ends of the spectrum need our support.

Yesterday when visiting Ulla's 'Vintage Thursday' I was most entertained to see her dressmaking patterns...which are much the same as the ones of Mum's I'm still using, not just for myself but also my teenage girls! Which made me think, and take a look at the tools I use every day, and the one item which I immediately noticed was my crochet hook.

Just a crochet hook, yes? Well for a start it is made of bone or ivory, and secondly it belonged to my Great-Grandmother who was married in 1903 in her thirties, and already a great knitter by then. Mum thinks she crocheted edgings onto her knitted garments and shawls, of which Mum still has several. I learned to crochet using this hook and it is only recently that I've acquired some other hooks in different sizes. This hook has travelled all over the world with me since I was a child, crochet being such a portable craft!

Although I treasure the hook for its associations it is just one of my tools. Now I've just finished a set of ornaments for the Christmas tree, made using my old crochet hook and about to post them on Etsy. New decorations made from an old tool- I love tradition!

Here's the workshop!
Have a dry day folks, and spare a thought for those enduring both too much water, and too little.

Singing in the Rain?

In School this morning it really was a bit like this! Four classes of children had to be moved into the General Purpose Room for an hour of Singing but there were two problems:
1. the School Inspector was in the Junior Infant room and
2. it was lashing rain!

The school was built in the '70's with five rooms linked together in a circle, and the six newer classrooms are in a separate line of single prefabs. One class had to hurry from a prefab, and the other three had to take the long way round inside, avoiding the JI room- all 112 children carrying chairs as the floor is tiled in the GP room! It was quite funny actually, and apart from the Inspector everyone is used to working with weather restrictions. At least only one room is leaking rain at present...Don'cha love Schools? and Ministers for Education?

Now I'm home with the stove lit and about to start working on some more decorations! Yummee!

Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers

Some eejit left her car window open last night, during which it lashed with rain. The fields are flooded this morning and I have a mobile swimming pool- anyone who fancies doing a few laps before lunch is welcome to come on over before I begin bailing it out! Slight exaggeration, but I've a very wet bum!

As usual I've managed to get the photos in reverse order- the flooded field was meant to be first, then the tree against the sky and then the amazing sky-scape after the next paragraph: oh well!
There's long been a joke in Ireland that when the RTE News and Weather people aren't sure what to forecast they just say 'There'll be sunny spells and scattered showers.' However the joke is frequently on us because its amazing just how many days in the year that forecast describes! Today is one of them, and in between the lashing rain there is beautiful sparkly sunshine.
Mary Black sang a song called 'Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers' though I can't remember who wrote it. Anyhow my sister was at a Concert of Mary Black's in England several years ago and she said that when she sang that song she brought the house down there were so many Irish people in the house!

I was in School this morning doing the photocopying for tomorrow's teaching, and handing round timetables and suchlike- even if everything gets changed around later, I find it's easier to have times and places down on paper first. The Principal was laughing at me with all the bits of paper, including copies of the songs I decided on for the Little People, who are taught by two other teachers.
Yesterday's comments were really kind, and interesting too if you want to look. As a sort of general answer, here's the background to the Music 'thing'!

I trained as a primary school teacher, with Music as my main subject, which in England, is pretty much like doing two degrees simultaneously- one in Education, and one in your main subject. I've taught on and off over the years as a Primary Class teacher, a Secondary school English teacher, and an all-over-the-place Class Music teacher. I have to admit that whatever I've begun as in any school I've always somehow ended up doing quite a lot of Music.

Over the years as my health (mental and physical) has gone down the tube I've had to give up general teaching, but I have clung to the Music. Since there is no provision in this country for part-time or subject teachers within the primary system I now teach Music on a voluntary basis in a local National School. The Principal is a school friend (the retired Principal remembers us both since we were five years old, and occasionally has the heebie-jeebies at what we are doing to her school!) and gives me a fairly free hand with the Music, and BOY! do I enjoy the ensuing chaos! I do chaos really well!!!

So once a week I go in to play the hymn for Assembly and teach the upper classes, and then scattered through the year I work them toward performances. From now until Christmas I'll be teaching two or three mornings a week preparing the children for the Carol Service, and later taking groups to sing at some of the Churches in town. I see it also as an opportunity to make Christianity alive for the children and for singing and Church to be a regular part of their lives. I love it, most of the time, but just now I am wrestling the 'black beast' so it comes harder to get on with my commitments.

Anyhow, there you have it. Photocopies of lists all over the place and working from three Music books. I typed up everything last night so am feeling terribly well organised...don't worry it's temporary!

Busy Friday

I tell you- yesterday was double the blessing when we got up to today's dark greyness and drizzling rain! Yesterday afternoon, after a last practice with the 'singing children' Mum met me at school and we took ourselves out to Cliffoney as I needed batting, and yellow thread, and it was the most glorious day for a drive up the coast to the quilt shop! I took those photos from the car park of the shop, you can see how close the sea is.

Today after taking B to school and collecting Sos from 'the Brewery' (student union car park) after staying the night with friends (out late then stayed up talking until 4.30am) I returned home to bed. I had a funeral to go to at 2.oo pm but of all days today the battery in the alarm clock went, and when it registered 11.30am and bleeped it was actually 1.o5pm. Too late to start out, and since one eye had gone all swollen I decided to not go. Not a feel-good decision.

So I am now working through today's list, which includes deciding on hymns for Sunday morning's Harvest and checking with the other Organist to ensure she hasn't chosen the same ones for the evening Service! I have the hymn book open beside me: I love the headings for the different parts of the Church year- 'The Life Of Faith', 'God the Father, Creator', 'The Church's Witness and Mission', and my absolute favourite, 'The Christian Hope'! What's that verse 'to everything a time and place, to everything a season', that's not exact but to have the year set out is such a safe frame-work for living. (not sure 'frame-work' is the right term?) To me it is a great comfort.

I also have to bag up two tins of Quality Street sweets into 40 goodie bags for the singers, do some laundry, badger Sos into getting on with her chores, and Dilly has just texted to say she's coming home tonight as Dublin is driving her mad! The girl's early years in remote parts of East Africa seem to have left them all with a need for wide spaces: they enjoy social events and friends and doing things in town, but every so often they have to spend time on the beach, or up the mountain, which for Dilly means coming home. Well I'm glad! I think we haven't seen her since the start of August!

I've lit the fire in the stove to heat up the sitting room and kitchen as its such a cold day; B's hockey practice has been cancelled due to the rain. Sos is Kick-boxing again tonight so everyone will be glad of the fire later, I'm already wearing two wool sweaters.

I forgot to mention that my car's reversing lights seem to be 'on' permanently so I stopped by the garage yesterday evening. The mechanic had a look and said the switch has broken but they didn't have a spare so they'll get one in next week. 'Anyhow', sez yer man, 'its not major; if you're going forwards you can hardly be going backwards, so don't worry about it!' Well now, there's a philosophy!

Then on the way to collect B from school this afternoon I came up behind a car with its sunroof open in the rain! D'you think she has a water problem at home and was harvesting rainwater as she travelled? Or bathing even? In any case, I'd rather banjaxed reversing lights to a banjaxed sunroof!