Some not-so-ugly ducklings

© Brenda Long

Right, so I promised I’d start blogging about something other than my lack of blogging today, so here we go. I’ve a folder full of lovely things I’ve encountered in my travels through cyber space which are just dying to be shared, but instead I thought I’d kick things off with a wee story I was working on for the paper last week  which warmed my cockles, and I hope it will yours too.  It wasn’t what you’d call earth-shattering breaking news, but it was one of those little tales that fills you full of warm fuzzy rainbows and sunbeams  :)

As any of you in the British Isles will know, summer has yet to grace these shores. Aye, it’s been fairly warm, but it seems like everywhere is taking turns at been washed out of it, and here in Inishowen it’s been no exception. Around two weeks ago we had a month’s rain in one day, with flash flooding in many areas. One of the places to be quite badly hit was a little local island called Inch, which is home to a beautiful lake and wonderful wildfowl reserve.

The reserve itself is a sanctuary for many migrating birds and other aquatic animals, such as ducks and otters, as well as hundreds upon hundreds of swans. Usually they make their nests off the beaten track and are best viewed from the observation huts dotted around the lake, but this year one of the swan couples built their little home right alongside the main causeway road into the island, in full view of all the passing locals. As anyone who’s ever witnessed it themselves will know, swan couples are really very sweet and endearing – especially the way the cob is so attentive and protective of the pen and their eggs – so as you can imagine the small community on the island, who had been watching them build their nest and grow their brood for weeks, became quite protective of the young family. 

© Chiara Boyle

Then disaster struck – during the recent rains the lake tide began to rise and the nest was in danger sinking. The eggs were actually floating away! Thankfully, someone spotted what was happening and called in the help of two local men who braved the torrential weather in attempt to save the unborn cygnets.  They rescued the eggs from the water and built a pallet for the nest to float on, and after a nervous wait the mother even sat back atop of it despite the interference. At that stage it was still unclear whether her babies would make it or not, though, because the eggs had been ice cold by the time they were put back in the nest. 

That was yesterday fortnight ago, and on Monday morning I got a phone call from one very excited Inch resident – the eggs were hatching! By the time I went up only two of the six had hatched, and while there were fears not all would make it, anyone I was talking to was just so happy any had survived at all. Eggs had perished in years past due to bad weather because people couldn’t get to the nest in time to save them, so you can imagine their joy this time. I was especially pleased for the local children – there was a pre-school nearby and the teacher had been taking her pupils down daily to check on the nest and to teach the kids about wildlife, so they were especially concerned then excited to watch the whole thing unfold. Then there was the proud swan mammy herself – she kept lifting up her wing to show us the two little cuties, as if she was boasting ‘look what I did!’ (I realise she was probably just giving them a little air, but don’t ruin my fantasy.)

It got better too. On Thursday a local man – David McCauley – sent us in these beautiful images of the proud family. Yup, all six cygnets hatched safe and well! 

 © David McCauley

As I said, it’s not the most hard-hitting news story I’ve ever written, but I challenge anyone to go up and see those little fluffy babies, and talk to those locals who are still brimming with pride, and not be cheered up. Go on, tell me you’re heartless!  

At this point I’d like to say thanks to Brenda Long, Chiara Boyle and David McCauley for the wonderful photographs. I have some of my own but yours were so much better.

[For more on the story, you can read it on our paper’s website here and here.]

The Internet should come with a breathalyser

Following on from that oh-so-cringesome  theme of my last post, I have a wee confession to make today – I didn’t remember that I’d actually written it until I came on here this morning!  That’s sounds really bad, doesn’t it? Hear me out: I’ve been insanely busy at work this past while; long gone are the days were the weekends were for anything other than sleeping for 15 hours at a time, with beer being replaced by copious amounts of tea and books. It’s not exactly rock’n’roll, but that’s how I like it. (I’m an auld woman now, you know.)

It’s not that I was ever the biggest drinker in the world, but these days I can really see where that old cliché about getting drunk at the smell of alcohol comes from. I’m totally and utterly useless! So you can imagine what I was like last Saturday when I went on my friend’s hen night, of all things. I knew I was out of practice, as they say, so I was pacing myself and trying my best to take it easy. In fact, if you had asked me at the end of the night I would’ve told you I was totally sober , it wasn’t until the next morning that I realised I’d been away with the fairies! And then to come on here today with the intention of making my first post in months, only for the cold realisation to hit me that I’d been on that night… Well, let’s just say it was unsettling. I completely remember writing it now (I wasn’t that bad), but still. I suppose it could’ve been worse, I could’ve done one of those soppy ‘I love you guys’ posts like I’ve been guilty of in the past. 

Anyway, I’m not quite sure why I’m even drawing attention to it since I’m a tad embarrassed by the whole thing and should really just let it pass and hope no one noticed. I think it’s a compulsion of mine to point out things that I really should try to cover up. I also wanted to explain why I’d wasted both yours and my own time with yet another one of those whiney ‘I’m sorry I’ve not posted anything in ages’ tirades, put it behind me, and resume with regular ‘normal’ blogging. I’ve a post lined up for this afternoon and everything! 

By the way, the image I’ve used with this post (and the last couple) is a page from my digital art journal, which I’ve not been updating as much as I’d like but which I’ve not totally abandoned. I’d just thought I’d point that out because it’s the type of thing I used to blog about before I got in the habit of making these pointless posts. This is the last of them, promise. Expect a return to the randomness of old, whether it’s some silliness that’s been on my mind or some loveliness I’ve encountered online.  

Bless me bloggers for I have sinned…

Art journal? I don't have an art journal!

…It has been two months since my last post. The biggest sin of all is that in that particular post I promised I’d be back soon! Obviously I was in an optimistic mood that evening. Said post was sincerely intended to be a preliminary, re-introductory set-up to my return to the blogosphere, just as this is now. Lessons have indeed been learned that post, however. 

Tonight I do not mean to make any more unfulfilled promises of regular postage – I’ve learned to accept the fact my free (i.e. blogging) time has been sucked into a vacuum of local intrigue and mundane mystery –  but I can tell you the compulsion to return to this weird and wonderful world of whimsy and marvel has been growing. 

The intention behind the last failed post was to rekindle the addiction which in the past had me dependent on my dashboard, and hooked on the hokum. (You’re all some craic!) Like an alcoholic sipping the nectar of the gods for the first time in a decade, I expected the lingering taste to consume me once again, filling me with the unquenchable desire to log in and cop out, just as in the glory days of old. 

Yet it came and waned, too easily ignored my liking. I have many friends in this little corner of cyberspace (you all know who you are), and just like my friends in whatever the non-cyberspace alternative is (some people call it real life, but personally I find that a tad philosophically contentious), I have neglected you all for the sake of everyday survival-esque pseudo-necessity.  

Sorry about that.

But you don’t want to read yet another guilt-ridden apology – I’ve already said sorry for not having called by to say hello so many times I’d imagine it’d be insulting to ask for forgiveness yet  again.  Instead I’d just like to say ‘hello’. ‘hope you are well’, and ‘promise I’ll be back tomorrow’. (Whoops, didn’t mean to do that!)

Back Soon

Don't know if anyone's still around to notice, but the blog's been on a bit of a hiatus for a while. Too many things, people, too many things. Anyway, just thought I'd check in and let you all know I haven't fallen of the edge of a cliff somewhere (yet!), and I haven't completely given up hope of getting back to blogging something this century.

I do still have a few online hideaways, and have been a little less neglectful with my Tumblr and Flickr pages if you're bored and fancy a nosy/catch up.

Also, if any of you are local to the North West of Ireland, or just want a wee glimpse into the often weird and wacky world of Donegal news, call on over to www.donegalnow.com.

It's the parent page for the news paper I write for and I'm a regular contributor myself :) We're not long on the go, so if any of my lovely local followers - or any of you equally-lovley international ones who know any Irish expats - could spread the word that would be fantastic!

You know, I didn't intend to come here to give the website a shamless plug, just thought I may as well when I was here ;(

Oh, and if you're wondering what relevance the above image has to any of this, the answer is very little. It's just the latest in my very-much flagging digital art journal project - yet another one of my hobbies which has sadly been abandoned in recent times. Hopefully that'll soon change, though; many of the extra-cirricular activities I've been at since Christmas are coming to an end in the next few weeks and I'll be back in business then. Well, hope everyone's doing wonderfully and have a lovley weekend!

New Year, New Me

image source

Well, not really. I’m still the same old me, just a little older since I’ve last been here. Though not much wiser… So then folks, how the hell have you been?!  All’s well this end, I’m glad to report. Happy to back in this weird and wonderful land of fanciful findings and frivolous fantasies. Where’ve I been without you all? As soon as I logged in here and saw those familiar names scrolling down through my dashboard I felt like I’d never been away. It’s really rather comforting.

Anyhoo, to answer that rhetorical question to myself, I’ve not been anywhere particularly special. Just hanging out with the neighbours, in a virtual metaphorical sense.  Spending too much time on Twitter and Tumblr, to put it more literally. In the past wee while I’ve gone beyond my lingering guilt at committing cyber adultery on you guys and fully embraced my micro-blogging addiction. Hence my total abandonment of this, my true internet home.

So - and you may have guessed this already - I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to do something about that. I’ve already started giving the place a bit of an early spring clean (it’s not finished yet, I’ll get my blogroll and other wee foottery things back up soon enough), and I’ve decided to take a new approach to how I blog here, too. My addiction to Tumblr and the like isn’t hard to figure out; I’m pretty well occupied in my real life at the minute and only have the time and enthusiasm for popping in briefly, throwing a few posts up, and making a quick and quiet exit.

Tumblr makes that easy with its anonymity - on Blogger I’ve always felt an obligation to respond to each and every comment left here by visiting that person's page. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE catching up with you all since you’re all so damn lovely and have the bestest blogs ever, but that’s exactly the problem! I’ve been lucky enough to meet so, so many wonderful kindred souls on here over the past year or two that I always have a lot of loveliness to catch up with. And because of sense of duty to visit you all every time I post… well to be honest it puts me off posting. Not because it feels like a chore, but because I know how long it’ll bloody take! Not a bad complaint, I know. Just an impractical reality of my (previous) Blogger blogging habits.

I think it was the lovely Kathy who, in her infinitely witty wisdom, once told me blogging buddies should be like the people you talk to at the supermarket. You like them, enjoy and even look forward to hearing what’s been going on in their lives or whatever, but you don’t think they’re terrible and throw a huff if they’re in a hurry and don’t have time to stop for a chat. (Well, not unless you’re slightly insane.) It makes sense, for an analogy in which blogging is groceries. So, from now on, I may not always be able to stop for that wee natter, but then again I might have loads of time for a good auld chin wag… What I’m trying to say is I might not stop by your blogs every time I stop by my own, but I will get around to say hello eventually!

image sorce

Then there’s that other issue I need to address - POSTS LIKE THIS ONE!!! When I haven’t been on in a while I feel compelled to spend ages posting a big warbling apology for not having posted in a while. And just like with my self-imposed visiting obligations, the longer it’s been since I’ve posted the longer I’ll spend apologising for not having posted - sure just look at the length of this post! No more of this carry on, is what I’m saying.

Shorter posts, but more of them; meaningful catch ups not obligatory visits; blogging because I want to, not because I feel I have to; and no more months on end of random apologetic posts! That’s my blogging resolution for 2012. Well, hope you all had an excellent night. Good thoughts and best wishes for the coming twelve months!

And the winners are…

(Random unrelated photo to brighten the post up.) 

Hello strangers! How’re you all doing? Once more I’ve set a new record for blog neglect, but at least I gave advanced warning about it this time. Anyway, I’m back now and I’ve plenty of posts (and possibly another giveaway) lined up for the month ahead. Which, it turns out, is October! I love October.

First things first though, time to announce the winners of my giveaway. Thank you so much to everyone who entered, and for all your kind words and wishes too. All went well with the op, I’m glad to report. But enough about that! Winners…

So I assigned everyone some numbers depending on the amount of entries they had in and then submitted that to that random number generator thingy. I have to say, everybody had at least two or three in there - there were 36 different people in with 106 entries. Not bad going, eh? The first number who came out won the first photo, the second number the second photo and third etc etc.  Ok, so here’s how it all ‘went down’, as they say:

*drumroll*

And the first winner is…number 62 - Pabkins!


Next up we have number 82 - that’s Kristin!


And the third and final number out is 77 - the lovely Mademoiselle G!

Congratulations ladies, I’ll be contacting you soon to get your postal info. I actually feel really quite guilty now that I only had three prints to give away. I wanted everyone to win! As I mentioned earlier though, I may be holding another giveaway in the very near future. And this time it’ll be something from someone who knows what they’re doing, namely my very talented little sister and her boyfriend.  So check back soon for more details! Hopefully I’ll manage a post or two in the next week as well, I’ve no excuses this month.

Anyhow, thanks again to everyone who entered and I hope everyone’s doing well. Must get a good catch up with you nice blogging folk very soon!

Best. Greetings cards. Ever!

Don’t you agree?  They’re from Shop Sapling Press on Etsy in collaboration with Dear Blank, Please Bank. Check out the shop for more!

Aoibheann Inis Eoghain

 

Howdy folks! (‘Howdy’, a word I really should use more often.) How’re you all keeping this evening then? I took a little longer getting back to you than I’d planned, you can blame Tumblr for that one. It’s so much easier on the head to just click buttons and ogle pretty pictures than it is to sit down and write a post. Too easy really, the lazy person’s way to blog. But still, I think I’ve earned a little lazy time lately.

I seem to have taken on what feels like a million new endeavours all at once, including starting in a wonderful new job and finally getting back to learning to drive (yup, I’m a 29-year-old journalist who doesn’t have a full driving licence, that probably explains the difficulty I’ve had getting work!). And then there’s that other thing I’ve been doing which, now that I’m here, I feel a little reluctant revealing. I’ll explain why in a moment.

In my last post I mentioned I had exciting plans for the weekend. Well, my excitement was justified because it all went splendidly. You see, my friends, last Friday night saw the opening of my first ever photography exhibition! When I say ‘my’ I mean me and the rest of the local camera club I’m a member of. It’s being run as part of a local music and arts festival happening in my town at the moment.

Then, last night, we had an opening of another one. Yes another one! Sadly I couldn’t go because my old back trouble was playing up. But still, two exhibitions on the go at once? I would say I’m proud of myself, only the truth is I’m more than a little embarrassed about the whole thing.

 

I know I have a Flickr account and regularly share my photos here, but there’s something different about hanging them up on an actual wall in a proper exhibition and asking people to look at them. I feel like such a fake wannabe! Especially when you see the quality of work that’s hanging all around me up there - a talented bunch of lovable eejits, that camera club crew.

You’re all such a lovely bunch of bloggers who only ever have kind words of encouragement regarding these things so I know I shouldn’t feel so self-conscious telling you about the exhibition. I think it’s because I’m also aware that many of you are very talented artists and photographers, while I’m just a pretender with a point-and-shoot and Photoshop.  I’m always paranoid when I know people with a background in these things are looking at my work. (I even felt funny giving the prints to my aunt and uncle to mount since they’re professionals.)

Anyway, I know I’ve no doubt posted some of them on the blog before but the images in this post are the ones I submitted for display. I’ve said before that I hate posts without pictures and thought these were probably the most appropriate for this one.

I’ve another busy week ahead so I probably won’t be back on here again until Saturday or Sunday, which is when I hope to resume regular blogging again! That’ll include getting a proper visit to all my blog buddies; I popped by a lot of your places the last day but connection trouble and my increasing shortage of time meant I couldn’t leave many comments. I’ve a whole day set aside at the weekend to make up for that :)

 

Helping

Hi folks! Hope you’re all having a lovely Sunday. I’m just calling in briefly this evening to share a link which I implore you click. Maybe it’s the raw human sadness of this woman’s story and the fact that it touches on one of my most innate fears,  or maybe (and most probably) it’s because the concept to help her is just so friggin’ beautiful,  but since reading this post this morning I haven’t been able to get it out of my head:

Bottle Bell Photography: Helping One Person Heals the World

It really is a beautiful idea, isn’t it? I don’t have much I can contribute myself, I’m just going to send a couple of my Flickr snaps I think, but I know what a talented and kind hearted bunch you lot are.  So please, take the time to read the post. I promise you’ll be as moved as I was. 

Apologies, Promises and Predicting the Irish Weather

 Image source.

 

Sorry folks, I’ve been at it again. Slacking off. I’m getting worse too. All I seem to do these days is crawl back every so often, full of apologies and promises, and a lot of chat about the weather, then slink away into obscurity again only to return a week later with a lot of the same.

So I’m going to try not to do that tonight. Though I suppose that ‘sorry folks’ is a form of apology, and saying I’m not going to go slinking away again does kind of count as a promise. Plus, I am going to talk about the weather! Well I’m Irish, it’s what we do.

As they say in these parts, ’tis a while night out there. Terrible windy. Though that’s not quite the type of weather chat I was on about. I was thinking more of the ‘reading nature to predict a storm’ sort.  In fact, I hadn’t actually intended talking about the weather at all until I sat down to write this. I had meant to post about local fairy tales for the lovely Laura.

Most of you won’t know Laura, she doesn’t have a blog, but I’ve known her in the real world for years and believe me, she’s just brilliant. She lives in England and doesn’t get home much, but I met her at a wedding the other day and she promptly reminded me that she likes to keep up to date with the blog. At least she did when there was stuff to keep up to date with. Sorry missus! (Shit, that was another apology.)

Anyway, as I said, I had planned on hunting down some local fairy stories which I knew she’d appreciate. And I did, I found some from right by the area she’s from. They’ll have to wait for another day though (and that’s another promise) ‘cause on the same site I also found this adorable guide to forecasting the weather from signs in nature.

As far as I can tell, it was written by an Inishowen schoolboy in 1938. It’s a just wee bit hilarious, especially considering the storm that’s blowing out there tonight. And I’m sure it’ll be as helpful in Yorkshire as it is here!

 Weather Signs 

by Liam Grant, Maghermore 17/01/1938

When the moon is pale it is a sign of rain.
When there is a ring around the moon it is a sign of rain.
A coppery or pale sunset is a sign of rain.
A rosy sunset means good weather.
When the stars are very bright it is the sign of a storm.
When the cloud are heavy it is a sign of rain.
When it starts to rain if the hens run to their house it is a sign it is going to fair but if they puck about it is going to be a wet day.
When the mist comes up from the sea it is a sign it is a sign of good weather.
When the mist comes down Meentagh glen it is a sign of rain.
When we hear Binion strand roaring it is a sign of rain.
When we hear Carrickabraghey roaring it is a sign of frost.
When the cow shakes herself in the byre it is a sure sign of rain.
When the smoke blows down the chimney it is a sign of rain.
When the hares comes into the fields it is a sign of a storm.
When there are clouds in the sky like goats hair it a sign of rain.
When the crows are up high in the air and fly straight down to the ground it is a sign of rain.
If you see the rock glistening in the distance hills after a shower it is a sign of rain.
When you hear the rivers sounding very loudly it is a sign of rain.
When you can see the hills very close it is a sign of rain.
When you see the merry dancers in the north it is a sign of storm.
When the hills look far away it is a sign of good weather.
When you see the dogs eating grass it is a sign of rain.
When the sun goes down red it is a sign of good weather.
If there is anybody who see wild geese it is a sign of storm.
If you see cows with their backs to the wind it is a sign of rain.
If you see a blue light in the fire it is a sign of storm.
When you see sheep coming in to the front of the hills it is a sign of storm.
If it starts to rain out of the south and the wind to change to the north it will fair.
When you see the cat sitting with the back to the fire it is a sign of storm.
If the new moon has her horns sticking up it is a sign of good weather.
When the horns are sticking down it is a sign of storm.
If the crain goes up the river it is a sign that there is going to be a flood.
If the floor gets damp in wet weather it is going to be good weather.
If the floor gets damp in good weather it is going to be wet weather.

 

THE END

Read more about the 1938 School Manuscripts here.

Seasonal Irony

Image via inishowennews.com

Well people, the rain’s back and so am I! Thank the heavens for it too - the rain that is, not me being back (I might be a bit ditsy but I’m not that self-absorbed).  And for once I’m not alone in rejoicing at the return of the clouds; it must be the first time in history people were actually praying for rain in Ireland. Things were getting a bit hairy there for a while!

For anyone not from these parts, we’ve been having some trouble with gorse fires recently. These past weeks of hot, dry, windy weather saw them popping up all over the British Isles. Donegal was quite badly hit, and while we were lucky enough to only have a few minor blazes in our immediate area (like the one photographed above), a large chunk of the rest of the county was ablaze. From our upstairs window you could see hills burning across the lough.  ‘The fires of Bealtaine’ as a friend on Facebook called them. Indeed.

Not to worry, though, for the rain has returned, Ireland is once more her soggy (if a little smouldering) self, and all is right with the universe again. Well, aside from the fact that thousands of hectares of bog, woodland and forest have been decimated. Not to mention those wee chicks in their nests and all the other little unfortunate critters caught up in the flames. There may not have been any humans killed, but there’s fear now that some rare native bird species may have been completely wiped out. Devastating stuff altogether. 

Anyway.

Right, so I’ve been trying to think what I’ve been up to since I last made a proper post, as opposed to one where I just came on to blog about how I’ve not been blogging enough. Let’s see, what have I been at? Well, I’ve joined a local camera club, which has been both fun and educational in equal measure. Basically it just involves a bunch of super-cool folks sitting around looking at and talking about photographs.  And drinking tea. What more could a girl ask for? Here’s one of my photos from last week, the theme was ‘macro’. It’s not great, but, as I said, I’m learning loads from the group.

I’ve also been helping  my fiance’s dad out with a history and heritage group he’s involved with and I’ve found out some really interesting stuff about local ley lines and stone circles after he discovered these maps in an old book. The zoomed-out one charts the astronomical connection between several megalithic sites in the wider area, while the close up one concerns a circle just nearby my house!  I love this stuff…

In other news, any corrupt politicians or scandalous personalities in my vicinity should beware, I may soon be returning to the world of local hackdom. It’s all still up in the air at the minute but fingers and toes are crossed! I’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Finally this evening - last but certainly not least, and all that - I want to say a big happy HELLO to my latest follower, Libithina! Aside from having a really beautiful name, this lady also has several wonderful blogs to peruse. Here’s her profile link because I couldn’t decided which site to share. You see, my friends, the lovely Libithina is my 200 th follower! As such I’d just like to take this opportunity to say I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Thanks so much to each and every one of you who take the time to call into this little corner of webland. I can’t for the life of me think why anyone would want to, but I am really truly grateful to all who do. I’ve made some great friends here over the past year and it amazes me that I keep meeting new ones. I have to admit, I do feel a tad guilty since I’ve been such a bad blog buddy lately.

As I said though, I’m back now, and this weekend I’m making a point of catching up with you all - new friends and old!  Until then!

A Fairy Tree for Bealtaine

“All around the thorn tree, the little people play; and every one that pass there, they turn their heads away.”

- Count John McCormack, ‘The Bush Beyond Clougheen’.

Hello folks! Just dropping in quickly this evening to let you all know I haven’t given up blogging or anything, I’m actually still struggling to escape that time warp I mentioned last week. You know I seriously believe The End must be fast approaching, what with time speeding up and the fact that I don’t remember the last time the sun wasn’t shining! The rest of the world’s getting blown away and washed out of it, yet there hasn’t been a drop of rain here in around a month. Something’s definitely up. 

Anyway, I’m sure now that’s it’s officially summer the grey clouds will be back with a vengeance soon enough, and once I’m stuck indoors again time will return to it’s normal blog-friendly pace. I know nearly every other person in Ireland would probably hit me for saying this, but I can’t bloody wait. Bring back the gloom, all this pleasantness just isn’t normal!

(Oh, and sorry about my half-assed attempt at a Bealtaine post. My photo of the hawthorn is out of season and everything - it has to be in bloom to be Beltane-y. I did have some lovely shots of a flowering thorn from a couple of days ago but I deleted them from my camera by accident last night. Typical!)

The Moon and Two Butterflies

Has anyone else noticed that it’s Thursday? And - and! - it’s Easter? I think I must’ve encountered some sort of time warp ‘cause I’ve no idea where this past week month has gone.  One minute it’s a dreary March afternoon and the next thing I know I’m dandering round the beach and half the country’s in the sea swimming. Like it’s almost summer or something! Madness.

Anyway, how’ve all you lovely blogging folk been doing? I’ve been quite the anti-social networker of late, apologies. There’s just been too many offline distractions vying for my attention this past while; I’ve been living an almost internetless existence which, I have to admit, has been rather refreshing. And a little nostalgic actually, kinda like being back in the nineties :) That said, now that I’ve plugged myself back in I’m itching to get out in the ether again.

Before I set off on my blogland adventure, though, I just want to share some of my latest digital collage. They’re not great and I’d intended on saving this post until I had a few I was happier with, but since these are the last creations I’ll probably ever make using my beloved Gimp I thought I may as well. A little tribute, if you will.

You see folks, as happy as I am with my wee free friend, the time has finally come to move up in the world. Yup, I’ve managed to get my hands on Photoshop again! I’m not saying my collage is going to get any better just because I upgraded, but I do imagine I’ll be making many, many more as I reacquaint myself with PS and all it’s goodies. ’Tis going to be fun. 

 

Oh, I almost forgot. Here’s a list of the sites where I found the vintage images used. All wonderful places to wander!
Vintage Printable
The Vintage Moth
e-vint.com/
The Graphics Fairy

A Fun Little Book Game!

 [Warning: Random post-pub post.]

So today was World Book Day! Or rather yesterday was, I’m just home from my Thursday pub quiz and only now realised it’s actually tomorrow (I’m in the future, yippee!). Anyway, a friend of mine posted this to Facebook earlier and the responses were such fun I thought I’d try it out here. It’s a game! 

 To play all you have to do is grab the closest book you have to hand, open to page 56 and post the 5th sentence either to your own blog or in the comments below. Don’t say what book it is or anything and let me and whoever else wants to play guess.  Seriously, this is good craic! 

  
Oh, and by the way, you’ll notice the distinct lack of cynicism on my part between this post on World Book Day Vs. my previous one on National Tree Week. Maybe those couple of beers tonight had an affect on me after all :) Ahhh - women, trees and now books. It’s been a good week! 

p.s. Whoops! As just pointed out by the lovely Sydnii, I forgot to include my own.  (That'd be the beer again.) Here we go: "True to his word, Miller eschewed a drink, but he appeared happy enough surrounded by the high spirited pub-goers."  

p.p.s I've no idea what's going on with the mad spacing and font sizing on my posts recently, it's not intentional. Apologies.

Barking Mad

The stuff of memories?

So it’s the start of National Tree Week everybody! Great, right? Well please forgive this particular leaf lover for not getting too over excited.  Sure I’m all for celebrating our wooded wonders and I give a big virtual pat on the back to those lovely folk over at the Tree Council of Ireland, they do good work. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to kick off their well intentioned week with a rant. 

You see I’m finding it very hard at the minute to muster up any national pride in the way our country cares for trees, especially since it’s recently been revealed that we’re planning on selling them all off! Well, maybe not all of them exactly, just our remaining forests.  Over a million acres to be precise. Kind of ironic when you consider the theme for this year’s week is ‘Celebrating Forests for People’.

Regular readers to this blog will have heard me lamenting our embattled trees before. Irish trees were arguably the biggest losers of the Celtic Tiger era and its head long rush towards development and ‘progress’, and I had hoped the recession might have provided them with some respite from the builders’ bulldozers. Unfortunately that appears to have been a rather naive notion.

Yup, Ireland’s forests are now up for sale along with everything else in the country, reduced to nothing more than a commodity to be monopolised by private investors.

In fairness, the plan isn’t necessarily to chop all the forests down. Well it is actually, but not in the way you might think. Apparently interest has been expressed in the prized lots by a Swiss finance company called Helvetia Wealth, who own the International Forestry Fund. Interestingly, the IFF is now chaired by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (those of you after a cynical chuckle should read the laudations for him on their website).  

 

Speaking of their website, after reading it one could be forgiven for being a tad optimistic about the future of our forests; lots of talk of sustainability and ethical and environmental consideration, pictures of bluebell carpeted woods, details of how entire local economies can flourish around the forests themselves… It all sounds quite reasonable, doesn’t it?

You’ll have to pardon my scepticism, but I find it hard to be convinced that a multinational corporation driven solely by profit garnered from timbering has the best interests of our country’s natural heritage at heart.  My suspicion was further heightened by the ‘terms and conditions’ you have to agree to before even logging into their site, basically a disclaimer which warns that not everything on the website should be taken as set-in-stone fact. I think that one was aimed at the investors, but it still takes the shine out the silver lining I highlighted above.

You know it’s issues like this that have me itching all the more to get my journalism boots back on. So far the Irish media have paid little attention to the plight of our forests, but I suppose why would they if it wasn’t sent out pre-explained in a press release? Investigative reporting was already on its last legs but I think the recession has finally killed it off. Newsrooms are just so short staffed theses days that editors can’t afford to give their reporters the time needed to look into these things properly. Ah, but I digress…

 

Back to the trees! So I realise a lot of you fellow inhabitants of this soon-to-be-not-so-emerald isle will already be up to speed on all this thanks to the petition doing the rounds on Facebook. Those of you from further a field that are interested can find out more here at The Woodland League, where you’ll find a copy of the petition to our president. Feel free to sign it! The more countries that say no to this carry on, the harder it’ll be for leaders to get away with it elsewhere. And doubt for a second that similar shenanigans aren’t afoot in your own respective backyards!

The British public have already shown that it’s possible to get governments to change their minds on these matters, now it’s Irelands turn to take back the trees. We’re only a little country, and from what I can see our leaders rarely listen to anything we say, so we could do with all help we can get. I thought maybe I might be able to rally some international support from all you lovely blogger folk? Especially you American ones, our government has always done everything you Yanks have told it to ;) So sign up, pass it on, and help us save our forests! The Irish nation thanks you in advance.

Guilty Pleasures

Some of my not-so-guilty pleasures :)

 

One of the main reasons I’ve been neglecting blogging so much recently is, put simply, guilt. It might sound mad but I feel guilty because I love it so much; I love writing posts about pointless things, I love wandering the web hunting for arty treasure to share, and I love catching up with all my blogging buddies. Lately, though, every time I sit down to do any of the above I’m overcome with self-reproach and an overwhelming sense that I should be doing something more ‘constructive’.

For fear of sounding melodramatic, I’ve been feeling rather panicky of late regarding my ‘direction’ and all that carry on. I’m fully aware that we’ve been going though the worst recession for generations, and I am accepting of the fact that I’ve had health issues hampering my quest, but I just can’t help shake this gloomy frustration at my faltering career. ‘Career’? I hate people who whine about their ‘career’! And I do  feel terrible even complaining about it because I realise I have it so much better than BILLIONS of other people and I have no right to moan whatsoever. I’m only mentioning it because this frustration is at the root of my guilt - I feel I always could be applying for another job instead spending time blogging.

Anyhow!  I came to a realisation this evening while taking a break from yet another siege of applications. I’d gone down for a cup of tea and decided to watch some TV to relax. I love films but except from a select few shows I don’t usually watch much telly. I usually read, write or play around with my photos to unwind but, with my head a bit fried from all the ‘hire me I’m great’ begging letters to newspapers and press offices and the like, tonight I felt I needed something a little more mindless. And so I found myself watching Eastenders, the most depressing of all the British soaps (which are all pretty darn depressing to be honest). That’s when it occurred to me that blogging is ‘constructive’!

It’s constructive in that it makes me happy, as opposed to sad, doomed and depressed which is the usual outcome of a visit to those cheery folks on Albert Square. I had been thinking that blogging had become one giant exercise in procrastination for me, but why should I see it that way and then think nothing of consigning 30 minutes of my life to soapy oblivion? I could easily had a blog post up in that time and I would’ve felt so much better for it! Why should I feel guilty about something just because I enjoy it?  From here on I’m turning over a new blogging leaf, folks. This post aside, there’ll be no more moaning and nearly week-long absences. I’m going to strive to find you all the most frivolous fanciful things I can and I’m not going to feel one iota of shame at doing so. See you all again soon!

Oh, and because I hate posts without imagery, here are some more of my not quite relevant photos. Just a few of my favourite things: tea, books and taking pictures :) 

 

 

 

Another Quick One

This post has absolutely no point or purpose other than to appease my own guilt at not having called in since my last post, which was equally short but included a vow to return with a more substantial one the next day. So this evening I’m not going to promise an imaginary post that may never materialise, though the chances are very high that I will be back tomorrow with something a wee bit more interesting than my own inane babbling.

I realise I’m not under any obligation to blog everyday or anything, but I can’t help feeling like a slacker when I don’t. And I hate making promises and not keeping them! I did have an unexpectedly busier than usual week, though, and then we had visitors staying all weekend, and now it’s Monday again it seems like I didn’t actually get anything done for all my flustering about last week and I’ve got even more nonsense to sort out than I did before. Argh! The needs of the bureaucracy are expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy and all that carry on.

On another note, it looks like spring is finally here! Which, of course, means that every speck of dust in the house is jumping out at me screaming to get put on top of my to-do list. Will it ever end? Ah, I suppose I could have worse things to worry about than a dirty house. At least I have a house to live in! Though if I don’t get back to these forms that might not last for long… Nah, I jest. Still, I really should get back to it. Hope you’re all well folks and have a lovely evening!

Czech Wonders

'Praha' by Benjamin Schmidt

“Asoka was an enlightened Indian king. Something like Rudolf II in Prague, and yet not quite like that. Because, of course, India is a land distant, and utterly strange…”

 

The words of a young Czech man named Benjamin Schmidt and, I have to say, the most wonderful introduction to a design company's website I’ve yet to come across! Mr Schmidt happens to be an old friend of mine, so I suppose this could be counted as one of those ‘shameless plug’ posts. Though when he sent me a link to his webpage a few days ago my first thought was of you guys.

The site is primarily an outlet for his design services, and if any of you are in the market for a professional page builder then by all means give him a shout. It was, however, his art gallery that caught my eye and which I thought you folks might enjoy also. You know, I always knew he was a creative soul but I was quite taken aback, and most certainly impressed, by the rather twisted feel to most of his work. Delightfully dark indeed!

Anyway, I just thought it would be selfish not to share him with you. Call over to his place for a proper nosy of his pictures and to find out more about the lovely fella. Feel free to say hello when you’re there!

 

 

A Matter of Opinion

I did something a little mad today. At least some people might call it mad. Personally I think they’re the mad ones (the people who’d probably think I’m mad). It’s really just a matter of opinion, and not that mad at all if you ask me. You’re probably wondering what it is I did that’s so mad, or not mad as the case may be.

Right, well this afternoon I was walking up the street with a friend when we decided to call into a little vintage shop that’s only opened on Saturdays. It was my first time in it since it’s only newish and I instantly fell in love; the woman who owns it travels all over Europe and beyond gathering up hats, clothes, jewellery and all other sorts of other wonderful things then brings them back for sale in the shop. Just like one of those places you find in the hip and cool districts of big cities, not on our wee town’s main street!  Anyway, it also sells wedding dresses and twenty minutes after going in for a ‘quick nosy’ I had bought one.

Yup, totally broke and with no plans for even setting a date for the big day, I walked in and bought the first wedding dress I tried on - ever! If anyone cares, it’s a little French vintage tea-length number with pretty sleeves. It’s made entirely of cream lace except for a lovely little satin ribbon at the waist. I love it. Think something like this only shorter and with more lace:

That’s a photo I’d saved on my computer from when I first got engaged, back when it looked like the wedding was going to happen sometime this century.  Unfortunately I can’t find the link for where I found it right now, but I can remember it was a posh London shop that specializes in vintage bridal wear. I can also remember the price - around £3000 if I recall correctly. Mine cost 80 euro. Go me!

Anyhow, it’s not the fact that I’ve bought my dress even though I may still be yet unmarried and living in sin by the time I’m collecting my pension that’s a bit mad. My (eek!) dress probably hasn’t been worn for manys a decade, so I’m sure it’ll keep for another few years. The mad part is how quickly I went from seeing it to owning it. Is this not supposed to be some sort of important decision or whatever? Maybe I should’ve thought about it if for more than a few minutes, but I doubt that would have made me like the dress any less. And now I don’t have to worry about having to get one whenever we do get round to organising stuff. It’s one less expense and thing to stress about in the future, which is really quite wise if you think about it!

On another note, it turns out Himself doesn’t have much faith in me. When I told him of my impulse purchase he was a little too under-whelmed for my liking and when I impressed on him how much I loved the dress he told me that, in fact, was the problem. I dress like a granny apparently. My fashion sense has been likened to Dot Cotton in the past, but I’ve always taken that as a compliment! He, on the other hand, is a tad sceptical about what I might possibly have chosen, and thinks vintage simply means old and ditsy. I should go out and find the frilliest, most obnoxious one I can and leave it lying about for him to ‘accidentally’ discover. That’d get him worried alright. Good enough for him!

Well folks, just thought I’d share my news with you. I’m really a big girly at heart and I’ve been on cloud nine all afternoon :) Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend!

A Pointless Post

 Tick-Tock

 

My my, I haven’t made the best blogging start to the new year have I? Halfway through January and this is only my third post. Disgraceful! I have been a little preoccupied recently I suppose; I’ve all these half-baked notions and schemes that have been brewing up in the auld noggin for a while now and suddenly I’ve the urge to put them all into action at once.  As a result I’ve been a bit of an erratic mess, unable to concentrate on one project for long enough without feeling I should be directing my attention elsewhere.  And I know exactly why too- you know, psychologically and all that.

It’s because of my birthday. Which, incidentally, isn’t actually until next month but I’ve always mentally checked my age by the turning of the year.  So you see folks, in my head I am now 29- eek!  I never imagined I’d be the type to get freaked out by age, yet as these past years have drawn in at increasingly rapid speed I find myself facing ‘the big 3-0’ with a growing sense of impending doom. I know that once I get past it I’ll be grand, but before then I have to come to terms with the loss of my youth, dramatic as that sounds. And then there are all those things I’d hoped to have done by the time I resigned myself to absolute adulthood!

I was going to write a list, then I thought about it and realised that it would just make it even more depressing if I reached the end of the year not having completed all of the goals on it. Which would be pretty much inevitable since I’ve some pretty grandiose ambitions for the coming months. The whole point of this post was to share some of the said plans, but now that I’m here I realise I’m not quite ready to divulge the details just yet.  I’d probably just bore you all anyway. Which leaves me with a dilemma- what exactly is the point to this blog post?  I can’t seem to come up with one at the minute… Ah well, I’ve written it now so I’m still clicking ‘publish’!