Momentum

The last week has been a whirlwind, and with this weekend shaping up to be an Annual-Report-a-thon, I am grabbing the spare moment while I can!

A friend asked today how my weekend had been.

Me: "Good. Yeah, busy, but good. I learned to woodwork. Made a coffee table. Drove to West Cork to help a friend emigrate. Got shortlisted for a great Vodafone thing, and had to prep a presentation, which was kinda major. Little sleep. Anyhoo, we drove up, made it to the interview in time; he left for a teeny bit of French territory beside Canada this morning..."

Friend: "I knew you wouldn't let me down. I'm off to my office now to think about what I did this weekend. I'll let you know later."

:-)

For those who asked, my little whittled-with-love coffee table looks like this:

I *loved* the wood course - easy-paced learning in an idyllic sunshiney wood, with a young horse called Summer looking on with interest. At lunch we talked pre-Columbian artefacts and I think I actually heard my mind stretch a little :-) *And* while chatting with the other person on the course, I realised that his father happened to be up in Dublin, on my street, working on the cottage opposite mine.

Small world.

The weekend's keywords were emigration and Presentation Prep -- thanks for all who helped, with ideas and care and support and photos and deeeeelicious lemon meringue cake and a variety of coffees. So busy that I didn't even make it to the shore to look for mermaid's tears... And yet, Baltimore cannot but delight: there was a sublime birthday party to share in, and brief-but-lovely catch-up with friends, and a friend's art to explore, and some stretchy yoga to the sound of a beautiful heavy rain shower.

And then we whirled on, to Dublin and interview and Job the First and Job the Second.

I'm tired just typing that!! Time for candles and curling up :-)

Doorway

My walk home from town sometimes takes me past this door. From a distance it looks like a blur of white graffiti. It takes me a second for her form to appear...

I love her pose, folding forward... a graceful presence in an ordinary side road.

What lies beneath

This was top of my list for Bridge Photos: I noticed it first on Fr Mathew Bridge, but I think it repeats on a few :-)

Crossing to Job the First of a morning, with the river at an ebb, the thought of a troll hunched under stone and metal, finding its balance on seaweedey rocks - love it!

I had to look up the name of the bridge (in my mind it's called The Bridge that goes across to Church Street). Apparently it's called Father Mathew (yes, with only the one 't') Bridge - named after a superabstemious teetotaller.

I'll raise a glass to that :-)

Cross with care

I love over-water-bridges, from a little stepping stone slab to the massive Mackinac bridge that disappears into mist before your eyes can make out the other side. Love the idea of them as things that join, that traverse... a place of boundaries over a constantly moving channel.

They're just fab.

Anyhoo, there are oodles of photos I have been meaning to take of Dublin's bridges. The following were not on the list - they came by surprise. Earlier today while I was walking home in light rain, I decided to cross at the Ha'penny Bridge. And noticed something different about it.

How intriguing is that...

And on the other side...

And when I went to cross into Temple Bar, it turned out that the enigmatic little messages weren't limited to the bridge at all:

I have no idea of the who or the why. I do love them though - little sparks of thoughtfulness and wonder in the most everyday of settings.