Back on the air

Caught up with family ever so briefly last week. And though we were mostly too busy playing/eating/talking to take pictures, I did take some snaps when we went to feed the swans...



Back in London, I scoped out the National Gallery's exhibition on Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries, filled with the behind-the-scenes techie side of art, and the faking thereof. Very CSI :-)

The weekend was a perfect mix of sleep catch-up and venturing out into the Outside World: antiques and fecky shops on Northcote Road and Merton Abbey Mills Market. We caught the tail-end of Balham's Summer Festival, arriving in time for Imagine the Beatles. A gorgeous sight: London folk, young and old, smiling in weekend sunshine, blasting out the 'Nah nah nah na-na-na-nahs' of Hey Jude. As though summer would never end.



Alrightey then, time to put on Pot #2 and get back to wordey work :-)

The weekend round-up

Lovely weekend, kicking off with drinks under the arches of London Bridge (but in an actual pub; we weren't just camped out with tinnies), then on to catch Skatroniks Jamaica in the Jazz Cafe, Camden. Fabulous night.



As the main summer sales opened in London, I spent Saturday morning with the 'Heart of London' sangha: meditation with a most welcoming group in Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition. Then I made a beeline for home (shall brave the sales on a quiet morning). Sunday, I headed out to Greenwich and caught up with friends over a pint while the world watched football (over several pints). Before we parted, we-the-laydees got matching bracelets and the Blood-Sister ceremony was complete :-)



Struggling to get stuck back into work today; trying to engage my brain calls to mind the Bagpuss mice... heeeeeeave!!

Exotic Medley

Another stellar weekend.

Friday evening - following the Intervention of the Ladies of the Glebe - was hosted by a local artists' collective in Skibbereen, in their lovely studios, night-lights twinkling as dusk approached: the fabulous Leanne O'Sullivan, who read a selection of her poetry old and new. I hadn't heard her before, and blinked tears at the beauty of many of her sentiments and phrases, that have their roots out in the Beara peninsula. Then musicians and poets and writers - entirely eclectic mix of styles and approaches to the word, spoken and sung. It was my first time attending, and I was made to feel most welcome (and contributed my bit along with the rest).

Saturday was TEDx WestCork: the theme was 'Moments of Astonishment'. And there were a few! Great mix of speakers, thoughts, calls-to-action, poetry (Leanne Treat #2), ponderings on landscape and sense of place (though when one speaker said "I moved to Dublin and felt lonely and isolated..." I chose not to meet the knowing smiles!). David Puttnam was the sole speaker who was defeated by the Ash, but he sent a film that made his point instead. Then onwards for sunshiney (and duskey) pints with the locals, all loving this weather.

And so began the Safari. Sharon Rose had done a beautiful 'Nosey at Fota' colouring picture, and we set up books and hats and crayons and glitter gel tattoo pens :-) We were kept busy for hours! Lots of lovely children and adults. And Nosey took a little time to explore the animals...



:-)

Heritage Weekend

Ah, it was fabulous. Storytelling on Friday night with Ellen Walsh and Neily Bohane, with tales of messages in bottles and holy wells and kings with horses' ears. I was dazzled. Then bee-tales on Saturday morning with the infectiously enthusiastic Tim Rowe: I loved all the evocative language around bee-keeping - hollow trees and virgin queens and princesses. I was idling around 'princesses' for a children's story, when Tim said 'and then the princess kills all the other princesses by stinging them through the side of the cell'. Sheesh.

Skib's play on Saturday evening was a fast-paced farce 'A Wake in the West'. Packed audience, belly-laughing throughout. Extra applause for our own Donagh, who was especially great :-)

The Craftey Market yesterday was a blast: gorgeous maps and metalwork and art and sausages and treaty cakes and coffee and Nosey Rosie and wool and of course, lobster pots :-) I was totally enchanted by the unspun hand-dyed wool (from the sheep of Inish Beg) that was being teased into yarn on a traditional spinning wheel, and I was given a selection in gorgeous colours (soon to appear in a textile hanging near me - thanks, Sandra - so generous!). All the ladies got a delivery of ice-cream (thanks, GP - Paddy was a smidge doleful!), and the Fabulous Sharon Rose gave me a hat-decorating lesson - I was *so* absurdly delighted with myself.

Then sunshiney pints and dinner and late-night pints.

You know that whole 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone' tendency? Well, I rarely suffer from that - I tend to treasure stuff as I go along, from the joy of having a good hot shower to not having a toothache. So I've appreciated this community throughout, but coming up to leaving, its delights are especially moving. Glisteney, in a Paula Marten-shimmery-sequin kinda way :-) Over the weekend there were social invites to sing-songs and writers' sessions, and conversation kept weaving back to me, leaving. Range of reactions from a strident 'And what about the Drama Group's Summer Production???' (thanks, D) to 'This is very sad. The end of an era, really' (thanks, G). And gentle suggestions about alternatives, if I decided to stay. And slagging. And much support.

Photos are gonna take a while, but this'll get us started :-)



Thanks to all, for a fairytale weekend. Quite magical.

Sunday projects

Yesterday was bright and sunny and Springfull (okay, that last one may not be a real word). And where better to stroll along and enjoy the white gold light than Lough Ine... Oighin, Aidhean, Hyne - however you spell it, it's a beautiful spot :-)



And on my return, I found that the kitties had made a valiant effort to prove Type IIB Superstring Theory:

Smiling in the face of pestilence

The kidlets over the weekend :-)


[That's right Shona: photos of Jack at last!!!]

The little hamsters inside my beleaguered laptop are lagging; time to clear off the ten thousand high res photos I took over the last few weeks.

But first, there's a dog in the neighbourhood that needs walking. And I may just be the laydee to do it* :-)
____
*Okay, technically he just needs to be led to the shoreline, and he'll take it from there. Which is just as well because I'm feeling kinda flu-ey.