That Birthday Post

This is now a week overdue, but I'll explain in a minute.



But first, Happy Birthday Naoise. From the moment you came into our lives, 18 years ago, you have brought us to unbelievable heights, taught us so much and given us so much joy. The moment I set eyes on you, I fell totally in love with you, beyond anything I have ever experienced before. (Actually, I was already in love with you, I just didn't know what you looked like). It's like the "turbo" of my heart- it's a different gear to anything else. We've had some wonderful times together, and even during challenging times it has been an honour to be your mother. Great adventures await you as you embark on adulthood, but know that I will always be here if you ever need me. I love you with all my heart, and I always will.



The cake- it's a chocolate biscuit cake, but dairy free, as Naoise is vegan. I managed to get dairy-free digestives in Lidl, and the rest is dark chocolate, dairy-free spread and golden syrup. The flowers are made from sugar paste, and the sweets are a dairy-free version of smarties. There are some dark chocolate mini-buttons there too. To top it, I got red glitter in our local baking supplies shop. The cake was delicious!



It has been a difficult week. My close friend's daughter is sick. She has a condition called Neurofibromatosis and she needed surgery 4 weeks ago to deal with a scoliosis on her spine. Her recovery hasn't gone well, and it's really difficult to be far away from them- they live in Brussels. If they were here, I would drop in with a casserole for dinner, or do some ironing, or whatever. But, from here, there's very little I can do, and that is frustrating. We've been sending them Reiki, and they find that helpful.

So, if you pray, would you please include this little girl in your prayers. Or if you do Reiki, please send them some.

Jet contrail!

Here's something we haven't seen here for a while!

In fact, there were two of them crossing in the sky, I just wasn't quick enough to get a good photo!

Have a lovely weekend!

Gold!

Just a quick photo from our walk in Glendalough,last week, taken by Hubby.

Seriously, doesn't it look like gold?

I'll be back with another birthday post at the weekend, as eldest daughter turned 18 yesterday!

In the meantime, have a lovely Friday everyone!

Ruby Tuesday

It's a while since we had a Dublin Pub photo, so here's a quick one that I took on the way home form work!

I like the stained glass in the window, and it does have touches of ruby, really it does!

Mart T hosts this fun meme, so head on over to her place by clicking on the ruby slippers at the top. There you will see some wonderful pictures, and you can add your own! Have fun!

Easter

It's been a busy few days.

We had 10 for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for the past 5 days! Thank God for a dishwasher!

We had 2 birthdays, my sister-in-law's 44th (as you can see from the cake!) on Easter Sunday, and my niece's 7th on Monday. Little hands were busy, crafting, moulding and writing. Thank God for sugar paste!

We went on a few trips- the zoo, museums and

Glendalough.

I was surprised to see so much snow, long after it has melted down with us. Must have been spectacular (and difficult!) at the height of it.

We were blessed with the weather- sunshine, and then the rain began just as we returned to the car! I had forgotten how spectacularly beautiful this place is, and how close it is to Dublin too!

You always learn something when you have visitors to stay!

They've gone back now, and we miss them. It's a quiet house, with only half the occupants.

Yard Art on Thursday

This might not, strictly speaking, qualify as Yard Art, but because it's funny (and because I've nothing else!) I'm hoping I can slip it in!

It doesn't look very fragile to me, what do you think?

For more Yard Art, or to add your own, go to Mary T who hosts this new meme.

Click on the icon at the top.

:( Mellow Yellow Monday

The bleach didn't really work, or at least not in my opinion.

The instructions were to cut the stems in water... done

put a little bleach in the water in the vase... done

keep the flowers as far away from natural light as possible... done

And a week later, here is the result.

I expect my roses to last longer than a week, but maybe my expectations are unrealistic. Are they? But then, I got another MYM post from it!

For more MYM, go to Drowsey Monkey with this link.

They're here! and Happy Easter!

The preparations for the visitors went OCD last week.

Freezers that weren't defrosted for a year (I'm not jokin, please don't send hygiene police to me!) were BOTH done this week.

And, even with the help of this great spray, the mess was unreal.. water all over the place, one drawer full of water tipped over,

narrowly missing this....

Phew!

But what a feeling to have the job out of the way!

And the visitors have arrived, settled in, and have gone out to a dinosaur exhibition. We celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday this evening , and my niece will be 7 tomorrow.

So gotta go bake now!

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it! This is a shot of a flower stall on Dublin's Grafton Street yesterday, couldn't bear to hold it till Mellow Yellow Monday or Ruby Tuesday!

Music and gifts

Sorry that I haven't posted much recently. My back has been sore, and I've had to limit my time at the computer. I decided that commenting was a higher priority than posting.

But here are a few snippets from the last week or so..

Hubby and I were supposed to go to a Christy Moore concert in January- the tickets were a birthday present. But on that afternoon, we had a very heavy snowfall, buses were not running, and, very reluctantly, we decided not to go. I was very disappointed.

But, being the darling that he is, Hubby was on the lookout, and got tickets to a Christy gig last week. And the icing on the cake? It was a fundraiser for Haiti. It was a real privilege to be there- great music from Christy and Declan Sinnott- I almost felt guilty when John O'Shea of Goal thanked the audience for helping. That's Christy on the far right, singing his heart out, for Haiti. What a guy!

Then a friend invited me to this concert

on Saturday night- wonderful! Most of the music was well-known, but there was one newly-composed piece that I didn't like at all. When it finished, I was just about to lean over to my friend and say "that was just weird" when the composer was called on stage- from the seat right in front of me! Thank goodness that, for once, I didn't put my foot in it!

Friends came over for lunch on Sunday, and one of them brought these lovely flowers. I see from google that adding a tiny bit of bleach to the water helps them to last; I hope it works.

So it was a week of many blessings, and I'm thankful for that.

Hope you're all having a lovely week- it's stopped snowing now, and everywhere looks more spring-like.

Tonight at midnight, younger daughter gets back from her school trip (Spain) and tomorrow night my brother and family arrive for 5 days! Busy times ahead!!