Behind the Parade 2 and Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! It's turning into a busy weekend of celebrating, all packed in.
I hope all you Mothers are being spoiled and given lots of treats!

I can't believe this is my 3rd year of "Behind the Parade" from Dublin! To see PART ONE of this year's offering, click HERE!
Spotted on the way home: €10 for dinner and a pint- not a bad deal! I like the rainbow and bottle bin at the bottom of the poster too!
This band were setting up as I was on my way home, not much of an audience, but maybe later. The red building behind them houses The Bretzel, a fantastic Jewish bakery, we sometimes call there on Sundays for delicious breads and muffins, yum!
After all that waiting and cheering, all kids wanted some ice-cream..This is the bit I don't like- lots of litter and cans thrown on pavements. I don't understand why people do this when there are lots of litter bins around.
Cute huddle outside Government Buildings
Car with decoration, and sweeping truck on the clean-up routine...
On the way home, I passed a well-known knick-nack shop, Christy Bird's in Portobello, and he had some interesting pieces in the window.
An interesting combination!The Guinness toucan, remember him?

I've never before seen a green Bakelite phone!

I had a lovely vista pic, which is on my way back home, but deleted it by mistake. Why doesn't blogger have an undo button?
Hope you all had a good day, and I'll be around to visit later!

Behind the Parade 1

Happy St. Patrick's Day !
I made my usual trip in to the Parade to snap some photos.
This year's crop is not great, mainly cos I left it quite late to go in, thinking I would catch people as they were coming away from the Parade.
What I found was that it was difficult to get into the atmosphere, and hence difficult to ask people to pose , or for permission to take their photos.

This pub was well ready!
People were busy, on phones or chatting to their friends, looking lovely in their tricoloured shorts!
taking in the atmosphere and taking photos!
Multitasking!
There were lots of face painters around, and after I uploaded the photos, I thought the shop window in the background of this one was very pretty.

Remember my friends from last year, Suas-Education for all? They were busy painting again!

Another donation and another pose!
I think this beard is flying a bit low!

The blurred bit to the right of these 2 green-headed lads is actually a ride going by!
These two were beside a sign for a ride that read "children must be with a responsible adult"...would these qualify as either?
More tomorrow, hope you're all having a great day!

Busy Busy

Life has been very hectic these last few weeks. That's why I haven't had time to post.

I've been giving a course on "Aromatherapy for you and your Family"; this is my first time to teach a course, and I'm loving it! I also wrote the material, and even though it was hugely time-consuming, I learned lots and got a lot of satisfaction from doing it this way.

Each week, I incorporated an inspirational quote, and also a recipe that used essential oils. I made up the recipe and we ate it with a cuppa at the end of class.

I was blessed in that a friend, who wanted to do the course, offered her beautiful, cosy dining room. This meant that she didn't have to hire a babysitter, and I didn't have to prepare a room in my house!
Last week each person blended their own hand cream, using the knowledge they had gained in the previous 4 weeks. We had so much fun! The course should be finished now, but we were all enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to do one extra week, this Wednesday.

Musically, things are also hectic. In band, we are preparing for the National Band Championships. I had hoped to not participate, as I still feel very new and quite overwhelmed in the band, but they kindly wanted me to be part of it, so that means a lot of practice for me, as I'm really challenged with the pieces. I think they'd do much better in the competition without me, but they're including me, which is really nice! It's in Cork, so it will also involve a night away;that should be fun, getting to know everyone a bit better.
On the plus side, it makes for good progress.
The music doesn't look too bad, till you read the fine print! The fine differences in articulation, the fact that some of it is played as a speed of 176, yikes, I find it hard to keep up, my lips and fingers are nearly on fire! The end of the piece below is a Gallop, and it's literally like horses in a steeplechase! Dih,dididih,dididih and so on!Finally, we had an orchestra rehearsal this afternoon, as we have a big concert coming up in April. We were divided into sections, and it was brilliant! More on that later..