Fruits, Mother's Day Gifts and Power Cuts, among other things!

It's been a busy week for the kids with music exams and Leaving Cert language orals for eldest daughter.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day here, and I got the most lovely gifts, useful too!

This one was from Eldest Girl, that green shoot in the background will produce blackberries.

And this one is from Middle Girl, a companion for my other blueberry bush. I had 2 last year, but one died off, and everyone needs a companion, right?.

This is what Son made for me, when I saw it I thought "what a lovely poster" but then I read the text, it's not over yet, I have some lessons coming up. (when I find time!), so expect great things on this blog from now on!.

Middle Girl's band were playing in a fundraising concert in a local church Friday night, but there was a power cut, so they played by candlelight, though some of them were more or less in the dark.

This photo doesn't really show quite how dark it was, but one girl practically had her nose on the music sheet trying to see!

They are such amazing young people, didn't complain, just got on with it. I really admired that, and learned from it. I have found that it takes very little to upset me before I play, and it's something I've wanted to change, so seeing them just get on with it in a "we're here to play, we'll play" kind of way, has helped me a lot.

Swans in the City

I'm so far behind with planned blog posts! I have a couple of knitting ones in my head, some photos taken to go with them, but just haven't either time or access to laptop to get them posted.

In the meantime, these are some from a children's art competition in our local shopping centre last week. The theme was "Swans in the City"- the Swan (shopping)Centre is close to the Canal, where swans swim all the time. I think they're beautifully creative. The textures in the one below appealed to me, and the artist incorporated names of shops from the centre.

I particularly like this one, by a 10 year old girl.

The idea of swans even thinking about clocks or time is novel!

Clockwise Contrasts in Howth

We went for a walk in Howth on Saturday, and couldn't believe the contrast in the sky surrounding us! Standing in the same spot on the pier, just by doing a 360 degree turn, I got all these different images. Not sure if you'll agree with me, but I think some of them could easily be in different countries! So, to start, not a great looking image, swirling dark clouds are not what you like when you're about to walk down a pier!

looks as though it's about to start raining, doesn't it? no, not a day for walking on the pier...but hey, are they bits of blue I see towards the right hand side?

still lots of clouds, but looking more hopeful

this looks like a nicer vista, yes, we could continue with this walk under this blue sky..

surely this can't be the same place? Was I spirited to a Mediterranean country?

are these clouds billowing in this lovely blueness? No, please don't let it rain!

not quite so blue now

and finally, back to cloudy again. That's Ireland for you, those clouds are never far away!

We did get a little walk without any rain! Phew!

Behind the Parade 2

Apparently, it's now a 10-day celebration! Yea, right, or good for business!

The owner of this flag thinks it's all over! The 10-day message escaped them.

This pub was well decked out, ready for celebrations!

This made me laugh, three tractors IS a parade!

Painting faces for charity, and, in return for a donation, I got to take her photo. Fair deal!

These Shamrock tights were very popular.

This, to me, is a perfect pint of Guinness, a chocolate one!

This guy was popular, there were queues to get their photo taken with him.

Of course, we had to have "Póg Mo Thón" !

A discarded wand, wonder why?Someone else who doesn't realise it's now a 10-day Festival!

This lady got in the green groove.

And the charity shops had the Green theme too!

Behind the Parade 1

I'm soo excited! Did you hear the news?

Barak Obama is coming to Ireland!!! Can't wait till May!
Something weird is happening on my computer- each time I try to open a picture , I get a message denying access. Everyone else is gone to bed, and I've no idea how to rectify this problem. It is a problem cos I'm adding photos without previewing them....

So this is just a taster of my day behind the scenes at the Parade.

I just about caught the wonderful shamrocks on this girl's tights!

More tomorrow!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We finished school a little early today to allow the kids get home for St. Patrick's Day. Actually, it's a long weekend for us, we've got Friday off too!! :).
As it was a lovely, sunny day, I took myself into "town" i.e. Dublin city centre, Grafton St. for a walk around and to see if there was any pre-holiday excitement.
Found the guy above painted onto a wall at the car park- I think it's hilarious.
Weather permitting, I'm planning to go out again tomorrow and take a few photos "behind the parade" as I did last year. So please, no rain dances!!

Because there's so much B&W in this photo, and because it's Wednesday, I'm linking in with Lisa at The Long Road to China for her Black and White Wednesday. Click the link above if you want to see some amazing photography!

The Juggling Act

I feel I've been such a terrible blogger recently. I promised to post the knitting projects, and I'm way behind in doing it.

Normally, even if I haven't time to post, I can get around a few of you and leave a comment, but even that seems to have been too much this week.

Since I went back to work full-time 3 years ago, I find that life is a juggling act. I know I have too many things going on, but if I think about what I would drop, iI realise I can't bear to give up any of those things I enjoy. Playing the French Horn does take up a huge chunk of every week; when you add up lesson time, orchestra and practice, it's a total of about 9 or 10 hours, including travelling time, but I just couldn't imagine giving it up. I love it!

Walking is another of my "pasttimes", and again, even though it takes up chunks of time, about 3 hours a week, I don't want to give it up, because I enjoy it and it's good exercise.

Blogging is fairly new to the mix, but I enjoy it so much, love meeting new people and there's no way I would consider giving it up.

And going out is yet another pasttime that I enjoy, whether with Hubbie (we try to go out once a week for a couple of hours), or meeting friends for a cuppa and a catch-up.

No, I couldn't give that up either.

Then there are the runs to bring the kids to their activities, (though thankfully there are not too many of those, most things happen after school and they're great at making their own way back), and Hubby does a big chunk of all this work too. Also there's aromatherapy, and last but not least, the boring things like washing, ironing, housework, yawn!!

So, each day, something suffers, and I try to alternate the thing that suffers!

And now knitting has been thrown into the mix!

The scarves for the 3 kids are finished, and worn regularly, and I started on socks with the beautiful yarn in the first picture. It is a joy to work with, and I look forward to wearing them when(ever)they're finished!

We have a little "study area" beside the kitchen that turns into a laundry area every weekend, and this is what it looked like 20 minutes ago! I've tidied it up now, and folded the laundry, but that means that I'm typing this post at 00.52! Agh!

Any suggestions? Am I just disorganised or is it just this stage of life with 3 kids? And I can't afford to go back part-time!