Remember to look the other way; sense what is lurking behind your back, what is over your head and what is under your feet. For a moment out on the island, up close with the grasses I heard them whispering about the state of things; the end of summer and the dying back of the plant world. In the salty air out there, old petals crunched . . .
Where does a Mammy Bear sleep?
While Angela Merkel has brought Ireland nothing but ongoing austerity, she is coming to the fore as the real leader of Europe. As we all watch Donald Trump lurch from one embarrassment to another Angela plays things in a calm and low key way. She’s very much the adult to his pouty toddler. The recent meetings to discuss climate change . . .
The best spa treatment in the world
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. Isak Dinesen I've been to some spas and the best thing about them has been the company of other women and how much fun that can be. However I can't imagine any spa to match the best treatment in the world; the salty magic of sea bathing. I'm not a big swimmer. OK I won . . .
Breathe in experience
"Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry." Muriel Rukeyser I'm delighted to be a Finalist in the 2016 Littlewoods Irish Blog Awards, of course I am. If you can hear a "but" coming that's because I sometimes feel a little like a square peg in a round hole in the blogging world. Blogging for me . . .
Full on summer in the garden
And somehow, yet again, everything came into bloom. Everything at once, so here I am celebrating the cultivated and the pristine. Sometimes the owners of land, property and gardens allow access, but Colclough Garden in Tintern Abbey County Wexford, is owned by us. This walled garden was planted by volunteers and reclaimed from a ruin by . . .
Not for the faint hearted
There is so much to love about our beautiful county of Waterford. The soft sweeping landscape, the wonderful deserted beaches of the Copper Coast, the little towns of the county, each one with it’s own character and community. So we were more than a bit peeved when we didn’t get included in that new WIld Atlantic Way re-branding. Somehow . . .
The mad excitement of rural living
How did rural living get to be so exciting! When I started to blog in 2011 I didn't have a plan or any idea where I might be going. In my work life I had chosen to follow an activist path rather than an artistic one. Gradually over the those years, I began returning to creativity. What I never would have predicted was that I . . .
A sideways glimpse at the Burren
I regularly witness people come to rural Ireland and begin to unravel some of the stress of their lives. Urban living for all of its convenience can lack a connection with nature and land. I've seen this with Irish people in particular, that their being is soothed by landscape. At a deep level the land and the sea bring them back to their . . .
Finding our tribe
I was driving through County Wexford recently on my way to a meeting in a small rural community centre. About three miles from the village I stopped to pick up a hitcher. She was a woman of about my own age, otherwise, before you start to worry about me, I probably wouldn’t have stopped. We immediately started chatting and I admired her tan, . . .
Skin like a rhinocerous
When the world is too much, where would you turn to for comfort? When you see a problem, who would you trust to help? If you need advice who would you ask? Would you turn to politics? I read recently that the Pokemon generation look for all their answers on google. When asked if they would lobby government to solve an issue, most of . . .
