Five Minute Poem, A Challenge from Totalfekineejit

Blogs Rule My Life

Around the world I go to see

How bloggers fare, from Bea to thee

In Oz and LA they blog away

We all have so bloomin' much to say.

I try to see them all each day

I have so many - I cry 'NO WAY'

I click on those who leave a comment

Oh no - another blog friend I lament!

Some post art and some write rhyme

Some are so bad - it is a crime

Like this little ode, done in less than five minutes

If there were a prize, 'To be sure' I'd not to win it!


Look, I know it's really bad but we're not allowed to correct it or change it. I did it in about 3 minutes! You can tell? lol

Builders, The Deenery, Flora and Fauna

The Deenery. A joiner from 29th August 2009

Kay's Birthday

It is my daughter K's 42nd birthday today. I was just 19 when I had her and 20 a week later. I was very young! 27 hours in labour. Phew! It was the first delivery that a tiny Chinese nurse had witnessed and she cried. Bless. I didn't make any noise like they do on tv!

Kay is now known in her circle of friends as DK. I hope they spoil you rotten K. xxx

This is a very recent photo of K, with Luisa asleep in her arms. The rug behind her is one of mine!

Digging The Soak away - Buster Supervises

Friday was dig the soak away day. We had a site meeting to decide where it should go and where we should break through the back garden wall to get the water through to the 'pond' and off down the boreen (old path in Ireland). We decided to cut down the huge laurel that was overhanging the back, what was the lawn, and this gave Joe more room to manoeuvre with the digger. We moved all the wood and other assorted bits of building rubble that had gathered and Joe set to work. Martin turned up some time later. I was busy re-planting the rest of the plants from the ex-rockery!

I took some photos to record the occasion:

Can you see Buster sitting on a high point supervising the whole procedure? Jim and Martin.

Here's a close up of him. He looks as though he's sitting on a nest!

Buster still in position. I think at times the digger bucket looks alive! Like some sort of monster.


Jim and Martin have 'Manly' discussions! It looks as though they are 'Face Fighting' in the top one, but they weren't really!
Joe's an expert at digger driving!

The hole gets bigger........

Thanks to Joe and his digger!

In the meantime, Martin was shovelling gravel (note, I caught this shovel full in mid air).

He was burying the artistic pipework. A wall has also been built.
Martin is like my Grandson Jack in that he pokes his tongue out when he's concentrating!

Martin and Jim study the hole. You can see the water that's accumulated while we haven't had a proper soak away.

The last bit of digging by the JCB - nearly there.

Martin finishes it by hand. He is 6'7" so you can see how far it went down.

Joe discovered and old land drain going in the right direction, so our soak away is being diverted into that old drain, now repaired. It was a good find.

We then filled the hole in with large rocks from my ex rockery, then smaller ones on top. It's still to e finished off.

Out and About Around The Deenery



Down the road, one of the local farmers, Francis, was baling his cut hay. You can just see the top of his tractor.

I managed to get all the tractor in this time! I love this sort of scene.

This flower had fallen off the pink and white fuchsia so I photographed it. Note I spelled fuchsia right Jim.


I spotted a spider on the alchemilla mollis

And a little fat bee on the dying white cornflower. It must have still had some nectar inside for him.

This gorgeous pink carnation has just come into flower. It is one of the perennial plants Jim grew from seed this year. I love it.

Not the best of photos but you can see the number of flowers yet to come. I will leave it to seed too.

Other Stuff

Computers! Wonderful when they work. My lovely computer, now almost a year old (I got it for my 60th birthday last year), has stopped working so I'm back on my old, slow one. At least we had a spare. I don't have all the bookmarks or links on this one though.

Then yesterday evening, Jim said he thought he would have to re-load windows on his computer as it wasn't working properly. It took him ages. Then it wasn't right, so he had to do it all again. He came to bed at 5.30am! I think it's ok now though.

It's raining today for a change. My washing is out, dripping sadly on the line.

There are new ATCs on my new ATC blog!! Do go and see if you're interested at all. The link is on my profile page.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Do click on any of the photos to enlarge them and see the details.

Friday 29th August, 2009. Toadstools Abound.

Morning Coffee

I went to Ann Broderick's for morning coffee at 11am yesterday. Her lovely sister Margaret greeted me with open arms. Ann had just baked some scones! We had them with butter and strawberry jam and they were utterly melt in the mouth delicious. We spent the time in Ann's conservatory which overlooks Lough Graney. It was a misty morning though and kept raining on and off. This is the view:She is further away than we are, up on the main road. This is Ann's house:
The conservatory is on the left, behind that conifer!! It's a lovely house and she has 2 holiday units to let. You can see the end of that building also behind the conifer bush!

It's strange chatting to a nun, but you really wouldn't know Margaret was one, except she is so serene and almost other wordly. It's hard to explain. I took their photo, although Margaret wasn't keen. Pity Ann had her eyes almost closed:
Ann is on the left, sister Margaret on the right.

After a while, another 2 ladies appeared. They were both about the same age as Ann and had held an event to raise money for Margaret to take back to Zimbabwe for her charity. They had raised a lot of money. I was amazed. People here will always support the church or church missionary. Ann was instructed to bring me next time there was a 'do'. More people I will know. My circle of friends is slowly growing. Before I knew it it was 1pm and Jim was wanting me back by then so he could go shopping. Ann put 4 scones in a bag, 2 for 'himself' and 2 for me!! Himself being Jim of course. She blessed me on the way out with holy water. Ann's husband died just 9 weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, 2 years ago and she misses him so much. He looks very handsome from the photos.

Rain

The rain came down in buckets full when I got back
It doesn't really show well in this photo, but you can see how dingy it is!
The bin outside was quickly full and splashing over the top.

It did clear up again fortunately.

Woodland/Lough Graney Walk

When I got back I was full of chat and bounce. Jim didn't really want to go but forced himself in the end and I headed off with Buster to the lake. We'd only gone a short way when the heavens opened and I sheltered under a tree, wondering whether to go back. Luckily it soon passed and the sun shone again, so we carried on. The wood was full of toadstools of all varieties, so naturally I took many photos. I do hope you enjoy them:This was where I was sheltering under a tree. You can just see a rainbow as the clouds were being chased away by the sun.
This splendid bull was in a field we passed, kept in only by some white electric tape.
Here he is with some of his women and children!

Look at that huge neck. I was glad he was sitting down on the way past.

The Toadstools

Large rotting toadstool!
These were on a rotting tree stump.
Toadstool and moss
I loved this frilly one!
Isn't this wiggly one wonderful?
This was a really big patch of toadstools. I went somewhat off the beaten track, thinking I might find some more different ones. Buster and I battled our way through brambles and nettles!
This is a close up of one of the little groups from the big group above.
Moonface!
A bunch of toadstools among the shamrock. How perfect.
I came across these little chaps. I have seen pottery toadstools made like this one.
Look at the pretty row of them.

I'm not sure how many different kinds I found, but quite a few I think.

Lake Photos etc

With all the rain, the rocks Buster and I usually climb on were almost under water.
Bull Rush Reflections

I met up with this little group in the wood. The little boy was excited that he could get to the side of the lake and fish. A short while later he had his trousers, wellies and socks off and was paddling out to fish! They had a very cute little scruffy dog with them, but he hated the water!

I photographed their colourful reflections
My hundredth (or so) shot of the bull rushes.
Beautiful blue skies and blue reflections.
More reflections
Autumn grasses

I paddled round to the rocks and the water was almost to the top of my wellingtons. Buster was a bit shocked by the depth of the water!
The rocks
The blue sky didn't last long

I experimented a bit with reflections today
More reflections
The broken up red boat is under water!
Gorgeous red berries.
Windblown grasses
Super contrasts in this photo. And a bit of blue sky

Black and white reflections
The inside of the remainder of the boat, above water.
The sunlight reflected on the shallow weedy water
Black and white waves
Sunlight reflected in the water behind the purple loosestrife

The sun was low as we walked back through the wood.
The berries of the Arum lily

Evening sunlight through the wood - and below.
the light on the wood floor looked more like moonlight than sunlight.
On the walk home, we were met by Kevin and his herd of cows. We had to retreat to a safe gateway!
This is Buster eating blackberries from the bush.
And again!
At home and the white lilies are almost all out.

I didn't get home until gone 6pm and I thought Jim would be back. He didn't get home until almost 8.30. I was a bit worried. There are a lot of roadworks around Limerick! He had bought some lovely food though, so he was forgiven!