St Patrick's Day Parade, Sunday 15th March 2009

Ever since we've lived in Ireland, we've always managed to be away for the St Patrick's Day parade. This time we were here and went to the one in Gort, our nearest town. We really enjoyed it, the whole place was a sea of green and yellow. Flags abounded and buntings hung across the streets. I had no idea it was such a huge occasion for the locals. I took loads of photos, as usual, and I think they give the flavour more than anything I could say. I hope you enjoy them. The theme of the parade this year was the 1960s





A good one to start with
















The shops are decorated

























Spectators dressed up to watch the parade













There were lots of little clowns from a play centre




















































In the market place was this lovely old Threshing machine.











Here they were demonstrating how it worked. Jim is in the red coat.



















An old display of farming tools












A lovely old bus and great character beside it.












A model T Ford. There were dozens of old and vintage cars.









More clowns





















One came on stilts
















Getting ready for the parade outside the church, Gort
























And here they are marching.




















My ear itches!


















Here they all are actually in the parade




















This chap had a wonderful time in his church gear.















The Young Hurlers
















These were from the ICA, the equivalent of the Women's Institute. They are The Beatles of course!












Aliens were everywhere! And spacemen of course

















An Alien


















Irish Lions, 'To be sure, I'm goin' ta roar'


















A bouncing man!

















Men on the moon (loved the rocket, a washing machine)




















I think it was all a bit beyond this little Brazilian boy!















A super scooter, pity I cut the top of his head off











I'm not sure why this lot were caged!

















The bouncing man, the stilt walker and a boy on a unicycle.



















A piper and his scary friend the drummer
































This lad with his windmill was waving from one of the old cars













Washing hanging from one of the floats!












Cashing in on the day


















This lady was on a hippy float. They won in their section.











One man and his dog, riding an old tractor. The hat on the right looks like an old favourite, well worn.











3 young Irish dancers in their lovely costumes




Hats and wigs came in all shapes, sizes and styles, as long as they were green!















An Alice Band with shamrock decorations




















A tiny hat












Green Hair!

















Classy



















My favourite Clown

















'Kiss Me I'm Irish', but wake me up first!


















This lass had decided a warm hat was called for.


















I love this photo. What a fantastic face this man has.


















My favourite child's photo


















A super home made hat

















This family were all dressed for the occasion. Look at the little lad as a leprechaun! I love the one on the left's glasses too.






The weather wasn't too bad, at times the sun shone then the wind blew cold. It was a super day, everyone was in great spirits and I thoroughly enjoyed my first St Patrick's Day Parade.

My Garden, Lots of Photos, BlackJack too-13.3.09

Well, I did say I'd taken a lot of photos yesterday! To cheer you up, here they are. I wandered around the garden taking all sorts of things bright and cheerful:





To start with, our lovely old cottage through the gates.










2 double daffodils with the sun behind them


















A host!














Double Daffodils in the sunshine










Cyclamen flowers















Crocus





















2 Pittisporum, pale green behind, purple in front
















A newly planted euonymous












Celandine and primula, a lovely combination











A cultivated speedwell with gorgeous purple to green leaves. This is a marvel on rockeries and spreads wonderfully and grows anywhere. It flowers all summer and into the autumn.









The Deenery front garden in the sunshine towards the fairy hill









A newly planted yellowy green hebe














Heather












Inside a small tulip
















Jim did a brilliant job mending the cow eaten conifer!
















Taken from the outside of The Deenery down towards the sleeping shed and meadow beyond. We need to paint the posts white.












Narcissus. The sunshine cheers everything up.















These narcissus are almost fully out. They have a gorgeous scent.












Another newly planted euonymous. These will be fabulous when they're grown up!













this fabulous primula is a dazzling colour.











Look how much these tulips have come on. They are miniature ones!












Even this little pink and white saxifrage is coming out.








This is taken from the bottom corner of the arboretum up towards the cottage. The 2 beds I have been weeding are in the top left hand corner.





Sunny Daffodils




















































Jim's boots drying in the sun













Pink Heather












This blue tit is enjoying the nuts in the sunshine and just checking I'm not a threat.









Finally, I took some photos of BlackJack as he was sitting on top of one of the gateposts:









He was watching a bird!













Isn't he cute?


















I do hope you've enjoyed these. I did take more but I think that's enough. Today it's been very windy and cloudy with rain at the end of the day. We still went out and I did some more de-weeding of the vegetable plot before the cold wind and rain drove me in. It is, of course, Red Nose Day in the UK and I watched it from 7pm until just now (2.10am) when it has almost finished. It's been a great fun night and they raised £57million! How about that. A little of it was mine too.

Artist Trading Cards (ATCs), 12th March 2009

I thought I'd just put on the photos of my Artist Trading Cards to date. Marianne from the Netherlands, has sent me 2 of hers and they are just gorgeous. They are painted and feature the Mandalas that she blogs about. Go and have a look. http://mandarianne.blogspot.com/

Here is an explanation of ATCs from Wikipedia:

Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as baseball cards and thin enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets. The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origin in Switzerland. The cards are usually traded or exchanged and not sold.

I have already exchanged quite of few of mine, so these are the ones I have left. This is a relatively new venture for me, so I hope you enjoy them.





Cat in a Cage. Material, buttons, orange twine found on a beach, stitching
















Gold Butterfly

Various felt tip pens and marker pens

















Labels

Material, stitching, old clothes labels, beads, peg
















Lady behind a net curtain

Magazine image, ribbon, builders' scree, bits of cotton, felt pens.

















Letters

collage, magazine pieces and words, glitter glue, beads, a peg.













New Shoes


Altered magazine image, Beads, paint.
















Roxanne


Altered Magazine image, ribbons, felt tip














Shoes

Wool, altered magazine and yellow pages images, cut out letters, felt tips.




















Swirls and Twirls


Various felt tipped pens, gel pens and gold pen.











Below are the two lovely ATCs I received from Marianne. They are both Mandalas.


































Below is an explanation about Mandalas

• An integrated structure organized around a unifying center Longchenpa •

The pattern of creation
The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.

"The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose."
(From Mandala: Journey to the Center, by Bailey Cunningham)

I hope you have enjoyed this little journey. Today I took loads of photos including some superb ones of BlackJack and some garden ones of course. So watch out for photo heaven for tomorrow.
I have been working on Jim's vegetable plot today, after my 'David Bailey' session.