-
gynoid and geishas
I’m off to Wexworlds today, so I’m leaving you with a photograph I took yesterday of bric-a-brac at the Gallery Café in Gort. I’m calling it ‘Gynoid and Gesihas’. I may have to write a story to fit with this picture. It would make a cool cover for a book, perhaps a collection of short stories. If nothing else, I think I’ll get a print made and frame it. It will be a colourful addition to the house.
-
sun on sun
There was more stormy weather last night so there isn’t a leaf left on any trees in my garden. This morning the rain fled and left behind freshly-scrubbed skies and searing sunshine. I took this image after my walk in the woods, where I snapped a few nice images also. It’s difficult to capture a moment of beauty in its entire spectrum, be it in words or images. Much of what I do is a failed attempt. I try to squeeze the intangibles into the pixels and letters, but even when it’s good, it rarely does the experience justice. There are so many little moments that squeeze my heart. Such…
-
cook knit sew
My mother recently gave me a small time capsule of items from when I was a kid, including this book Cooking, Knitting and Sewing For Girls. Oh, the memories! I went through a classic Irish convent education, which meant I was in an all-girl environment and taught by nuns and non-religious teachers. In primary school (that’s up until the age of 12) There was an emphasis placed on teaching us practical skills as well as the usual maths, reading, Irish, history etc. So, I was taught to embroider, sew, knit, crochet, and I also learned to play recorder and piano. My mother did a lot of cooking and baking when…
-
flashback to Greece
Yesterday’s post with its emphasis on sunshine reminded me that this time last year I was in Greece as part of the first World Conference of Screenwriters. I was running the conference blog and social media, and it was a wonderful, if exhausting, few days in Athens. The above picture is of the Parthenon at dusk on the opening evening of the conference. It’s one of the cluster of ancient buildings that make up the Acropolis – which is perched on a flat-topped outcrop 150 meters above Athens. Our international group of screenwriters and Guilds representatives was extremely fortunate to get a private tour of the Acropolis just as twilight…
-
Huguenot memories
Yesterday I posted images to my Flickr photo stream of my recent trip in Dublin. All of them were taken with the camera in my mobile phone (a Sony Xperia X10 mini – an Android smartphone). Looking through them I thought about my time living in Dublin, and the photographs I took using my first digital camera. Back then, I was using a Fuji FinePix 2.4 megapixel camera, which I referred to as Pixie. I could take images at several resolutions, but in those days (a mere 9 years ago) if you were posting photos on the web the image quality was not expected to be high, so I often…
-
avoidance
Today I’m finishing my dreaded task of the year: sorting out my tax returns. It’s a vicious cycle: because I loathe doing this job I avoid doing it. That means, despite the promptings of my accountant, I tend to leave it until rather late. Each year I get stressed about it and once it’s done I swear I will never leave it this late again… until the following year rolls round. One of my favourite observations about this particular form of task avoidance is from the first episode of Black Books, called ‘Cooking the Books‘ (written by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan). First, is the conversation between Bernard Black, with…
-
animal companion
That’s a picture of me and my dog Minnie on our daily morning walk – well, our shadows anyway. I’ve often pondered the strangeness of sharing your home with a creature from another species, with whom you have limited communication and a vastly different set of behaviours. Yet, the bond that develops is deep and steadfast – at least for me. I’m never under any illusions that Minnie is anything but a dog. She doesn’t think the way I do and has a simple system of priorities: Food Walks Play Sleep These are all perfectly reasonable demands in the Minnie universe, and she gets quite perplexed if they don’t occur…
