Grannymar

I am so pleased my Elly is no longer four years of age!

JACK was watching his Mum breastfeeding his new baby sister. After a while he asked: “Mum why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for cold milk?”

OLIVER stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: “How much do I cost?”

CHLOE asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was so old she didn’t remember any more. Melanie said, “If you don’t remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.”

EMMA had an earache and wanted a pain killer. She tried in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mum explained it was a child-proof cap and she’d have to open it for her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: “How does it know it’s me?”

LUCY was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. “Please don’t give me this juice again,” she said, “It makes my teeth cough.”

REBEKAH was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for a while and then asked, “Why doesn’t your skin fit your face?”

CHARLIE was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: “Why is he whispering in her mouth?”

Sorting through my ever mounting collection of photographs I came across a folder called ‘Walks’. It was dated 2005 and became an exercise in stretching. Stretching my legs, my energy levels and stretching my eye behind the camera lense. At that stage a digital camera was still rather new to me and I enjoyed clicking away knowing that at the end of the day it was possible to hit delete if they were a total disaster.

This group of pictures were all taken in Crawfordsburn Country Park in Co Down. It was the month of March. I had decided that trees were to be my focus for the morning.

Taking the camera for a walk was a wonderful idea to get me moving. I would decide to go as far as a certain point in the distance before turning, yet when I reached it, there was always another carrot a little further on.

This last one is my favourite from that day.

Enjoy my walk!

UPDATE: I just realised the date - 2 years ago today I was pushed over a cliff never to return.  20th September 2006 was the day I started blogging.

Thanks Elly for all the fun you introduced me to.

Robin gave me this idea; well I stole it from one of his Tweets! He is flying the Flag for Ireland this week as a Seedcamp Finalist with new business venture Decisions For Heroes .

11850 announces they have a new SMS service that is free while they launch it. You can text them any question and they’ll answer it (no-doubt using Google) with an SMS. (In UK use 63336)

It wasn’t until I heard that the people answering us were a team waiting for our questions in Manilla was I seriously intrigued. Had I got my business message right? Could a person in the Philippines not only find but also summarise my new business into 160 characters for me?

I got out my phone and texted 11850:

What is “Decisions For Heroes”.

It is a collaborative rescue team management tool to record and analyze rescue operations.

Now you can’t blame me for trying…. a girl needs to keep on top of things

So I sent a text:

Who is Grannymar?

Back flew the answer:

AQA: Grannymar is an internet blogger from Ireland, who was the winner of the ‘Best Personal Blog’ award at the Irish Blog Awards in 2008.

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, ‘We only have one rule here in heaven don’t step on the ducks!’

So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.

Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw. St. Peter chains them together and says, ‘Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!’

The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn’t miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps. She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on – very tall, long eyelashes, muscular. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.

The happy woman says, ‘I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?’

The guy says ‘I don’t know about you, but I stepped on a duck.

On another grey day we all need cheering up so I have the very thing for you.

I heard this on the PodCamp podcast today.

Ben Walker, a musician is in the middle of a song writing challenge. He aims to write 50 songs in ninety days. I love this one.

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One…two… three are you ready

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You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter – the Twitter song

Sing up I can’t hear you!

• Looking for money in a hurry.
• In a public toilet with automatic doors that insist on opening and closing all the time.
• In an elevator during a power cut
• In an aircraft when the engines fail, and my wings are at home on the kitchen table!
• On a sinking ship when I can’t swim.
• Sitting in a chair along the wall of a Day room accompanied by fellow inmates, as the TV flickers and blares, only watched by empty chairs and the smell of yesterdays cabbage assaults my nostrils.
• Standing up in a hammock in a gale force wind.

On Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th September Northern Ireland threw open many doors as part of European Heritage Open Day. During this weekend, we were given the opportunity to explore venues and grounds across the Provence not normally open to the public. There were 121 places in Belfast, Antrim and Armagh to choose from. Prior to this weekend, I am ashamed to say, I had only visited 22 of those on the list. I was determined to change that situation.

I decided to stay in Co Antrim and on Saturday I chose St John’s Church, Donegore

St John’s Church, Donegore, nestles against the side of Donegore Hill.

The parish was fortunate to receive the gift of this pipe organ from St Brigid’s Church of Ireland, Parish of Mallusk, Co. Antrim. It had started life in a Roman Catholic Church in the South of Ireland and spent some time in a Presbyterian church before the move to Mallusk. Many hands were needed to assist in the task of moving the seven hundred and eighty pieces from St Brigid’s Church to the horse lorry, and again from there into Donegore Church.

Pedals polished by regular footwork.

A view from the pulpit.

In the south-west corner of the churchyard is the watch-house, or corpse house, built in 1832 to foil the attempts of the “resurrectionists” at body-snatching. You can see it at the beginning of this little video clip.

Donegore Church is a Grade A Listed Building by the Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch of the Depratment of the Enviroment (N.I.) and the corpse house is also a listed building. As such, restoration and repair must be carried out to the highest standards and in sympathy with the architecture and history of the building.

The days are shortening and soon the trees will don their autumn glory. Warming soups are always welcome at this time of year so again this week we have another one. I hope you like it.

Parsnip, Chicken & Orange Soup

Serves 6

2 onions, peeled and chopped

3 tablespoons Olive oil

10 cloves garlic, halved

8 Parsnips chopped and roasted

3 pints Chicken stock

1 tsp salt

2 oranges squeezed

Black pepper, freshly ground

Heat the oil in a heavy pan, add the onions cover and cook for about 10 minutes until softened but do not allow to burn. Add the garlic cloves, cook for a further 3-5 minutes stirring them occasionally then add pre-roasted parsnips and the chicken stock, season with the salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, then liquidize. Return to pan and adjust seasoning, add the juice of the freshly squeezed oranges and reheat.

Tell me a story,

Tell me a story,

Tell me a story & I’ll get out of bed.

I promised you, I said I would

I’ll tell you the story if you are good.

I’ll tell you the story before I go back to bed.

About a month ago I went to Dublin and was almost drowned in the flood.

I told you all about it here.

I even had a photo:

You heard all about the lunch…

A group of bloggers, dishing the dirt gossiping stuffing our faces sharing some tasty food and a bottle of wine or three while chatting about the blog world. No sin there you would think.

Now there was something I didn’t tell you….

We sweet ladies were gathered together to take part in an Irish Times Photoshoot for Lady Bloggers. The text of the article is available online but there are no photos available in the online version.

This photo by Brenda Fitzsimons appeared over two pages and I did my best to piece it together. So apologies to Brenda and to you all, but it will give you an idea of what the day was all about.

Thankfully we were all looking very respectable and ladylike. I wonder what they did with the other shots? Do you think they might be used to blackmail me?

Darling Toyboy Darragh, has a written very nicely about it here with pixtures!

The mist was so thick I couldn’t see the end of the garden. There was no way I could avoid seeing this

And this.

There was no sign of the lady who crafted this lacework. I hope she is not in the garage

Now I have forgotten why I went out in the first place…

I’ll tell you tomorrow when I remember. Well I am old and bold.