Grannymar

The day began with a fresh fall of snow.  The snow alone was not a problem, the thick layer of ice below it was.  I spoke to the toyboy thinking he would have a change of heart.  He was determined that the plans would go ahead. They did!

He arrived late lunchtime and soon we were off on our journey.  The main roads were salted and he made light work of the driving.  A good two hours into the journey… the mobile buzzed.  Where were we?  we informed the caller of our location.  “The motorway ahead was closed due to an accident!” she said.  “you should make a detour… find another route.  Mum will tell you which way to go, she knows the countryside!

The light was fading, I made a decision….. we needed to head inland.  Watching the sign posts more intently, I suggested we keep going for a while longer.  Then it was time to take the exit from the motorway.  I was working from a memory deep in my past.  We needed to find a road that I had not followed in over 35 years.  The townlands were from my childhood.  I recognised the odd building and was happy that we had taken the right road.

Again, we cut across country before turning south.  I was glad to be in the passenger seat and not driving.  We eventually managed to reach our destination, it was bright warm and welcoming.  Elly quickly ushered me in out of the cold. and I could smell the welcome aroma wafting from the oven.  The toyboy unloaded the car and we were soon tucked up cosy and warm.

I believe the temperature is expected to drop to about -6°C -or 8°C tonight.

Thank you George for chauffering me safely to Dublin.  Part two of the journey will take place on Thursday.

Sometimes I spend long hours of the night awake in bed.

Usually the radio is switched on at a low drone in the hope it will lull me to sleep.  There are times when a particular voice or article will bring me to full alertness and I become absorbed in a programme.  Once over I am content to snuggle down again and sleep will take over for an hour.

I have tried reading, getting up and walking around, making a warm drink etcetera, but am finally resigned to the fact that three hours sleep are my lot.  Now please don’t suggest I get up and do some physical work.  My day is long enough as it is without turning the night into day too.   I have a friend who will get up and do household chores and then sleep for long hours during the day.  I don’t want that.

Since Tobias came into my life, he stands guard beside my bed to offer some distraction when I become completly restless.   Today was one such day.  Boy, am I glad.  I was flitting about on the net when I heard a ‘ping’!

It was my Elly finally settled into her hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.  It was almost 6am for me yet it was still yesterday for her!  A very long yesterday.  She boarded a plane on the Tarmac at Dublin, Ireland at 10am Irish time, and twenty hours later she had reached her destination and was talking to me online.

In my very young life, when people went to ‘AMERICA’ it would take a week by ship and many were never heard of again.  Unless you were good with the words and the pen…..

My very first job was as a telephone operator in the Dublin telephone exchange.  Calls to ‘America’ had to be pre-booked with an operator and were very expensive.  The operator in Dublin called White Plains Exchange and they dialled the number.  The majority of calls lasted THREE minutes!

Now not alone can I speak instantly to Elly in far off places but I can see her as well.  Thanks to this same process I have spoken to and seen several bloggers that I now count as friends.

The world might be getting warmer… it is certainly getting smaller!

I found the harvesters in the middle of the road.

Cutting Flax.

This time the 3D steel sculptures are to be found on an A8 Belfast to Larne road roundabout, at Coleman’s Corner. They depict and give tribute to the backbreaking work of the flax harvesters working in the fields to gather flax for the nearby linen mills.

These sculptures were designed by Skelton Rainey, the leisure services department designer for Newtownabbey Borough Council.

This roundabout is sponsored by a local business.

Now I will never have the knowledge of Peter Donegan but I can at least try to share some information about Flax:

Flax is the common name for an annual herb of the Linaceae family, especially members of the genus Linum, and for the fibre obtained from such plants. The stem varies from 60 to 120 cm in length and consists of fibre bundles lying between the outer bark and a woody core. It requires a temperate, moist climate and good soil to flourish, sown around the end of March, the plant starts to bloom at the end of May. Because it is a ‘heavy feeder’, it cannot be grown on the same land year after year and so it is be rotated with other crops.

Most flax matures in 90 to 120 days and usually is ready in August. There are three degrees in the ripening of the flax grown to make linen: green, yellow and brown. The yellow has proved to be the most suitable for fibre production. Flax that is pulled too early -green - produces very fine but weak fibres. On the other hand, in overripe flax - brown - the stems are strong but brittle but produce too high a proportion of undesirable short fibres (’tow’). When the flax is yellow, the fibres are long and supple, and therefore ideal for further processing.

In this part of the world we are very fond of going round in circles.

Roundabouts were introduced at some intersections to ease the flow of traffic from all the exits.

A roundabout is a circular one way street where traffic is slowed down and enters a one-way stream around a central island. The direction of travel is clockwise here in the UK and Ireland where we drive on the left hand side of the road. So as we approach a roundabout, we are really at the end of a “T” junction, wanting to turn left, because that is the direction of the one way street. We only have to give way to the traffic flow from the right. In other countries where traffic travels on the right, the roundabout traffic goes in an anti-clockwise direction.

Over the years I have noticed that some Borough Councils here have decorated the roundabouts in some way, usually with flowers and shrubbery in season. More recently sculpture of some form has been introduced.

I had reason to use the A57 a few weeks ago and noticed a new sculpture at Lindsay’s Corner Roundabout. Having made some enquiries I discovered that the Seedhead Sculpture has been designed by Stephen Todd, to reflect the historical importance of linen production in the area.

Each up stand is designed to capture the abstract look of a flax field mixed with some wildflowers. Produced locally by McKnight Engineering the Seedheads combine contemporary European landscape design ideas, wild natural looking grasses and formal plant groupings the scheme changes dramatically with each passing season.

Now I must charge the batteries and go in search of a few more circles.

The roundabouts are usually sponsored by some local industry.

I was telling you about my intention to travel to Poland.

When I tire of being rented out as a granny I might keep going in a south-easterly direction, after all I have friends way down under…

The proceeds of my Polish endeavor might bring me as far as India.  They use three wheeler vehicles and by that stage I would need a rest and to earn some pocket money, so I had a little practice…..

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I met this nice man on Sunday and he took the photo:

I would also need a half dozen sentences to kid the troops that I know the language….

I am learning Hindi…

सुप्रभात  =  Good Morning!

रामन्ना कैसे हो तुम?  =  How are you?

टॉयलेट कहां है  =  Where is the bathroom? (said in a loud voice while dancing with knees crossed!)

तो ऐसा ही सही!  =  So be it.

¡sıɥʇ ǝʞıן ƃuıʇıɹʍ ɯɐ ı ʎɥʍ sı ʇɐɥʇ ‘uʍop ǝpısdn ǝq ʇsnɯ ƃuıɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ os ǝɹǝɥdsıɯǝɥ ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ uı uʍop ǝʌıן ʎǝɥʇ ןןǝʍ

¿ǝʌıʌɹns ןן,ı ʞuıɥʇ noʎ op

I finally reached home late yesterday afternoon with Tobias for company.

My little car served me well and I drove over 300 miles in the ten days. That did not count the extra mileage covered on the journey to Cork, or the hour not traveling anywhere just sitting on board an aircraft on the tarmac playing hunt the non existent passenger 166!

The evening passed in connecting my docking station, broadband & installing  Skype, Twitter & MSN Messenger.  My camera is not yet connected so the few photos I have from my trip are still in my camera.  I also seem to have mislaid my folder of pictures.

Perhaps the George fella was expecting me to have problems.  He kept my PC hard drive saying it had a problem.  The only problem that I can see is I might have slipped back to using it… Well I don’t have it so must persist with Tobias.  It was a cunning plan.

Later today I will try to locate my photographs and connect my camera.  I also need to sort out user names and passwords, I seem to have oodles!  I am hoping to make a good attempt at clearing my RSS Reader, I am so far behind with blog reading, so put the kettle on and I will pay a visit.

Normal service will resume on Monday.

Yesterday I read a Blog Post that brought tears to my eyes, joy to my heart and hope for humanity.  A journey where amazing diverse people from different nations and persuasions joined together in hope, all because of three little words: YES WE CAN!

To be American, last week, was a privilage.  To be alive to witness the dawn of a new beginning, tough though the journey may be to begin with, but by pulling together and working hand in hand Americans can show the world once more that it is a great nation.  YES YOU CAN!

My hope for the future is that the ripples of positivity will reach these shores.  Ireland is a beautiful place in all corners of the island.  If all the effort spent wasted in gurning (boy can people in Ireland gurn) and blaming the  Governments for all our faults & ills, was put into working for and improving our lot we too could have a country to be proud of.  YES WE CAN!

Who will be our new Obama?  YES YOU CAN!

Now go read A Journey of Hope!

Nancy, you will need two boxes of tissues!

Weekends are precious when you are working.

During my schooldays, weekends started at lunchtime on Saturday.

Yes, our school day was from Monday to Friday 9.00am to 16.10pm with a lunch time break from 12.30pm until 13.55pm. Class on Saturdays started at 9.00am and finished four classes later at 12.30pm and there were hockey matches in the afternoon. I hated sport and I think it was that my body went into shock from the cold. No consideration was ever given to this and I was perpetually told to stop shivering! I avoided outdoor games at every chance I could.

I mostly worked five days a week. In some companies we finished at 4.00pm on a Friday. In winter we often adjourned to the local hostelry for a drink and wind down after a busy week. In summer people were more inclined to head away for the weekend.

In those early days one of my friends had a little Fiat 850 car and we travelled all over the country. Whoever sat in the front passenger seat needed to be careful where she put her feet as there was a large hole in the floor! We didn’t care as we tootled about all over the place. Salthill, Donegal, Bunratty, Clonakilty and Curracloe all provided adventure at some point. Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland was a favourite for a long Bank Holiday weekend.

I remember one particular weekend when four of us girls headed across to Achill all set to camp out for the weekend. One of the girls was embarking on her first weekend under canvas. Once we had the tent erected we began to unpack the car. Our newbie carried in her bag and started to empty it. I have no idea how we kept straight faces as she produced silk negligee and bedroom mules with swansdown tassels!

One time we travelled to Paris and felt so sophisticated attending a late showing of the film Last Tango in Paris with Marlon Brando – it was banned in Ireland at the time. Later that night as we walked along the Champs-Elysées a man lurched drunkenly at me and I felt the full weight of him hit me. I ducked away and as we walked on my hand seemed damp. I looked down only to discover it was blood and to my horror there was blood all down the front of my outfit! The only conclusion I could think of was that the man had been injured or stabbed. Looking back there was no sign of him and since I spoke no French, little point in making a fuss.

Another time I went to Dusseldorf, but the longest weekend journey I ever undertook was from Wiesbaden in Germany, to St Anton in Austria; a distance of 13 hours by train each way, to meet up with a cousin out there on holiday from Ireland!

So how did you spend your weekends?

I am being lazy at the moment and going through my photos from back in the Autumn.

So today we have another picture of Graiguenamanagh.

My selective dementia means I conveniently forgot to mention to Elly that Graiguenamanagh has a Spring Book Fair and becomes Graiguenamanagh Town of Books in September.

The inspiration for the ‘Town of Books’, came from Hay-on Wye in Wales and Wigtown in Scotland. During the Fair unused shops are opened up and filled with books for sale. They include books of every type: old and new, bargain books, second-hand and antiquarian books. So if you are searching for a special book, out of date and out of print, a first edition or one signed by an author, then September in Graiguenamanagh is the time and place.

Enjoy

“May I go outside for a smoke?” asked the young lady politely. She sounded so gentle that I hardly recognised her! Elly was on best behaviour. We felt very special as we were honoured guests at the home of the Bride-to-be, just two evenings before her wedding.

On our journey along the road in West Barnstable on the Cape the houses were brightly lit and decorated for the forthcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. On arrival at our destination the Bride’s brother was there to guide us to our parking space. The pathway to the door was lit by candlelight. It all looked very romantic. The greeting was heartfelt warm and welcoming, but to the disgust of our hosts we were arriving during a power outage. So life on the other side of the pond was not very different to that back in Ireland. We were quite used to power cuts back at home, sometimes they were scheduled but alas on other occasions, due to vandalism.

Introductions were made and we immediately felt at home and the chat flowed freely, the drink glowed in the candle light and we drank a toast to the young couple and to their families. After an hour the lights came on and our surroundings were revealed to us, a very comfortable home with some beautiful items of furniture.

Being a mid November evening and rather cold outside Elly was taken to the ‘Studio’ for her smoke. “Mum you should see the Studio!” Elly said to me on her return some time later. “Ask Stephen, I am sure he would love to show it to you!” I didn’t need to ask; Stephen had heard and immediately invited me to the tour. There I was in a foreign country, with a strange man, on my way to see his etchings wonderful works of art.

I already mentioned the table where I had my breakfast in a previous post. On this occasion I was enjoying work on a totally different plane, it showed the amazing talent and wonderful sense of humour of my host! Stephen only uses recycled items, timbers discarded and considered well past being useful. With careful thought, time, care and love he breathes new life into his amazing creations.

I actually sat in here.

Stephen calls it an ‘In-House’, it is actually a little office with desk and bench seat. The seat is lifted in the photo above!

And for something totally different:

Or for when my time comes

To save space you can put me on end

I originally set out to write about cooking implements but the final item totally blew my mind and took me off on a tangent. I hope you enjoyed my travels!