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There is a Neil Young/Crazy House song called Wonderin’ and it has a great line in it – “I’ve been working all day to keep my heart from sadness”. I have it written on a post-it over my desk in work. I keep it there to remind me every so often, in those moments when I’m looking around and pondering, that I should keep my nose to the grindstone to keep my head from getting flooded with other thoughts.
Today was one of those days. My brother Liam would have been 42 today… (more…)
I’m feeling stressed by proxy.
Himself has been a bit stressed of late. Well, maybe a bit more than stressed. And maybe a bit longer than just ‘of late’. His patience has been about as short as that of a wasp for about a month now… (more…)
Did you ever hear a song and you were instantly transported to a different time and place, where emotions you thought were in the past come flooding back and a smile breaks out on you face or tears roll down you cheeks?
I was sitting at my desk yesterday when shuffle on the iPod gave me an old Eagles song I hadn’t heard in years. Take It To The Limit. Flashback to singing along to that song in my sisters old Starlet as we drove from Fishguard to Oxford when I was about 11. And then another flash to my first real concert, seeing the Eagles play the RDS on the Hell Freezes Over tour, and getting back to my uncle’s house to sleep on his floor and not being able to figure what that ringing noise in my ears was. The memories made me smile at first, but then a teary moment, missing simplier times I suppose….
I bought a raffle ticket from my sister a while back. It’s for a local event that’s held every June bank holiday at home, the Innishannon Steam and Vintage Rally. Usually when you buy a ticket for a raffle or something, it’s not really about the winning or the prizes, it’s more about the proceeds going to a deserving charity (the Irish Cancer Society in this case). It wasn’t until after I had bought the ticket that I noticed what the prises were.
2nd Prize 2 Alpacas or €1000
You know the way you are supposed to be able to read the future from tea leaves? Well, I’m a bit of the other way round, I can see tea in my future.
I’m having a slow week in work. Actually, it’s turning into a slow couple of weeks. My project is on hiatus, but I have work to keep me ticking along, 9 to 5, or 8.30 to 4.45 as it is in my world, but nothing really meaty to do. Nothing to get my teeth stuck into. Nothing to get passionate about… (more…)
Did you know that so far this year (up to today, Monday April 19th), thirteen people have been fatally injured at work. It’s not something that people generally like to think about, but the statistics are there for all to see on the Health & Safety Authority website. Of those 13 people who died, 6 were in the agriculture/hunting/forestry sector.
I was born into a farming family. Farming goes all the way back for generations on both sides. It’s been bred into us. My eldest brother Liam took over the family farm from my parents in 1990. In 2006 he died in an accident on the farm. He was 37. And we were devastated… (more…)
Last weekend I was very privaleged to attend the Irish Blog Awards in Galway. When I was invited along by himself, but didnt really know what to expect. As someone at the awards put it, I was off to meet ‘the people from the internet’. I’d heard alot of the names from himself, but had no idea what I was letting myself in for….
When himself said he had signed us up for a 1-day gardening course I was intrigued. We had just moved house and I was still a little homesick for my old garden, ‘the garden of possibilities’. I call it that because if I had had the money, the time and the inspiration (not to mind the landlord’s permission) I would have loved to show that garden what it could become. But alas, all I could give it was a regular cut of the grass, a spray to the weeds, a few herbs in one corner, and a few spring bulbs in another.
It was one of those morning afters that you know are coming, but you just dont want to ackowledge in advance, because you know if you do, then it might not be such a good night in the first place. I had a great St Patricks Day this year. Great view for the parade, great people around me, and great atmosphere. And I managed to have such a fantastic day with only one alcoholic beverage passing my lips. Not so for alot of people in Dublin. Its not the drink passing their lips that was the problem, its was the time it passed by those self same lips on the way back up that irks me…
Yesterday, for the second time in as many years, a close male colleague of mine confined in me that his wife was pregnant. Last time the guy’s wife had only just confirmed she was pregnant the day before. This time, a different guy and his wife had just had their first scan at 9 weeks. Dear God lads, do ye not realise that you’re not really supposed to tell anyone until after 12 weeks! But somehow it’s okay to tell me?
