Spring is in the air

Hej på er allihopa, Hi everyone! Spring is in the air here in Ireland. So far we have escaped the chilly weather that struck Europe recently, and we have daytime temperatures of around 8 degrees Celsius. I got a photos of these snowdrops near my grandaunt's house, I cannot believe that these are nearly dying back already! I thought I had plenty of time to get a shot of them.

I have seen daffodils blooming and even primroses, (vårviva, i think), but not in a place where I could safely stop and take a photo. I have been spinning on my trusty Dutch spinning wheel, Birgitte. I finally got this spun up and plied, Phaeleonopsis, it's called, which refers to the Orchid flower. I love the green and pink.

Then I did some quick samples of Renee's wool, Renee lives in Jämtland in Sweden and keeps sheep. She also spins and has a webshop where she sells her wool and other wool that she buys in UK and other places. Her webste is called enuldenaffaer.dk and it's in Danish mostly. Here is a yarn with some pink and grey and black , as well as a Merino with mustard and olive green tones, plied with dark grey.

Then I spun up this Merino called Stormy Day. I am afraid it will be a bit too brown and dull in patches when I ply it, but I am going to ply it and see how it goes.

This lovely week off is almost over, and what have I achieved? well i have nursed a terrible cold and improved thankfully. I cleaned the bathroom this morning, down-on-my-knees-scrubbing clean. I have refreshed my head and can face another 6 weeks of work, and then it will be Easter holidays, I think. Then it's the home stretch after that, then Summer! Hope you are experiencing some sort of Spring wherever you are, unless you are in Oz and New Zealand/rest of Southern hemisphere, in which case you will have Autumn now. Bye from me for now,

Spring walk

God Morgon! G'Morn! Morning! Morning! It's a beautiful Spring morning, and I am free, we have a week off school. My 2 little ones have school, which means we wake up at 8am. This is a good thing, as it means I am up and out and ready to do stuff at 9am, when the two littlies go in to school. This morning I went for a wlk along my road, it's a small little country road. I love it. I saw these daffodils and this view.

I hope you all have a wonderful St Valentiine's Day, and that you get to enjoy the nature at some point today!

my neglected Blog and the joys of living in Ireland

Oh my poor neglected blog,and you wonderful people who keep coming back in here! January came and went, and already it is 5th of February! We are so lucky here in Ireland not to be suffering the very cold temperatures the rest of Europe is currently struggling with. Today we had a mild damp day. Three important matches were played today. My 14 r old's soccer team had a draw in their match this morning, my 11 yr old's soccer team lost and Ireland lost their rugby match against Wales. Still, I give thanks that we were under damp Irish skies, and not looking out on frozen landscapes and snow as a lot of people in Europe have to do these last 10 days. Work and Housework takes all my time, apologies to the poor people who pop in here hoping for an update and there never is one! Livet går vidare, vi får snart en hel veckas ledighet, det är jag väldigt glad för, då ska det här städas, och putsas, och rensas bland kläder och böcker, och då ska jag läsa och sticka och ta promenader.... minsann... Life goes on, next week I have one whole week off, Yippee!! I plan to knit and read and spring clean, and declutter clothes and books and toys and take walks, yes sirree, that's the plan!!! Have a good February , I hope the weather is kind to you, wherever you are, regards liz

A wedding, 2 parties and a New Year.

So the brother's wedding went great, a fun day was had by all, and brother and his new wife are now relaxing in Lanzarote on their honeymoon.
We came home tired but happy on Friday afternoon. After a long sleep on Friday night we were ready to face the world again. I went to town on Saturday to return my son's hired pageboy suit and to have a little peep at the sales in the yarn shops in Limerick. My 'yarn-diet' starts on 1st January so I figured I was still allowed to go yarn shopping on 31st of December. Which I duly did, managing to purchase about 16 different skeins of yarn between the 3 yarn shops.
All good diets start with a binge the day before, right???!

Last night, New Year's Eve, another brother invited us to his house for a party to see in the New Year. My children and husband stayed home, due to various prior engagements or assorted coughs, but I went to the party and had a great time! Lots of my own family there as well as my brother's in-laws, so plenty of chat. Plus Yummy food, tasty desserts, a chocolate fountain, (I didn't taste the chocolate and marshmallows, just admired them from a distance) and then a countdown at 12 midnight and champagne or in my case, Sprite! Home by 1pm, to husband and crisp-eating children.
My middle daughter had complained yesterday of a strange and sharp pain in her ribs when she took a breath. Thankfully, this potential 'chest-infection' had gone by this morning, probably just a pulled muscle. Phew.....
And today, off to another party, this time a 50th Birthday celebration for a good friend, and once again the children stayed home together with another friend. They had pizzas and chips, we went to the party and had Jambalaya, Prawn stir-fry, and more delicious desserts.
So now I am feeling very satisified, I have had a very sociable Christmas and New Year. And it is not over yet, there is a niece's birthday on this week and we got an invitation to another very good friend next weekend! Yoohoo!
And now it is 2012. It will take some time to get used to writing the correct date on the blackboard when I go back to school in a week's time.
It is 2 years since I started blogging. I am still here, still blogging away.
I apologise for not having so many photos as I would like, let's see if I can snaffle some photos from Hubbby's camera to add to this post.
To all of you I wish a Happy New year!
Gott Nytt År!
Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

a wedding and a book

family wedding now on Thursday, so tomorrow Wednesday I will be getting the last bits in town, like a pair of shoes for me, as I realised only today that the pair I have are too small for me.... sigh.... getting us all dressed for a winter wedding is a bit of a chore, but I'm sure we'll have a great time once we just get into the car on Thursday morning...
I'm a bit stressed trying to make sure we remember everything for all eventualities, as we are staying overnight in the hotel, eg, we need spare clothes, warm coats, overnight bags etc, it'll be up to me as Mother in this house to ensure all children and husband have what they will need, gulp....
Just finished a book today by Mikael Niemi, Mannen som dog som en lax, The man who died like a Salmon,
i enjoyed it very much, a crime thriller, but thankfully not too much of the gory details and not too much cruelty, Niemi instead painted his characters well, so I got very interested in how the plot would unfold for them, and there were a few unexpected turns in the story.
A good read, med andra ord...!

Nollaig Shona faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

Nollaig Shona faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

God Jul till er allihopa!

Happy Christmas to you all,

i hope that you all have a peaceful and happy Christmas,
stay healthy, well and warm this Christmas and
ta god hand om era själva och de dina, take care of yourselves and of your loved ones.

The Julbord has been eaten and now we are off to Mass in the local Catholic church.
Better round up the troops!!!

the shortest day, or is it?

I always thought that today, the 21st December, was the shortest day in the year, I mean, the Winter Solstice, with the least amount of daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere. Today I read on the RTE website (Irish TV), that the Winter Solstice occurs officially tomorrow morning the 22nd. Nevertheless today is the day that people usually think of as the Winter Solstice. So today I told my pupils about the Solstice and about Newgrange Tomb, where the rays of the rising sun on the Winter Solstice enters a roof-box over the door of the passage way and the rays then proceed to illuminate the entire passageway and hit the back wall of the inner chamber.

Read more about it here on the RTE website

Imagine that early people knew enough about the sun and about building to be able to construct such a tomb which unfailingly is illuminated on just the few days around the Winter Solstice. Well, unfailingly, if the skies aren't clouded over and sadly today was a cloudy day.

Here is a link to Youtube, to make up for the lack of real sunlight...


it's a short excerpt from RTE News, less than 3 mins, where a professor talks to the reporter about the passage tomb, and they show a simulation of the light entering the roof-box. If you visit Newgrange as a tourist in the summer season, you can enter the tomb and part of the visit will include this simulation whereby they use artificial light to show the visitors what the rising sun would look like on Winter Solstice.
Only one more day left at work, then blessed holidays....