A blog by an Irishwoman, written in both English and Swedish, depending on what humour is on me....
En blogg av en irländska, skriven på svenska och engelska.
Just scroll down to find the English bits among the Swedish, or vice versa.

Ta Gaeilge agam freisin, más é an rud é go bhfuil éinne eile le Gaeilge ag léamh mo bhlagsa.

Ich verstehe auch ein bisschen Deutsch, je parle un petit peu francais och klarar av lite norska med.

Wondering about the background of the blog? They're the Cliffs of Moher, in the neighbouring county, County Clare, 8km long, 700m high, and magnificent. Well worth a visit if anyone is around the West of Ireland



Monday, November 29, 2010

a few pictures at last, äntligen några bilder

The first photo is of the school which is right next to our house, the snow was pretty much as it had been all day, as the school was closed today, due to the weather/roads. I thought the light and the sky were lovely.
The other three show my daughter's 'snow fort', built by herself yesterday and today with the light powdery snow we got.
The builder herself is in there too, accompanied by her able assistant, her younger brother!
It was about 4.45 when i took these shots, so I had to brighten the one with the kids in it, so it wouldn't be too dark.


Kids stayed at home today, but tomorrow I think it'll be back to normal again.
regards
liz




Dessa bilder är tagna med min mya mobilen, tack o lov så har dottern en likadan, så jag behövde inte läsa manualen, utan frågade henne bara hur man gör för att föra över bilderna till min bärbara.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

first snow...

The first snow of winter came to Ireland a few days ago, but we didn't get any until last night, and then only a light dusting.
However, the weather stayed cold all day so the little road is now treacherous and slippy with compacted frozen snow which melted a little during the day but has been freezing again since 6pm.
The cold weather is forecast to stay for the next 4 days, and we'd be just fine if we hadn't gotten the fall of snow, I drove to Adare today for a match and a training session for the daughters, and there was no snow after the first 3 km! I wouldn't mind frost if it wasn't for the snow which will now make driving on this little road not very nice....
Our road is so small it's not a priority for gritting, so we will hardly see any grit trucks this way, although possibly the fact that there's a primary school on the road may mean they will come this way and grit.
Here's hoping that we all manage to get where we need to go tomorrow, safe and sound.
Hope you're all safe and well and warm out there.
regards
liz

Sunday, November 21, 2010

sports results and the national financial crisis


Won the first match, lost the second and won the third, thereby winning the Shield also, see the photo above !!
Thanks to all the time and effort the coaches put in...
now to clean this house and get the last of the clothes dry for tomorrow.
It was a lovely day otherwise, sun shining, cold, crisp, clear.
I guess by now you all know that the IMF and the ECB are in Ireland, I'm relieved the 'adults' are in charge now, fingers crossed that we get get through this....
regards
liz

Saturday, November 20, 2010

sports taking over my life...

this weekend:
Sat: 5 hr Football Blitz in Cahir (45 mins away) with one daughter, other daughter has soccer squad training from 6 to 7.30 followed by Youth Club;
Sun: 3 separate soccer matches, one per daughter.....
nuff said....

Monday, November 15, 2010

a hard frost, match called off...

Written late on Sunday 14th November: There was a hard frost last night, (Saturday) and the first planned match for today Sunday was called off, daughter nr 1 was all set to go and play with the local Ladies Soccer team at 11 or so, but their match was called off, due to a frozen pitch!
Daughter nr 3 went to her soccer match around 12.30, and I'm glad to report they won. Jubilation all round and a trip to the shop to celebrate!
Daughter nr 2 got her Irish homework done, with a bit of help from myself and went to her Gaelic Football Development Squad training at 3.30, whereupon I headed off to the shops and got the last few bits and pieces for the week ahead, milk, bread, ham etc.
(There are no school canteens in Ireland, it's 'medhavd matsäck' all the way, ie, bring your own packed lunch to school.=
Det är ett tag sedan jag skrev på svenska senast, ni får inte tro att jag har slutat med svenskan, det verkar bara att alla som bloggar på svenska förstår engelska väldigt bra, och jag underlättar för mig själv genom att skriva på engelska för det mesta härinne, det tar tid att skriva ut allt jag vill säga 2 gånger, en gång på engelska och en gång på svenska!
nåväl, imorgon dagar en ny dag och därmed en ny vecka, få se vad denna ny dag och ny vecka bjuder på...
ha det så bra ni som kikar in hos mig, tack för att ni är trogna läsare! och välkomna hit till dem som har nyligen hittat hit, ni är hjärtligt välkomna!
hälsningar
liz
Kameran glömdes hemma idag den med....suck....

Saturday, November 13, 2010

match and tax return

so as usual I've left doing the tax return until the last minute, the only change this year is that I've pretty much left it until the last LAST minute, and this necessitated a mad search this morning for a particular document, which thankfully was duly located and in the process I managed to find a few other things I had put in a 'safe place' and promptly forgot... sigh... This forgetting is getting to be a bit of a habit, I put it down to having so much to do and so much to juggle that I cannot possibly keep it all at the forefront of my mind. That's my excuse anyway.
So the other activity today was taking daughter 1 and 2 to an U16 soccer match, which was a draw, happily for both sides and both sets of mothers and daughters...
Reminder to self: I must start taking photographs for this blog!!!!
Now I can sit and relax for a bit, then head off to Youth Club with one youthful daughter, and later it will be so nice to get home and get cosy in front of the laptop again! :-)))
regards
liz

Friday, November 12, 2010

a good site for weather info

Friends and familymembers in Sweden recommend the website of the Norwegian Metereological Service for uptodate and accurate weather forecasts, so I started using it and like it very much for its graphics and constant updates. I thought I'd post the address of it so here's the link to it now:
http://www.yr.no/

I like this site, (did I say that already??), go and have a good click around it, you can choose anywhere in the world to view, and you can choose to have it displayed in English, if Norwegian is not your forte!!

Weather now in East County Limerick, as observed by my good self, from the vantage point of my kitchen table: clouds rolling in from the SouthWest, looks like a heavy shower is on the way, it just got all dark, the day was blustery and showery, so it looks like more of the same for now. There is a half-moon hiding behind the clouds to the south, behind the 2 tall bare beech trees across the road from my house. I never know when the moon is waxing or waning, maybe someone out there can tell me, though I guess I could always go check this online too. Anyway the moon is bright on the right half this evening, now is that waxing or waning, or what is it called? Anyone? anyone?

Today's schedule: soccer training 5pm for daughter 2, 6pm for daughter 3, then home and staying cosy for the night.
Tomorrow: U16 match in Bruff. Both daughter 1 and 2 playing in that.
Sunday: Ladies soccer match in Adare, (Limerick's cutest village, must get some photos for ye) daughter 1 playing in that. Also U10 match for daughter 3.
Inbetween? an online tax return and assorted paperwork for work...
oh yeah and some R, R and R, rest, relaxation, recreation, I hope....!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

tempis fugit.....and weather talk.

Time flies...
It is now 9th of November 2010.
The days go by so fast.
I haven't written much in here recently, and getting sorted to post photographs seems to be a mammoth task, beyond me at present.
All is well, children are going to school as they should, I am going to school as I should and the Swede is going to work, thankfully, as Ireland is suffering high unemployment at present.
The clocks changed to wintertime, there is less light in the evenings and soon even the extra bit of light in the mornings will be gone too. The winter solstice is about 7 weeks away, so even if it feels dark now, the bad news is that it is only going to get darker for the next 7 weeks. Sigh....
The leaves have blown off the trees, especially with the wind last Sunday and Monday. Tonight the weather is cold and skies are clear, there will be frost tonight. Tomorrow will start bright and cold, but then some very strong winds are forecast for tomorrow evening and Thursday.
I read just now in Lambergsfruas blogg that they are expecting snow in her county, (same place my husband is from) anything from 5cm in the city of Karlstad, Sweden, up to 15cm in northern areas of Värmland. The Cottage by the Cranelake blogg has already had snow since this morning and has lovely snowy pictures up on his blog. And Cloudberry blogg from Norway has had snow already also, since last week I think.
Ireland will not get snow until Christmas at earliest, we generally don't even get snow for Christmas, but after last year I hesitate to make any such claim this year...
For now Ireland will take the brunt of the low pressure systems rolling in from the Atlantic and that means rain, wind, gales and more rain.... Up to yesterday afternoon, it felt like we had had 10 days of non-stop rain, with just a brief interlude on Sunday morning before it all started again on Sunday afternoon.....The rivers are high, no flooding, yet, but last November some areas of the country had very bad flooding and I am certain that there are householders out there who are very worried about the next few days, with a lot of rain forecast.
For now it is time to hit the sack for me, or I won't be able to function tomorrow, and it is only Wednesday tomorrow, so I need energy for 3 more workdays before I get to the oasis of the weekend!
Good night and take care all you out there in whatever weather you may find yourself in!
regards
liz

Friday, November 5, 2010

a little video about a little hummingbird!

have deleted the video from my blogg,
just to be safe not sorry, etc,
to be sure,
to be sure...