snowdrops and daffodils...

daffodils coming up

more daffodils above and also below




Snowdrops on the roadside ditch beside the cottage where my father was born and reared, about a mile from where I live now...


"Snowdrops and daffodils,
butterflies and bees,
sailboats and fishermen,
things of the seas,
Wedding bells,
wishing wells,
early morning dew,
all kinds of everything remind me of you..."

This song was sung by the Irish teenager, Dana, aka Rosemary Smith, in the Eurovision when I was a child. Dana won the Eurovision that year, and we all were taught the words of the song, by our teacher, who incidentally was my mother!
The lyrics of this song spring to mind as soon as one says the phrase: 'Snowdrops and daffodils', which in itself owns a magic all of its own!
I love snowdrops and daffodils, love watching the patches of grass and garden from early January onwards to see if the spears are beginning to show and watching the flowers peep out and brave gales and wintry showers..
Here are my long promised Snowdrops, photographed Saturday 13th Feb, 2011.
At school in front of a south facing wall, we even have a few daffodils which have just come into bloom, but for some reason I can't transfer the photos from my phone just now, gotta wait till tomorrow till my teenagers can tell me what I'm doing wrong!



I love snowdrops!

a wet and windy weekend

so we had a really wet and windy weekend here in Ireland,
some roads were flooded, nothing serious as far I've heard,
unfortunately it was too wet and dull to take photos of the snowdrops which are growing on the ditch outside the cottage where my father was born and reared...
Otherwise, matches were played and matches were won and lost,
and it was a sociable weekend, I met up some very good friends on Friday night and met other friends and acquaintances over the weekend.
Enjoyable, but in the end, weekends are too short!! another free day would be good, sigh...

St Bridget's Day

First day of February and it's St. Bridget's Day, also considered the first day of Spring here in Ireland.
Here are a few photos from a walk on Sunday.

almost end of January!

Where does the time go?
It's almost the end of January,
and I have allowed this poor blog to go unattended and unloved for weeks!
All is well here, if pretty much the same old, same old...
School, sports, dinners, homework, housework,
and weather varies between cold and dry and cold and wet...
We have no snow, we haven't had snow since the thaw came on the 26th December, weäve had some frost but not as severe as in December.

Spring is on its way, the snowdrops have begun to grow, but no flowers yet, also there are daffodil shoots coming up, but only a few inches high.
The evenings are getting a bit brighter and the mornings too.
It is comforting to know that we are past the worst of winter, and that we are heading towards brighter and warmer months.
I hope all is well with you out there, not much new to report here.
Ha det så bra!
liz

last night of the holidays...

so that's it, Christmas 2010 and New Year 2011 well and truly over...
sigh.....
it's late on Sunday night here and we've all school tomorrow, we'll be up early around 7am and off to schoolbuses at 8am and back to get two small ones ready, and get myself ready and will we ever get there in time at all...
and once we're back it'll be like we were never away,
and all the homework and study and housework and training sessions and matches will start all over again, and I love it, and it wears me out, and I will keep on doing it and next thing you know it'll be February midterm break and the daffodils will be out...
but for now, a good night to you all,
and I'll let you know when the first snowdrops peep out, not long now...
another Spring around the corner, on this green damp island...
regards
liz

Little Christmas 2011

I've been blogging for over a year now, so I wrote about Little Christmas, Women's Christmas, aka the Epiphany this time last year in this post.
In practical terms, today for us is the day we take down the Christmas decorations. We can go to Mass if we choose to mark the day this way. And tomorrow would normally be the first day back to school after the Christmas holidays.
So we took down the tree and decorations today and it is wonderful to have that gone from under my feet!
However, we are not going back to school until next Monday, the 10th, that decision was made by the Dept of Education early last year and as it turns out it is just as well... The forecast for tonight is for snow and ice and frost in our province, Munster, and I am glad that I will not be worrying tonight about driving conditions tomorrow for the trip to school for all of us...
So I will rest and be glad of the extra day.
My chest has finally improved and I feel much better, although I still have a dry cough, but it would appear half the country has this problem too, so best to just get on with it! (In fact a lot of people have the swine flu, it says in the news...shudder...)
The daughter's chest has also improved, with modern medicine, and the son, who developed a double ear infection with temperature yesterday, is also imbibing his own little bottle of pink wonder elixir, also known as antibiotics, so we should all be good to go on Monday morning.
So in the meantime I am knitting and spinning and getting back on my feet, ie doing laundry, doncha know... also visiting my sister's house for 2 separate parties on 2 separate days. She and I even took our combined offspring to the Ice-skating in Limerick today.
All happy now.
Stay well and stay warm!
liz

Gott Slut och Gott Nytt År, Enjoy New Year's Eve and Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all,
here are photos of how green it is here today, thankfully.
and photos of my first and second attempts at spinning these past few days,
the olive green is very soft, the orange/yellow/brown has lots more character and has even been plied, just needs that final wash now...
also photo of what the original fuzzy wool looked like, before spinning.