head in the clouds/ toes in the earth

 Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

The living is easy, indeed. I've never known a summer like it. 

Once September hits and its back to work I know my heart will pine for these long, drawn out days of sun-chair lounging and Vonnegut reading, picking and choosing my waking hours and navigating the country lanes with only the wild horses for company.

I've been taking an hour long stroll most evenings. I love the natural euphoria that occurs when you mix cardio with visual stimulation and Sigur Ros ^.^

There's something about these ice cream flavour skies; blueberry blue and cherry-whipped, I wish I could take a giant spoon and eat up a scoop...

Such magic to be found in summer, 

especially for a daydreamer like me.

I'd love to hear your favourite parts of this season!

don't mind if I do, Mercury

Are we all here? Everyone make it out alive?

You're here reading this so I'm guessing that you did but I'd just go ahead and check your wit and wisdoms are all in order if I were you.

In case you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, until a week ago Mercury was in retrograde.

For us earthly folk this occurrence signals all manner of personal and professional jiggery pokery.

Since the planet Mercury symbolises truth, travel, communication and clear thinking and when a planet goes 'retrograde' it appears to travel backwards in the sky, these things can start to go a bit cuckoo bananas for some us. A bit of a planetary shit storm if you will.

Scan back in your memory between June 26th and July 20th. Anything seem a bit "off" to you?

Were you feeling cloudy and tongue-tied? Experienced problems with travel plans or electrical equipment?

Trouble communicating in your relationship or on the receiving end of wrong information in your personal life?

These are all effects of the pandemonium caused by that little silver planet going retrograde.

BUT, my sources tell me, Mercury in retrograde can also present an opportunity for major emotional and intellectual breakthroughs. A chance for us to, essentially, "get our karmic shit together".

During those weeks that the cosmos spent tripping out I spent a lot of time walking the back-roads behind our house at the magic hour, catching some terrific captures of the sun sinking down behind the treetops along the way. As I pounded the pavements, listened to my music and drank in the sunsets I had ample time to think. To mull over my past and ponder on my future and mentally karate chop some of the doubts and fears holding me back from moving forward.

The outcome? I have a one-way plane ticket booked for London Gatwick in a few weeks time.

It's been nigh on four years since I last lived in the Big Smoke and my heart swells whenever I think about moving back.

So many haunts to revisit, streets to trample down, curry houses to frequent.

How do I begin to describe London? I'd say it's a bit like trying to grab hold of the wind... but here are a few snapshots of my favourite bits + pieces from the place that I am, once again, proud to call home...

<<Brick Lane>>

{{The Shampan curry house on Brick Lane~favourite ^.^}}

When I was 25 years old I announced to my Mom that I was finally ready to fly the coop. A week later I had moved in to a teeny wee bedsit in a tower block near the bottom of the infamous Brick Lane in East London. 

While it can err on the side of being too urban/hipster for it's own good, I will always and forever love this little corner of London for it's utter and unapologetic diversity. You can walk through a multitude of cultures, colors, styles, foods and tastes on just one single cobble-stoned street.

 Pop-up vintage markets and street festivals, book stands and street food riddle Brick Lane on the weekends and you can treat you retinas to Banksy art and graffitied walls, your taste buds to curry house fare and bagel stores and your ear drums to boom-boxed jazz to live Jamaican kettle drums.

In particular I can't wait to refresh myself after an afternoon's browsing with a mint tea in one of the several spit-n-sawdust tea rooms where you can take your pick from worn leather armchairs or Indian-style floor pillows. As I said, diversity definitely is the key word where Brick Lane is concerned!!

<<Notting Hill Carnival>>

I'm seriously happy that I will be back in London this year in time for the annual carnival in the streets of Notting Hill. 

Sequins and jerk chicken and calypso music, oh my!!

Plus the local upper crust loosen up for a few days and throw open the windows of their million pound apartments to have jamming sessions on their windowsills.

Can't beat that, friends!

<<London Fields Park>>

The sunshine suits London to a T and she wears it like a slutty dress.

The only thing to do when the summer is doing what it does best is to pack a picnic and go people watch in the green grass of London Fields. 

Strawberries, clotted cream and scones are non-negotiable!

If it's possible I just made myself even more excited to return!

So thank you for the mind-buzz, Mercury. An open invitation to take your future bull by the horns? Don't mind if I do!

London's calling...

Toot Toot!!

>.<

watched// read// listened

So internet, we meet again!

One of the caveats of living in the way back of beyond is an at best unreliable connection to the old "world wide".

At first I was aghast at being so rudely cut off. Unable to instantly check on updates, emails, comments and new posts...the horror!

Until I realized I was just having to suspend all of the "important" things in my life that are really, actually not so important at all.

I am an internet junkie, that's not changing anytime soon, I'm not making any grand professions to swear off facebook for life here or anything but I have learned a happy lesson from this; it's definitely a healthy practise to switch off, log out, forget what's going on in the world wide web and who 'liked' what Johnny ate for breakfast and focus on what's going on in your own day, in your own house, in your own life for a second.

I've been spending my wifi-free time playing with the babies (buddy + jess), stepping up my daily exercise (yoga, walking + jillian michaels kicking my butt) and going to an Alabama 3 gig in Belfast. It's been a low-key, relaxing, just enjoying my own company kind of few weeks. 

I've also used my free time to catch up on some summer listening, watching and reading that has fallen by the wayside due to to much time glued to my laptop screen.

Here's a little round-up of what I've watched, read and listened to over the past 2 weeks:

//watched//

The Perks of Being a Wallflower// I really enjoyed this movie even though I wasn't really expecting to. It's not your typical High School drama, it has much darker themes, great characters and a cool early 90's soundtrack.

I don't care for Emma Watson at all but that didn't spoil the movie for me. Ezra Miller is a highlight, I loved him in We Need to Talk About Kevin too, I think he is definitely going to be a rising star. Also I'd love to meet him on the street one day so I can, you know, congratulate him on his face.

Jules et Jim// I'm in love with French cinema and I have a huge back-log of French film on my hard drive that I am slowly working my way through watching. I loved this François Truffaut movie about the relationship between three sexually free-spirited bourgeois characters in early-20th century France.

//read//

Just Kids by Patti Smith// I'm mid-way though this auto-biography and if it's possible, I love Patti Smith even more. She is an artist through and through, all the way down to her beautiful descriptive writing skills. Reading this makes me ache for that era of 1970's New York, for Beat poets and punk rockers and kindred spirits falling in love.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn// Five pages in I thought I would hate this book. Fifteen pages in and I couldn't put it down. This is a very current and clever crime/mystery novel which masterfully builds and builds the tension and sense of brooding with every turn of the page and has more twists than a plate of spaghetti. Great, great summer read.

//Listened//

The National 'Trouble Will Find Me'// Something about Matt Berninger's voice just sounds like home to me. I've loved everything The National have done so far. They also scored the infamous Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones. Win.

The Knife 'Shaking the Habitual'// I've been a fan of The Knife since way back in the 'Deep Cuts' days (how is that ten years ago already??) and this new album has been very long awaited. Still absolutely digging their sound.


That's all folks!

june bug

You know it's officially summer when you've taken your first lick from your first ice cream cone of the year.

June has arrived and blessed this damp little island with the bluest skies and a sun-kissed garden.

I've been padding around with bare toes and winter-white legs shamelessly out on display for all to see!

Dates with myself, a blanket and kindle have been on the Specials menu daily just recently and Jess can hardly believe her puppy luck with all the walking her little legs have been getting ^.^ 

Ice cream floats are also doing the rounds, as are red runny noses from the darndest hayfever allergies.

I can't even with hayfever. Streaming eyes and itchy nose for days.  Ack!

No matter. Swoony, sun-filled afternoons still shoot the moon. Balled up tissues or not.

Happy June sailors!

x 

print + paint

A week long sabbatical from the internet reminded my creative juices that they are still present and correct despite being redundant for some time so I set them the task of finally doing something pretty with the beach stones and shells I squirrelled away from my Donegal trip.

I love the results, especially on the shells. They look really lovely occupying tabletops and windowsills.

I also spent some time customizing a sad little multi-frame that has been boring me to tears on my bedroom wall for some time!

A pair of scissors, some washi tape and an afternoon on my bedroom floor doing some cuttin' and pastin' the old fashioned way has revived this frame and made it something a little more unique and personal to me.

My Mom brought me back this Parrot's tail feather last week after a trip to the Gardening Centre where she rescued it from the floor.

It's so beautiful and the other side of it is canary yellow. 

Being in the country birdsong, nests in our roof and watching for different species at the birdfeed in our garden has become part and parcel of our daily living.

We're even lucky enough to spy beautiful pheasants running through the fields surrounding our house occasionally. 

I'll be sorry to swap the sparrows and the starlings for pigeons when I move back to London!

london trip// driftin'

A lunch made for one.

Cherry blossoms in the wind.

Cloud gazing.

Map reading and pavement pounding

The charm of the tube.

I had such a time in London. It's my birthplace, my old haunt, my history. 

Since I left it to roam and drift around I gave scarce thought to ever returning again. 

But in the warm, charming little bubble of my birthday visit I found myself falling back in love with the place, enjoying the crowds, the vibe, the unmistakable spirit of the big smoke. 

I felt home.

I love it when birthday gifts filter through long after the day has faded into history...

when I returned back to my parent's house in Ireland I had two lovely packages waiting for me.

Dallas sent me the sweetest bundle of Korean paper goods and a baby Totoro on a keychain.

A little baby Totoro!!! I can't even.

Also one of my best friends Jen runs a small print business and had my blog header printed on to a mug for me! It's shameless self promotion but hey, I love it!! hehe!

shepherd's delight

I love this time of year with her pink skies and dandelion fairies and seedlings putting on a show....

pulling the car over to the side of the road to pick wild primrose so my Mom can check they smell the same as she remembers from when she was a girl.

I love waking early and pulling up the blinds, enjoying a cup of strong tea while looking out at the morning clouds....wondering if today they will break and let the sun say hello or they'll churn up a rainstorm instead.

Such mornings call for stove top porridge with an extra spoonful of honey, Skype dates with Dallas and alone time at my desk writing pages to sweet friends across the seas.

The sting of losing our little friend is still present but losing myself in sweet moments and reminding myself she is no longer suffering is the tonic that works best for now.

This weekend I will celebrate my Thirtieth birthday with a trip to London!

I'm looking forward to bike rides and art exhibitions, good East London curry and a Jack the Ripper walk~ stay tuned ^.^

the sunday slowdown// happy feet

wooly socks + roaring fire

You could close your eyes and swear it was still December around these parts.

Wintry drafts and snowfall are doing battle with the sunshine which is doing it's best to peek through the clouds and warm us all up a bit.

A long, hot soak

I do love the coziness of a cold evening in a warm house though.

There have been two very happy feet wrapped up snug in woolen socks and treated to log fires, hot bubble baths and electric heated bed sheets.

Warm sheets, long socks and tea in bed

Maybe you can tarry a little longer Spring...a certain gal and her happy feet could get used to this 

♥

p.s~ in all the travelling back home hoopla last week I completely forgot to mention I was featured reviewing my favorite book on  I Believe in Story.
I absolutely love Maria's blog~ and if your somewhat of a bookish Matilda like myself you should definitely check her out.
You can read my review of Jeanette Winterson's 'Sexing the Cherry' here.

{{source}}

travel//journal

These past few days have been chilly, snowy, nothing to do but roam around the house days.

I have reminiscence written all over me.

Photo albums are being pored over, old love notes read and re-read and journals flipped through and smiled at fondly.

Above is the journal I kept on my first trip to India back in 2009, it's probably been about three years since I last read through it. My fingers tips are worn smooth from turning so many pages that still smell like a mixture of incense and spices, a ghost of a scent trapped and preserved between the pages after all these years.

Reading through my entries I'm amazed at how resolved I was to document not just the events of my trip but the emotions, the connections, the conversations and the lessons learned.

I scribbled down quotes and snatches gleaned from chats with fellow travelers; things that resonated with me or I wanted to remember for future reference. Compliments given to me or assertions on life that had never occurred to me before.

I wrote lengthy excerpts from books that I was reading while I traveled, stories told by taxi and rickshaw drivers, my fortune given by a palm reader.

 There are maps, phone numbers and email addresses scribbled in the margins alongside my own doodles and calender entries detailing what I did each day.

 I will forever know that on June 4th of 2009 I "Sat next to the ocean reading Hemingway and drinking Ginger Lemon Honey Tea".

Every page is filled with the people I met, their impressions on me, the experiences I had, the romances and what I learned from them.

I'm so glad I have this keepsake from the most magical and influential 4 months of my life to treasure and keep for always.

It's a reminder in this time of healing of what once was and what once again can be.

I'll leave you with a final thought- a sentence scribbled on to the first page of my book, whether it was a quote I heard or read or it came from my own brain I can't remember, but it's a nice thought, and one that serves me well in this current path I'm taking...