Christmas Squares

Undiscovered Dublin

23 years in Dublin, and there are still places I haven't seen, or rather hadn't seen. I've crossed 2 off the list this weekend - Cabinteely Park and Bushy Park.

The forecast for yesterday was bad, wind, rain, cold, so we decided to go for an early walk, as it was dry. The day didn't turn out as wet as forecast, but we didn't know that at 10 o'clock. So we headed to Cabinteely Park. It never really brightened up, and we didn't see it at its best. We didn't find any car park (we parked in a nearby estate), but I do see from the map that there is a carpark. It's got good paths throughout, but it's not very exciting - just big lawns and a few trees and a kids' area. Will have to go back there on a sunny day to see if it's any better then.

Today was gloriously sunny, and we spent a good part of the day outdoors. We went to Airfield after lunch to check out progress on their pond (it's finished). Overall, the farm and grounds were in good shape, which is nice to see, as we had found that it was a bit neglected the last time we were over.

The highlight of the weekend for me was our walk in Bushy Park this morning. We drive by it several times a week coming and going from customers in the Terenure and Rathfarnham area, but we never stopped. I can't believe such a lovely park was so close to us all along and we never knew it. There is a multitude of paths, some following the Dodder, some inside the walls of the park, in woodlands, around ponds, big greens, up and down steps, there is plenty of variety, there is even a little kiosk where you can buy coffee to go. Some parts were busy with Sunday dog-walkers, strollers and joggers, other parts were really quiet. It's much larger than I expected, and on a day like today, it looked gorgeous. We'll definitely be back.

Blank Canvas

I'm doing all I can to avoid the moment when I have to start drawing the bottle and vase onto my blank canvas.
Last weekend, I happily mixed colours for my Christmas Cards. This weekend so far, I've spent time doing laundry, tidying up and baking (and also looking at funny websites - check these out on my Twitter - I still don't really get the point of this Twitter thing, but hey, I have to keep up with the times)

Maybe tomorrow!

In the meantime, those on our Christmas list will receive a little square cut out from this piece!

Perfect Biscuits?

As you know, I'm a regular baker of Aine McAteer's choc chip cookies - they are heavenly. A few weeks ago, I bought gorgeous cookie cutters in Ikea - lots of animal shapes, including a beautiful reindeer. So I tried another of Aine's biscuit recipes, designed for cutting into shapes, but it didn't work out for me. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't have enough arrowroot for thickening (I had only a little bit left - the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons). Somehow, I don't think it would have made much difference. My dough was really sticky. I floured the surface, and I floured the rolling pin, but the dough stuck to everything. And when I tried to cut it, the shape fell apart straight away (I knew that was going to happen, but I had to try it anyway.) I don't come from a baking background (my mum is famous for burning pancake mix, and while my granny was a great cook, I don't remember how she made her pastry for fruit tarts - I wasn't much of an assistant in her kitchen), so I have no idea how to roll pastry, or how to get it to the right consistency.

There are plenty of websites with information on this of course. I have found this one that says that the dough should be chilled in the fridge first - that might help. But their dough looks a lot firmer than mine, even before it goes into the fridge. Mine is quite elastic and definitely very sticky (and delicious to eat raw - no egg, so it's all right - really reminds me of my childhood). The mix for this recipe is slightly different from the chocolate chip cookie recipe, but maybe I should add more flour? In the end, I dropped the dough onto my baking trays and baked it anyway. Very nice taste, but I would really like to use my cookie cutters!

Oops, I did it again

I let myself be tempted and watched Grey's Anatomy again last night. Will I be able to resist a whole weekend without my fix?

Potions

My favourite potions of the moment are:

Naturelle d'Argan face cream - it is organic, and it feels lovely on the skin - it goes in very quickly. Argan oil is supposed to be very good. for the skin. If you don't believe me, believe this: "Exceptionnellement riche en Acides Gras insaturés, Oméga 6 (acide linoléique 30-35%) et Oméga 9 (acide oléique 45-50%), en Vitamine E ( 2 fois plus concentrée que dans l’huile d’Olive) et Polyphénol, l’huile d’Argan permet d'apporter des nutriments à la peau et joue un rôle majeur dans la fonction barrière de l’épiderme, qu’elle nourrit, protège et hydrate". Now, that has to be good for you! According to the website, the Naturelle d'Argan range uses Argan oil that has been treated to remove its strong smell - apparently it smells of cold tobacco! Another interesting fact: the Argan tree only grows in the Atlas region of Morrocco - its growth there has a number of benefits: not only do the trees help against the advance of the Sahara desert, but the sale of the Argan nuts is an important source of revenue for this poor region. (More on Wikipedia). The only problem? I'm not sure it's available in Ireland. I bought it in a pharmacy in Saint André de Roquelongue, the village next to Montséret in the Corbières.

Yves Rocher Culture Bio Awakening cream: its texture and smell is not that different from the Naturelle d'Argan. It feels really natural, although it has a lot more ingredients, 99.6% of which are of natural origin, whatever that means. I bought it in Namur, but they have a UK website. Actually, I got it as part of a  "discovery kit" with a day cream and a night cream for €5. I got a few other bits and pieces in the Yves Rocher shop in Namur last time I was over - they had special offers on a number of products, and I felt like a kid in a sweet shop!

Le Petit Marseillais shampoos, soaps and shower gels - these we discovered when we were on holidays in France. I don't think you can get them here. In France and Belgium, Le Petit Marseillais is standard super-market fare. I recommend the lavender soap, lavender liquid soap, lemon-verbena shower gel and nettle-lemon shampoo.

And in a different category, Method cleaning products - I love their granite cleaner, and most of all, their all purpose lavender-scented cleaner (which works wonderfully on granite too). I've just bought a mint bath cleaner and a glass cleaner, which I haven't tried yet. And I found them really helpful too. When I couldn't find their products in Tesco any more, Brendan emailed them for me, and they replied back very quickly, telling me that I could buy them in Homebase. I quick trip to Homebase Nugrove, and my stocks are replenished! Products are biodegradable and bottles recyclable (except the nozzles, but they tell us they're working on it!)

And oops, I watched a Grey's Anatomy this evening. Couldn't resist. Now I'll have to skip Thursday and wait for the weekend!

Grey's Anatomy

Wow - I'm way behind! We're currently watching Series 3 of Grey's Anatomy on DVD, and I thought we were one - maybe two - seasons behind, but I've just found out that Season 6 is showing. Way behind!

And I didn't put Series 4 on my Christmas list, so it will be a while before we catch up! Just as well, as we still have about a dozen episodes to watch from the current set, and then we'll be going back to Seasons 6 & 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

And I've started to ration myself - I could watch Grey's Anatomy every night, but I've decided that twice a week is plenty - leaving me time for painting and blogging, which I had been neglecting lately. I'm not allowed to watch the next episode until Thursday!

Mmmm.... I think I might watch a little bit of Confessions of a Shopaholic (very slow website - be warned) on my iPod Touch instead!

Sea Rescue

Yesterday morning was glorious - sunny, breezy and quite warm - temperatures got up to 17 degrees (it's all changed now, wet and windy and temperatures are dropping - it was 9 degrees at noon, as we were leaving the house to do our shopping). As we knew this good weather wasn't going to last, we went for a walk on the South Wall. The wind there was quite strong, so we were glad we had brought our fleecies, and I was glad of my hat.


On the way back, we noticed a kite surfer in difficulty in the water. Someone told us that the Dun Laoghaire life boat had been contacted - we confirmed this with a young guy who was standing on a wall and waving at the surfer - he had made the call himself - he said the surfer was a novice, and really, nobody should have been kite surfing that morning as the offshore wind was quite strong. Brendan spotted the life boat on its way from Dun Laoghaire, as another boat arrived from the Dublin Harbour side (possibly a pilot boat). Then a dinghy arrived on the scene, also from the Dublin side, and they got him out of the water. All is well that ends well. We saw the surfer standing in the dinghy - he seemed to be OK. 


It's not every day you see a sea rescue.

An Education

We decided to escape from the house last night - we're not a kid-friendly household, and we don't give to trick-or-treaters at Halloween. Some years, we stay in, but the incessant ringing of the door bell is too much of a headache.

So we headed into town (in between the heavy showers - we managed to stay dry), had a bite to eat in Saba, a Thai restaurant on Clarendon Street. They serve a fixed-price lunch menu until 6 - very good value @ just under €16 per person for 2 courses + coffee/tea. The food was pretty good, but the service wasn't. The waitress who took our starter plates away from the table never even asked if everything was OK, and the Maître d' didn't acknowledge us as we were leaving .

We then headed to the IFI, where we had booked tickets for An Education, a film for which Brendan had heard good things. Really enjoyed it - an excellent movie, set in the early sixties - sixteen-year-old Jenny falls for an older man, David. A bright girl, she's been working hard to get into Oxford, but she falls for the glamorous life-style that David introduces her to - concerts, restaurants, weekends in Paris, ... He's a real charmer, and her family have fallen for him as much as she has. But all is not as it seems - and money doesn't grow on trees...

I can't recommend this movie enough - well-paced story, great characters, and the clothes are gorgeous too.

Pots & Tubes

Here is the final product of my "Pots & Tubes" project. I know that my big white pot is not quite convincing (something wrong with my ellipses - very difficult, ellipses!), and that the paint brush is not straight (run a ruler through it and you'll see) and my paint tubes are fatter than the originals, but this is as far as I can bring it without doing a complete repaint job.
On the other hand, I'm very proud of my shading on the paint brush (and of the bristles too), and I love my background colours!

So, for my next project? More ellipses and difficult shapes! A wine bottle and a Louis Mulcahy vase. What's the bet that my vase's shape will be all wrong? But, hey, it's the taking part that counts!

In Good Company

While I'm talking Movies, here is another one we watched recently - This is one Brendan recorded - In Good Company - with Dennis Quaid and a youngish Scarlett Johansson. The last movie with Dennis Quaid that I saw was The Day After Tomorrow, and you know what I thought of that! So it was a nice surprise that Dennis Quaid didn't over-act too much in this one. And it's a good story, and it doesn't end in the typical Hollywood fashion. Basic story is: Sales executive (D. Quaid) finds himself demoted in a merger. His new boss (Topher Grace - what a strange name!) is a young shark (but he's actually quite nice). D. Quaid's daughter (S. Johansson of course) ends up going out with the young man, and it all gets complicated. All that in the typical madness of mergers and acquisition - people sacked, offices moved, 360-degree evaluations, orders coming from an anonymous "above", jargon-jargon speeches by executives, etc.

A bit over the top, but it worked for me.

The Hangover

When in Westport a couple of weeks ago, we watched a few movies, as the hotel was offering them for free. The first one we watched was The Hangover. I know I know, it doesn't sound like my kind of movie. But actually, it was very funny - not politically correct, but well paced, with plenty of gags and good lines. Young man goes to Vegas with his friends and his future brother-in-law for his bachelor party. The following morning, his friends wake up in their trashed hotel suite, but the groom-to-be is missing. And there is a baby in the living room, and a tiger in the bathroom, and nobody remembers anything about the night before. So they start retracing their steps ... I didn't think I'd like it but I did.

The Cloud Appreciation Society

Just watched a program on BBC HD about Clouds. Check out the Cloud Appreciation Society website. I must send them some of my photos of beautiful clouds!

Bray, Three Rock

We went for a walk in Bray this morning - first the seafront, then up to the cliff walk. It was a bit mucky from the rain over the last few days, but it was a sunny morning and it was warm. I ended up in a teeshirt. Overall, about an hour's walk. Not a patch on Croagh Patrick, but better than sitting at home doing nothing.

Last weekend, full of enthusiasm after our big climb, we went up to Three Rock, in the Dublin Mountains, not far from us really (if there were no houses at the back, we'd see it from our bedroom window). It's quite a steep climb - but it's a paved road most of the way, so nothing quite as hard as Croagh Patrick, and the ascent doesn't start at sea level, far from it actually (I'm not sure what altitude the car park is at - the summit is at 450m according to Wikipedia). Still, it felt good - plenty of fresh air and good aerobic exercise.
Is it the Sugar Loaf I see in the distance? Tempted? Mmmm. Maybe.

Picture of Doogort beach

Achill

As part of our trip to the West last week, we spent a day on Achill island. I had this dream of a real wild place, but found that it was quite densely populated, and that it is linked to the mainland by a bridge over Achill Sound. And you can also find it on Twitter and Facebook - scary or what!

The weather was quite miserable - the cloud never lifted over Keel. The other side of the island was getting a glimpse of sunshine, and the light in Doogort was magical. We had the beach more or less to ourselves (and a very eager puppy sheep dog who wanted to play fetch).

Calvey's Restaurant, supposedly the best place to eat on the island, was closed (for the season I presume). There was a nice-looking coffee shop in Keel, but it was mobbed by tour buses when we got there, and we were not in the mood for queuing, so we ended up having a soup in a pub somewhere - it was advertised as homemade, but the last home it saw was a packet of Knor. Just as well we had nice food in the hotel in Westport.

Still, I was glad to see Achill, as this was my first time there. I'm sure it's gorgeous when the sun shines. Looking at the Achill Tourism website, it certainly looks like a good place for hill walking and the blue flag beaches do benefit from a hint of sunshine.

Stumble Upon

I was reading Cheap Joe's blog yesterday, one of the sites I'm a fan of on Facebook, and I clicked this button called "My Stumbles", and I stumbled upon ... "www.stumbleupon.com". You pick a few categories, then you click on "Stumble", and you discover all sorts of sites and blogs. Perfect to while away the time if you were stuck in an airport.

Be warned, though. It's completely addictive!

Cheap Lunches

After a tough job on Saturday morning, we decided that we needed a treat, so we went down to Ananda in Dundrum Town Centre. They have a special lunchtime menu - they call it tapas, I'm not sure why - a choice of 4 starters (you can either choose vegetarian or non-vegetarian, but you can't mix), a main course with rice, and tea or coffee. All for €16. We had the non-vegetarian starter: 1 fish, 1 chicken, 1 prawn and 1 lamb, each with its own flavoursome sauce. I had a Goan prawn curry for my main - it was perfect, and the portion was quite generous for lunchtime. Since Brendan decided to have a coffee, I had a green tea.
All very nice. Service was very good. The place was nearly empty - that was at about 1:30 on a Saturday, when the shopping centre itself was buzzing. Hard to believe it was so quiet, given the overall quality and the price.

Then today we went into town to catch a movie and we decided to try Jimmy Chung on Eden Quay. Brendan had read about it in a Sunday paper a while back I think. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet. We thought that the weekend lunch was €12.90. It turned out to be €9.95. Less than €20 for the 2 of us. And the food was quite decent. Plenty of choice, most of it pretty good (the beef with cashew nuts was just so-so). Brendan particularly enjoyed his hot and sour soup. And, for me, the banana fritter, syrup and ice-cream alone was worth the trip! Not quite as refined as Ananda, but excellent value!

Pots & Tubes

I have started this new project in acrylics - it's a simple still life, with paint tubes, a gesso jar and a paint brush. Sounds simple? Well, believe me it's not.

My main problem is drawing of course - I had to completely erase my original drawing - I think I was measuring things wrong, and it looked out of proportion; lines didn't meet where they should. That's often my problem - I measure with a pencil, but I'm not precise enough, or I get confused and everything is out of kilter. It would be so much easier to take a photograph and trace, but I guess I would never learn if I continue tracing.

And I have no idea how to represent shading in acrylics - I'm going to have to go over those paint tubes again, mixing my shading colours with the base colour as I go along rather than adding a big blob of grey over pure white. It's really frustrating, but I'll get there hopefully.

For a week, I'd been looking at my base painting - with just the main colours in place, and it looked awful - the background was dull and I had great difficulty actually sitting down and starting my second layer.

At last, I'm getting to a stage where I'm actually enjoying it. I spent a bit of time on it today, and it's starting to take shape. I have a lot more work to get my shading to look natural -the paint brush is particularly difficult - there are so many reflections that my eyes get confused; and the jar of gesso is tough too - the top of a jar is an ellipse, and ellipses are my nemesis - and then the shading at the top is still a mystery to me.

Social Networking

In our job, we always have to keep up with the technology and with new trends in computing.

A few months ago, I set up a Facebook account. You'll find me on www.facebook.com, and search for my full name. I don't post very much, but it's a handy way to find out what goes on in people's lives. And I like the feature by which you can become a fan of a website - I'm a fan of Cheap Joes Art Supplies, John Kelly Ensemble, and  Indian Summer. I haven't tried out all the applications that my nieces seem to be keen on. I'm probably a bit too old for those!

Then, I discovered mobile Blogger. You can send posts to your blog from your mobile phone. You can register from your dashboard to link your email on your phone with your blog. Then, it's just a matter of sending an email from your phone to go@blogger.com (if you're in the US, you can send a text to a special number). You can even send pictures. You'd only do this if you have a very brief post you want to write and you have no access to a computer... So I'm not going to use this very often, but it's good to know it's there. But I have to borrow Brendan's phone, as I can't use it with my own phone - it's so ancient it doesn't support email and it doesn't have a built-in camera. It's one of those Nokias that were very popular 5-7 years ago - they came in silver and also in golden. I used to have a golden one, but I dropped it a few years ago, and it broke. Then I started using Brendan's silver one, and I've had it since. I don't want to buy a new phone when this one is still working for phone and text, so I'm waiting for it to break down. I have an iPod Touch, which is the perfect complement for this antiquated phone. I don't see the point of buying an iPhone, as long as it doesn't include a still camera.

And now, I also have a Twitter account. You'll find me at www.twitter.com/MHBD1 (someone in Brazil already got MHBD!) I don't have any followers yet, probably because I haven't posted any earth-shattering comments yet. To be honest, I don't really see the point. Who wants to know what I had for breakfast this morning? But it's very popular, so I have to know a bit about it.

I think I have a MySpace, but I can't remember my settings - aaah. Just found them. It's www.myspace.com/MHBD1. It looks a bit sad - I have 0 friends there!! I don't know how people keep up with all these things.

And then, I'm also selling mobile phone wallpaper on www.voeveo.com! Really exciting stuff. Well, I've only got one picture there, but I must post more. You'll find me on the recent seller uploads, and also in the independent seller listing under MHBD.

Oh, and I'm also on LinkedIn! There is an ITP reunion coming up soon, and the person who is organising it used LinkedIn to communicate with us all. You'll find me at www.linkedin.com, and search for my full name.

No wonder I haven't found the time to write my blogs recently - so busy being a social bee!

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Lovely book by Kim Edwards. The story is heart-wrenching, but very beautiful.How a split-second decision can change lives forever, and how children with Down Syndrome were treated in the 60's. Also a good perspective on expectations about a married woman's place in society, in the mid 60s, and as it evolved over the years.

It looks like a TV drama of it was made too, but I'm not sure it's available in Europe.

Croagh Patrick photos

Could not attach pictures to my last post, so here they are now:

Croagh Patrick

We climbed Croagh Patrick on Monday! Brendan had been looking at hotels around Westport a few weeks ago, but we had done nothing more about it. Then, on Thursday evening, Brendan brought up the idea of travelling on Sunday for a 3-day break - special offers etc. - as the weather forecast was quite good for the few days ahead. So, carpe diem and all the rest, we finished all the jobs we had to do on Friday and Saturday, I did my hair colour on Saturday evening, we packed (not lightly - one of the advantages of travelling by car), made arrangements for Willow, and we set out around 10:30 on Sunday morning. The journey wasn't as long as I had feared. The road to Westport, while a little roundabout, was pretty good and we made good time. We checked into the Wesport Plaza (check out Brendan's review on Trip Advisor) at about 2:30, and then went about exploring the town for a bit.

After a lovely meal in the hotel restaurant on the Sunday evening, an early night and a hearty breakfast, we set out for Murrisk, where the path to Croagh Patrick starts, at sea level. We didn't know much about the climb, except that Croagh Patrick is about 770 m high and that the average walk takes 2 hours up and 1.5 hours down. Well, it took us nearly 5 hours round trip, including a good half hour at the top.

Lucinda had advised me to take a stick with me, and I'm so glad she did. I had a monopod that Brendan uses for the camera, and without that third leg, I don't think I would have been able to make it. I might have been able to climb up, but there is no way I would have been able to come down the mountain without the mountain rescue helicopter! (If you're ever at our house, ask Brendan to show you the video footage of me coming down the mountain - it's very funny!)

How people climb this barefoot, I don't know. I had good hiking boots, practical trousers (yoga leggings - nice and light), plenty of layers, a hat, water and snacks, and I needed it all.

Although it was a Monday morning, there were quite a few people on the path, some experienced hill-walkers, who were nearly running the whole way up and running even faster on the way down, some fit young American tourists (probably on a gap year) and people like us, who needed plenty of breaks - my heart was beating so loud that I needed to stop every 5 minutes, even at the start of the ascent. By the time we got to the start of the really steep climb (about 40 degrees), it was sheer stubborness that kept me going, and the encouragement from people who were walking down and lying to us, telling us there was only another 10 minutes to go. It had clouded over a good bit by the time we got to the top and it was really cold - so cold that I had to go and take off my sweaty tee-shirt and pile on the layers to keep warm. We were glad of our provisions - Belgian chocolate (Côte d'Or - noir), bananas and pecan "Cuisine de France" pie. There are toilets at the top (as well as at the bottom and the halfway point), so we had plenty of water to drink too.

Walking down was even harder than climbing up - I kept looking back and could not believe I had just been up that mountain, on that steep, ridiculously stony path. I laughed the whole way down, thankful that I had a stick, otherwise, I would have been on my behind the whole way down and it would have taken twice as long. My left knee was in bits by the time we got down, and my legs were like jelly, but what a sense of achievement! I don't think I'll ever climb Croagh Patrick again, but I'm so glad I did it!

See feedback from other walkers.

The Geeks

These 2 guys were the youngest model air plane flyers (or do you call them pilots?) at the air show. Like most of them, they worked as a pair (you need one to hold the plane steady before take-off while the other works the controls, or, occasionally, you need someone to get the propellor going (a dangerous job if you're not careful).

The one on the right was an excellent acrobatics pilot (ok, let's call them pilots - that's what it says on their tee-shirts after all). The one on the left was the helicopter pilot - not so exciting.

Forgot to say that there were also glider pilots, along with a special plane to take the glider up into the air! Did I ever tell you that I learned how to fly a glider when I was 16? I wasn't very good at it, so I didn't get my licence, but I spent 2 weeks one summer learning - I was really bad at take off, where I had great difficulty keeping my glider steady with the plane ahead, but I was very good at landing (probably the relief of getting back to the ground!).

Aéromodélisme

A fancy word for model air planes - on the last day of our holiday in France last June, we went to a model plane air show. It was a hot day and we had done all the touring we wanted so we headed for Lézignan-Corbières airport, and, for the next couple of hours, we watched model plane enthusiasts (mostly geeks and elderly men) fly their little or not-so-little planes. Acrobatics is really what it's all about, and they were all quite skilled (says I, who would probably crash one of those planes in less than a minute - and not even because you slammed the door on my Yaris - I don't even have a Yaris!). All, except the helicopter pilot - I guess you can't really do much with a helicopter, except go up and down and stay steady. Not very exciting. The Ken doll parachutists were more exciting than the helicopter, even!

My favourite was quite a sizeable plane with a Barbie doll head in it. Well maybe there was a full-sized doll in it, I didn't check, but she looked just like those Barbie heads you got to practise your hair-dressing skills (I never had one by the way - I was getting too old for dolls by the time they came on the market). Well, she had arms too, but she really looked like a Barbie. Anyway, judge for yourself! I wonder how that man's grand-daughter feels about her favourite doll being used for flying a plane?

PS - the village in the background of the first picture is Conilhac-Corbières, where we spent the last couple of days of our holiday.

Mosquitoes in Ireland?

We were in County Mayo over the last few days (more about this later), and I got bitten by mosquitoes! How do I know? Because my body over-reacts to all bites and I now have bumps on my neck, my arms and my right ear (yes, that's very itchy!). It might be midges, but I thought that midges don't bite. In my 23 years in Ireland, I've never been bitten. A sign of climate change? What next? Snakes?

Speculoos Paste

Véronique had told me about Speculoos spreadable paste, and it sounded like heaven (very sinful, given the amount of sugar in it, but heaven all the same), and she was right. It's absolutely delicious, and I'm addicated.

The good thing about it, though, is that it's full of Omega 3, thanks to the rapeseed oil used in the recipe. I'll have to check the non-branded versions - they probably have hydrogenated fats instead, and therefore are very bad for you. Whereas the original Lotus one is good for me, I'm convinced of it!

Kerry Sky - Watercolour

At long last ... it's done. After some agonising about how to render the foreground, I opted for a fairly abstract look, with nice earth colours worked wet-in-wet, which I think works quite well.

Now, onto my next project - I got homework from Moya - I will be rejoining her classes in the New Year, so I had better practise my acrylics skills. Though I have to say it's hard to beat watercolours.

Watercolour Society of Ireland

On Sunday, we went to the Watercolour Society of Ireland's exhibition in Dun Laoghaire. Well worth a visit. It's running until the 10th of October in the County Hall, and it's free. Some of the paintings were not very original (some even, I thought I would be able to do better than them), but there are a few gems, full of vibrant colour. Quite an inspiration.

Kerry Sky - Watercolour

And here is the watercolour version, in progress.

I still need to remove the wax, which I used to keep some of the fluffy clouds white. It's slightly shiny, so I need to iron it out. I'm always a bit nervous doing that.

And then, there is the question of the foreground - what colours to use - something that will stand to the brightness of the sky, but it should be dark all the same, or all my values will lack contrast. And then, how much detail? and to what scale? The original photo has got very little foreground texture. My pastel and acrylics versions were more textured, and they worked quite well. But somehow in a watercolour, I'm not sure that will work - I think it will be too fussy. But if I don't add any detail, will it be too bland?

Questions questions

Ocean Sea

I think it was Françoise who recommended this book to me, Ocean Sea, by Alessandro Baricco. It's a little gem of a book - really weird, set in a strange world, more like a fairy tale. Very poetic, but compulsive reading all the same, and full of a whacky kind of humour, and some savage, dramatic moments.

He is better known for his short novel, Silk, much more serious, but equally mesmerizing.

Matchstick Men

Brendan taped Matchstick Men on the telly, and we watched it last week. I had never heard of it, but it was excellent - Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell (of Moon fame), and a young actress called Alison Lohman.

The 2 men are con-artists, making reasonable money out of theirs

scams. Roy (played by Nicolas Cage) is the more experienced partner, while Frank (Sam Rockwell) is the bright young apprentice. Roy is an obsessive-compulsive, who is also agoraphobic and a chain smoker. His life is pretty grim - his wife left him nearly 15 years earlier, he survives on a cocktail of prescription drugs and mad cleaning bouts. Until he discovers he has a daughter, 14-year-old Angela.

The movie is set is an anonymous sunny city, and follows how these 3 characters discover each other and how they impact each others' lives.

Very good story, great acting, well paced action. Really enjoyable.

Crumble

This is blackberry season - we've been to Airfield a couple of times to collect enough blackberries to make 2 nice crumbles - one with apples and the other with pears. As always, I've followed Aine McAteer's recipe, and the resulting crumbles were yummy. Brendan's favourite dessert!

I think we might go again this weekend, before the blackberries are all picked out.

Kerry Sky

Here is a better picture of the Kerry Sky in acrylics. The medium I use to keep the paint open for longer has a slight gloss to it, so I can't take a picture of it with the flash. I should really use Brendan's camera, with the tripod, to get a good picture in relatively low light. But this one will do.

Kerry Sky

I've been a busy bee in the last few weeks - not much to show for it, as a lot of my attempts at painting my Kerry Sky (seen from Loop Head) were heavy-handed. But I'm getting there (or so I think anyway). I've been practising the quick blending with a fan brush shown on a YouTube video, and I am getting more realistic effects. I am using a slow-dry medium that keeps the acrylic paint open for longer, so I have more time to blend. It's not quite as subtle as pastels, but it's as good as I'm going to get for now.

So, I'm ready to move to the watercolour version of that same sky.

After that, I have some homework given to me by Moya - a couple of still lives - so I can learn to walk before I run!

Here is the original attempt

A lot of brushmarks - you can never forget you're looking at a painting, and a bad one at that. I knew it wasn't right, but I just couldn't control my brushstrokes.

And using black to make greys - big mistake. I knew that!

And here is my final painting (it's not a great picture - it really doesn't do it justice. I'll take another one in natural daylight in the morning). I won't bore you with the 6 intermediary pieces.

Sandycove beach

Our second walk last Sunday was to Sandycove. I've never seen the place so packed. There were cars everywhere - double-yellow lines, footpaths, corners. Complete Irish madness. And the Gardai were doing nothing about it. We saw a guard on a bike and a squad car going by. But they didn't bat an eyelid. I can imagine how frustrating this must be for residents in the area. There was no way that a firetruck would have been able to go through some of the streets near the James Joyce tower.

Good citizens that we are, we parked the car a little distance from the seafront, and walked. It was cool in the breeze, but that beach always seems to be sheltered (the best spot is on the wall facing South, but all those spots were taken).

After queuing for an icecream, we found a nice bench overlooking the sea, and we spent a very pleasant half hour people watching.

Marlay Park Dog Run

The weather was glorious at the weekend - it felt like the start of the summer we didn't have. I'm glad we made the most of it, as it's been dull since Monday. Dry, so I guess we shouldn't complain. It's good for the farmers. Personally, I'd rather have rain than a dull overcast day!

We went for a walk in Marlay Park on Sunday morning, before our shopping in Lidl (which is just across the road, very handy). They now have an enclosure for dogs, where dogs can be let off the leash and run to their hearts' content. It seems to be a good spot for socialising too (the dogs and the owners). We've recently watched an episode of The Dog Whisperer (on National Geographic?), and we're now dog experts. It was really interesting to watch the interaction between the various dogs there. The greyhounds seemed to be the shy ones, whereas little mongrels were leaders of the pack. By the way, this guy Cesar, the Dog Whisperer, has books and magazines and all sorts of things to help people manage their dogs (and to make him rich!). You can even buy teeshirts. And plenty of free tips on how to be a good dog owner. Mmm... Probably doesn't work with a cat though. Willow knows we're his slaves, he doesn't believe in pack leaders!

We didn't take pictures of the dogs, but we did take a photograph of this peacock!

Airfield

We were back at Airfield (new website by the way!) this morning, as the blackberry season has started, and we wanted to be ahead of the crowds - the bushes were well picked already, but Brendan managed to gather a good crop. We'll buy apples tomorrow and I'll be making my Aine McAteer crumble. Happy Days!

There was traditional ploughing in one of the fields - looks like hard work. The man behind the plough told us that the last time that particular field was ploughed was 20 years ago, and he was the one who had ploughed it!

And we discovered the new sown flower meadow. It was such a gorgeous morning that we decided to have lunch there. The south-facing terrace at the back of the house is a wonderful spot - I had the salmon and leek quiche - it wasn't really a quiche (it fell apart in the microwave) but it was tasty all the same. And good value, we felt - €10.50, with 3 salads (I had coleslaw, melon and potato salad - all very nice)

Hot August Night

Brendan taped this for me last week - Hot August Night NYC - a recording of Neil Diamond's concert in Madison Square Garden. Basically the same concert as the one in Croke Park last year, with some of his old songs, like Cherry Cherry and Kentucky Woman (my personal favourite), and some of the brand new ones, such as Pretty Amazing Grace (which I can recognise from the first chord).

I enjoyed the few bits outside the concert - the scene where he goes back to his old neighbourhood in Brooklyn, which seems to have gone a lot more "ethnic" than when he lived there, I'd say, and he talks to some black kids who have no idea who he is and he starts mentioning some his top songs, like Sweet Caroline, and they don't know any of them. He finally thinks to mention Red Red Wine, and yes, they've vaguely heard of that one. It's just surreal.

And also the bit where he shows some of the glitzier shirts he used to wear!

Don't like to see him up too close - too much foundation I think! But he still has a good voice, and he puts his heart in it. We've kept the recording and I might watch it again!

Weather

We're finally having a bit of good weather - after the 3rd bad summer in a row, I badly needed this little bit of sunshine.

We even had lunch outside last Wednesday - Brendan made burgers and a caesar salad - the taste of summer at long last!

The Day After Tomorrow

We watched The Day After Tomorrow last weekend. Good special effects, dreadful story and poor attention to detail! When Dennis Quaid finally finds his son alive and well in a frozen New York, he is so taken by emotion that he forgets to close the door! - Despite the fact that it's so cold outside that you could freeze instantly. And Jake Gyllenhaal is way too old to play an 18-year-old (ok - he was only 24 when the movie was made, but he still looked too old)! And really, I didn't care that Dennis Quaid's wife was a dedicated doctor, who stayed all alone in the hospital with a young patient, waiting for an ambulance, because the child could not travel by regular transport - with the snow storm outside, I'm not sure the ride in the ambulance was going to be the best anyway. And why did Dennis Quaid have to jump over the rift in the ice when he was in the Antarctic? Just to show what a hero he was? Mmmm. I did watch it to the end though. A good movie if you're in a bitchy mood and you want to give out!

Tony Takitani

I don't know much about Japanese cinema. The last Japanese film I saw was Kagemusha, by Kurosawa. Tony Takitani is in a completely different vein. Not a big epic - only 3 actors, one of them a voice only. It's really all about loneliness (and shopping addiction!). It's a quiet movie, with the colours washed out, and very little action. But it's beautifully done. I love the way each scene moves, scrolling from right to left, each set framed by those big windows with no glass, which the breeze seems to be constantly blowing through.

It's a simple story - Tony Takitani is all alone, but he does not feel lonely until he's loved and lost. He tries to recapture the feeling, but his heart is not in it. That's more or less it.

Far far from Hollywood movies (more about those later), but such a beautiful film.

Kerry Sky - Acrylics

Nothing to show in this section yet! I'm on my 4th attempt at a decent sky in acrylics, but it still looks too brush-strokey. I'm going to have to persevere. I found this website with a pretty nice sky. The trick seems to be to use less paint, do more criss-cross blending, and work really fast!

Butterflies

I don't know if butterflies are a sign of a healthy eco environment or not - if they are, the Corbières is hale and hearty! We saw lots of beautiful butterflies and other insects there, as well as the most amazing variety of wild plants and flowers. And thankfully, not a snake in sight - though I'm sure there were plenty of them in the vineyards and rocky hills.

The Time Traveller's Wife

I read the book, and I loved it. And now the movie. And I loved it too. It feels more romantic than the book, but it follows the story very closely, and the characters work well. Both main actors, Eric Bana, and Rachel McAdams, looked familiar - yet I haven't seen any of the movies they've been in (except Black Hawk Down, but I don't expect I would recognise him from that movie, really!). On the other hand, the guy who plays their friend Gomez, Ron Livingston, was in Band of Brothers and some episodes of Sex & the City, so that's no wonder he looked familiar!

If you loved the book, you won't be disappointed. If you haven't read the book, and you like a good love story, this definitely fits the bill.