Kerry Rocks!

Ok back from a great week away but certainly need another few days off just to recover, hee hee! We didn't stop for the week, walking, shopping, geo-caches, swiming, more walking. And having the cousins around to share it with was even better!! Poor old Papa Bud ended up in hospital with an infection by his pace maker. They are going in on Monday to make sure it hasn't spread to his heart. Keep fingers crossed! On the way home yesterday I asked Shona what was her favourite things about the week, so here follows her list:

My favourite things about our holiday in Kerry by Shona

#1 Skelligs Chocolate Factory - a bit of a drive outside Cahersiveen but worth it!!! Its a popular place and open 7 days a week.

We were not allowed to take photos inside the factory and the choccies didn't last long to snap up a few shots but if you are in the area check it out! http://www.skelligschocolate.com/ . Not just delis choccies but great views too, even if the weather was crap!

#2 Aqua Dome - I think the kids agree that the best part of this was the rapid river, hee hee! Everyone in the dome joined in, being carried away along the river at speed was soooooo funny! Another must if you are in the area. We must spent about 3 hours here

#3 Tralee Park - and its free :-) what a great way to spend an hour or two. I love the fact that there are some really good parks around Ireland now. The kids deserve it as do the parents, you can sit and be entertained by the swinging monkeys:

#4 Bowling - we headed to Bowling Buddies in Tralee, this was brilliant fun and a treat for the kids who had been brill all day, sitting around waiting in shops/hospital/cars etc. and not one complaint!!! Louise and I enjoyed this as much as the kiddies :-) there was a strike or two and plenty of spares (hahahaha) but not much consistency.

#5 Mama Mia's Kittens - Mama Mia is a wild cat that my Mum feeds (along with Socks and Snowy), anyways Mama Mia had 4 kittens about 6 weeks ago, she brought them to the cottage about 2 weeks ago but then there was only one kitten with her during her visits and my poor Mum thought the others were gone :-( then last week Mama Mia came by herself, so we thought maybe they were all gone... but then come saturday she arrived with 3 of her babies, awwwww. Mum was so excited, as were we!

#6 Geocaching - We managed to find one cache in Tralee, actually Cian found this one and he got to choose what treasure to take and what to replace it with. Shona is not that fond of the Geocaching hence why it is near the end of the list.... but its not last....

# last on the list - walking, walking and more walking. I think I walked the legs off her. The first few mornings we headed to Rossbeigh but you should of seen her face the morning I told her I was heading off by myslef :-D

Even the local walks were refreshing, what i noticed the most was the smell, you know that wet wood, natural smell.... devine! That and the colours of course!

I managed to take a few shots for myself which I am hoping to exhibit in Kerry sometime in the Autumn.... a few macro shots and a few local landscapes :-)

Right, off to recoup, and get ready for back to work tomorrow, :-( sniff sniff!

Bank Holidays are the biz!

What a great weekend and it seemed to go on forever :-) After 6 years of having 1.5 channels the Sky man visited us on friday, waved his magic wand and bestowed tonnes of channels on us. After channel hopping for a few hours there was still nothing on, hee hee.

All i can say about Saturday is girlie shopping & lunch with my best gal, then drinkies (pub crawl style) that night with another best gal ;-) with plans for more looney juice drinking. Sunday was a bit of a blur until Louise rang for coffee, I ended up (with her help) getting the cutest dress... YES, Dress! for a wee shindig on friday, I'll take a photo of that one to preserve for prosperity!

After all that rest... Monday was set aside for Shona and her best buds. We headed on a road trip, firstly doing 2 geocahes in Ennis. This was the girls first Geocache anfd they loved it. Not only was it their first/second but they were both Nano Caches... look at the size of the cache and we still found them ;-) they've asked can they go with us again. Hooked!


After lunch it was then off to Turoe Pet Farm outside Loughrea in Galway. Just as we landed it started to pour but we donned our raincoats and headed for the nearest pen. This is a great set up, not only are there loads of (farm) animals to meet there is also an inflatable city, indoor wall to wall bouncy castle. At the entrance each kid gets a bag of food to feed the goats, sheep, horses, donkeys. The girls loved that!

In spite of the crap weather the girls had such fun, even in the play ground and there was plenty of trees for me to shelter under :-) There is even a coffee shop to warm yourself up before the drive home.

Not far from Gort we stopped off at Thoor Ballylee, the home (for a period of time) of William Butler Yeats. I was trying to remember what we learned in school and all I could think of was Maud Gonne and that and the poem No Second Troy, I had to google it:

Why should I blame her that she filled my days

With misery, or that she would of late

Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,

Or hurled the little streets upon the great.

Had they but courage equal to desire?

What could have made her peaceful with a mind

That nobleness made simple as a fire,

With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind

That is not natural in an age like this,

Being high and solitary and most stern?

Why, what could she have done, being what she is?

Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Right, need to chill before heading to UK again tomorrow, but at least its a really short week with a wee do on friday, woohoo.

Night all!

Ellie Maguires

Just back from visiting my brother and sister-in-law (Billy & Tina) in Mayo. I love meeting up with them, Tina and I always have the most amazing, life changing, world altering conversations. We fix the world and everything thats going on in our lives with hours of chat and a glass or two of vino! Don't you just love it :-)

Anyways, a few weeks ago I asked Tina could I put up some photos in her restaurant "Ellie Maguires". So today in between customers (boy this is one busy place) I got 9 photos up. It really feels great seeing your work up on the walls. Its quiet addictive actually, I might just have to take over the world, mwhahahahaha.

So if you are in Ballindine (between Tuam and Claremorris) pop in for a coffee, some delish food and tell them I sent you.

Ciao x

Sunbeam

There is something magical about the sea and even more so is Rosbeigh beach just outside Glenbeigh. If you take a walk along the shore you will come across the remains of a shipwreck. The boat Sunbeam went ashore here in 1903 with no loss of life! What remains looks quiet skeletal. I love the barnical covered wood, so textural. If you are in the neighbouthood, stop by and check out the wonderful scenery!

Cache #8

Its been slow getting around to doing another Cache so today Ber and I headed out with our cameras in search of Cache #8. The weather was very odd, raining one minute and then sunny the next, but this is also a great day to take photos of clouds, one of my favourite subjects!

Ber and I saw parts of Limerick that we've never seen before, thats one of the best things about Geocaching!!! It brings you to places you've probably never seen before. The views today were amazing, we took the long way around to find the cache and with a little detour but we eventually found it, woohoo. The e-trek was spot on too, love that!



This is the view from near the cache, thats the river Shannon on the horizon, cool!



For anyone intertested check out www.geocachingireland.com, its a great way to spend the day and seeing parts of Ireland that you may never would of seen otherwise.

Scrappy Day

What a great day we had yesterday. Crafty Kate, Fiona and Viv came to mine for a day/night of scrapping. We laughed more than we scrapped but I think Fi and Viv might be seriously addicted, mwhahahaha! Below is the class I thought the girls, just to give them an idea of what you could do.

Viv

Fiona

Myself

Thanks girls for the great company, looking forward to doing it again soon xxx

The first of many!

This evening I hung 9 of my photos in a cafe called Delish in Raheen, Woohoo!!! I am hoping this is the first of many places you can see my photos, with (keeping fingers crossed) an exhibition before the end of the year... well thats the goal anyway :-)

Here are my little babies gone out into the big bad world, hopefully to find good homes!


Thank you Ber for giving me a hand to hang them ;-) I couldn't have done it without you!

All framed prints are for sale and can be found at www.evabirdthistle.com

Just what your head needs...

Everyone needs their thing for clearing the stuff that clouds our minds, you know the stuff that gets in the way of being happy, the stuff that goes around and around and builds into some huge obstacle. For me its something as simple as a long walk, fresh air, stunning scenery and good company. There are days you just have to dedicate to soothing yourself, don't feel guilty because you come out the other side a happier more content person.

So promise yourself, do something, just one thing that soothes you! And as the ad says "you're worth it"!

Surreal or what?

Do you ever have a surreal moments in your life? Its been aaaaages since I've had one, but I had to stop and take it all in! I wish I had my camera to help describe this moment becuase i have a feeling my words won't be enough. So here it goes....

Last Wednesday I was in Shannon airport heading for the UK, while still airside I saw a man who looked very familiar talking with a young Irish woman. As i got closer i could hear what he was saying in his american accent "sorry mam, but I don't know you", she said "but you look so familiar". Just what i was thinking. And then I realised I knew who he was. It was Martin Sheen. And the funny thing is (my) Martin and I were talking about him the night before. He was quoted on the Irish news as saying "Acting is what I do for a living, activism is what I do to stay alive." Cool or what!

Did you know while he was in Ireland studying in NUI he signed a petition in support of the Shell to Sea campaign? He was also quoted discussing the action group against the war in Iraq who damaged a US military plane that had stopped over at Shannon in 2003.... uncanny!?

So there was me all chuffed, after seeing him here in Shannon. I went through security to airside, walked through the small duty free section and as I rounded the corner what i saw next was the most surreal moment of my life that I had to stop and take all in.... every where i looked were american military in uniform, and i mean every where i looked. I've often seen them here as they pass through but not this many. There must have been a couple of hundred of these figures... in every corner, on every seat, at every table (except mine)... EVERYWHERE! It was like a scene from a surreal David Lynch movie. I still can't believe it and so wished I had a camera to capture this moment.

It wasn't until I came home, relaxed and removed all thoughts of work that I connected the whole scene. How uncanny, how surreal, one moment there was Martin Sheen the activist and then there was a couple hundred military... I'm glad they didn't meet!

Photography website

At last I have a home for my photography. I've had the site for awhile but I had been concentrating on taking the images rather than loading them up... so a little thought and a lot of time later and the site is up to date.

Check out www.evabirdthistle.com where you can see a number of galleries on music, abstract, landscape, portraits etc.

Thanks for looking :-)

Happy 50th Birthday Billy

OMG! I can't believe it! My big brother is 50!!! As my Mum says, he's getting closer to her now, hahahaha! We headed to Tuam for a surprise party for him and he hadn't got a clue. Well done to Tina for keeping it quiet and organising it all :-)

Billy & Tina as they arrived... SURPRISE!

Here is Mum with her eldest and youngest boys

Zach with a poem for his Dad (You're the Man)

The look on his face is priceless, he loved his gifts

The Cullen Boys, more like the mafia, hahaha

Phil, Billy and I (well on the sauce)

As a little token, I created a book for everyone to sign during the night. I love this idea as its lovely to look back and read the comments long after the dust has settled, hee hee.



Happy Birthday bro, Lurves you! Here is to another 50 years! Mwhahahahaha!