Killruddery Farm Market is on again this Saturday.

August 2, 2012August 2, 2012 | Mairead

02 8a

(This way…)

Last month we went to the Killruddery Farm Market again and it was lovely again. As it happens only once a month (for the moment) I decided to keep the pictures until just before this month’s one, so that anyone who is inspired to visit can do so. It will take place this Saturday 4th August and starts at ten am, (http://www.killruddery.com/whats-on/july-farm-market/)

02 8b

(Margaret and a small selection of her creations)

You might remember I met Fiona from Treasurepalace designs (http://www.treasurepalacedesigns.com) well, she’s encouraged her neighbour Margaret to come along and set up a stall. Margaret has been making and sewing for “years and years” and she does it for different charities. People give her material all the time and she turns it into something beautiful. The result of these gifts of material is that no two finished items are the same. Margaret makes whatever she can with whatever she has – creativity.

02 8c

(Treasurepalace’s stall – notice the dried Hydrangea? Margaret showed Fiona how to do that!)

After our chat we went off for some coffee and I had a blueberry scone. We were sitting at the long table in the middle of the market and we got talking to some other market goers (they were eating the crepes, yum!) It’s a very friendly atmosphere, the stall holders are delighted to chat about their products (we got some lovely pesto and amazing teas and new potatoes) and their’s a constant stream of people happily munching and chatting. We had a great time and felt the benefit of the outing for the whole weekend.

02 8d

(Kingfisher Teas from Enniscorthy, Wexford also have a stall at the Dun Laoghaire market on Sundays)

We’re off to Belfast this weekend to visit friends and we can’t go to the market…. so, if you get a chance do go along to Killruddery Estate (it’s off the Southern Cross road in Bray) and tell Fiona and Margaret that Mairead sent you!

A Town of Runners – beautiful.

July 31, 2012July 31, 2012 | Mairead

16 7a

(Remembering my girls)

Last night we went to see a beautiful movie – A Town of Runners. It was set in Ethiopia, in a small town called Bekoji. There was only a dirt road from the town so it has stayed small. The story is told by a boy who works in his grandmother’s small shop. The one thing that is not small about the town is the number of successful runners that have come from here. When the movie was completed in 2011, there had been eight olympic gold medal winners, ten world records and thirty-two world championships won by people from Bekoji. Not small at all.

31 7c

(The path to our dreams is not always straight)

The movie is about two friends Hawii and Alemi. Hawii loved winning races and was happiest when she was first and Alemi was second…. She was fourteen when she said this and her honesty was touching, she loved when her friend did well, but there was only one winner and Hawii wanted to win.

31 7a

(Broad Beans)

Then there was the coach. The man who trained those successful athletics was called coach throughout the movie so I had to look up his name, Sentayehu Eshetu. He trains the children in this town and continues to train them until an athletics club from a big town picks them for their team. That’s the dream, to get chosen, just like the young Irish boys wanting to be picked for their favourite English football club. He smiles a lot, he is very respectful and the runners love him. He is on their side. He also has rules. At one point he has them pulling weeds and clearing grass from their running track – a red clay circle in a field with a shed for coach’s office. There is sadness in the movie also when the dream becomes difficult for Hawii.

31 7d

(Water… we complain about rain but we need the water)

This movie shifted my outdated perceptions of Ethiopia. My memories of Live Aid in the eighties and the images of famine had drawn a detached, far away, not-my-world, picture that I held as true. Watching A Town of Runners I felt a connection to these girls, to their hard-working parents, their grandparents, to their coach. When they were clearing the weeds from the track I was remembering my weeds. When Hawii’s grandmother was worried about Hawii, I was remembering being worried about my children. When Alemi’s father was harvesting a vegetable crop, I recognised it as broad beans and was remembering my time in the wilderness. When a hen scratched in the red clay, I remembered my girls – the hens.

Movies can do that, shift your perceptions. Mairead.

Be careful with the lettuce….

June 15, 2012June 15, 2012 | Mairead

Hands 2

(Perfect Hands… Granny and grandchild)

I will be giving a talk in Dublin on Tuesday night and one of the sections is about being unique. I was thinking… we’ve heard it all before…. each person is unique. From our finger prints to our retinas to our heartbeats, we’re all different. We even look different. Of course we know this already, it’s normal, ordinary… and so it’s lost. Uniqueness needs to be connected to our everyday life. When I look in the mirror I don’t think about my particular eyes being the only eyes exactly like them on the planet. I’m more interested in what I’m wearing (do my clothes fit in?) How I look? (do I look normal?) Is my hair brushed? (will people think I’m a homeless bum?) Is there lettuce in my teeth? When I look at my hands I don’t notice the intricate patterns that are mine alone.

Hands 3

(Perfect Hands… Aunt and Niece)

We watched a movie the other night about the guy who created the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. He realised that fingerprints would be a great way to identify law breakers. Before that it was only possible to identify criminals or potential criminals from their photograph and if they were seen in the act of law breaking. But fingerprints are left behind after the person has gone and fingerprints are unique.

Hands 5

(Perfect Hands… artist)

Why would any of us worry about being as good as or as smart as or as pretty as or as successful as anyone else? Do we ever wonder if our fingerprints are “good” fingerprints. Are they smart fingerprints? Are they pretty? Are they successful as fingerprints? Yes, yes, yes, they are perfect fingerprints and only because they are ours. They would not be perfect glued onto anyone else…. they would be counterfeit. Fraud.

Hands

(Perfect Hands…. another artist)

So, as I look in the mirror this morning I will be brushing my hair and extracting lettuce but mainly I’ll be looking for what makes me different; what makes me unique; what makes me a perfect specimen of me. And it’s not just the stuff on the outside that’s unique, it’s a combination of everything about me. A combination of all the things I love, all the things I like, all the things I hate, the way I relax, the way I cry, the way I get mad, the stories that inspire me. Every little thing about me bundled all together is unique and is a perfect me.

Seriously, is there lettuce in my teeth? Mairead.

Fear and Hand Holding in Swansea…..

June 12, 2012June 12, 2012 | Mairead

(Butterfly enjoying the sun)

The last stop on our Round the United Kingdom, Short Motorbike Tour was Swansea. We went there to attend our daughter’s end of year exhibition. Twelve movies in one evening… don’t worry they were short, about five minutes each. Ciara wrote and directed her movie and she also had an acting role. She played a lesbian. The evening before one of her friends asked her if she was afraid that people would think she was gay. She said she had worried about that for the previous six months…. it was too late now. It was more important to get her message out there, afraid or not, other people’s judgements or not.

(Butterfly enjoying some lavender)

When you want to follow your dream, and live your life with purpose, there are sometimes scary things you’ll need to do. And you’ll wonder if this is a good idea…. this sharing of your dream, your wishes, your message, your contribution to healing the world. What will people think? What will they say? How will they treat you? Will they be different? Will they ever speak to you again? Will they understand? Will their judgement resonate with your own judgement of yourself… and make it impossible for you to continue….. when they think you’re not good enough?

(Mosaic butterfly in garden at Bloom)

I will include a link so you can watch Ciara’s movie, if you choose. If you do watch you may hear her message. You may understand her message. Or you may miss her message. You may think she is brave. You may think she’s foolhardy. You may get stuck in wondering if she’s gay or not. Whatever you get from the watching, one thing I have learned from my judgement of others is that my thoughts and words say more about me than they do about the one I judge. That’s what I got from watching movies on a warm Friday night in Swansea.

What are you saying about yourself? Mairead.

Love Letters, a movie by Ciara Hennessy.

Really, Moira, it was no trouble :)

June 10, 2012June 10, 2012 | Mairead

(View from the dart)

Friday was an odd day. I went to Dublin on the Dart. I didn’t bring an umbrella, probably just as well – gusting winds. I didn’t bring a hat, so hair a bit streely (old Tipperary word meaning… well, not good.) On the return journey something on the train line to Greystones broke and I had to get off at Bray, where there was more rain and windy gusts and also some inspiration…..

(Simple Daisies)

It’s the kind of day you should stay home and sit by a warm fire, but two weeks ago I promised my sister I’d deliver something and I hadn’t done it. Oh, it seemed like such a small thing when she asked and it was, I love going into Dublin. It’s just I never got around to doing it (does this remind anyone of the gardening?) I had even begun to get specific, promising that I would do it on Thursday… but I didn’t. So Friday was the day. The Met. Office had issued weather warnings but I’d have to start lying to my sister if I didn’t go now. I couldn’t do that…. could I? No, of course not.

Heart

(The delivery…. “Head over Heels” Alan Ardiff)

Anyway, I went, and on the way home as an announcement proclaimed the broken thing in Greystones I met a young woman. She had been on her way to Greystones too and heard me talking on the phone to Denis (isn’t he great, he offered to pick me up in Bray?) She asked if I could take her from the train into the station. She was blind and didn’t know this station well enough to navigate it on her own. I was inspired by her trust. Not just her trust in me but the bigger trust… her trust in a benevolent world, her trust that everything would be okay enough to go outside and navigate in the dark. Her trust that she would get to her destination. I was also inspired by her willingness to ask for help.

Trust and ask for help… simple. Mairead.

Horas non numero nisi serenas!

June 8, 2012June 8, 2012 | Mairead

(A bit of the sundial and fountain. Sorry, I chopped off the pretty parts…)

In the end we went to Powerscourt House and Gardens. The house for lunch and coffee, the gardens for flowers and graves. One of the other choices was Wexford and we picked well because they got an awful lot of rain in Wexford on Wednesday. We got the sun… and then some shade because it was too bright and then some breeze because it was a bit hot and then some sun because it got a little chilly. I suppose we got everything we needed except rain (which we didn’t need anyway).

(The Dolphin Pond)

We began our adventure in the gardens and the leaflet told us that this first section, called the Italian Gardens, was designed in the 1840’s by Daniel Robertson and that it took 100 men over twelve years to complete. Well then… seems like all the best gardens take more time than you might think sensible to complete….

(One of the gravestones in the pet’s graveyard)

I looked up Daniel Robertson and I read that he went bankrupt in England and afterwards moved his gardening business to Ireland. The gardens at Killruddery, where we went to the food market, were designed by him also. The latin inscription over the sundial in the Italian Garden, says “Horas non numero nisi serenas“, I do not count the hours unless they are tranquil. Because of his previous difficulties (with the bankruptcy) I thought Daniel’s choice of Latin quote might be significant, maybe an insight into how he coped, but for the life of me I couldn’t make sense of it…. if you were tranquil why would you bother counting the hours at all!

(The Pepperpot Tower – built for the children of the house. It was modelled on a pepper pot from Lord Powerscourt’s dining table.)

Turns out (thanks Google!) that this latin inscription is on a fountain in Venice also and the word count can be replaced with remember…I do not remember the non-peaceful hours. In other words I put my attention on the times that I have been at peace, when all was well, I carry the peace from my past with me. If Daniel hadn’t found a way to carry the peace with him we might have been walking through fields yesterday.

Nice work, Daniel. Mairead.

Kilruddery Food Market has crafts?

June 3, 2012June 4, 2012 | Mairead

Fiona

(Fiona from Treasurepalace)

Yesterday for our Saturday date we went to Killruddery Food Market. I think it just started this weekend, but I could be wrong. Anyway, this is the first we’ve heard of it and it will be running once a month. Killruddery House is just outside Bray, Co. Wicklow and the market is in the stables and that stables were in The Tudors (the television series, not necessarily the time in history… although I don’t know that for sure either.) There are vegetables and olives and crepes and Irish buffalo mozzarella cheese and lots more. I queued up for the crepes while Denis got the coffees. While we were sitting in one of the stables eating and drinking, I noticed a huge barn with more stalls.

Treasurepalace

(Old stuff made beautiful)

It was the secret craft barn (well not really a secret… and there were other things beside crafts…. but I like the idea of a secret craft barn so that’s what it is…) Inside we found vintage tin toys and jewellery and Fiona and Lynn. I took lots of pictures until I got to Fiona and then there was lots of talking instead. Fiona and her friend Sarah (Sarah was celebrating elsewhere with street parties and bunting… I think) started Treasurepalace Designs (http://www.treasurepalacedesigns.com) because they love making old stuff look beautiful. They sell the beautiful looking stuff. It’s another one of those “follow your dream” stories, you can read more about them on their website. Right next to Fiona was Lynn (http://www.celtoscroiprints.com) and she makes linocut prints. I love linocut printing, yum.

Lynn

(Lynn and some of her linocut printing)

Now the funny thing is that at noon the previous day I got a call from my friend Julie, she’d got last-minute free tickets to go to Bloom, the garden show at the Phoenix Park in Dublin. So off we headed in Friday afternoon bank holiday traffic. Julie is a bit of a storyteller so within just three stories we had arrived and were looking at the most beautiful display gardens.

Birds and Bees

(The Birds and The Bees garden at Bloom. Ben Landers, a young gardener, had a dream and this is what he made)

After the gardens and on our way to look at the rest of the site I noticed there was a craft area. Hat makers, basket makers, Fán Regan (www.theprintingrooms.com) a linocut printer, Karolina (http://www.karoArt.eu/) making wonderful ceramic art, Tunde Toth (www.tundetothpaperart.blogspot.com) and her helper making a huge flowers from raw silk, paper and some rain proof wax.

Tunde

(Tunde Toth

The funny thing? Well… recently I realised it was time to put my attention on my love of crafts and making craft things and within weeks I was meeting people who were already doing it, I was applying to go on an arts and crafts course and I was surrounded by reminders that setting your intention allows paths to what you want to pop up where you least expect them. Crafts at a garden show? Impossible! Crafters at a food market? Crazy….. or is it?

Vintage Toys

(The vintage tin toys www.simplytoysireland.com)

So I’ll be writing and crafting from now on, how great is that? Might have taken a few years to get here but it feels so good it could even be worth the wait. Wait if you want or start now, it’s up to you.

Linocut

(Fán’s lino and cutting tools, sigh)

What do you want? Mairead.

Hello blog, whatcha got today?

March 21, 2012April 16, 2012 | Mairead

(Brooklodge Hotel near Aughrim, Co. Wicklow)

Every day to write this blog, I sit down facing a window with a view to the sky. I never know what I’m going to write about. I never know if anything will turn up. I just start writing. There are some things I do know from experience. One, whatever turns up will take an hour to fully form itself on the page. Two, if I worry that nothing will turn up, nothing turns up. Three, if I edit as I go, I end up with a blank page. Four, if I worry that it’s not good enough, I won’t be able to write anything. Five, if I stop to worry that no one will like it, I won’t start up again… some days I don’t.

(Window with sky view)

So my best advice to myself is… just write it… just begin… just keep going… just finish. When I just write it stuff turns up, stuff I didn’t realise was available to me. Then I can get rid of bits and play around with bits and at the end of an hour I have a blog and I’m finished. Today that makes me think this advice could be useful for any endeavour.

(Just make… a cute design in the sugar)

Like the book you want to write… just write it. Like the picture you want to paint… just paint it. Like the workshop you want to attend… just attend it. Like the holiday you want to take… just take it. Like the food you want to cook… just cook it. Like the story you want to tell… just tell it. Like the work you want to do… just do it. Like the self you want to be… just be it… just begin… just keep going… just finish.

Just start, Mairead

So my best advice to myself is… just write it… just begin… just keep going… just finish. When I just write it stuff turns up, stuff I didn’t realise was available to me. Then I can get rid of bits and play around with bits and at the end of an hour I have a blog and I’m finished. Today that makes me think this advice could be useful for any endeavour.

Just start, Mairead