Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Magical Show at Christmas!


 Hope everyone is enjoying this festive season hopefully with family and friends !
On the night of the 18th December,hubby and I had the great pleasure of attending our very first Andre Rieu concert at the O2 venue in Dublin.We endured a less than pleasant drive up from Cork due to adverse weather conditions but got there in time to check in to our overnight hotel and get to the concert in record time! It was worth all the hassle needless to say,a packed arena and a great night was had by all! Following are a selection of photos from the event......


 The ever changing background threw up some shapes!

 Right showing the packed arena!
 Got to stand right in front of the stage at this point!



 Beautiful backdrops,costumes and tenors and sopranos,it had it all!

And here we are at the end of a most enjoyable show,cant wait to go again!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The time of year...........

 Well its getting closer and closer .......Christmas of course! It hardly seems like a year since the decorations were stored away and here we are decorating and shopping again!
Leafing through magazines my daughter brought home from her travels in France and Spain,and a few her American friend brought to her,I think I definitely Under decorate!! Imagine taking all that down I said to her about a heavily decorated tree,perish the thought!Anyway.we are enjoying very mild temps.for the time of year here,cannot remember a good rainy day recently,so great weather for being out and about! Following are a few pics from when I started the home decor,tree no.2 which will be a real tree has yet to be installed,so I am delaying a while so it is still green by the big day itself! This gi normous cone on the left was picked from the ground last summer during our holiday in the Loire Valley,brought home a good few though not all this size!
I

 I christened this tree my recession tree,as it cost me 14.99 euros in my local Super Valu! Standing at a questionable 6ft it does the job when trimmed with lights (I also reverted to coloured ones this year instead of stark white)more traditional I think!


 My favourite is my front door with this great sign daughter C brought back from Florida,Disneyland of course!
 This rustic heart was given free in a Spanish magazine that my daughter brought home,I added the berries and wrote the year with a sharpie!

 Sign says it all!!


 Little lamposts,battery operated and mini trees,another gift from daughter C.
 Christmas Glow is the name given to the festival in Cork City this year,we also have a ferris wheel that gives views over the city for 3.00! Nothing like the size of the London Eye but still good!



Tir na Nollaig a faery themed park for little ones!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Just a thought......

So the clocks have gone back in our little corner of the world and its now dark outside at 5.50pm as I write! The south coast of England is threatened with a bad storm and we may get the left-overs at some point!Batten down the hatches weather!

Just had to share this little snippet I read in a magazine today though........

The article was on the subject of life skills and self-acceptance............
"An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots,each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house,the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily,with the woman bringing home only one  and a half pots of water.
Of course,the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection,and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.After 2 years of what  it perceived to be bitter failure,it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
"I am ashamed of myself,because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."
The old woman smiled,"Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path,but not on the other pot's side?""Thats because I have always known about your flaw,so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path,and everyday while we walk back,you water them." "For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table,without you being just the way you are,there would not be this beauty to grace the house."
Each of us has our own unique flaw,but its the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.You have just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So,to all of my crackpot friends,have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Outdoor Housework!

 Last Saturday was a lovely autumn day here,for a few hours at least so I was happy to spend it out in the patch doing a bit of a clean up! Plenty of weeds to hoe and plants and shrubs that needed pruning or removing.I was more than happy with the result as I usually leave this job too late and the whole place looks a mess before I attempt any clean up.
 Some photos of the results,I can plan for next year now,get more of some plants and fill in with bulbs in other spots.


 I will be first in the queue at my local gardening centre(Ballygarvan)for these beauties,I bought three bedding gerbera last year and they still havent stopped flowering,I must have got them around April or May.The plant itself is so fresh and green and the leaves never yellowed or withered all Summer long and still there are buds coming!Great value for money!
 The holly growing in the shade of the acer on the right,this holly was about two leaves in a tiny pot when I bought it years ago at Christmas,I planted it out and it took forever to get this big but it is in the way of the Acer so maybe I will have to trim back that rather than risk moving the holly!

 The gerbera still budding and two others above.
 The Torbay Dazzler left,this was reduced to nothing after the severe frosts a couple of years ago,we left the stump and hey presto! it came back again in the form of 4 plants!
 I replaced my two blue pots that held small palms with these red cordylines much nicer!

The debris before it was removed!










Happy Gardening!

Monday, August 19, 2013

Summer Blogging!

 As promised some pics of our recent holiday to the Loire Valley in France......this was the lovely gite we stayed in I expected a cottage/bungalow but got a fine two storey house instead,very spacious!We rented through www.holidaylettings.co.uk/210136.Our hosts were lovely people,and very helpful in every way but not intruding on our holiday!
 Our gite was a gardeners paradise,lots of colourful hanging baskets everywhere!
 This and the following two pics were of a home and garden in the vicinity of where we stayed,we used cycle past most evenings,what a stunning garden,no detail overlooked.


 Hubby and myself by the banks of the Loire in Saumur.
 Sunflower fields
 The chateau in Langleais(spelling?)
 Chateau in Montserou (spelling?)
 Found this much wanted swimming facility nearby,a beautiful Municipal park,La Capiteine.
 The train station in Tours
Me indulging in my favourite french passtime,sampling the coffee and pastries!We returned here a few times to this little patisserie in Borgeuil!







More next time,
Happy Gardening!