The Last Commute

The journey begins like this: a small bike, a bobbing orange flag, a larger bike. A dad and his daughter, age four. Destination: the Naoinra. At the start, I wasn’t so sure, but in this father knew best and under our watchful eyes, and with the occasional warning shout, the first rider, and then the second,…

Diversions

What’s keeping you sane these days? For me, it’s the simple satisfaction of completion: the lists crossed off, the last piece put in place. In this time of limited distraction and distance I’ve found that seeing things finished is very good for my self. In fact, I just read this week that completing a task…

Sharing of the Green

It is that time of year again: time to feast our eyes on the green of spring, of life, of hope. Let’s take the road that calls us, the one that leads to people in our past or our present, the ones that always say, “Come this way”. Let’s see how others play with green:…

A Very Lovely Afternoon Tea

We started one of our favourite family traditions several years ago: afternoon tea in the Atrium at Dublin’s Westin Hotel on Christmas Eve. We go into town on Christmas Eve day to soak up the atmosphere, pick up anything we may have forgotten and see who we run into. It’s busy and fun and filled…

Acceptance of Rejection

With the year still as shiny as a new penny, I celebrated the first rejection of 2021. Celebratory is not exactly how I felt — this was for an award I would have loved to receive and even dared hope for — but yet, it was a celebration: the work goes on. I have poems…

Bluest of Mondays

The concept of Blue Monday — the third Monday in January deemed the most depressing day of the year because we are cold, broke and disappointed in ourselves after our new years’ best intentions have irrevocably fallen by the slushy wayside — is based on several assumptions. One, that we live in the northern hemisphere…

2020: Give or Take

As years go, 2020 is pretty hard to process. At a glance (and don’t we all wish we had only got a glimpse of it?), most would agree it was crap. I can’t just let it go at that, though. As it finally ends, I am feeling the need to think of the good things…

Here’s Hoping

In spite of new grief and more disappointment, this Advent season has been lifted by hope: the light is still coming! I hope that 2021 will open like a gift for each of us, surprising us with joy. I hope that you are blessed by love and the warmth of good memories of those you…

Beautiful Bog

The Killamuck Bog Loop Walk (Coill na Muc, Hill of the Swine) is part of almost 500 beautiful acres of recovering raised bog, cutaway bog, meadows, and carr woodland. It’s not always been so. In the 1980s, Bord na Móna (Irish Peat Board) cut extensive drains into the Abbeyleix bog in preparation for stripping the…

A Story and a Legend

Every story has its ending sometime. In our estate, one lovely story ended this week with the passing of our amazing neighbour, Mrs. Lynch. My part of that story started just after we were married. I decided to host a coffee morning for the Irish Hospice Foundation, an annual happening in Ireland. Although I did…