What I Should Have Written

It’s the end of June and re-reading my list of stuff to get done this month had me frustrated and a little ornery.

But then I realised the problem was that I didn’t write the right things on my list.

I should have written:

• go to poetry workshops, buy poetry, read poetry, write poetry
• bake cakes
• visit great houses around Dublin
• watch Pride and Prejudice on the lawn of one of those great houses, with friends and a picnic
• get up close to Salvador Dali’s work
• book a night away in a castle
• eat with friends, host friends, meet a friend who I’ve not seen in 30 years
• cycle with my love
• appreciate my garden
• hang a hammock
• revel in the long evenings
• light a fire
• be amazed at how many wonderfully creative people I get to spend time with
• enjoy my neighbours and eat a caramel slice baked by a 99 year old
• clean well-fed moths and their families out of my yarn stash
• make jam with my son
• think about a bomb and how every day after work I cycle past the place where so many people died, and try to get my head around how a bomb works, and how my normal life is tied up in a city I never really thought about growing up, and how my heart feels so much for this fascinating place that lets me call it home. Okay,  that is quite a long entry: I could have just said “think about a bomb” and that would have done it. Sort of.

 

Gur cake and tea make a street feast.

Strawberries for a June birthday.

From Jewels of Nature, a Mandala Stone Treasury, by one of my very creative friends Elspeth McLean.

I’ve been reading too many poets to mention, but the books I bought were the Shine Strong winner Journey to the Sleeping Whale by Jane Robinson and May Day, 1974 by Rachael Hegarty, commemorating the victims of the Dublin Monaghan bombings in May 1974, which has occupied my brain ever since.

The cakes were vanilla sponge, Delphine Poppy Seed, almond apple, orange almond plus you could count lemon squares, chocolate pecan squares and caramel pecan buns. And yes, I did share them all.

The great houses were Castletown House where Chapterhouse Theatre Company performed Pride and Prejudice and Russborough House, which hosted Art in the Garden, featuring Salvador Dali and other sculptors.

One of my creative friends – her work in photo above – is Elspeth McLean.

We had our annual Street Feast and, as usual, Mrs. Lynch baked traditional Dublin gur cake and her amazing caramel slice.

The weeding will continue. The mending will be picked up again, after the wool has been recovered. I will get to the button project and painting my chest of drawers and I’m putting the pressure on my handyman to hang some of those small pictures, maybe even before June ends.

And best of all, that castle that was booked in June gets to go on the list for July.