Celebrating the Solstice

The 21st of June has long been celebrated as the brightest day of the year. To celebrate the beginning of summer Brigit's Garden held a community bonfire. We had never been before so we took the opportunity to look around. It has four different gardens celebrating each of the four Celtic seasons among other things, such as plantings of the Ogham trees. 

Ogham is an early medieval alphabet composed of various horizontal lines crossing a vertical one. The name Ogham is allegedly derived from that of the Celtic god of literature and eloquence, Ogma. It is sometimes called "The Celtic Tree Alphabet," based on a tradition associating the names of trees to individual letters. The letters are primarily named after Irish native trees. 

Along with the bonfire, there was a drumming workshop in a marquee (big tent) which could be heard all over the garden. Afterwards there was a torch-lit procession, whereby the employees of the gardens (and some uh, lovely children) held torches while the rest of us followed with tea lights in Styrofoam cups. 

In a Celtic revival sort of ceremony, we filed under a living arch of branches while incense burned and women sang a Celtic song with the drums. I would have preferred this one instead.



We walked through the stone circle and around to the pile of wood.

Our tea lights were put in a large circle around the fire and the torches placed in the ground before the pyre was set alight from the hay piled beneath it. 

There was a fire dancer with all kinds of flaming fire tools. Some looked like arcs.

Some looked like wings.

After the singing procession, the drumming heart beat, and the shape of the pyre, a lot of us were thinking Wicker Man. At first there was smoke, drifting over all of us where we stood shivering and waiting in the twilight (because, of course, although it was almost ten, the light was still lingering).

Then it burst into flame!

And gradually...

died away.

Sadie and Loki

Remember Sadie and Loki, those cute little kittens? Well they're getting bigger and stronger.

But...they still think they're kitten-sized!

Just a Little Word

Sorry I haven't been around. Here is a little laugh from the Galway Advertiser a few months ago.

Below: Cllr Seamus Walsh

Above: Adolf Hitler

I don't see the joke. Is it because they both have polka dot ties? ;)

P.S. The first photo I took of a photo from the Galway Advertiser. The second I did not take at all and do not know who did.

Sepia Scene #105 and #106

Somehow I managed to forgo Sepia Scenes last week, so this week I am posting two photos.

The first is the full moon from last week over some houses near the sea at sunset.

The second has two photos. The first is the scene in sepia, but the second is as it was originally. You will notice it sort of had a rusty sepia tone already!

Harvest

Pumpkins potatoes
harvested in wicker with
cucumbers tomatoes

Sunday Scribblings

Cuisle Again Again

DD being the responsible adult was sure to tell me when I got home that Cuisle called. Not! They did, the night before the award ceremony, with this message: "Aoife won an award."
Oh yes, but what award in particular, she wouldn't say. Was it a highly commended in my category, or third?
No.

 

Can you read that? It says: Cuisle Young Poet of the Year 2010. Young. Poet. Of. The. Year. That is correct, I won the top award in the competition, not my age category. Out of all the poets aged under eighteen, I won overall.
I suppose you are wondering what poem I used and unfortunately me publishing it here could ruin its success in any other competitions I might enter in the future, so I can't let you see it. However, it is called 'Creation and Evolution' and is about a painter and his painting of a pale blue dot.
Anyway, before you ask, I did know I had won something when I posted yesterday but I thought it would  be entertaining to let you think, as I did, that I didn't get a thing only to find out I actually had. Of course I was not expecting to be able to tell you such absolutely outstanding  news!
I just want to say three more things. Firstly, what is wrong with the Irish sense of time? In the poetry festival booklet it said that the ceremony was on at twelve and at eleven, in two different places. WTF? DD and I were late because of that. Which made the award all the more surprising.
Secondly, I wanted to thank the organisers and judges for giving all of us young Irish poets a chance to win awards and share our writing. Brilliantly played.
Finally, I wanted to congratulate PonyGirl for also getting an award. She got the same award I received last year so if she follows in my footsteps you heard it here first! Also she was the youngest age in her category and she was in a bit of a witting funk when she wrote the particular poem. Excellent job!

Sepia Scene #104

Sepia Scenes

Lonely

Lonely isn't just solitary
it's a crowd of strangers
and the television droning on
as if you weren't there.

One Single Impression

Pain

Close your eyes, have no fear
the thorns of life can't touch you here
breathe deep, breathe long
silver birch whitens there
the creaking wooden rocking chair
breathe deep and breathe long
don't worry, it will soon be gone

Carry on Tuesday

Spring Tides

 

 

These illustrate a phenomena known as spring tides. Around the new moon and full moon when the Sun, Moon and Earth form a line (a condition known as syzygy) the tidal force due to the Sun reinforces that due to the Moon. The tide's range is then at its maximum: this is called the spring tide. In English, that means a much higher high tide and much lower low tide. The opposite of this, that is when the tide's range is at its minimum, is a neap tide.

An interesting animation to further explain this is available here.

Friends

I always thought that one perfect friend would be great. You know, one who shares every interest. It seemed that lots of people had them, and had had them since they were very young. But I guess having lots of friends who each have something in common with you isn't so bad.
I used to want a friend to share every interest but the truth is I have too many varied interests, I think, for it to be likely someone with the same to show up. They might exist somewhere, or have existed sometime, or will exist, but me finding them is unlikely.
So I have lots of friends with different interests and some share more than others. Still, it is most disappointing when someone you admire does not enjoy the same admirable thing that you do. If that makes sense?

Sepia Scene #103

Sepia Scenes

Why I Don't Edit

Someone commented a while ago on one of my poems about how the meter of the last line was longer than the rest and so stood out in a bad way, just giving advice on how to edit it. The thing is, I don't edit things I post on my blog. There are few reasons why. It is not that I am insulting my readers and saying you don't deserve the best, it is that you are important to me.
Say someone spends years learning the violin, painfully screeching out each note, causing their family to clap their hands over their ears and run and slam doors to block it. They play the same song over and over. And over. And over. They finally get it right and at their recital they play it. Their family has heard the song so many times they hum it in their sleep, they have resolved to never ever buy their kids another violin, and they have a special drawer for earplugs.
Even for that, who applauds the loudest at the end of the song?

Do you see?

Also, I think blogging is a stream of consciousness. It is different to other media. Just like Twitter has a "science," so does blogging. Most bloggers are honest creative people. I am just being honest by sharing things straight from my head, without editing them.
The truth is, I don't edit. At all. Anything. And I know it is silly and ignorant and stupid but here's the thing...So many people have told me writing is good, that it deserves praise, that I believe them. Truthfully, when I look back at some of my writing it seems so horrid that I think it would have been better not to write it at all. So I listen to those people and think it is good. I send it off almost as soon as I am done writing it. Then it has no chance to slowly change over time to something horrid in my eyes, because someone indifferent has already said it is good. It is like a safeguard, not editing.
I do edit some. As I write, if things sound off I fix them, if a word is wrong, I change it. It is not that I don't edit full stop, just that I don't do that thing where you put in  drawer for two weeks and "come at it with fresh eyes."
I know it's stupid.

Chrysalis

Caterpillars climb our white exterior walls like they are horizontal and stay motionless for days or a second. When they move on, we see a pile of small yellow eggs that stick for twenty rains and hatch whenever we aren't looking. Sometimes the eggs are broken and eaten by a fat black spider, or just don't hatch at all.
A caterpillar lay by our door for days, and never moved. Now there is a green form, where it sleeps. Sometime it will emerge, ordinary as waking from a nap. But this time it will have wings.

Do you find it odd that the chrysalis is so uniform? Each raised bump and ridge is a duplicate of its siblings'. The shape itself is odd, like a bug at rest with furled wing. But each bump and ridge must have a purpose, must fit one toe, or a leg, else why would they exist? It is perfectly efficient, nothing wasted and no space or ornament there if unrequired.
Either God was a genius who created every single thing on earth, in our solar system, everywhere, perfectly efficiently, first try, in seven days...or...evolution smoothed some bumps and raised others so the caterpillar would fit perfectly, uniformly, in its infancy and adulthood, exactly into a chrysalis that it was born with the knowledge of how to construct.

Sepia Scene #102

Sepia Scenes

Sepia Scene #101

Sepia Scenes

Unexpected Growth

No one would have believed that such a little seed

could grow to blossom so grandly with flowers so large

that all the other plants died in the shadow of the weed

Carry On Tuesday

Joie de Vivre

The time spent in biting into fresh fruit,
in looking out at the rain and smiling,
in making a bed with clean sheets at sunset,
that time is an ingredient in an immortal recipe
for joie de vivre, and it is not wasted.

One Single Impression 

Autumn and Winter

It was simple, the littlest whisper of change, but everything noticed it. Even as I sit here, the rain is slapping onto the window and the wind is flinging the potato leaves. The clothesline is swaying back and forth, if you stood near it the clothes pins would take your eyes.
My hands are cold, even though I am wrapped in a jumper and neck warmer and hat.
In one day, suddenly, without warning, autumn was here.
There was hot sun for a week, brown grass, scorched leaves. Then, that night, the rain started. It thundered and poured and when we woke up, it was autumn.
Now we will have the slightest glimpse of the sun, perhaps, every few days. No uncomfortable heat. No sweat without exertion.
Then, slowly, winter's icy fingers will tear at autumn, until it litters the ground like so many dead leaves. The frost will glisten on grass every morning, every breath will steam the air.
Perhaps there will be snow, only enough to linger for an hour, then the rain will wash it away. Or it will not snow at all, only the ground will be covered in icy tufts that seem like snow, and in between it seems clear until you are looking up at the sky on your back.
But the rain does not come unwelcomeed or uncelebrated. Autumn is my favourite season, and winter has many merits. Colder weather brings people together around fires, back from international summer holidays, back home.
And still, for weeks the roses will bloom, and the blackberries will ripen on their bushes. The sea will stay not icy not warm for many weeks yet.
But the cold has come.

Sepia Scene #100

Buttons are so varied in both colour, size, and shape, that I though 100 of them would look great in sepia, emphasising aspects different to those we might notice in a colour photo.

Sepia Scenes