Late again

 I did take views from my window on Thursday, Jane! I did, honest. It's just that, as usual, good ideas don't immediately materialise into anything in my land! I got home from school on Thursday in thrall with the blue skies and light afternoon and also absolutely shattered. I curled up under Ripple and let the suns shine wheresoe'er they pleased, as long as it wasn't too close to the green sofa... Half of the house has been sick this week, and a quarter of it is off on his first school trip next week, so it's been a tad fraught!

Days in the Frozen North are starting to whisper Spring in their lengthening, despite the fact that on Thursday the warm sun was punctuated by two very heavy snow storms that swept over the Lough. The wind that blew them in was so strong that the snow snowed upwards. And then suddenly it was all gone. Spring will come!

 Here's a view from just inside the window; friends have just delivered it. They made us a family coat of arms for the Meadowplace! It is very humbling to see yourself reflected in others' opinion of you, especially if you fare quite well therein! I don't see the huffing and puffing and thumping and bumping in this (not so) little work of art, but then I suppose neither do they! I'd like to think that Jesus was at the centre of who we are, and that hospitality is a sign of the Kingdom here, but maybe this will hold us that bit more accountable to the ideal.

Pause in Lent

I love Lent. I love it more and more with every year that goes by in its whirl. Suddenly the boys are one year bigger, I am one year older, and we have survived another chunk of chaotic family life. Suddenly, just as Winter threatens never to release the hard earth from its cold grip, there remains light in the sky at dinner time, I'm not pulling on a hat as soon as soon I have to go outside, and I don't phone my parents to make sure they're not venturing outside on slippy pavements.

Then suddenly too I can open my Feast for Lent and come home. That's the overwhelming sense I have this Lent. A great joy at the prospect of being back in the desert for forty days and forty nights with Jesus, just Jesus. I don't have to put up a tree for this festival, evergreen or with egg-decked branches. I don't have to write shopping lists for presents and food. I don't have to roast a beast or present a gasp inducing dessert. My children are not saying with their mouths that it's all about Jesus while salivating in their minds over presents and chocolate eggs.

Lent is still in its right place! I know that it's obviously very common for all and sundry to give up smoking, wine, chocolate digestives and facebook, but there's no materialism involved in that decision. It springs from some understanding that these weeks before Easter are about overcoming temptation and being better people. I do annoyingly persist in asking such friends if they are using the time they save, or the urges they experience, to think more about God.

Delia says, "Let us approach our Lenten acts of self-denial with the right sort of attitude, an attitude which will allow the Lord into some of our problem areas, to rescue us and save us. As we prepare to celebrate the Lord's triumph over sin and death in the Resurrection, let us understand that this can happen in each and every one of our lives, whoever we are, whatever kinds of problems we have."

Lest this reads as sanctimonious sermonising I will say that I have deactivated my own facebook account and can now get real things done! I will state that I am determined to get through all the readings this year- and that will be a first in the many, many years since I bought Feast! I will confess that part of the comfort in being back in the desert is to look at the Lent notebook that I keep with the book and see that many of the same worries that I have are addressed year after year and graciously and generously and with the great compassionate love of our God that Delia dwells on so beautifully throughout.

Happy Lent x

Not very Valentine views

 I think I get worse and worse at getting things done, but here are some views from last week! This tree does display signs of Spring with lots of buds. I have lots of time to observe its progress as it lives outside our piano teacher's front door and I spend enough time every week waiting for two of her pupils! This was Wednesday.

 This was Thursday and is a view from my school. Our Prince's Trust group was planting hanging baskets, and it was actually a really good activity for kids of their attention/ability. I thought I'd get a picture before they are taken outside to do battle with the weather and the footballs.

And this was Thursday back at the Meadowplace. We are starting to see some hope of Spring finally. Not least in the sheer fact that this photo was taken not long before five o'clock in the evening and look at how dark it isn't yet. Prince Charming has spent much of the weekend out there digging through the weeds. Sandra, our snow was completely gone in a day.

Badger must be feeling some stirrings of new energy too, because he decided to leave the Burrow and find out what the noise was all about. Some new friends he approved of...

And others he did not.

Not sure what he made of his climbing session, but I am sure that he is not finding this a very hygge home. His arrival has really made me think about this new place of ours. It just doesn't have quite the cosy feel that you would want over these winter months and that is something I need to address for our second winter here!

The one room I find myself nestling into is the Book Room. We can use it now because Prince Charming has moved all the unopened-because-unopenable boxes to the spare room. It is quite hygge, I think, especially when the fire, right of picture is lit. (Just don't anyone else come to stay for a while!)

So Badger has been reading. I'm not sure what he made of Valentine's but I did notice that shortly afterwards he moved himself across to the books on DIY and gardening. It's good to see someone using them.

He will be journeying onwards to Betty's Wild Wood soon. We're going to take him on one last Irish adventure tomorrow as its our half-term, and then off to England for him. Do let Pom Pom or me know if you'd still like to host him- his world tour is filling up nicely.

Views on hygge and craic

 My goodness, we are all just out of school to discover a world of colour all around us! It is still freezing, baltic, cold, but the blazes of green grass and blue sky and Lough have been enough to make us smile and run out to the garden with a football. Well, two of us ran out to the garden with a football...

My tree is still bare.

Badger de Mourne has warmed up nicely but needed some burrow time to escape the general noise that is our world. We thought that a warm corner of the living room would be best.

 We cleared out the bottom shelf of Aunt Margaret's old dresser.

I have been thinking about this concept of hygge. MK discovered a variety of Scandinavian words that were not just words but expressions but a whole way of life. Hygge seems to belong to a cannon of words that express a way of embracing the cold dark of Winter by snuggling down into cosy comfort with friends, hot drinks and lots of good talk. I don't think we have a specific word for this in Ireland, and I'm going to venture to suggest that this is because we don't counter cold dark Winter in that way. We moan on through and live for opportunities for a bit of "craic". English English speakers will now need to remember that this is not a derivation of drug terminology!

What's the craic? It was great craic. Sure the craic was mighty.  You can Google it and find a wealth of cultural explanation! To me it means fun, a laugh, something happening out of the humdrum. It puts a smile on your face and quite possibly a Guinness in your hand. So Badger will probably not be experiencing the best hygge of his world tour here in Ireland. However, we will try make sure he has a bit of craic! I introduced him to his burrow the other night, and left him there with cosy blankets, a fairy door and some warming beverage. He hasn't wanted to come out yet...

Invaders of Ireland

 I suppose that most invaders of Ireland have arrived by sea. They also mostly seemed to have landed in and around Dublin before marauding around. Pillaging, converting or integrating as they saw fit.

 However the island's most recent arrival came yesterday by air. Packaged safely and snugly in fine words, with all his paperwork in order and a good book to guarantee his warm welcome.

 Which is uncannily similar to John de Courcy's conquest of Ulster in the months following his arrival in 1177. He quelled opposition and set about winning minds- he restored the holy Book of Armagh and used his research well:

Knowing the superstitious nature of the Irish, De Courcy spread abroad a legend to the effect that a prophecy of Merlin was fulfilled in his advent. The prediction was supposed to be to the effect that Ulster would be conquered by a white knight mounted on a white charger, and having on his shield graven figures of birds. He took care in dress and accoutrements to pose as the white knight, and thus gained credence for the tale, which, in addition to a prophecy of St. Columba that a needy and broken man, a stranger from a far country, should come to Down with a small following and possess himself of-the city, had its weight in a credulous age, and no doubt in some measure furthered his claim to be heavensent. As the news of his exploits spread he was reinforced from Dublin by large numbers of adventurers sick of FitzAudelin's pacific rule.

,,

 True to his Norman roots de Courcy built castles everywhere he rode, and we took Badger to two of them today. The first is impressively named Clough Castle, a stunning example of the Norman motte and bailey, with beautifully climbable remains of the keep. It sits right on the main road down the east coast to the Kingdom of Mourne.

 Then we found Dundrum Castle. This has got to be one of Northern Ireland's best kept secrets. You would never know it was it was there, but it too is a fabulous example of Norman conquest. Badger nodded in approval at the sturdy keep from his vantage point high over Murlough Bay. From there he could see his snowy destination...

And so here is Badger de Mourne. He seemed ironically happy to carry some of Toad's grandeur into our mountain kingdom- I hope he isn't regretting leaving his friends behind. I must reassure him that Ratty and Mole will keep Toad out of mischief while he travels the world at his own pace. He is definitely happiest in a burrow, but was impressed at Ott Mountain and its sledging possiblities for energetic boys. And not a weasel in sight!

Badger will be here for a few weeks, and then we shall send him on- perhaps on Valentine's Day to another host. This is the first stop on a new Willows' World Tour- let me know if you'd like to show him your Kingdom before he wends his hygge way back to Pom Pom xx

Finally views and snowy ones at that

 After three weeks of severe weather warnings and making sure each week that we have at least one tin each of soup and beans in the cupboard, we finally got some snow! It's been two years since our last magic carpet, and it's not much of a one at that- at least along this coastal stretch of a mostly inland lough!

 We were up and excited by 7.30 when it was a bit lighter than it looks here. Disappointed that none of our three schools had made the closures list, but I did get home at lunchtime- more to do with the severe lack of pupils than road conditions.

 I'm becoming fascinated by the tree outside the kitchen window. I sit and watch it before the light dies and wonder when it will manifest Spring. Not for a good while yet, I imagine, but it's a good thought. I don't usually struggle with January but this year's slight gloom will hopefully lift as the month turns. I was surprised when I logged on here to see that none of the blog posts in my head had ever made it to the blog, but that reflects most of my plans for the month really!

The reason why I can sit and observe my outside-the-kitchen-tree is that we gave in to the cold after New Year and moved our table from under the spectacular(ly freezing) window wall in to the warmth of the kitchen. Today was the first day I have been in the living room all week. Mostly now I move from table to kitchen job and back again. Usually with tea in hand. I do wander next door to the book room a bit more, I suppose, now that all the unpacked boxes of Stuff have been hidden in the spare room instead. Maybe that room will make a blog post soon. Probably in February....

Views, hills and what comes from them

This is this morning's view from the other back door. It made me stop and look for a while. Not just because of the bright bright blue sky. Although Mattman did bring home Tennyson's The Eagle tonight for some lit crit. Ringed with the azure world I stood. I hadn't noticed before that you can see up the inland slope of Knockagh Hill with its farmhouses. When it isn't raining, as it seems to be now in the black night outside.

It was good to stand and look at an immutable hill for a while in winter sunshine. Thinking of this week's Charlie Hebdo and Ang's own bad news. Thinking of help that comes from the hills of Psalm 121.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Prince Charming and I got to the top of Belfast's highest hill over the holidays. Divis Mountain was for the whole Troubles out of bounds and take yourself off at the end of a rifle, and it is a revelation to ramble all over its wide friendly slopes now. The whole beautiful city is spread far below and Belfast Lough sails out towards the rest of you. Be safe on your hills x