NorthDownMuse

Walk of Shame

I walked Paddy at Stormount recently, where there's a boardwalk through a bog. Along the way are giant bugs with informative signs. In mid-Februay, I went to the Environmental Gathering in Derry, when activists from all over N.I. gather to compare notes and spur each other on.

A lost month

I 'came down with a cold' on 13 January. The cold quickly turned into violent coughing. Three weeks in, I went to London for work. When I returned, I went to the doctor and he put me on an antibiotic (I'd already been through boxes and

BlackRock is in the house

Work has been very intense so far this year. I have mild panic attacks on Mondays feeling like I just can't do this anymore. There's so much to do, so much technology to keep up with, so many irons in the fire. The steering committee chair

New Year’s Resolutions

... clearly didn't include: keep up with blog. LOL My main goal is to get back in shape. Before I got Paddy, I stopped swimming because I didn't like the pool where I swam. After I got him, I stopped running, hiking and swing dancing. The result

Donegal break

Boxing day morning I drove up to Creeslough, where I stayed for three nights at the home of Christine and Andrew Davidson. Here's the view from the house of one of the many estuaries lacing the coast. I turned the heat on in the house, unpacked the car,

It was Christmas Eve, babe

...lyric to a famous song by the Pogues. So my choir sang Night of the Father's Love at Gilnahirk Presbyterian. It was lovely. Then we adjourned to Susan Cooke's house across the street for the annual choir party. I didn't stay too late as

Walkies

The other great thing about having two weeks off is I get to take Paddy for long walks--Belvoir Forest, Stormont, Billy Neil playing fields, see below. He is tireless, which is tiring. But I can't complaing too much about 'having' to go for another walk, when

Friendly festivities

One of the great things about being in town for Christmas is having the chance to connect with friends – lunch with Jenny, dinner with Ann and Shaun recently – and attend holiday parties. Seven this year! My company dinner, the book club party, brunch after walking the dogs yesterday at the

Dec. 21

As if singing at Sainsbury's, dancing at Victoria Square, and singing at church didn't provide enough Christmas cheer, I also got to spend the afternoon with my friend Aelish. That's us in the bathroom at the National, where we had lunch. Aelish, originally from

Dec. 19: Choir II

No photo for this one, but on Thursday night my choir, more than 30 strong, sang at Shandon Park Golf Club, which is close to my house. We sang a 30-minute song cycle called Night of the Father's Love. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EI6MjTcJiY] We weren&

Dec. 17: Swing Dance

And on a Tuesday night, I joined Swing Belfast at Victoria Square, a four-storey mall downtown. I hadn't seen the Swing Belfast dancers in a long time and really enjoyed catching up with them. We raised something like 240 pounds over three hours for Brain Injury Trust. Several

Dec. 14: Choir

A few posts to document that this has been a great Christmas season so far. My choir spent Saturday morning singing carols at a grocery store. We put a bucket out and raised 140 pounds in an hour for Habitat for Humanity. The choir is made up of members from

Rowallane

My weekends revolve around Paddy. Saturday morning at Stormont with the neighbourhood dog walkers. Saturday afternoon at dog training class. Sunday mornings at Belvoir Forest, where I enjoy walking around the fields and through the woods and along the river, occasionally meeting dogs for Paddy to play with. This past

46 years

Is how long I've had passports. Specifically these passports. I just got my newest one. They used to let you smile. Ever since they said you couldn't smile, my photos are horrible. David said my last passport photo (I was wearing a hoodie and a grim

The Career Trifecta

I've been thinking lately about the three things you want in a job. You want to have respect for the organisation you work for. You want to like the people you work with. And you want to have work to do that you enjoy. I'm not

Fly Maybe

I took the Docklands Light Rail early Saturday to London City Airport to catch my FlyBe flight, also known by the title above for reasons that will become obvious. On the way to the airport, I was admiring how, when fog shrouds a city, it conceals the rough edges and

Death of a Salesman

Fast forward to November 26, when I flew to London for my first visit since late September. Dinner at Effe's, a Turkish place I like on Brick Lane. Then to my garret bedroom at the latest AirBnB. The last two were tower blocks, which I didn't

Steam trees

It rained without cease on Saturday. Sunday was sunny (see yesterday's photos). I was enthralled by the trees on my street yesterday morning. They were steaming! There was a swirl of steam radiating from and encircling each tree on the park (a tree-lined street is called a park--my

Crawfordsburn Country Park

When I first moved here, I enjoyed walking Maysie, RIP, through Crawfordsburn Country Park down to the coast. Today I took Paddy there and we had a lovely time. It's tricky getting a photo of him when he's still. In the one below his tail is

Ross's

I'm on to the second week in November. I don't really remember what I did the first weekend. I know I've taken Paddy to dog training class two Saturdays in a row. It's time consuming but the hike in Roe Valley showed

Jon Benet

The morning after the awards, I go to a hotel for breakfast before the hour-long drive home. The hotel was hosting the all Ulster competition for traditional dance. At my Air BnB I met one of the competitors and her mum. Who informed me that: Her daughter has to have

Angel Awards

I drove to Armagh on Tuesday to attend the Ulster Architectural Heritage Awards. I always thought I was drawn to this event because I love old buildings and because I enjoy the songs by local artists commissioned for the event. The artists visit and research historic buildings and then write

Highs and lows

So the lows would be Mon-Fri and the highs weekends. That is why I don't blog much anymore. Work has become really stressful and I don't care to write about it. Nothing lethal, just the trials of learning a lot of new tricks at my age.

Paddy

This weekend I unpacked, did laundry, mowed the lawn, trimmed some of the hedge, changed summer and winter clothes around, vacuumed, and took Paddy for long walks. Two weekends out of town meant it was payback time. I wonder how many times I went up and down the stairs this

The futility of life

During the 15 years I lived in Chester Springs, I spent a great deal of my evenings and weekends returning the land to its native state. With mattocks (I went through four, bending the head of each), bow saws, a chain saw, an ax, and shovels, I removed thousands of