NorthDownMuse

Capernaum

While yesterday's post was bleak, the titular film suggests not bleak enough. OMG this film. The plight of stateless refugees--exploited and abused from every angle. The plight of women and girls in male-dominated societies. The plight of unwanted children in a chaotic, crumbling, violent society. The star, a

The extinction of empathy

Today I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's latest, Unsheltered. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as her other books, but I found the conclusion highly satisfying. The story is about two families, one in the late 1800s, and the other living in modern times. The

Unquiet Graves

Tonight I went to see Unquiet Graves, about how collusion between the British military, the Northern Irish police, and loyalist paramilitaries led to the murder of more than 120 civilians in the Triangle of Death--an area near the border where the so-called Glennane Gange operated with impunity. It's

Caroline or Change, and chocolate

Wednesday night I ate at a little Mexican place before going to the theatre. Next to me were two young actors talking trade. I asked them what is the best thing to see in the West End. They both said Caroline or Change. My Steering Committee meeting Thursday night was

Brick Lane

Monday traveled to London and met with Climate Action 100+ leaders. Enjoyed dahl from my favourite curry take-out place. Tuesday we had a big meeting at HSBC in the afternoon--we were supposed to cover one topic but we covered five. Tuesday night dinner at the Culpeper [https://www.theculpeper.com]

Park Run pals

This weekend I made a list of 40 things that need doing. I got through 19 over two days, and I'm happy with that, given two long walks per day with Paddy. Saturday's morning walk was at Stormont with neighbours who walk their dog while Park

Ronnie

So this is a big batch of blog posts dating back a week. feb. 16. Went to a funeral in Derry for Ronnie Brown, Julie's dad today (Saturday). He lived an amazingly healthy 93 years, seriously ill for only the last two weeks. A retired banker, he was

Be My Valentine

I'm covering a whole week here--lack of free time means less blogging. I had a steering committee meeting Tuesday night--two days early to avoid Valentine's Day.  So Tuesdeay and Wednesday were pretty stressful. Thursday I went to Ross Auctions and bought this: I've been

Flapometer

I follow a Facebook page called Max and Paddy in the Lake District. It's about the adventures of two springers in that lovely landscape. The page's author puts up videos of them on windy days when their ears are horizontal. He calls them flapometers ("We

Bookends

Today Paddy went to a sitter and I took a bus to Derry for the Environmental Gathering, a half-day meeting of Ulster's many campaign groups, which are fighting illegal dumps, intensive animal factories, a gold mine (with arsenic and cyanide processing), illegal sand dredging, and a highway through

Who is a victim?

When I was at Queen's having a coffee with Marek, there was an exhibit on about victims of the Troubles. Each of the people pictured below lost arms, legs, eyesight to bombs. One woman had just seen a film with her boyfriend. One had just bought an ice

Freedom

One of the things I love about working from home is the freedom to structure my time as I wish. I went for a walk Wednesday with Jenny at Stormont. That was a good two hours out of the middle of the day. Here is one of many owls we

Golfing in the Rain

Yesterday morning I walked Paddy with a group of neighbourhood dogs and their humans at Stormont during the weekly Park Run. Afterward, we went to Castlereagh Hills Golf Club for a coffee. It was sunny and the golf course was packed--no parking spaces left. This inspired me to invite Marian

Minute by minutes

My second steering committee call was 31 January, from 10pm - 11:30 pm. Not a bright eyed and bushy tailed time for me. I wrote as fast as I could with an aim of providing a verbatim report. Not easy when you don't know shorthand. I spent

Stan & Ollie

I have a lot of night meetings, so my work day is often two hours in the morning, one or two hour break, three hours in the afternoon, one or two hour break, and two hours in late evening. So my days are mostly about working and walking Paddy. Tuesday

Corners of my mind

Today was a complete down day. Much needed. One of the things I've been mulling lately is my weird memory machine, which generates pictures randomly from throughout my life. They just show up unbidden at unexpected times. The older I get, the more archives to pull from, the

Banagher Glen

Before I went to London, I signed up for a 9.5 mile hike today with the NI Walking and Photography group. I haven't been out with them since maybe October and I was itching to get out for some fresh air. But the timing seemed very bad.

Mon-Fri

I know I need to kill this blog as I have so little to say. However. That would require me contacting the blog host and learning how to have access to the content in perpetuity. That's right up there with closing my account at Wells Fargo (how do

Ness Woods

Today I drove almost the whole way to Derry, meeting Julie in Ness Woods. Her two dogs and my dog had a good run then we went back to hers for tea. Then I went into Derry, where I had breakfast with Paddy on the quay. I was joined by

Impressions

I am aware that this blog reflects the intellectual laziness of "here's what I did today" rather than here's what I learned, or observed, or laughted at. I usually do it well past the posted date, so just remember my daily itinerary more than

Tight in the bud

Early last spring, a clutch of forget me nots sprouted in my garden, a gift from Eddis. This year, I can see that the plants have naturalised and I will have a bumper crop of the little blue flowers when the time comes. I can't wait! They come

The pen isn’t faster than the sword

Today was my first steering committee meeting--maybe 25 people on a call for 90 minutes. My job was to take minutes for 90 minutes. I was going to do it on my laptop but, just before the meeting was to begin, Word shifted into some format that shrunk my pages

Pet Power

Tonight I went into the city for the TenX9 storytelling evening. The theme was pets. The stories were wonderful, a reminder of all the joy, comfort, companionship, laughter, and grief pets bring into our lives. Richard O'Leary told of burying his pet chicken Danny in a Kellogg'

She persisted

One of my most important duties is organizing two meetings per month of the Climate Action 100+ steering committee. Lots of pre-planning meetings and a big agenda packet that needs to go out to 45 people around the world before the bi-monthly meetings. I worked from 9:15 am to

Winter marina

I began Saturday with a list of 20 things I wanted to get done this weekend. I got about half done today. Not bad. I walked Paddy off lead on the coastal path, and he was a very good boy. Then we went to Bangor to visit Hillary, former owner