More Flooding, More Menagerie, 24th November 2009

Floods

We were up early this morning as Jim was supposed to be going to Shannon airport to catch a flight to the UK. The floods are still everywhere and it's rained some more overnight and was raining this morning. We headed out and took the 'Tulla' road to the main N18 which takes us off to Shannon. The other day when Jim went that way to fetch me the Tulla road was just flooded near the N18 so we kept our fingers crossed. Luckily, the water there had subsided a bit, so we were ok and Jim was early for his plane of course, then it was delayed!

I decided to drop in at 'Sky Court', a local shopping centre and do a little shopping before heading back home. I didn't want to be too long in case the Tulla road was cut off, then I really wouldn't have any way of getting back. I bought myself a great pair of slippers for 5 euros and even picked up a couple of Christmas presents. I also bought Buster a couple of chews to keep him happy while the rain keeps falling and he stays inside.

I thought I'd try the Gort road and see whether that was open - see above! I sat for a while and watched a land rover go through but our Doblo is rather 'low slung' so I turned round and headed to the Tulla Road.

I took this through the window at the same spot as the one above.


And this a bit further along.


This is the Tulla Road and the orange sign says 'Road Flooded', but, as you can see, it was fine. It's a long way along that road but at least it's high up and away from the floods.

Another photo of the floods, although this is a lake, it is much larger than usual.

I drove back to Killanena, the nearest village to us and pulled in to look at the river that runs under the road there. It was really noisy and rushing down in torrents. I made a montage of both sides of the road:

I then drove along to Ann Broderick's as I haven't seen her for a while and we keep leaving messages to each other but not actually connecting. She was out!

So it was back home to a very excited dog. I gave him one of his 'bacon bones' and that kept him happy for ages.

I've been quite busy at home. We had a huge pile of wood left by the carpenter in the middle of the kitchen/diner, so I moved that into my studio. Much better. I guess the carpenter can't reach us as I think he's from the Ennis area, and much of Ennis is under water with many houses flooded. I then did a bit of grouting of the tiles Jim had put down on the step into my studio.

I've sorted and house worked, had a sleep and carried on! Jim rang and he's with his daughter in our Worthing house in the UK, safe and sounds.

Crazy Animals

Sandy came in 2 days ago and just plonked himself on the rug on top of Buster, who looked so surprised!! Jim took some photos:

You can just see to the right that BlackJack is in Buster's bed!

Buster licks Sandy's ear.

Sandy rubs himself on Buster's leg!

Then moves to snuggle under his chin.

Sandy got very excited and was purring like mad!
Buster pleading for help!
Finally, Buster had had enough and gave Sandy a little nip. That ended the games. A dog can only put up with so much.

That's about all the news. I am trying to catch up with blogs - there are so many good ones and not enough time to read them all.

I love my slippers, they're so warm and snuggly.

Happy Wednesday everyone (well,it's gone midnight).

Rest of Suffolk Break, More Flooding.

Weds 18th November

On the Wednesday, Jason took us to Frankie and Benny's for lunch. We decided it was his firm's Christmas outing!! Sam, Jack and Kitty came too and the waitress was very friendly and helpful. We had a lovely meal and chat, then took Jason back home to work and we carried on to Bury St Edmunds for a spot of shopping.


Jack at Frankie and Benny's


Kitty gearing up for her lunch. What a smile!


Jason with Jack and 2 helium balloons.


Jack received a bag with puzzles and colouring things in, plus these dice! He liked them. He's showing evidence of his dessert - chocolate ice cream! He has such blue eyes, unlike Kitty's - hers are dark brown. Oh, I had pancakes with ice cream, cream and maple syrup. Mmmm.

I took loads of photos of Kitty at home, but will try and choose just a few:

I love this one, where she's amused by her reflection!
A good photo of Jack sitting on his table and one more of Kitty, below:

Her cheeks weren't as red that day.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

On the Thursday, we went to meet Jack's other Nanny and Grandad in Dereham, where they live. It's about an hour's journey and Jack kept doing the 'are we there yet?' It did seem quite a long way. In fact we stopped to buy a take away coffee on the way.

I'm not normally a shopper, but the shops in Ireland are pretty rubbishy, so I love to wander around the centres in the UK. I saw lots of cushions and other things that would be wonderful for my sun room, in which I'm trying to achieve a Moroccan look. Sadly I couldn't get them in my case!

We all went for lunch in a local pub. 2 lunches out in 2 days - not bad. I sat with Ivor and Maureen and then Jack wanted to sit with us, so poor Sam was left all alone!


Nanny Maureen with Kitty. Kitty does a strange thing with her tongue, she turns it sideways, as she is showing you here! Jack decided to go and sit with his mummy as she was on her own. Bless.

This lovely decoration was across the street.

Kitty soon fell asleep as we toured some shops!

Sam was getting into the Christmas spirit with a reindeer mask! I think it looks great!

Ivor and Maureen in the car park!

What a busy time I had! We went back home via Asda, where I bought myself 2 three quarter length sleeved jumpers and some treats for Buster!!

We had some pizza for tea, then Jason ran me to the airport for the journey home. Well, you know the rest, floods and general chaos!

I have some more photos from yesterday but I'll save those. I must also photograph my A-Z of ATCs now that my set is complete.

I have been doing some papier mache over the past few days. It's been fun and is something I can do 'on the move' as I'm not yet in my studio. Today I grouted some floor tiles that Jim had put down on the steps down to the extension. There's no sign of our carpenter but I suspect he's not been able to get to us. Someone on a forum had said that Killanena is an island! That's us.

So tomorrow morning I am running Jim to Shannon for his trip to the UK for a meeting and to see his 3 children and 2 grandchildren. It's all go. We're not sure whether we'll make it to the airport, but we'll have a go.

Happy Tuesday Everyone.

I'm Back - But Only Just.

Honey Fungus in Jason and Sams' Garden

Floods

I returned to Shannon airport from the UK on Thursday midnight and Jim was there to pick me up. I know the UK news has been all about the floods in Cockermouth, but it's been awful in Ireland too. Jim wasn't sure whether he'd even make it to the airport. He drove through a too deep flood at one point and the car was spluttering but he managed to make it across.

We set off home and every route we tried was flooded. We took all the back roads we knew and eventually we did make it home, after 2 hours of worried driving.

Our road was a river and Jim had carried out some repairs in the pouring rain on Thursday, but it needed much more. The lane leading to our turn off was just a stream of water and had dug a deep groove out of the right hand side.



Jim stood by Hilary's house and videoed this. Our turning is at the bottom of the hill where it bears right.



The road to the right leads to our cottage and to the left, to Kevin's house and Lough Graney.




This is where some of the water came from, the field to the right of our turning. The stream is usually a little trickle.

These video snippets were taken on Jim's very very old camera, so forgive the quality.

Friday 20th November

Yesterday we realised we would have to repair the road at the bottom. Luckily, the builders had dropped some stone by a farm gate at the top of the road by Hilary's, so we were able to use that, utilising our motorised wheelbarrow to cart it up and down.

Here I am filling in the holes with stone and shale. It seems to have held today. We have had more rain, but the initial deluge lasted 48 hours.

Jim and I drove to Lough Graney at Caher, where the road was flooded and took a few photos:

I'm glad I don't live in that house, on a level with the lake.

This is the road, with a rather attractive tree reflection.

These people lived in the flooded area and had gone back to collect some things. They had a collie dog with them - Buster thought that was great:

In Cork, thousands are without water as the main treatment plant is under water. Many roads around County Clare are still blocked with the floods. Jim needed to go shopping today and did manage to get to Gort, our nearest shopping town, via another round about route. I spent my time cleaning up and generally sorting things out. Jim didn't manage to visit Lidl though:

So it's all been a bit exciting. Jim is going to the UK on Tuesday until Saturday so I hope I will be able to run him to the airport ok - and get home again.

My UK Trip

I went to visit Jason, Sam, Jack and Kitty on Tuesday. I arrived at some unearthly hour in the morning, around 8am and Jason picked me up with Jack - who was very excited as usual! We partook of a MacDonald's breakfast then drove back to J's house. We had to stay in most of the day as Sam had taken her Mum Rene to the hospital for a procedure and had to wait for the phone call to collect her. No problem for me, Jack and I played and Kitty watched.

Jack pulling a cheeky face!

Jack and I made a camp! It kept collapsing though.

Kitty had been fed (as you can see) and was playing with these beads. She had bright red cheeks as she is teething.

In the garden are some beautiful fungi, and I took some photos of that while the sun was shining:

A 'joiner' of the line of fungus.


I shall leave it at that for today and post my photos from Days 2 and 3 in the UK tomorrow.

Love to everyone.

BT
x

Menagerie Feature, 16th November 2009

Yesterday, Jim and I sat in the sun room with a cup of tea and watched the birds flying about
n the orchard. We saw a pair of tree creepers hopping up adjacent trees, picking insects from between the ivy stalks. A robin and blackbird entertained us and lots of chaffinches. It's ages since we've actually sat and watched the birds and we really enjoyed it.

Jim was up early this morning to go and teach at the computer class. He had a good time and delighted the lady he was teaching by finding her children on Facebook!

Martin the Builder came early with the skirting boards and other wood and waited until Anthony the carpenter turned up. The weather was really awful and it has rained hard on and off all day. Anthony managed to get some of the door surrounds done but then had to go. He is actually having an operation on his nose tomorrow and I think he was a bit nervous. He had parked his van on the road down to our grumpy neighbours and they drove up the road, beeping all the way and told him he mustn't park there. Excuse me, it's OUR road!! He just pulled in a bit but left the van there. They are such a pain.

I have felt sick and nervous all day and I'm sure it's because of them. Grrrrr.

I have been busy making Christmas cards, some collages and others in a different style. I'm quite pleased with them but have had to order some more blanks before I can continue.


Yesterday evening the cats and dog were playing 'Who can get closest to the fire', on the rug. Jim took some photos and I took some, as each time we looked, they were in a different position. Do bear with me while I post them as there are a few!!


I couldn't stop laughing at Sandy's legs - they look like chicken drumsticks!!

Sandy stretching his paws at both ends!

Just look at those feet and legs!!

Now Sandy rests his legs on Buster's head!

A close up, Buster looking a bit worried as usual.

If you look carefully in this one, you can see Sandy's tongue as he decided to give Buster a wash!

Sandy's tongue is a bit clearer here!

















Sandy gradually getting closer!

'














Where've you gone?' says Buster


















More Head rubbing!

















BlackJack, Buster and Sandy

















'Come Here'









































Buster always looks slightly bothered and Sandy doesn't care one bit!!

This morning my 'Z' arrived. It is the last letter of the Artist Trading Cards Alphabet we, a group of ten, have been collecting and this completes my set. I will photograph it on Friday and post the whole alphabet. I can't wait to see everyone else's too.
This is from Laure and she has done the whole alphabet in this style of letters. They are all superb.


I am off to the UK at 4.30am, so I must go to bed soon. It's a quick trip this time, and I'm back on Thursday at about midnight. Off to see Jason, Sam, Jack and Kitty so you can have some photos which are not animals for a change!!

Take care everyone.

BT
xxx

Boris Has Landed, 14th November 2009

Boris Has Landed

Do you remember that Jim and I bought a crazy table some time ago? It was so heavy that the lad down the road, Danny, had to come and help us move it into the barn for storage. Danny always gives things names and thus the table became 'Boris'. Jim and I managed to get it up onto the motor barrow and drove it to the back of the house. We then manhandled it into the sun room. Oh, he looks just splendid!



Another view.


A closer view. We put him on one of my rugs to protect the floor.

An atmospheric Boris

Evening Boris - taken by Jim just now.

Well, isn't he 'different' I think the word is? It seems to be carved out of the bottom of a large tree. I always thought he'd look good in the sun room. I'm aiming for an Eastern/Moroccan look. We've been discussing curtains today. Of course we still haven't the skirting boards in yet and we have to paint the walls and ceiling, but we already have the paint for that and the rest should be finished on Monday.

Animals

Just a quick photo of them both in front of Billy Boiler! I called them so that they looked up. They then decided to have a fight and I had to break it up. Crazy cats.

Buster had his dinner in the porch then disappeared again and hasn't returned yet. Bad dog. He spent most of yesterday out with the pack of motley dogs. Michael the farmer owns 2 dogs just like Buster and we used to hear them circling the countryside all day. They passed through here and there were about 6 dogs all together! Now we hear a familiar, somewhat higher howl amongst them - Buster! I'm sure he has no idea what they are supposed to be doing - but just loves the running about, smelling everything and howling like crazy!! He was exhausted when he came in and slept all evening - after he'd cleaned himself up.

Is it usual for dogs to clean themselves? Buster licks himself rather like a cat does. Did he learn this from the cats or do other dogs do it? I don't remember any of my previous dogs cleaning themselves.

Television

Strictly Come Dancing is on at 6.50 and the competition is really hotting up. My favourite programme of the week and it's even better on our new, larger television.

That's about it for today. 10 minutes to blast off. Happy Sunday everyone. xxx