The Year That Was

Memories of Budapest

It's that time of the year when our thoughts drift back over  the twelve months gone by, weighing up the good and the bad, the high points and the lows. We've been reviewing it at work too, looking at the back issues, and, if truth be told, it's a depressing exercise in Ireland.  The country is still in the grips of recession. Our young people, and not so young, are emigrating, and many are suffering economic hardship. But, amid all the sad stories of cutbacks to our health services, of suicides and unemployment, there is, I think, a glimmer of hope.
For the first time since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, we've  had some good news stories to write this year, with a number of job annoucements for our town. I remember how excited we were when the news broke that Paypal was locating in Dundalk.  It wasn't just that the jobs being created (many of which didn't go to local people anyway) but the fact that we finally had good news for the front page. We don't like being harbingers of doom all the time.
Looking back on the year, we will also remember the terrible weather which blighted our summer, brought misery to those holidaying at  home and destroyed the crops.  Even the Euro Championships failed to lift our spirits as Ireland crashed out although the fans did us proud.
 It was so wet, that for days I simply didn't lift my camera and abandoned my Photo A Day project over on Pbase.

Summer visitor

Aside from our family holiday to Budapest, a city we loved despite the June heatwave and where I got to meet a gracious Pbase friend and her husband,  the things I remember best about the year were moments spent with family and friends.  There was a big family together across the Irish Sea for the mother-in-law's 80th birthday early in the year, a day trip with two of my closest friends  made memorable by unexpectedly warm weather at the end of March, and I treasure the time I spent catching up with an old friend who came home from the United States during the summer. When she walked into my kitchen and began helping me cook dinner, the miles and years vanished and it was as if she had never left.

Family gathering

A Summer of disappointment

2012 was also the year I started blogging, got over my fear of asking people if I could take their photograph, began baking, took the initiative to organise a local walk for World Wide Photo Walk Day, and perhaps most importantly,  the year our son discovered  his talent and delight in art.

Portrait of the artist as a young man

World Wide Photo Walk