Vantastival At Bellurgan Park

May is almost over and I'm only now catching up on blog posts. As fate would have it, I had plenty to blog about but no time to sit down and create posts.
Vantastival took place in the wonderful setting of Bellurgan Park over the May Bank Holiday weekend.   Just down the road from where I live, it means I can enjoy all the fun of a music festival yet come home to the comforts of home cooking and a warm bed.

It's a family friendly, dog friendly music and camping festival. 

Many came with their   VW camper vans

and had  their own cookout competition

There was lots and lots of music

It's all  very laid back and relaxed

Dogs are welcome

Festival fashion - silly hats and wellies

Art for sale

Late night shopping

What I Read in April

I am woefully behind with blogging so I'm only getting round to posting my reviews of my April reads.
And I haven't even started my May book which may turn into my June read.

Just as  Roddy Doyle's description of Dublin in 'The Commitments' might have been at odds with what Bord Failte  (the Irish tourism board)  was trying to promote, so too his portrayal of Ireland's fight for freedom isn't one that you'd find in most history books.
The central character is Henry Smart, who right from the moment he is born is a second class citizen and a painful reminder to his mother of her firstborn, the Henry of the title.
Henry grows  up in a Dublin of grinding poverty and slums, of men and women old before their time who find solace in alcohol. His mother never recovers from the loss of the babies who became 'stars'  in the night sky while his one-legged  father is a hitman providing security for one of the city's most popular brothel. Soon Henry and his younger brother are fending for themselves on the streets.
By the time Henry is 14, he's fighting with the Citizen's Army in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising and the description of Dublin under siege is superb. He later joins the Irish Republican Army and becomes one of Michael Collins' right hand men during the War of Independence. Doyle pulls no punches in his account of  the bloody nature of war.  There's a sense of disillusionment  also, as Henry realizes that some of those fighting for Irish independence will, in their own way, become a new ruling class and the rights of the plain people of Ireland will once again be ignored.
Henry's romance with Miss O'Shea is another thread in the story, with the passionate teacher refusing to  remain in the background making tea.
Altogether a most enjoyable and insightful read.
The other book I read was 'French Women Don't Get Facelifts' by Mireille Guiliano, the author of the hugely successful 'French Women Don't Get Fat' and 'French Women for All Seasons.'  If you've read her previous books, you will be familiar with her mixture of anecdotes  and helpful hints, this time repackaged for an older market. Subtitled 'The of aging with style and attitude', the book dishes  out a lot of common sense about eating, exercise, drinking lots of water and a little wine, taking vitamins and planning your wardrope so that you don't end up looking like  'mutton dressed as lamb' as my mother used to say.  There's probably nothing in it that you wouldn't find in magazines but Mireille writes with a beguiling tone and gives advice like an old friend.

A Backward Glance At April

April already seems so long ago. Those mostly perfect Spring days have been replaced by a miserable start to May, especially this Bank Holiday weekend.
This year's Spring was particularly pleasant, with lots of blue skies and warm sunshine, and who cared if there were a few showers. Hey, April wouldn't be the same without some rain.
The air was filled with birdsong with a songster in every tree and bush. There was the sweetness of spring flowers - the blackthorn blossom was really spectacular this year, and, of course, the sweetness of chocolate eggs at Easter.
April was also a month of firsts, the first swallow, the first butterflies, the first bees, and the first ladybird, all milestones to be marked as welcome signs that winter was well and truly gone for another year.
We got out in the garden and enjoyed seeing how the work which we had done last year was bearing fruit (figuratively if not literally). Plans were made for new projects for this year  and the pets loved the freedom of joining us  outside.

April Scavenger Hunt

Joining with Greenthumb for the monthly scavenger hunt  once again. Struggled with a couple of images this month but made it in the end!

A is for Abandoned

No one lives in this pretty little village of former workers' cottages


11am

Where  you'll sometimes find me on my coffee break.


Smooth

Pebbles and sea glass worn smooth by the waves

Scale

Fish scales - marinated salmon for dinner

Tile

Decorative tiles on a traditional butchers shop in Castlebellingham, Co Louth

Logo

Logo on my husband's Fender stratocaster

Scrap

Traditionally patchwork quilts were made from scraps of material, like this family heirloom.

Match

Matching carving on the gateway to Bellingham  Castle

Path

A path through the gardens of Ballymascanlon House Hotel, Co Louth

Layer

Misty layers in the background across the Castletown River as it flows into Dundalk Bay.

Carry

Fudge loves to retrieve  his ball and carry it back for us to throw it again and again and again.

Truck

I ran out of inspiration for this one when I discovered we no longer had toy trucks in the  house so ended up playing around with this in Picmonkey.

See What I Almost Missed

Isn't this the most amazing sky? Aren't the colours wonderful? And can you see the sun column?
And to think I nearly missed it altogether.
Yesterday after a relaxing (i.e. lazy) day spent in the garden ( reading not gardening), I was catching up on my social media obligations indoors.
I had  uploaded my photo to my favourite photo-sharing site,  Pbase,  and  has commented on photos by my friends over there, I had  planned a long overdue blog post, and while checking my Instagram feed, realised I hadn't taken a photo with my iPhone, even though I'd taken lots of photos with my DSLR. So I walked outside with my phone and saw  the most amazing sunset.
I  just  had time to run back into the house, grab the camera,  and change the lens before the colours started to fade. It was the most beautiful sky with rich pinks and golds contrasting with deepening blues and grays.

It was a timely reminder for  me that it's all too easy to spend too much time in the virtual world and miss out one what's happening in the real world.
And it's not just sunsets that we miss by obsessing with our computers, iPads, tablets, smartphones.
We miss interacting with family and friends, we miss sending real letters  instead of emails, we miss greeting cards with a heartfelt message instead of a hastily composed 'Hope  you have a great day' written in response to a prompt on Facebook. We miss family conversation when everyone is too busy with their own personal device to talk to the person sitting beside them. What's the point of meeting friends if you ignore them because  you are too busy updating  your Facebook status, tweeting or snap chatting?

It's a thorny question I know, as social media is also a wonderful way of keeping in touch with family and friends who live away from home, of sharing photographs and words with friends and strangers, of learning and exploring how others live. I've made some wonderful friends though social media, some I've been lucky enough to meet, while there are others I'd love to meet some day. As the saying goes 'strangers are friends we haven't met' and as far as social media is concerned, that is often true. (Don't worry, I'm fully aware of the pitfalls, especially for young people who may be lured into situations which are downright dangerous).

At the end of the day, it's a question of getting the balance right. These past few weeks, I've decided
that in addition to keeping up with my 'virtual friends', I will also devote time to those friends whom I've actually meet in real life. I'm trying to send emails to those I haven't corresponded with for a while and am making an effort to meet up with those I haven't as often as I'd like.