World's Best Dog... R.I.P.

Huckleberry, Kiltumper's Golden Retriever, passed away a few weeks ago.  We're all sad.  He was one week shy of his 15th birthday.

When I look at his photo, it makes me cry...When I round the corner of the boreen that passes in front of our house into our drive my reflexes prepare to be welcomed by him.  But he's not there.

My Character Iris has Started a Blog

Candlelabra Primula... 

Those are the violet ones in the foreground. Aren't they gorgeous? And blue Nepeta, which go on flowering for ever.  In the background you can see a cerulean blue Delphinum and the ghost-like feather balls of Pulsatilla.

Meanwhile, this photo from Kiltumper is the new header for Iris Bowen's blog...  a character in the novel I'm writing.

National Academy of Writing

Angel from Kiltumper

Okay so it's not a spring photo.  But I'm thinking about Angels lately.  My sister sent me 3 from overseas.  How they found their way to me is beyond knowing.  (A cloud of unknowing sometimes does be enveloping me but that's another story.)  So I accepted them with gratitude.  You never know when someone has your back.

Meanwhile, over in London, I've been participating in the National Academy of Writing Masterclasses in -- writing.  One of 12 writers selected, I'm working on a novel with a working title of Chelsea Morning.  I had submitted 5000 words of Two Blue Moons -- a finished, yet unpublished work -- but have decided to keep that in a drawer.  Once upon a time, a NY agent who shall remain nameless told me it was more like a second novel than a first novel.  So logic dictates I should write the ubiquitous 'first novel' first.

So wish me luck...

Kiltumper, Kilmihil, West Clare, Ireland

Christine's Garden by Doug Miller (dougmillerart.com)

Why didn't I think of this before?

 Posting Doug's beautiful painting which he painted one fine week in the summer of '09....

I just want to tell anybody who lands here that if you want a Giclee copy of this, contact Doug at his website .  I'm buying one!

For the record, this is how my garden looks -- well one aspect of it -- the old stone cabin window -- draped with an old fashioned rambling rose and astillbe and japanese anenome and filipendula.  Don't mind the weeds...

View From Primrose Hill

New Year's Eve 2011 Primrose Hill

 

 Chinese Lanterns and Champagne

 

 

 

 

 

Spectacular Fireworks from the top of Primrose Hill. Chinese lanterns. Champagne. Clear night. And about 20,000 people welcomed in the new year, 2011. 

Mt. Fuji Japanese Cherry

The leaves of the Mt. Fuji Japanese Cherry burnished in the twilight of a Thanksgiving Day in November 2010.

Afternoon light from the west found us doing a bit of autumn gardening while the turkey roasted.

Something to be thankful for:  A day with sunshine.

Things Fall Apart in Kiltumper

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
- from The Second Coming by W.B.Yeats







Autumn in Kiltumper.  Peaceful, right?  Idyllic? Yes, certainly. Will it last? Ah... that is the big question facing us now.  An Bord Plenala, Ireland's Planning Board, has rejected our appeal asking that it overturn Clare County Council's decision to allow a man from the village of Kilmihil to erect two giant wind turbines 500 metres from our bedroom. (The man does not live near the site of the planned wind farm. Nor does the developer.)

The turbines measure 280 feet tall with a wing span of 100 ft.  The nearest turbine will be on top of the hill behind our house which is situated at the furthest corner of our smallholding in west Clare.  The nearest corner of the field behind our house will likely be within 100 metres of the wind turbine.  No longer will be walking in the back meadow of our home -- the birthplace of my grandfather and his before him. 

Imagine our disappointment and disillusionment.  Why the Irish government had decided to uphold the planning permission for 2 turbines so close to our home of 25 years seems careless and negligent. It indicates the government does not protect its citizens.  The most recent findings by European and American authorities advocate that such giant wind turbines should be erected at least 1 km away from homes and households.

Here's a photo by Ian Mynard which illustrates just how close and large the Kiltumper Wind Farm will be from Kiltumper Cottage.

Recently, we received a phone call from Clare Tourism asking if we would participate in a forum to encourage tourism in County Clare. Yes, come see the wind farms that are popping up like poisonous mushrooms all over west Clare.  Yes, by all means come listen to them at night when you can't fall asleep because of the blades swishing.  It might lull you into a stupor of disbelief.  It may even turn you into a cynic.