Five On Friday

In an effort to get back into the swing of regular blogging, I thought I'd join in this week with Five on Friday which is run by Amy at Love Made My Home

This week we've had rain more or less every day so my baskets and window boxes are not thriving as well as I would have hoped ... yet ... and some of the debris from cutting out some of the shrubbery has still to be removed.   But the garden is looking great since we cut down the hedge and I can't get enough of looking out at the sea at different times of the day.

So....


One - low tide last night and the sunset lighting up the trees.

Even after all the rain we've had, the world can suddenly turn on its axis when the sun shines and casts a brilliant light over everything.  

Two :  Flowers

I love the blue eyes in this hydrangea 

And my heart's delight - the wild fuchsia - it just makes my heart jump for joy.
Didn't spot the wee visitor on the stem ... nor on the next one

Three:   Ripe for the Picking

We're not great gardeners in this house ... I have an agreement with plants - there's the garden, now you do your thing!   If you want help from me you're probably not going to get it - so some of them, at least, appreciate being left alone.





Four:   Pugs

I'm not really a doggy person, although most of my friends have dogs and we dog sit from time to time for them.    But we met a wee pug down in Australia earlier this year who was not taking no for an answer when it came looking for attention.   I wrote about him here.
Anyway, two things this week brought him back to mind - Firstly there was a festival for Pugs in England recently, called ... wait for it ... PugFest :)   Talk about cuteness.   Their website isn't great but you'll get the idea.
And then someone posted this photo on Facebook and I burst out laughing ... poor dog!   I didn't have my glasses on and at first I thought it was a sheep ... They look so worried ... But with so much bleakness in the world at the minute, they bring a much needed dose of joy and I love seeing them.

Five : Sessions
We now have sessions running 6 nights a week here in Rostrevor - not full-on traditional tunes sessions, but a mix of singing and tunes - mostly songs.   We are blessed with beautiful pubs in the village, and the place is coming down with songwriters and song interpreters.
Last night we went along to a new one which starts early for a change - everything was in full swing when we went in at 9 - normally they don't start until 10 or 10.30 by which stage I'm ready for bed, or at least I'm prostrate on the couch watching TV.  But it was superb - songs were sung from traditional to ballad to brand new to comedy to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and there were two story tellers there as well.   There were visitors in from Australia, Germany and America as well as a bar full of locals as well.
Someone asked me recently about finding music in the pubs in the North of Ireland - that it's a bit more difficult than in the South.   Well it is and it isn't - most newspapers list where there are sessions taking place and usually in the smaller villages you'll find music going on somewhere where you are more than welcome to join in.
So if you ever make it to South Down, to Rostrevor, you can visit the Corner House on Tuesday night, the Rostevor Inn on Wednesday from 8.30, the Cloughmor on Thursday from 10, the Kilbroney on Friday, the Old Killowen on Saturday and the Kilbroney again on Sunday nights tfrom 7.30.   We are spoilt for choice.  Oh, and if you happen to be here on a Monday, then Gabriel leads the session in the First and Last in Warrenpoint, 2 miles away!  No excuses.

This is an old pic from the Tuesday night session in the Corner House over the Winter.

See you soon.