Scavenger Photo Hunt August 2017

Dear All

I've been kind of caught up with stuff this past couple of months so I thought I'd catch up through this month's Scavenger Hunt organised by Hawthorn at I Live, I Love, I Craft.  Thank you Hawthorn for hosting this each month - it really gets the grey cells working and at the moment they need all the help they can get :) 

1. Relaxed 

Meet our new-to-us caravan and we're away for a much needed week of relaxation.  This was not an easy acquisition for me.  The gypsies live in caravans - and for much of my life I've felt like a gypsy being on the road so much.  lol
Anyway I'm over it now and cannot wait to hit the road again - it's really only about the size of a tent on wheels, but I love it.

2. It begins with an M...

At the end of last month my Mum turned 90.  We had a family gathering for her and she was so pleased to see cousins from America and England as well as from all over Ireland.  My mum, Marguerite, is a great crafter - she's just finishing another crocheted blanket at the minute, so a friend of mine made this beautiful cake with wool and crochet flowers on it.  

3. Time for...

A new CD!!  

Yay .... We got it finished in time for the festival at the end of July and had a very successful launch concert.  The final run of CDs won't be here for another couple of weeks (we got a short run done for the launch), so we'll be starting to promote after our holiday.   That's always fun once you get over the initial panic of letting people hear what you've been doing and keep your fingers crossed that they like it.
This is a collection of mostly our own songs, with Tom singing 4 of his own songs on the album and yours truly doing the rest.  With the exception of one traditional song "Peace in Erin" written in the early 1800s, and one from a wonderful American singer songwriter, the rest of the offerings are ours - songs about immigration, politics, peace and our travels.

4. Tangerine 

Sitting in the hairdresser's last week I was rummaging through the list of prompts and trying to get ideas of what I could photograph for each of them - but Tangerine left me stumped.  So as a last measure I headed off to Google to see what would come up under the word ... And lo and behold there's a new literary magazine published here in Northern Ireland that I had never heard of.   So thank  you Hawthorn for this prompt.   My first two copies have just arrived - in time for leisurely reading time  - looking forward to diving in.    Introducing The Tangerine Magazine

5. It begins with an O... 

I missed last month's Scavenger hunt, but while I was searching for an image to fit the word Ring I took this pic of a stone landing in the water.   Isn't it a perfect O? ;)

6. Whiskery

Our last cat died nearly three years ago and I miss her greatly.  But a special bonus has been the rise in bird numbers in the garden.  We were both gettng to a place of thinking that we'll maybe not have a cat again and enjoy feeding and watching the birds coming and going instead - after all, they don't need minding when we're away on a tour.
But then, we started getting a regular visitor - this three coloured very talkative female who decided that she owned our house and garden.   Tom came in from the garage one day to find her in the kitchen sitting looking at him as if to say "where have you been?"  At our pre festival party she wandered in again and sat in the middle of everyone as happy as Larry.   So a few weeks back I posted this photo on Facebook and asked if anyone knew her and my friend, another musician, who lives about 1/4 mile away came back - "omg, that's our cat!"
Her name's Peaches and she's still visiting - occasionally bringing her two friends with her.   We thought this was really funny - musician to musician - good taste, this cat has!
However!!  Now she's attacking my birds and we are not amused - two beautiful nesting wood pigeons who cooed us awake each morning have both been killed ... some action is going to have to be taken.  

7. Lace -

It's been a constant job this year, removing spiders, from both inside and outside the house - endless.   But you have to forgive the wee blighters when they weave such beautiful webs.  This one appeared the other morning on the fuchsia bush outside the window.  Thankfully you can't see the dirt of my windows in this photo!!

8. Bridge 

Well a sort of bridge ....

After years of negotiating and arguing and political posturing, a ferry has been opened to cross Carlingford Lough between Greenore in the South and Greencastle in the North.  We decided to come back that way from Dublin a few weeks back ... The top view is looking north to the Mournes and the bottom one, looking back to the Cooley's.  It's a lovely crossing, ideal if you're doing a tourist trip between Dublin and Belfast and wanting to take the coast road the whole way ... but it was absolutely freezing that day.  

9. Letters

Last year I wrote here about Poetic Action Rostrevor (PAR), a lovely initiative started by my friend Catherine which she brought back here after visiting a small Spanish village where someone in turn had picked it up from somewhere in South America.  

Last year the organisers put up 20 boards around the village and this year added 7 or 8 more.   Some are painted directly on to walls, others on removable boards, in case the Council in their wisdom decide they should be taken down.  This is one of the new ones.

10. My own choice

My neighbour has been growing Christmas trees for the past 10 years or so, and this year I noticed the bigger ones all have these huge pine cones ... In the evening sun they look like a bunch of little animals huddling up for the night.  

So what has your month been like?  Check out the other Scavengers here.  

Thanks again Hawthorn.