ART

Not to everyone's taste (even I need sun-glasses to look at it) but... it took a lot of work and is classed as art so I want to share.

It is a hand-made felt vessel - modeled on images I came up with while studying an anemone shell.
Felt is basically a fabric which is made from raw sheep's wool, usually dyed various colours.
It is a lot of work to make felt, but well worth it. I'm not joking - if I ever found myself naked and homeless in a field full of sheep - I would know now how to make myself something warm.

That's all for now.

Fiocle.

Old Bangers - and the used car trade.

The events of the day have prompted memories. Memories of cars, many cars which over the years have found me in interesting situations.

I have been meaning to write some of them for some time now, and this seems as good a time as any.

 My daughter and her boyfriend recently acquired a car. My first question, a typical woman, was "What colour is it?" What I really should have done was remind them to check the oil and water before setting out. So I am here waiting for them to arrive, and receive a call. "There is smoke coming out of the engine." Uh-oh. "Welcome to the world of cars."
says I, cool as a cucumber. I have been in that situation so many times I have lost count.
So while I am waiting to hear some news, I am going to recount some 'terrible tales' of days gone by.

My daughter's sixth birthday.

The little red mini was given to us by my sister-in-law, following the demise of the previous car, a Renault which was so rusty I hand-painted the entire body with a russet-coloured rust paint. I think it was the only car of that colour on the entire Island. After the Renault, we acquired two Deux-Cheveux, Citron Dian, which served as good run arounds. One of them, the yellow one, had a unique feature. The doors came off every time you opened them. We used to drive my daughter to school sometimes. The children would gather round fascinated and dubbed it The Clown's Car.
Generally she preferred to walk to school. But she has grown up with her sense of humor still intact, thankfully

So anyway, we set off back from The Fun Factory, which was where the party was happening. It had replaced a venue called the Top Hat, which back in the day, had hosted a Strangler's gig supported by U2, but that is another story. The warehouse was now the giant slides and coloured ball pits, adventure for all the family. In tow we had a little boy who said to my daughter: "My Daddy's car is much cooler than this one." My daughter instantly came to the Mini's defense pointing out how unique it was and so on, when almost immediately after this conversation took place, smoke started pouring from the engine. The look on the little boy's face was which could only be described as, smug.
My heart bled for Bex while I got out and called for back up to come and fetch the kids.

I had parked the same Mini in a railway station car park another time, when a van backed into the front bumper, literally crumpling it. The drivers pointed to the "Park at your own risk." sign so I couldn't claim insurance from them. I drove the crumpled Mini back to the small town (the kind of town where everybody knows your name), and lo and behold while standing at a traffic light which had only literally just turned green, a car comes from behind and bashes the back bumper. The Mini now looked like a crumple sandwich. As I went to park on Main Street to buy some groceries, a couple of the old guys started laughing and one of them said: "We call you Mrs Bean."
Well, thanks very much.

Every time one of my cars ended its days, for one reason or another, a 'kind' friend would offer me another old car that was doing nothing much, and probably for a good reason.
My landlord's son, a mechanic, gave me an old Cortina. It was red.
I was driving with the children one day on a very busy road, when the accelerator cable snapped.
The engine crescendoed into a roar, and I thought it was about to explode. I pulled into the curb and I told the children to get out quick. We all jumped out and hid behind a bush waiting for the explosion. Nothing happened except the engine died a mournful passing. The next day a friend told me she had passed us on the road. Well, nothing like stopping to see if we needed any help.

Then there was the time one of the cars ran out of petrol outside the Cullinmore Hotel. I knew the owner who invited me to leave the children with the kitchen staff, while I went off on the back of a stranger's motorbike to the nearest garage. I burnt my ankle quite badly on the bike's smoking hot exhaust while getting on. It took weeks to heal. I was a little anxious about leaving the children with strange chefs, but as it turned out they were having a feast of chocolate ice cream and jelly.

Another time we had been invited to go water-skiing. This caused great excitement and a friend of my daughter's was along for the ride. All packed up and ready to go, life-jackets and wet-suits, flippers and water-wings, a picnic, the works, and you'v guessed it, right on cue the car decides not to play the game. Much disappointment all round. We never did get to go water-skiing, but it was nice to imagine that we were going, for a while, I guess.

I was once given a car, to discover afterwards that the only problem with it that it needed a new lock for the driver's door. the only way of getting one was ordering it from France at a phenomenal cost that was more than the car was worth, and more than I could afford. So another one bit the dust.

Where has the love gone?

When I was in Dublin the other day, I had an hour or so to kill, before the train home. I like to walk around Grafton Street and the Wicklow Street areas, not for the expensive shops, but for the buskers, the street life, the quirky book-shops and the cafes. I always give something to anyone who asks me, because I know nobody would ask for money if they didn't need it. But it not just about the money, sometimes all is wanted is a listening ear.
The last time, I met a girl called Teresa. She was from the North West. Her mother was in hospital, very sick and she was very worried about her. She was pushing a buggy with two babies in it, and told me that her boyfriend had been raping her since she was seventeen. She had found the courage to leave him and now was homeless. She needed to find ten euro a day to go to the 'better' hostel with the children every night. Even this place wasn't great because of the noise on the street keeping her and the babies awake late at night. I know the feeling.
During the day she had to take the babies with her to ask strangers for money. This day she had made the ten euro but no more. She said she would prefer to talk to me than take my money. She needed a friendly ear.
She has gone to everyone and tried everything to get accommodation, but with no result.
I asked her about Focus Point - she shook her head, I asked her about The Health Board, she shook her head, nobody was helping her. What struck me about her was how articulate and intelligent she was. Soft spoken and genuine. A very pretty face a very sweet girl. She is obviously a loving mother as her children looked well-cared for, healthy and quite happy, oblivious for now, to the nature of their lives.

How is it that this beautiful little family are wandering the streets day in day out? How could this be happening? Are people so oblivious, so wrapped up in their lives to not notice. Nobody slows down enough to be accessible, to take the time to stop and listen, or better still do something.

I know that next time I go to Dublin I will be looking out for her, and will be armed with something more useful than a listening ear and a couple of euro. I will take a little more time to try and figure out a solution, find the right caring people who can help her, and insist that she gets what she needs to set up a decent life for herself and her children. I am still in shock about Focus Point - the Centre for the homeless. Maybe there really is nothing they can do. But I don't believe it.
Also I wonder how many like her are out there, blending in with the crowd.

On the verge of homelessness myself for a short while when my daughter was a baby, I got assistance with rent, free nappies, and free milk, bags of second hand-clothes, for several months, while I got on my feet. We lived on a pittance. But it was manageable. Were were poor in one way, but like Teresa, there was an abundance of love for my off-spring and a strong survival instinct. Unlike Teresa, I didn't have to beg. She had the courage to want a better life, but does life have the courage to give it to her. I hope so.

If you don't like kittens - you won't like this post.

Me again.
I have been thinking about kittens. It's been a while.
A kitten called Tom walked in through the bathroom window one day and stayed. We were living in Cork.
A year later we moved back to Wicklow and Tom ran away. A couple of days later we found him sitting on a fence. Somehow we managed to convince ourselves that it wasn't actually Tom but another cat. So we called her Moppet after my childhood kitten who had died at only a few days old. I now wonder if maybe Moppet really was Tom after all and that Tom had not been a boy but a girl all along. I don't remember anyone looking to see what his/her gender was.
Moppet had two kittens one halloween night while I was out at a party. They grew up in the bottom drawer of the old chest of drawers which my grandfather had taken to sea with him while travelling the seas in the Navy. The Tabby used to stand there rocking on her little legs while trying to walk, so we named her Rocky.
Rolly used to roll around in our hands when picked up, so she got named Rolly. It wasn't til later that we realised the 'Rock and Roll' analogy.
We moved again, this time to a little cottage by the sea which I named Railway Cottage, it being near to the railway track. The three cats came too.

I don't like blaming people for anything, but the vet did tell me that they were too young to be neutered, in which case they were also too young to have kittens, which they did. There were ten between them the first time, and the second time there were eleven, so all in all twenty one kittens in six months. They all got names and then they got homed. Rolly, was the mother of all of them. A very busy six months needless to say. Moppet simply pretended there was nothing amiss and went about her business of ignoring everybody. "Nothing to do with me" you could hear her body language shrugging. Not the Earth Mother type. Rocky inherited this attitude and decided she wasn't having anything to do with any of them either. So the onus was left with Rolly, and she stepped up and fed all of them, yes, all twenty one of them. We tried to help her with suppliment milk and weaned them a little early. This incredible little soul just out of kittenhood herself, won my heart hands down. She is the cat who stayed the distance until she sadly died at the age of fourteen.

Moppet died on my bed while the kids and I were watching a comedy eating a chinese take away, laughing :( We didn't sleep well that night. I felt so bad not to have known it was her time. She was getting old but I thought she had a few years in her yet.

Rocky was adopted by one of the adoptees, who came to take one of the kittens. She jumped into their cat box and looked lovingly at her chosen owners and I thought 'What the heck' if she wants to go, then take her. She didn't like the chaos in our home much anyway. When we moved again, Rolly was the only cat left, and she became my best friend. She would help me look for the dog when she went missing which was pretty much all the time. A loving compassionate soul who more about animals than any other animal I had ever been in contact with.

So she has been gone for while now, and now I have connected with Milo, my daughter's kitten, I am for the first time actually wanting another cat. Up till now cats have chosen me or been born into my life, this time, it will be a conscious decision. Also it might be good company for Louis the dog, when I am out.
He is off in the luxury kennels, while I am here. I know he likes it there because he comes back happy, not like when he went to the other kennel once and came back a little crazy.

Well that is my craving to write something taken care of.

All the best

Fiocle.

Sunday afternoon musings

Late night revelers wake me once again. I could sleep through most things, even a car crashing through a wall, apparently. But when they shout at the top of their voices as if they'd just witnessed  their best friend being been shot in front of them, then bang on the metal door of the little electricity hut, which sounds like a bomb exploding, might as well be in Beirut or The North during the Troubles. I am having vivid dreams these nights and every time I get woken in the middle, or maybe it is that I remember them because I am being startled awake, but then I don't get any continuity to the dreams, or conclusion, if there is such a thing as conclusion to dreams. I feel I am missing out on telling myself something important. Renders everything meaningless in a way. The other night I dreamt that Louis was lying there listless, dying. I was glad to know it was only a dream as I was concerned that maybe it had been real. Then he started retching, not actually vomiting for the best part of the following day. Last night I had another dream about being in an art class, and being given a special room to myself, and another stranger. I think it might mean I will make a new friend there. I hope so. It was an unusual room, like an old attic with dusty old relics and furniture, which we had to rearrange to make space. That in turn made us late for the registration (anxiety of being behind on the post card project possibly). I may be projecting a new friend in order to make myself feel more confident about the experience as I am quite shy in reality and am hoping that doesn't hamper my experience.
I have encouraged Louis to stay calm successfully, but I am sure he feels the same fear I do. I feel less fear and more compassion when he is with me, which is pretty much all the time.
I watched the dawn through the clouds and was not too disappointed that there was no colour to it. Then realised I needed more sleep and didn't rise again till afternoon. A  little disoriented and still tired.

Becky got a kitten the other day, and I will be kitten-sitting in her apartment while she goes to the country on a well-earned break. She forgot I wanted one too, oh well. She works so hard, long hours and though she loves her work she only gets two weeks holliers a year. She is so intelligent to go with it. Louis will be going to his beloved kennels. I know he likes it there, because he comes back tired yet contented, and Karen, the owner is a very obvious animal lover.  It is worth the expense so that Becky and I can both get a change of scenery, even though I am a little envious she is going to the country-side of my childhood without me, I am glad she is. We have had some wonderful experiences, paddling through the rivers and lakes in canoes, which I think was a fantastic thing for children to experience. It feels like adventuring through unexplored terrain and the ultimate experience in 'getting back to nature', so very aesthetic.

Sometimes I have more to give than others. But I will always have time to blog, says I, as it doesn't require much interaction.