Gold medal winner

Our kind of garden

Bee garden

Busy bee

Nemeton

Amazonia garden

For May...

Just came across this on the SPUC website. You know how easy it is to make a preggie lady (like me) cry....

Janet's Last Book

Here are some pictures from a touching book about my favourite illustrator, Janet Ahlberg, written as a tribute by her husband, Allan. She died far too young, in 1994, from cancer. Among the books they created together are The Jolly Postman, Peepo!, Each Peach Pear Plum, The Baby's Catalogue. Her work is so charming, with beautifully observed details. She would have been one of the main reasons I thought of becoming an illustrator, before I decided there would be more job security in the path I chose. Silly logic...

Roo likes this picture because it reminds him of the 'show' he was in at Christmas.

Some fairies she drew as a 9-year old.

Dis and da

Poonch and me are at home today. We often meet up with a lovely friend while Roo is at 'stool', but my sunny little angel had a fever yesterday, so I thought it better to stay away, although he seems better today.

I thought I would post some of Poonchy's words, as it is interesting to look back and see how the lads' language develops.

eesh = a drink

didda= diggers, tractors and things that go.

mamma, dadda,

dodda= dog

bahb= spud, Bob the builder, Postman Pat

dis, da

shiz= shoes, socks

Good books

Off to the library today. Here are some books we're returning, but would read again. This one is about little Seán and the big hen. It has beautiful nostalgic illustrations which show rural Irish life in the 1940's/50's. It's about sibling responsibilities as Mammy asks Seáinín's brother and sister to look after him. They are both reluctant to do so, which leads Seáinín into the clutches of the huge hen down the road, but the resourceful little tot escapes, much to the relief of his brother and sister. This was published in english as John Joe and the Big Hen, but seems to be out of print now.

Spooky little visitors!

The cobwebs are actually hammocks for caterpillars. And they're everywhere. Lee commented on them too, spotting them as he drove around for work.

Strange cobweb-like thingies.

Here's Roo with his new swimming goggles. They are in the shape of two crabs and make him look like Dame Edna, but he likes them nonetheless. He's wearing the swimming cap because it stops the elastic catching his hair. The Hawaii 5-0 shirt just completes the whole ensemble, don't you think?

Happy Birthday Church!

After mass and devotions to Our Lady of All Nations in town, we celebrated Pentecost with Mum and Uncle Bee with a special cake. I was inspired by the indefatigable Jessica's Mighty Wind cake, one of her many ideas for celebrating the birth of the Church.

Ours was a bit more haphazard, but we all enjoyed it nonetheless. I only got a chance to take one picture before the Lego tongue of fire in the centre started to melt from the heat of the 12 Apostle candles lighting around it!

I used the brilliant Allegra's Big Kitchen cake from her Leon cookbook, then slathered it in Glenilen double cream that I added a bit too much vanilla to, and then decorated it with our first strawberries of the year.

Sssstarting phonics

Roo and I have been doing some work today while Poonch was snoozing.
I'm going to follow the Jolly Phonics programme with him and see how we get on.
First up- the letter 's'-although he already likes to spot 'o', his first initial, when we're out and about.

An answer to prayer?

It is very warm today. But that's not the only reason it's a lovely day.

Poonch, Roo and I all squeezed into the doctor's surgery to check out Poonch's head circumference. Last week, the health centre doctor decided he needed to be checked by a paediatrician because his head circumference (HC) had crossed percentiles since he was born. Being 16 months now, there is no space in Poonch's health record book to record his current HC and I couldn't remember the figure she measured because I got such a fright from being told he needed to see a paediatrician. Waiting for an appointment could take months in the public system, so after voicing my worries to Lee and Mum (exacerbated by a brief trip on the internet... I KNOW!...) I asked my GP for a private referral. She said she'd have to examine him in order to write a letter, so in we went today.

Roo read a lovely Richard Scarry book from the waiting room while our GP gave Poonch the once-over. Then she checked his head circumference against a chart she had.

And pronounced it normal and decided there was no indication for referring him.

So is this a case of 'doctors differ' (and Mums worry) or a true miracle whereby Poonchy's head shrank back to normal size?

Either way, I am most grateful to Louis and Zelie Martin, who went through the pain of losing four of their children, and William Tirry, whose resting place (Fethard Augustinian Abbey church) we visited last weekend. All of them put in a good word for us.

Happy Feast Day Blessed William!

Today is the feast day of Blessed William Tirry, of Fethard, the martyred Irish priest.

We pray to him today to help renew the Church in Ireland, which is facing a different crisis to the one he experienced in his day.

Ever faithful God,

You gave to Blessed William, your martyr,

the strength to give his life for the faith in a time of persecution.

Help us to be true disciples and witnesses of the risen Christ,

Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

One God, for ever and ever.

Amen

The images are from a medal cast to commemorate William Tirry's beatification in Rome in 1992.

Construction work

Don't let the doom and gloom merchants tell you there's no building going on. 'The buyers of great presents' gave the lads some lovely blocks for Christmas which were very well received. Roo has gone from building towers to quite elaborate structures such as this one which I believe is for the moon buggy.
He does get upset with baby budda, whose main contribution seems to be health and safety inspection which involves demolishing any building which he deems unstable. But even he has got bitten by the building bug as the other picture shows. He likes to applaud his own efforts, and who can blame him?

Our Annual Little Flower Pilgrimage

We visited Knock today with Gran for St Therese' National Pilgrimage. It was a lovely sunny day as you can see, which is a rarity in Knock. We managed to see the relics after Mass, after they were literally snatched away earlier.
Roo was very good and came home with a new digger. He is interested in shadows at the moment, hence the picture below. Thank you Therese for a lovely day (all 12 hours round trip of it!)

Monkey nuts

Making cookies for 'tiny school' on tour.

St Joseph Helps

I recently found this lovely website in celebration of St Joseph, which is run by Sr Kathryn. I have started praying the novena, which you can read more about here. He seems to be interceding for us lately and please God, he will continue to do so.

Little shoes

Don't you just love baby shoes? Well I do. On the left are Poonch's first pair. And the others belong to his big budda.

"that prayer saved us here"

It's great to hear some good news. Yesterday there was a miracle outside a primary school near Galway. Here's the report and some amazing pictures from today's Irish Independent, and below, some extracts. Interesting that the bit about the prayer wasn't in all newspapers' reports.

In all, 75 infants aged four, five, and six were about to go to the collection area when the accident happened.

Mr Kennelly said it appeared somebody was "looking out for the children" as they were all kept safe. ...

Mr Kennelly said that just a short time earlier, the entire school community had gathered in a classroom and said a simple prayer.

The principal is anxiously waiting for a decision by an Bord Pleanala in respect of an application to build a school hall and the prayer service was led by local parish priest, Fr Des Walshe.

"I'm not overly religious, but I certainly believe that prayer saved us here," Mr Kennelly said.

Poonch and I went swimming yesterday while Roo was at school. It's the first time we've been since he started walking confidently and he was a bit hesitant. Bit dubious about the shower... hmm... frowny little face, bit wobbly in the kiddy's pool: not helped by 'jug', which he insists on bringing everywhere and doesn't help his balance. Just generally not enjoying it. And he usually laughs at the drop of a hat. He's a happy little chap.

He reminded me a bit of Roo, lips going slightly blue, shivering due to lack of movement: he used to move his legs like a frog when you'd hold him up in the water. It didn't help that I'm pregnant and can't carry him all the time like I would have done before he was walking, although the water is brilliant for taking the weight. As I came out of the pool with Poonch, I felt the full force of the weight of both babies and it really struck me what my body manages every day.

I feel guilty about what has happened because it's mostly because I am pregnant that I haven't gone to the pool with the two lads lately and I'm worried Poonch, who was always so comfortable in the water, will have developed a fear of it, just because it's become unfamiliar to him.

an endangered species... we hope.

We are back again from another lovely weekend at the fab Wowee house. Every one of us loves going there. Poonch points out the car window and says 'this, this' when we get there. Roo loves, among other things, its proximity to his 'tuddens' and Lee and I always enjoy the little break it offers.

We recently had some good news about the house, which could mean that in the near future our West Waterford getaways will be no more. Bittersweet for sure. I will write more about it anon, but in the meantime, we are praying everything goes well.