ganching

Wednesday

It was a dull day with lots of mizzling rain.   

It is amazing how I can fill my day doing almost nothing.  My daily tasks apart from dog minding include keeping the stove burning, monitoring the bird feeder and making cups of tea.  These chores take up hours of my day.  I brought some wool with me as I plan to knit a hat and I haven't started it and nor have I finished the two small sewing projects I brought with me.

I have to do a lot of things tomorrow as I have visitors staying for the weekend so I better go to bed immediately.

Editing

I have had a very quiet day.  After breakfast I went back to bed and spent two hours editing something I've written.   After lunch I took the dogs for their walks.  I met a young woman woman with a toddler down the bog lane where I go every day and she greeted me in Irish proving  that I finally look like a Kerry woman.  

When I got home I inspected the garden which despite it being in November is still full of flowers.  It is actually warmer here than in London except when there are freezing winds which thankfully there aren't at the moment.

Buster was very badly behaved this evening and barked incessantly.  I was talking to Traybake on the phone and he advised that I should start wearing men's clothes and should adopt a Kerry accent and maybe he would think his beloved Mr KS had returned.  It is just as well TB is not planning to become a dog trainer.

 

Exhaustion

I am completely exhausted.

This morning I got up at at 8.00 a.m. and and fed and watered the dogs and then had some breakfast myself.  Next I went outside to sort out the rubbish.  In London I put stuff in the appropriate bin and then walk down stairs and deposit it in the communal bins.   Here each of the bins is in a completely different part of the garden and/or the shed.   While I was sorting out the plastics the Surly Niece arrived with the Toddler and 15 minutes left leaving me in charge of the child.  It is about 25 years since I last looked after a child under the age of five and I had forgotten how intense it is.   The Toddler is delightful and didn't cry once when I was looking after him but like all small children he is a dictator.  He was very keen on me wearing a box on head and laughing at me dancing with the floor brush

When the SN returned just in time to take the Toddler home for his nap I was ready to go to sleep myself but instead I drove into town to buy some groceries and then I came home and lit the stove and then I took the dogs for their separate walks.

When I got back I sat on the sofa and I finished writing a short story. It's not very good but it is a start.   

I made some soup and then I watched some dross on Netflix.  I finished the fourth episode of The Crown last night and it is so bad it is almost good.  Since I've been here I've also re-watched all of Catastrophe and it is really is a wonderful a series if you don't mind swearing and scenes of a sexual nature.

The lights are flickering in an ominous way so I better go to bed immediately in case the electricity goes off.

The weather here is very changeable. These photos were taken within minutes of each other.

 

Good Boy

I would never describe myself as a great lover of cats and dogs.  I don't mind looking at cats but I can't bear to touch them.  I have liked some dogs but if you stay in someone's house as a visitor you come very low in the hierarchy of who the dogs like.  I have been minding these dogs for almost a week now, feeding them twice a day, making sure they always have access to water, dealing with occasional little accidents, taking them for separate walks every day and frequently telling Buster what a good boy he is.  Jackie is allowed to sit on my lap.  When I go out I leave them in the porch and when I return they are ecstatic. Jackie is a superb athlete and jumps into the air and Buster barks like a maniac.

Today I went to one event at the festival and then I drove home and walked up to visit the Surly Niece. The Toddler was very disappointed that I didn't bring his grandfather with me.  Tomorrow I'm doing my first babysitting session and I hope he takes to me as well as the dogs have done.

Saturday Night

I'm sitting here surrounded by snoring dogs and listening to the wind whipping round the house.

I had another busy day at the festival and went to two really interesting talks.

TB rang me and spent so long on the phone telling me about how he is being stalked by the girl he sat next to in primary school that I have run out of time to write a blog post.

Friday Night

 

I went for a walk this morning on the beach.  I was the only person there which is not surprising as it is a weekday and it was pouring with rain when I got there.   The tide was out and there were lots of oystercatchers just on the water's edge.  They make a high pitched sound and their legs move really quickly when they are wading. There is something intrinsically comical about them.  The weather cleared up a bit as I was walking.

The Surly Niece and the Toddler called into to see me mid afternoon.  Strangely the Toddler finds me very comical especially when I am wearing a box on my head.

The weather deteriorated while my visitors were here and not long after six I set off to drive to town.  The Literary Festival opened today and I was off to see Anne Enright being interviewed.  Some of her books I've really loved and others less so.  It was very stormy when I left and the headlights on my sister's car are not brilliant so it was a very scary journey.  One of the things about learning to drive in a city is you never have to use the full beam and I still find it a little stressful having to dip lights.  There were so many people at the event which was held in a hotel on the edge of town that they have to use an overspill car park without any spaces and I managed to get myself blocked in.  I had to wait for about 15 minutes before I could get out.

I quite enjoyed Anne Enright's reading although I was less impressed by Max Porter who interviewed her.  I haven't read her latest book and the first question from the audience  which was a comment rather than a question was from a woman who told her how irritating she found the book.  There was a man in the front row who looked familiar and then I realised it was Neil Jordan.

The drive home was a lot less stressful and the dogs were ecstatically happy when I got back.  

 For dinner I had a bowl of muesli and a big slab of homemade fruit cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let Sleeping Dogs

There's something about spending the evening alone with only two sleeping dogs for company that makes you feel a bit snoozy yourself. I am going to bed earlier and earlier every night.  Partly this is because I haven't lit the fire in the room where the TV is so I haven't watched any news for almost a week and I certainly haven't been staying up to watch Newsnight.  I am though following what's going on via the Internet.

I have had a very busy day.  This morning I drove into town and did some shopping in Lidl and then I walked up to the bookshop and had a long chat with the woman working there.  I introduced myself as she knows my sister. Not long after I got home the Surly Niece and the Toddler visited and later in the afternoon I went to visit one of the neighbours and had coffee and a mince pie.  Every other person you meet around here is a published writer and the neighbour is a poet.

Although I am not watching television I am watching Netflix.  I have re-watched the first two series of Catastrophe and I am going to watch The Crown.  

Tomorrow I'm going out in the evening and Buster and Jacqui will have to fend for themselves.

Wednesday

I went for a walk this morning.  It was really mild and the sun shone for part of the walk. I passed a number of small, derelict houses because across all of rural Ireland the population is lower today than it was pre the Famine.  Ireland lost approximately a quarter of its population in the 1840s. One million people died and another million left the country and settled mainly in Britain and the US.  This part of Ireland was always poverty stricken but even in the more affluent north where I grew up there were the remains of houses everywhere.  Sometimes the only way you could tell that there had been a house somewhere was because every spring daffodils appeared between the stones.  Most people lived in cabins that were so basic that no trace of them remains.

Ireland is still to some degree affected by what happened in the Famine and I wonder how many generations it will take for Jewish people to recover from the Holocaust and for Palestinians to forgive Israelis for what they are currently doing in Gaza. 

It felt odd to be thinking about all of this while walking through stunningly beautiful countryside.

The dogs and I are getting used to each other.  Buster is missing Mr KS so much that he does very little but mope and he had to be encouraged to eat.  Jackie is less bothered and seems perfectly happy as long as she has a knee to sit on.

I didn't do much today but I did see the Surly Niece and the Toddler and we went for a walk on the beach which is covered in seaweed. 

I did try to write today without much success.

 

Tuesday

Well this has been a long day and involved a very long drive. I have never been a confident driver and for a few years I stopped driving altogether but over the last of couple of years I've driven a few times and am determined to get back into practice.  I don't need or want to drive while at home but if I ever do move to Ireland I would need to be able to drive as public transport is very poor in rural area.   KS has left her car here for me to use and while I shan't be going for any more long drives I will be nipping in and out of town.

This morning KS and Mr KS headed off on their month long holiday. KS drove to the railway station which is almost 40 miles away and I drove the car back on some very challenging roads,  most of them narrow, twisty and wet.  When I got back to the house I felt like going to bed but instead I took the little dog Jacqui for a walk, came back to the house, put her in the porch and then did the same walk with Buster.  While  I had Jacqui out we met a farmer on a tractor with a farm dog running behind it.  Farm dogs here are a type of collie, but skinny and black and very fierce.  Some of them are really aggressive and my instincts kicked in and I knew that I needed to pick Jacqui up even thought she was wet and muddy.  The farm dog snarled at us but carried on and I prevented J. from attacking her.

Once I was back in the house I lit the stove and it took some time for it to get going.  

I am fighting to stay awake but I'm waiting for a phone call so can't go to bed yet.

 

Caretaking

The Internet is playing up tonight and it is now too late to write a blog post.

My caretaking duties start tomorrow and I have a notebook with three pages of instructions written down.  Mr and Mrs KS keep remembering things they need to tell me for example I must always keep a candle and matches close to hand as power cuts happen fairly frequently and if there is very windy weather or thunder and lightning I have to allow Buster, the older dog to sleep in my room.  My duties are more extensive than I expected.