Fabulous Findhorn

Just back from my Experience Week at Findhorn in Scotland. Here's where I stayed - Cluny Hill College on the edge of Forres, a beautiful Scottish town not far from Inverness. (Do I have a thing for big houses and castles or what?) Will tell more about that amazing week in future blogs. I am still a bit shaky as I managed to pick up a major bug while there. More anon.

The Low Road

As I've mentioned in my personal Blog, I am off to attend Experience Week at the Findhorn Community near Forres, in northern Scotland. Can't wait! This is research for my adult novel - People of the Great Journey - as one of my characters, a retired British Army officer, is a gardener at Findhorn. (I've got all kinds of odd sods and bods in this book.) Findhorn is a sister community of Auroville, in Tamil Nadu, India, which I visited many years ago. (Another character in the book is associated with same.) Once upon a time, I was a member of the Meitheal Community on Inch Island in Co. Donegal, which was a 'daughter' community of Findhorn, being much smaller in size. In fact, I mention Meitheal in The Hunter's Moon, in the scene where Dara and Gwen have a picnic by the sea. Did I call us old hippies?

Beannactaí Lá Phádraig!

Well, I tried to post a Toyota ad of an Irish dancing pedestrian light but I couldn't. I don't usually post ads on my Blog but it's worth seeing; almost as good as the Guinness ad about the lads bringing the barrels of beer to the Aran Islands which, alas, is not to be found on youtube. Some of the most creative minds on this planet are wasted on the advertising business, but that's a personal choice made, no doubt, for monetary reasons. Which leads me to the hilarious comment made by writer and wag Brian Leyden over the weekend in Co. Clare (see my personal blog). We were all commenting on the fact that the Celtic Tiger had raced past us with little or no effect and Brian said, "we were always in the trenches, it's just that shelling has resumed." In lieu of the Irish dancing lights, here's a pic of a mural on the side of a little school house in Co. Clare. (PS found it! See my personal Blog.)

Glendalough

Not long back from a big hike through Glendalough with Ger, Frank and Paul. We started near the Upper Lake and headed off towards Mullacor and then back down An Spinc. It was a rainy, sleety, snowy, sunny day (you get all seasons in a day in Ireland). When we stopped for lunch, it was like eating in a snow globe. I had my usual flask of Earl Grey tea, plus bagel with Emmenthal cheese, toasted sunflower seeds with soya sauce (try it, yum) and an organic apple; but I was seriously missing my standard two bags of crisps and a chocolate bar! (See Blog for Roman Catholic explanation.) This darling robin appeared out of nowhere, looking for a bit of lunch also, and we happily obliged. A snowy Glendalough is, of course, one of the settings in The Light-Bearer's Daughter. The mountainsides were cloaked with snow. The faint tracery of small animals, hares and birds, inscribed the ground. A winter's sun shone palely. (Photo credit: Ger Blake.)

Tarja Turunen

Here's an interesting video one of my readers alerted me to. (Thanks Ariel!) I don't know this singer or the group she originally belonged to - Nightwash - but I'm going to look into them. The eye make-up is a bit much and some of this is seriously camp, but I like the fairy tale element and the woods. It reminds me of Dana being attacked by the Oakmen in The Light-Bearer's Daughter.

Bunreacht na hEireann

In keeping with the rant on my personal blog, this is one of the books I am reading now. The Constitution of Ireland. I figure it's something the government and/or the EU may well try to dismantle in the coming years, so it behooves all Irish citizens to be familiar with it, me included. It's a fascinating read, lyrical and well-written, as befitting a state founded by poets and school teachers. I was a bit knocked back to discover we are a patriarchal theocracy. Here's how it starts: In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred. We, the people of Eire, Humbling acknowledging all our 0bligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our Fathers through centuries of trial ..." What is really fascinating are the pages of "Amending Acts" from 1930 to 2004 which so tellingly reveal the changing face of Irish society: reduction of the voting age, *removal of the special position of the Catholic Church* (1973), various ratifications of various European treaties (not Lisbon), the right to information about abortion legally available in other states (1992), right to divorce (1996), removal of the death penalty (2002). It's interesting that Ireland changed slowly but surely with agreement by referendum. I think there is wisdom in that process. Change is difficult, especially the older you get, and this process allows time for people to adapt. It helps keep the fabric of society together, I think, as structures such as the Church and the Family inevitably decline.

More Friary

It's been over a week since I got back but my heart and soul are still in Multyfarnham. Also, quite frankly, I am missing how much work I was able to do there, without the usual gazillion distractions. I was reaching a chapter a day even though some were as long as 20 pages, Now I am still on the same chapter I began on my return! I can't lose the impetus on this book. It's too complex and difficult. If I lose the thread, I'm lost in the labyrinth. The only solution: I'm off to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre next week for a week. That should get me back on track. This is the adult book, a work of "spiritual fiction." (Photo credit: Jessica Kelly, an artist who was at Multy on a previous residency. Have a look at her article on same: http://jessicakelly.wordpress.com:80/2008/07/16/a-new-initiative-the-friary-in-multyfarnham/. And here's an article by Ruth Lyons, another artist who was there: http://thegoodhatchery.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/living-in-a-friary-two-weeks-in-multyfarnham-by-ruth-lyons/.)