Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Now let's see here...oh i see it's a volcanically active zone....hmmm... ...and Kuta Beach may possibly be avoided with all those Mat Sallehs there as well.... Ah ha Johnny Depp, let me see what's behind your eye... I see there be bounty... ...in the form of chocolate... Peter left for the UNFCCC - the climate change negotiations. Ten years ago when you told people about it they looked at you as if you wee Chicken Little. Who's chicken now eh? Anyhow, last night after he took Oisin to Portglenone to see Santa - an experience which i am told has to be experienced to be appreciated - he packed, with assistance from Ghin who woke up, as if to have some time of his own with daddy as well. After perusing the guide the climcate change village in Bali, he attacked the somewhat unlikely Pirates of the Carribean advent calendar which he now know has chocolates in it. You'd think that at the very least they'd try and make the chocolate piratically themed if it is going to...

The great slippery elm tree...from whence our breakfast comes every morning... My am i prolific or what...it's a sure sign i'm procrastinating cleaning the room...anyways...if you have a very annoyed living thing who will not eat because they are teething or have an upset tummy - especially if they have reflux - baby or adult, slippery elm junket is very good to get them feeling better again. This is something i developed over the years. This is what i feed Ghin for breakfast every morning now. It has the consistency of snot and perhaps for this reason is dearly loved. Here it is...Two teaspoons of slippery elm powder, half a teaspoon of milled linseed, fructose to taste, baby spelt/rice/oats - a tablespoon - If it's an adult adding carageen - irish moss - is excellent, especially for convalescence or of they're having a chesty cough. Mix with boiling water and then add milk till it's a lovely snotty mix. I will take a picture of it tomorrow morning. Slippery elm is...

Read blog to make sense of the pictures... Normal setting... Candlelight setting... Everything is secondhand, except for the butterdish and knife - which was made in a local potters/school - and the silicone chopping boards, which were so bloody cute and i thought good for Oisin to chop stuff on. Also great for rolling pastry. I really want to get this study room licked you know, especially while Peter is gone. It's a bit depressing you know because i had it cleaned when i got home and now it's a wreck again... Just stuff. Peter's right - we're both hoarders, but i keep thinking, i can't throw this out, it'll come in useful one day. I can use this for something...the thing is that if you are that way inclined, you childn't go out and buy things right...quite right. But i go to Heidi's shop and there's something else there that looks so bloody lovely. Like this butter dish. I had to have it. A gorgeous butterdish. Of course i don't need a butterdi...

This is the house that we baked...(i quite like the manic looking gingerbread man and the tiny snowman beside him...can you spot the rope which Santa uses to climb up? This is because the roof is too slopy and the reindeer can't get onto the roof, of course.) ...this is the baby that drooled at the house at we baked... ...this is the same baby and his brother that drooled at the house that we baked... ...this is the father that held the baby that drooled at the house that we baked... ...this is the backview of the house that we baked... Predawn in the bedroom, before wash ups... We made a gingerbread house yesterday. Either the intervening years since i last made a gingerbread house (3) have honed my biscuit baking skills or i was not in the right place when i made my last house, but it was, despite Ghin's best attempts, extremely EASY to do. Which, as my previous sentence implies, was not the experience i had when we made the last house. It think i was slightly slipshod on the...

I sat down to blog at 9 today when Ghin woke up. OK, i said to him, you want to go to the baby clinic. I hoked him into the car and we wet off. East Belfast... a curious mix of past, present, of possibility and poverty. To say that it is one of the most interesting and historic parts of Belfast is to do Belfast a disservice. Mostly because all of Belfast is so. Take for example Belvoir Forest Park. I ran in it everyday for three years, not knowing that it had a Neolithic colony which cultivated yew trees in the middle of the forest. Cave Hill. From the top of Cave Hill you can see the Five Kingdoms. I'm not sure what these are, but it does include Scotland at some point, the Copelands...etc. East Belfast was mostly where all the shipbuilding took place. For a long time it was lowlying swampland and then it was reclaimed and the industrial boom that took place there meant that a colourful and lively community life, to say the least developed in it. Till today, it is mostly working c...

Another new word that Singapore has inspired. It described a state of delusional narcosis where people who are clearly not within attempt to be so. More specifically, this refers to the video that the MDA - don't ask me what it stands for - put out. It has middle aged squares in suits trying to pimp their hides. Most disturbing and delusional was the guy in the Superman outfit right at the end. I watched it as one might watch a very bad traffic accident, with a mixture of disbelief and fascination.

Ghin practising his non paparazzi moves. Me and Ghin in kitchen - just after the other boys tooks off. At Camphill for the lights switch on in Holywood. Lisa and Lara... Mothers and friends... Sorry it's taken such a long time between posts. It's so difficult to find time to post and since i'm so crap with the pictures, it seems pretty pointless to put writing up without the pictures. Ghin is sleeping now and Olive's chicken is in the oven. Have i given you the lecture yet about the importance of buying local. In addition to her chicken tasting so good, it also keeps. Now what do i mean by keep? A couple of weeks ago i got two chickens - week, three weeks ago...one i dismembered and froze, the other i roasted for another Sunday lunch. Now some of the breast i put aside - raw - to cook. And forgot about it for four days. In 'normal' chicken, it would have gone 'lendeh' as the Malays would say, and i would have had to bin it. This one only stayed perfect; ...

Peter told me to go out tomorrow night - see a film he said. So i'm going to see Beowolf, which i'm looking forward to. Anime and Anglo Saxon myth making, it can't get any better right? Perhaps a few years ago i would have called up a few friends and thought, right three bottles of wine. But even as i write this it all seems such a pointless way of enjoying myself. It will be hard for anyone to believe this, and i hardly believe myself, but the truth is...i no longer enjoy drinking. Gasp, shock horror!!! Mostly because i no longer get a buzz out of drinking - red wine is out of the question because i get very ill when i do drink it and white wine just doesn't do anything for me. And then i don't want to drink anything else. The last time we drank - which was last Saturday, Peter brought home a bottle of red and we only finished half of it together while watching a film. It is weird, isn't it? And kinda scary that i used to drink the amounts that i did. But it...

I'm trying to upload this video of Ghin. It's the fourth time i'm doing this. Previous attempts were thwarted by wrong formats, failed connections and a physical memory dump, which sounds incredibly rude. I actually have three segments of Ghin doing his set party pieces which i'm hoping my mom will get to see. He's now added Rock a Bye Baby to his repertoire where he sways from side to side like a sailor

Gnome on raft Gnome on tree stump Zora and Oisin at the nature table Daddy and Ghin check out my website It's almost Tuesday morning. Downstairs the chatter of Newsnight goes in the background and the sweet heavy oily odour of onion bhajis from Peter's dinner lingers in the house. Ghin and Oisin sleep - and i'm trying to catch up with facebook, hotmail and this blog. I try and not let the weather get to me. Today, for instance, we spent the afternoon threading peanuts and making fat balls for the birds. Outside the wind shook the trees and whistled high, shrill. Oisin looked out and asked, what is that? It's the wind Oisin. He put his head back down, back to the threading, it sounds like a ghost, he said. Indeed it does, i thought to myself. Somewhere, halfway across the world, my family are throwing open windows and doors, turning on airconditioning, to escape the heat. I spent the afternoon making a soup from the backbones of the two chicken i got off Alan. Oisin nea...

Ghin in carseat... Hi there, i have been hoping that Linda will get in touch with me cos i've lost her number. If she still reads this blog PLEASE give me mobile a call - or else email me with your number!! The kids are all asleep now. I have just done the last of the dishes. Last night at the dinner, pple were making fun of people who were overly concerned with household chores. I just kept quiet...i'm one of those people now, overly concerned with household chores. But you know what, i don't care - however i'm still not confident enough to defend it yet. You see, after i read Shambala, there was this bit which said that having things tidy - even if it is just a corner that's tidy which you can retreat to, is you showing yourself respect. I thought, yeah, i need to show myself respect. And so keeping things tidy is part of that. And the hall way is extremely respectful now. Whenever Oisin comes home now, he's gotten into the habit of taking off his shoes and pu...

Here's the tree in the garden. It's turned all yellow and with the ivy on it and the red berries it looks simply delightful. I thought it's so beautiful, life is beautiful.

Here we are the complementary therapy fair. The Steiner school was there to get more parents/families for the school. Here's Marcella doing some dry felting, which was stunning and Oisin did an eco bag - it's a picture of Ghin and the back of it says "EVERYONE HEARTS GREEN PARTY" which he did in his own writing. His writing has come along really well. Now they're learning this song that goes... Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, Onward! the sailors cry; Carry the lad that's born to be King Over the sea to Skye. Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar, Thunderclouds rend the air; Baffled, our foes stand by the shore, Follow they will not dare. Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, Onward! the sailors cry; Carry the lad that's born to be King Over the sea to Skye. Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep, Ocean's a royal bed. Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep Watch by your weary head. Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing, Onw...

Our beech tree that's now quite bald and naked... For those of us who never think that Ghin smiles... Yet another unflattering angle...never take it from the bottom up - even babies have a ahrd time with the camera then. Martinmas laterns!!!! The lanterns from Class One, Oisin's class. The Martinmas play which the Class 2s do because in class 2 they learn about the lives of saints. In Class One it's all fairytales...Oisin has an amazing command of fairytales at his fingertips now. Yesterday we went through my annotated fairytale bible and apart from some unsuitable ones - like Donkeyskin, which involves some dubious incest - he was pretty much up to speed with the fairytales there. Hi there...oh i've been meaning to write for soooo long but life got in the way... you'll never believe what i've done...this is how psychotic i am now. The housework, i've decided must be done better. So one day i sat down and made a list of all the things that needed doing. And ...

So tired today. Been ill with a strange achy thing which i think must be the flu. I'm thinking that the worst might be over, but i'm not sure. The headache's coming back. I'm currently trying to 'redner' a video of Ghin doing the three set pieces that he has - Twinkle Twinkle, Pat a Cake, Pat a Cake and Eensy Weensy. Why is it called rendering? I think that sometimes the people who design computer software have no idea what these words mean and they simply pick things out of the dictionary and say, well call it this word. It's like the military. Collateral damage. Extraordinary rendition. What do they mean? I understand what they mean as words but how does that apply to the centext? My conclusion? Soldiers and graphic designers have the same grasp on their vocabulary - which is to say, no grasp at all. It is also taking a very ong time to render this video, so i assume i have very cheap software - actually, it's very free software, so should i be complai...

Is it possible to love something that you don't like? It was something i had to ask myself over the weekend...and my answer was yes. Simply because we must love everything, even if we find it detestable because nothing is beyond redemption. I really can't put it in any other terms because i was brought up as a Catholic... but a good example would be Ian Paisley. Could you love Ian Paisley? I'm afraid it is incumbent on all who can to do so. The flip side would be, could you love Gerry Adams? Could you love someone through the wounds they have caused you and leave yourself vulnerable to love? I'm afraid i'm coming to the conclusion that it's the only way. I don't have to like it, but i must love it. It's like when Oisin does something i don't like. I don't say, i stop loving him; i can't in fact. I must say, that thing he did i didn't like - and then i must explain to him why i found it unpleasant or hurtful, or embarrassing. I can't s...

Today we went to the zoo. When i say we, i mean Oisin, Ghin, Finn, Jago and myself. It was actually not as bad as i thought it would be. In fact they were so extremely civilised that i was amazed. Lunch was the extortinate Pizza Hut and they all played perfectly with the Pizza Hut books. They took themselves to the toilet and fed themselves. And they even entertained themselves, which allowed me to look after Ghin and feed him. I was chatting to Jennifer today and talking about the 4 o'clock feeling and she said that it was very very common to feel that way. In fact it was a recognised phenomenon and her late husband used to take over from her at child rearing as part of his unwinding when he got home from work. It's too late ot start a new project and too early for dinner. You really need to watch that time. And now that i know it will creep up on me i will watch it. At work you're usually finishing up emails or just winding down for the day, but at home, well you don'...

Today, determined not to overdo it, i said that we would watch some TV while Ghin had his morning nap. It is a bit more complicated than it sounds because every so often,. Ghin will cry and i will have to go up to comfort him. Anyways, we decided on watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film that catapulted Harrison Ford to post-Star Wars success. It was incredible how it has stood up to time and what great fun it still it. However, it seemed that Oisin had no idea what the Ark was. This would be extremely vexing to my family, as it demonstrated how godless we were. Let me make it clear i have no prejudice against whatever religion is out there...it's just that when i tell Oisin stories from the Bible, i do not previlege it more than say stories from the Ramayana, or the Koran, or any other mythological cycle. So there Indiana was explaining about the Ark and i thought, well i might as well explain this to him, what the Ark of the Convenant was about....so here it went... Oisin, i ...

(Kay Neilsen, East of the Sun, West of the Moon ) Sometimes i write to remind myself about what Oisin said. He came into the kitchen two days ago, very serious, and asked me if unicorns were real.  Are they mummy? Are they real?  Well, Oisin, i said, which is what i always say when i'm about to explain something quite complicated...a habit which he's taken up as well...saying Well... Well, Oisin, i said, they are and they aren't. I like to think that they are real, but there isn't any proof that they exist.  So are they real then?  I was about to say something when he said, are they like angels mummy? Are they angel animals?  It was the most perfect description i had ever heard for the existence of unicorns.  Yes, Oisin, that is exactly what they are. They're angel animals....

Quaffing at chocolates... Ghin chews contemplatively on a french fry... Is this organic, local, and fried in non-hydrated transfat, he asked me... Could they possibly stop playing that very noisy music by 50 cents? Why do chavs wear their hair like that? Do they injure each other during their head butting sessions? Oh, i've been so tired over the last few days. At about 4 pm, everything starts to spiral into a meltdown phase. If i could describe it, i begin to feel as if i'm starting to float a little... and then i begin to sway... like a helium filled belloon. Then i start looking at the clock and wondering why there must be two hours between four and six and if i started dinner now, it would be too early, but i don't know what i would do between now and then. Why does this happen...? I don't know. Perhaps it is life after the intense period of Ghin's teething bout, i think. Possibly it's the six am mornings followed by days and days of running about looking a...