Spring has Sprung

February is nearly over & the signs of Spring are all around. I tried to photograph lambs today , but I guess Im not sneaky enough , lots of shots of their tails as they ran away!
As for the flowers , the snowdrops are my favourites & later on the bluebells

One Man's Passion

 

This is a video from an airshow in France  - 2010 , but the plane is the Spifire , my Dad's photographic passion
He visited the Duxford Airshow in 1996 & I have recently found the negatives from his day out taking photos .
Seems like he had a ball ,as  there are shots of many old planes & some really great ones of the Red Arrows in formation , with the coloured smoke trailing shapes in the sky , but the star of the show for my Dad , was of course the Spitfire
With my flatbed scanner its fairly easy to get some good clear j.pegs to work with & edit , some I will leave as a photograph & some will get the "art" treatment .
I have found two photography sites , one in America & another in the UK , both handle all the sales stuff , but Im really curious to see the comments the pictures receive. The  pure joy of being able to showcase his work is making me very proud &  its lovely that he will receive some kudos after all these years

The End of The Year

So , we all survived the 2012 disaster scenarios & I managed a peaceful Christmas this year  , with no broken bones!!
The blogs dont seem to be very popular any more , Facebook is THE thing to be seen on, so it would seem!
The blogs that do well are those that offer tuition & give freebies , I visit a few favourites myself , That said , I still enjoy posting here!
So what to add for this last entry of 2012? I opened the file marked New Work & here are some of the most recent additions to my garden this Autumn . Some new editing techniques applied , from the afore mentioned sites . I will list my favourite bloggers in another post

Missing

The fleadh has been in full swing in Cavan town & on visit with my camera , i discovered a poignant display in one of the church yards
Many of the trees were "dressed" with clothing from a local charity shop & pinned to each , a snapshot of a woman or girl , who is missing
A beautifully thought out piece of work & i have tried to capture the feel of it in a collage

Game Over

Just an old pair of boots , that i guess in their time participated in many a GAA match
A friend cleared out the old Home Place & when she looked in the attic she found these old boots belonging to her Father
We had several discussions as to how to capture them in a photograph & originally it was to be on  football pitch
In the end we took them back to the Home Place & the shot was taken on some stones outside , I feel they look as though they are ready for that one last game

Margaret of New Orleans

News update from the Margaret of New Orleans Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beloved-Margaret-Haughery-of-New-Orleans/208149613587

In the 1830s, Margaret Gaffney Haughery moved to New Orleans From Ireland as a young bride. She and her husband had a child. But, shortly after they arrived, both the child and husband died of yellow fever. And, Haughery, who had been orphaned at age 9 in Ireland, had lost all her family for the second time in her life.

Image here is of the Margarets birthplace at Tully , Carrigallen County Leitrim

The home place at Tully is open for weekends through the Summer months , keeping the spirit of Margaret alive with  baking soda bread & traditional music sessions around the turf fire

Destitute and illiterate, Haughery (pronounced Haw-a-ree) determined to devote her life to helping orphans and widows in the city. She started as a peddler and washerwoman, and eventually owned the largest bakery in the United States, Margaret's Bakery. She devoted the proceeds to charity, built four orphanages , and fed the poor and hungry.
When she died in 1882, the city shut down for her state funeral. Current and former state governors, the mayor and the archbishop were among her pallbearers.
The people of New Orleans donated nickles and dimes to build a monument to the "The Mother of Orphans" and "The Bread Woman of New Orleans," erected in 1894.

This Mother's Day week, an effort to restore that monument -- the first in the United Stats to a female philanthropist -- is supported by special items being sold by a handful of local bakeries.
The participating bakeries will donate a portion of sales to the nonprofit. The promotion lasts until Saturday, May 12, the day before Mother's Day.
Margaret's Bread, for which she was famous, was an Irish soda type of bread.
About $150,000 is needed to restore the statue of Margaret, which depicts her seated with her arm around a child. It is in a small park at Camp and Prytania streets.

This plaque comemorates Margaret  & is situated on the wall of the Medical Centre in Carrigallen

Event organizer Traci Birch works with a small nonprofit, the Monumental Task Committee , which since 1989 has done all kinds of work around the city. The fundraiser is coordinating with the Arts Council of New Orleans. Birch said the first effort to raise money to restore the Margaret statue is essentially a bake sale.
"The base is collapsing underneath it," Birch said. "It sits on a foundation that's been there 120 years or something like that," she said. "We will redo the base of it. And we will have conservators come in and painstakingly clean it." This surface restoration process needs to be undertaken about every five years to keep it from deteriorating, she said. A perpetual care fund is part of the plan, too.

The view from the front door of Margarets cottage at Tully

"Communion Bear" by Julesrules | RedBubble

 

A lovely bear for a First Communion card
available at Just Jules
I have  a variety of cards that
can be customised with the date & the child's
name
Thank you cards with photo from the
day can also be printed , with a discount for
ordering more than 5