A little change of scene here, I was getting bored of looking at the post below.

Martha is 10 months old today and has just returned from her first holiday to the Dingle Peninsula. She went for houndie walks, explored and stood without support. A good holiday.

I busied myself with a spot of knitting and I hope to have it finished before Martha grows out of it.

Ok, so I’m a few days late with the Happy Half-Year Birthday greeting (which was on Friday) and a day early in taking the photograph, but the important thing is that we remembered on the day.

Martha and the Rabbit Tail from Zoe Bowyer on Vimeo.

My little one is upstairs in bed babbling away. I am just catching a moment before her contented babbles turn into cries. I know that when I go up to her she will give me a giant smile. This makes me happy.

4 today.

I managed to complete two knitted garments last week. One was a little cardigan for the baby and the other was a bolero for me. I am very happy with the bolero, although it is far too warm for the weather we are having. Really this is bra and panties weather – or is it just me that feels so, so warm?

On Saturday Dave and I went to a basket weaving class near Portaferry. I made this and I am very proud of it!

I was held at temporary traffic lights in Martinstown for ages, and then when I eventually got going again and approached the national speed limit sign at the end of the town, the car behind overtook me. He soon put his foot on the brakes. I was the second car in my direction to come upon the scene of a crash. If we hadn’t been held up by the traffic lights we may have been there rather too soon. In front of us was a completely mangled blue motorcycle, bits lying all over the place. The rider was obscured to me by the main part of the bike, which was right in the middle of the road. A white van had swerved off the side of the road.

The traffic coming in the other direction on the road had arrived at the scene first and arranged an ambulance, so there was nothing we could do but turn as there was no way we would get past the accident.

I found myself thinking about the accident many times during the day, wondering if the rider had been okay. I had meant to check the news for any stories, but didn’t get around to it until this morning. This morning I found out that the rider had died.

So, how do you follow that with the great day I had? Life goes on.

Yesterday morning I woke at 7:00 am and was out of bed by 7:30. Dave was in Donegal diving. I had a hearty breakfast of muesli and cornflakes, which I followed with a nice sit down and a lot of knitting – I am trying desperately to finish some garments while I can still fit into them, so am finishing my Central Park Hoodie.

At 8:30 I decided to do a quick tidy up of the downstairs rooms so that I could spend the rest of the day relaxing. By 9:15 I had washed dishes, dusted and vacuumed. I then got dressed and applied sun screen and lip balm, the scents combined with the sunshine outside reminded me of Mexico, specifically our time spent in Oaxaca. I made a packed lunch and then the dogs and me headed off in the car for Glenariff.

After coming across the crash we had to detour via Clogh and Newtowncrommelin to get back on the right road. I’m sure there are quicker ways to go, but I am unfamiliar with the roads around Martinstown.

We had a nice 2 hour walk around Glenariff, I cut out a bit of the Scenic Walk that had a few too many steps for my liking. It is very relaxing spending time alone walking. We stopped and had lunch on the main Waterfall walk. The forest was just getting busy as I was leaving at about 1:30. All the Sunday travellers had finished church and lunch for the day and were beginning to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day. The road where the crash happened was still closed when we returned – I guessed that it must be very serious.

Back at home the dogs slept soundly and I sat and knitted.

Later I started making Shepherd’s Pie for dinner and once I had it all sorted I decided to make lemon coconut bread. Dave returned from diving while I was baking. We ate at 7:00 pm, while watching an episode of The Wire. We had Shepherd’s Pie and baked beans followed by warm lemon coconut bread.

Exhaustion and sleep were the only other things on my mind.

My furry babies are going to be getting a non-furry sibling at the end of September. I’m sure they will grow to love the addition to the family!

Today Gracie ate a 200g packet of plain chocolate coated ginger pieces and wound up with a very sore belly. I reckon if I had eaten the whole packet I too would have felt ill. But she is a 5 kg dog and I weigh considerably more, so the effects are bound to be more severe on her. Never-mind the fact that chocolate is poisonous to dogs!

So, bloated of belly and with her heart racing, I took her to the vet. It was too late to get the chocolate out of her system, so she has been admitted for the night and will be given an IV drip.

Naturally, I am fretting something awful.

Update 10/2 – Gracie is on the mend!

Sometimes it is better to be busy and not to be sitting in front of a computer for hours on end wasting time.

So, what have I done so far this year?

I started off with a lovely 3 night stay in Hanna’s Close, Kilkeel. Days were filled with mountain walks and evenings were spent wiling away time by an open fire. We climbed a weeny Mourne Mountain (Rocky in the Annalong Valley) one day and the next we climbed Bearnagh (a bit bigger). The dogs had a ball and were filthy, dirty things.

I knitted like mad.

I made a huge pot of chilli

I made dutch apple cake

I continued my efforts to tidy up all my photos, an enormous task which never seems to be done.

I painted our living room with absolutely no help (apart from a little filler gun action) from Dave.

I went to work

I walked the dogs

I ate

I slept

I assembled a cardboard pinhole camera (yet to be tested)

And I did some other stuff that’s absolutely none of your business!