♥ 686 pages to go

 

They say confession is good for the soul, so here goes.  Forgive me fellow book clubbers, the blog has taken over my life and I haven’t started reading the current books.  There is a possibility probability I will turn up when we next meet  not having finished the books.  (I am in two book clubs so that’s a double dose of confession.)

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♥ Fair daffodils

 

I love this time of year.  Spring has sprung and the worst excesses of the winter weather are a distant memory and harbingers of warmer times abound.  I particularly love the short season of the daffodils.  They are everywhere; long yellow ribbons along the sides of the roadways, peeping out in gardens in sharp contract to the bare-branched shrubs and clusters clumped around the bases of majestic trees.  Sadly they do ‘haste away so soon’.

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♥ Favourite shops//Agnès B


I cannot recall seeing an ad for Agnès B or an editorial features which used her clothes in any of the fashion glossies.  I imagine these two things are not unrelated, as editorial coverage can depend  on the amount a brand  spends on advertising in a given magazine.  Despite this Agnès B is hugely successful, with a loyal band followers, moi included.

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♥ Cure


I needed an antidote to the overdose of carbs and calories I consumed this weekend.  So I had a simple dish of roasted vegetables for supper this evening.  Roasted veggies are a great way of incorporating the recommended five a day servings of fruit and vegetables into your daily diet; making them is simplicity itself.

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Kinnitty Castle: Gothic with a Ghost


I headed off on Saturday morning with my good friends A, J, and M for the depths of middle Ireland. We were on our way to Kinnitty Castle Hotel in County Offaly for a short break.

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♥ Packed

 

I have  packed my bag and I am ready to go.  I am off to spend the weekend in a Gothic castle where a ghostly monk stalks the corridors.  Here’s hoping I don’t bump into the spectre on his nocturnal rounds.

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♥ Healthy Eating!

 

As I normally eat a healthy diet, this Alex Levin quote made me laugh. “Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.”

Today is St Patrick’s Day so I thought why not, I’ll have myself an Irish coffee.

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♥ Proud to be Irish

 

Ireland is a small island at the westerly edge of Europe, with a troubled colonial and post-colonial past and an economy currently on life support.  Being Irish is complex.  Brendan Behan (Irish Playwright 1923 -1964) said “Other people have a nationality.  The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.”

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♥ Coffee in Dublin//One: The Cake Cafe

The Cake Cafe

The Cake Cafe, in the eco-friendly Daintree building, is slightly off the beaten track.  First find the Daintree paper shop on Camden Street, walk through the shop and exit by the rear door into a bamboo fringed alleyway, when you emerge you will see The Cake Café.

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♥ Parisian Chic


As I have visited Paris a lot in recent years, I have accumulated a mini-library of guides to the City of Light.  My favourite is one I bought recently.  It’s simply called La Parisienne by Ines de la Fressange (with Sophie Gachet).  Ines is of course the quintessential Parisienne even though she was born near St Tropez in the South of France.

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