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The Artful Dodger
ENCOURAGEMENT Following a conversation late last year with Granddaughter #2 about her love of art and plans for the future, I was a little surprised at her reticence to show off her work online the way so many young people do, especially since she planned on a career involving art. She is reasonably confident in the art she produces and receives praise all the time from her family and teachers, so the reaction made little sense to me at the time. We talked about the need for her to build an art portfolio to secure her desired place in further education and eventually employment, but still she was shying away from showing off her work. So I said I would set up a social media account dedicated to showing the world my “art” if she would post…
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Review: Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta
Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” Set in “Little Jamaica,” Toronto’s Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents. I…
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THE GREEN ROAD
There's a short list of modern Irish novels I would describe as being privileged to have read - Amongst Women by John McGahern and The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor for example. The Green Road by Anne Enright is the newest entrant on that very short list. Anne Enright has been appointed the first Irish Laureate for Literature and this novel alone will demonstrate exactly why that role is so well deserved.
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CHARLES FORT
How often do you get the chance to have a day out with your Grown Up Children – especially when there are no grandchildren involved? Not too often in our case and so we were delighted when last month, The Ban Chéile* and I teamed up with GUC No. 4 and No. 6 for a trip to Charles Fort near Kinsale in County Cork. It’s less than an hours drive from the country place and we just wanted a couple of hours out in the sunshine doing what tourists do. Charles Fort proved to be a great idea and since we were all armed with cameras (No. 6 is an avid photographer and blogger – paparali.com) it turned into a bit of a “shoot out” with lots of lighthearted photos of both the fantastic fort and the…
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CHRISTMAS (CHALLENGE #5)
Christmas is all about tradition, but not really. I think Christmas as a concept may be traditional in itself but what Christmas means to people can be very different depending on the individual and will inevitably evolve as time goes by. There are elements that remain constant; the exchange of gifts, the religious aspect, the decorations and of course the increased awareness of the bond between family and friends. In my experience all of these change with time and even though on the surface these elements remain in one form or another, often the meaning of them alters to take account of the circumstances and the journey we’ve taken along life’s road. Now that I’m a Golden Boy (don’t get too excited I just meant I’m in my fifties) my take on Christmas presents has changed considerably. Mainly…
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COUNTRY ROADS
My old pal Denver is 12 years of age (84 in dog years) and despite the down at heel look on his face – it’ll stop soon if you ignore it – he’s actually over the moon about going on his road trip today. Unlike other migrating species he heads south for the summer and loves it. It doesn’t seem so long ago when he used to first scramble into the boot as a pup and then later bound in when he was fully grown. Today Denver managed to get his front legs into the car by himself but the back legs were my job. Dog years didn’t really mean anything to me when I was young and how could they, I had little to measure them against, but now I’m one of the Golden Guys I really do…
