If you allow it, the lure of November is irresistable. Everything naturally quietens down and runs to earth. The darkness closes in and everything gets pared back. If you think the Burren looks luner in mid Summer, you should see it now. Further exposed, with the ash and hazel and hawthorn laid bare and the … Continue reading Other Kinds of Beauty – Like November
I Think
A Good Enough Mother
I totally lost it the other morning. Flipped the lid. At my four year old. Why? Because she was being a normal four year old. It's a side of me I absolutely hate. If anybody saw me in the moments where I'm freaking out at my children I would be excruciatingly embarrassed because I know … Continue reading A Good Enough Mother
I’m Looking For The Rainbow
Lads! (Writer hushes and looks over her shoulder to make sure we have indeed made it). We’ve made it to mid-term. And though we are still in the middle of a colossal storm of utter crap, you or an adult near you may be that bit saner for having had the children back at school … Continue reading I’m Looking For The Rainbow
Connection Means That We Feel It All
Have you ever had an existential crisis at the hairdressers? I'll be honest - I have one at least every two years. 2020 has been all about the little things. Little kindnesses, as my mother-in-law said the other day, that can turn your day around. Or even your week. Socially distanced chats at school pick-up, … Continue reading Connection Means That We Feel It All
Bonkers
I haven't gone bonkers in quite a while now. Well - at least not since my now sister-in-law's Hen Party where I went absolutely bonkers and got head-scratchingly lost in the mire that is Limerick City's grid area on my way home and complained at reception that my room was no longer on the floor … Continue reading Bonkers
That Bit More To Lose
I recently got to go home. Home home, like. To the place I've known all my life, where my father looked after everyone's breakfast and my mother looked after everyone's dinner and in between I drank hot coffee and saw some siblings and caught up with my best friends. At last. It felt so good. … Continue reading That Bit More To Lose
All’s Fair In Love And Pest Control
I spotted him approximately one mili-second before I might have stepped on him. My wellington-ed foot barely avoiding direct contact. A dead rat (I couldn't look away), a flat dead rat (I couldn't avoid the seeing), a fat flat dead rat just by the gate in the yard. Oh sweet divine. I ushered the pup … Continue reading All’s Fair In Love And Pest Control
Nobody Wants To Cry At Work
It's surely a sign of the times. I mean could I ever, in my weirdest dreams, have imagined that the small fella's junior infant year would be ended via group video call? Last September, having dropped him to big school for his first day, I lamented my having not cuddled him on my lap while … Continue reading Nobody Wants To Cry At Work
Owning Your Decisions
Some time ago a writer I follow on instagram posted about doing some work - even though, as she said herself, her baby was only a few weeks old and she felt it a tad early to be dipping a toe back into work stuff. She said she felt passionately about new mothers who work … Continue reading Owning Your Decisions
Dinner In Bed, Happy Days
I'll do almost anything to get out of the house lately. Not satisfied with having a double root canal recently - a welcome break from intense domesticity, truth be told - I'm fresh out of hospital following the zapping and extraction of a particularly pesky kidney stone. I was very glad to get the call … Continue reading Dinner In Bed, Happy Days
i am Laurie m 