July 14

It’s pack-up day for half the folks, tomorrow, others will leave. Four of us remain. Someone has to do it.

In the afternoon, eight of us when out for a pint in Coothill. It was a hoot. The bar is also a mortuary. A wake was taking place on the back right side of the pub. We sat on the other side while a group of men gathered at the bar to watch Donegal play Galway in Gaelic football. Fortunately, the taxi picked us up and we made it back three minutes before the dinner gong—a smaller gathering around the table. It was good to take a day off and a great ending to the week.

Here are some pictures from the week. And I have to mention the birds! Eurasian Jays squawking in the trees on my evening walks, noisy wrens, treecreepers, goldcrests, common chatfinches, redstarts, on and on. One afternoon, there was all this fuss out my studio door—little birds in a panic—on a branch, a sparrowhawk.

Tomorrow I will wash clothes and start pondering what the week will bring.I have an artist and a poet on my mind:

Irish painter William Crozier: https://www.whytes.ie/artist/william-crozier/17843/

His sense of color and energy in how he applies the paint touches an emotional chord in me. I am also reading the poetry of Patrick Kavanugh who lived near byThe Center here in County Monaghan. He and William Crozier were good friends and is credited with influencing Crozier’s thinking about Ireland and to paint its landscape.

I might return to painting but that pile of kindling is still tugging at me. Before I leave last week’s work, here’s one more- my interpretation of the gates around the area.

The gate

Seems quirkier as a vertical.