wash day

painting by Anji Allen

Oh my goodness the rain has been something shocking - it was dark and grey when we woke up and it rained solidly all day. This would normally be absolutely fine (it is Ireland after all) but my tumble drier has broken and drying anything outdoors is really a non-runner at this time of year. So the stoves were lit and the house ended up swathed in laundry in various stages of drying. I think Anji Allen's painting of sheets and towels and kettles and teacups sums up 'wash day' here very nicely!

time

Oh dear, time seems to be slipping through my fingers like water. This new season has brought plenty of damp, cold and wet days and some nice ones too but each of them, regardless of what the weather brings, pass in the same flurry of domestic chores, work and general running around. Time is precious but it's hard to put the brakes on when there are three children, each with their own needs, and endless responsibilities. I can't believe it's the tail end of September already but the early darkening nights and the low light levels do not lie. Perhaps it's time to take stock a little and prepare for the colder months and spend our days wisely instead of in a spin.

postcards

How sentimental are you? I have to admit that we possibly find it a teeny bit difficult to throw some of the paraphernalia of life away. I have every letter my husband (then boyfriend) wrote to me and since we met when we were 16 that's quite a lot of letters. We have most of our children's drawings and daubings, from early scribbles to school art. We keep all their homework and copybooks, we keep letters, postcards, invitations, Christmas cards, thank you cards... 

And I couldn't help myself. While rummaging around in the brocante in Fanjeaux I had to have someone else's paraphernalia too. Postcards which, I didn't realise until I got home, were all sent to the same Mademoiselle in Paris...Written in 1902, 1904 and 1905 they are a perfect little mystery. How did they end up in a provincial small town far away from Paris, who sent them, why did the sender post two almost identical cards (top picture) on the same day to the same girl... oh, thinking about it all gives me a lovely shudder up my spine, especially since there were hundreds of postcards in the dusty box in that brocante and I only chose the ones whose pictures I liked without looking at the backs of them...