The end of Summer

Hi everyone,

While I have been in Ireland every September for the last four years, this is the first year I lived through the summer and experienced the bitter sweetness of its ending. We had a brilliant summer by all accounts - more dry sunny weather than in the last 20 or so years by everyone's personal reckoning. About mid August that began to change with a colder night or two thrown in. You know the way where you just get an intuitive feel that says "oops feels like fall is closing in." Today, September 1st bears out that hunch, with cold rains keeping all who can in doors.

Neighbors left starting last weekend. We are down to maybe two households of summer owners and I am sure they will leave soon enough. Bitter sweet indeed - sweetness in the blackberries which line the road and break up our evening walks with goodies. Sweetness in having the place more or less to ourselves, but sorry to see some of our best friends more than a shout a way. I remember these feelings, when I was a child and the summer drew to an end and I had to go back to school. All in all it is good to be in touch again with the ebbs and flow of time passing.

All the best,
Alana

On balance

Hi everyone,

I don’t know about you, but I find the computer’s energy too-too absorbing. In fact at times it knocks me completely off center. At these times if the challenges I face at the work seem daunting I find myself rolling into a state of S T R E S S. Some days, I avoid it and stay calm because the tension with the work is low. Other days I avoid it by interspersing activity. Today I balanced it by walking to the beach, climbing on a rock, breathing and then meditating on the light on the water as shown above.

My other reminder for wholeness and away from stress is to pick up my drum. A Bodran (Irish pronunciation = BOW ran) is a round, hand held drum with an octave of different sounds available through the mix of the hand on the back side and the double headed implement you beat with on the head. Mine was made by a lovely man in Scotland and employs goat’s skin to the result of a truly lovely sound. His daughter got him into making drums, the complexity of it kept him interested. We were lucky enough to hear her play – awesome – interesting and unusual are adjectives which come to mind. Her drumming was great to hear and set the standard I would like to achieve.

I am an amateur at best – most times beating out my own rhythm but sometimes trying to play along with music. I think I prefer my own rhythm because then I am not as conscious of the distance between what I am doing and being interesting or keeping time. Whether it is the walking to the beach, playing the drum, doing yoga, or other unheard of yet activities – we all need balance. I find I build inner capacity as I lead my attention to that rich inner landscape. My breathing slows and after just a few minutes I feel refreshed.

I look forward to hearing what you all do to keep the balance in life.

Alana

Castlepark Residents Association Annual Meeting

Hi Everyone,

Margie and I got our first taste of a yearly event we have heard tales about since we purchased our property four years ago. Sometime during August every year all the residents of Castlepark Village are invited, by formal document, to the annual meeting. These meetings get to be quite contentious. For instance, last year we had been told that a discussion of young people playing ball on the lawn resulted in people shouting at each other and resolving never to come back.

2006 it can be said was tame compared to all that. This year's agenda was not surprising - including issues of: 1) collecting annual dues, 2) water, 3) writing letters about the traffic on the road, and 4) banning building in July and August. In general I found the conversation dominated by the men, but not to the point where women's opinions were not listened to. I thought that the discussion was reasonable, and, like most meetings, although there were differences of opinion that few spoke out of hand or insultingly. As in any group some have stronger opinions than others and we voiced those around the idea of how much we could "ban" anyone doing anything. The nuisances which were discussed the most were parking cars in the center of the village and building or remodeling houses in July and August. I had to laugh to myself as the woman who went on at greatest length about cars parked in the center of the village has children who regularly park in front of her house, right outside our window. Such is life in a village.

The admirable and exciting part of all this is that people do meet and discuss mutual interests regularly . Almost half of these people have known each other and worked together to keep this small settlement running smoothly for 30 years. There is historic memory about how and why things were done a certain way and each time we have these discussions we learn a little more. It is as though all these little bits weave us more and more into the cloth of the community.

Of course, being me, I spoke out for inclusive practices - as opposed to making rules and trying to enforce them. I also took on the task of rough drafting a letter to the county council about the roads, one which we I will forward to people's email, or drop in their box and which we hope will be redrafted and sent off to various folks, trying to get the road work we need done. Somethings don't change, whatever side of the pond you live on (smile).

I hope this finds everyone having a brilliant day,
Alana

Smaller can be Better

Hi everyone,

This morning I am celebrating the small circus. Straight out of a scene from "Toby Tyler, or 10 weeks with a circus" I found myself entranced with calliope sounds last Tuesday when went into Kinsale for errands. Evidently the circus would be playing our town on Wednesday and Thursday for two performances each day. It slipped my mind until yesterday when I found 2 Euro off coupons in a local store. The only thing competing on our calendar was cleaning up rubbish with the Tidy Towns committee - so banishing our civic duty for another week we played hookey, picked up our friend Joan and went along to the circus.

Ireland is host to many small circuses, we have seen them play throughout the summer along with other events in all the towns around Kinsale. Fossett's bills itself as the only completely Irish circus and the Fossett family have been entertaining the people of Ireland since 1888. The blue tent is about the size of an ice skating rink, and it might be able to hold 700 people, although a rough count last night made me think there were 150 in attendance (not that I am good at such guesses mind you). In the spirit of the thing we got ringside seats, which in this case were truly ringside the performers being 3 feet away on the other side of a meter high metal barrier which slotted together at the edges of the panels and was painted with swirls and curly cews.

The performers were marvelous. No other word can describe it. Margie couldn't watch when the high wire folks were twirling. The Chinese acrobats were enthralling and the juggling, tumbling troupe stacked themselves on top of pole from the floor to the ceiling of the tent. The camels were the only live animals who performed and they were very interesting with their furry feet and legs and odd facial expressions. They also had pony rides for kids during intermission, which would here be called an interval, which along with face painting made for an evening the children would never forget. One of the ponies looked to be semi-bad tempered but all were held in tight control.

I left really blessing the performers, thanking them in my heart for the lives they lead and the joy they bring to people as they tour throughout the summer. Most were young people in their twenties and the seemed to be thoroughly enjoying what they did. If ever in Ireland, we recommend you take the chance for an evening of great entertainment.

We look forward to reading any circus stories you may want to add in your comments,
All the best,
Alana

On writing a book

Hi everyone,

Before life moves on and I forget these days of writing the book about Participatory action research, I thought I should take a moment to reflect on the rythm writing sets up in life. I can write this today because I had a good push at the beginning and succesfully organized what I have just been working on and what will come next. Some days perhaps my story would be different (smile).

I use the wisdom of one of the many authors I have read on writing (can't remember which one) who said to write first thing in the morning and that he had learned that from a woman who, when at a writers retreat got up, got coffee and hit the keyboard. I find that, in general, not everyday, that I am best if I do the same thing - there seems to be an almost magical period of time when my mind is relaxed and the things I write make sense - this is when writing is fun.

When writing is not fun is when I am slogging through the references that Margie has marked for me - reading, reflecting and then coalescing the thoughts of others (with appropriate citations of course) to transfer them to the new context of the type of research methodology about which we are writing. This work may be fun, as when I muse over some new idea and find that I can make connections I have not made before, or it can be extremely painful, as when I type things into a rough draft wondering if they make any sense at all.

Have I had times when my writing did not make any sense? Absolutely, in fact whole sections of the first draft were pretty senseless, especially compared to where we are now. Where we are, by the way is with Chapters 1-6 at the reviewers and 7 and 8 in final draft and 9 in rough draft. Mostly done???!!! I don't know what the reviewers will do to us, but I can't imagine it will be as substantive a change as we saw the first time.

I also have to say something here about the great team effort this book is. There are three of us whose name will be on the cover and one who will have the majority of the acknowledgements. I write the rough draft and figure out the basic content, Margie edits that draft and, at the other end of the process, labels the figures and tables, takes care of permissions, works on the glossary of terms and looks after the fine details. Alan Bucknam does the graphics (the one above is my favorite), reads the draft just before the reviewers and brings the eye of someone totally outside of this work to the product. His objectivity and support are refreshing. Tracesea Slater edits the draft in the middle, after I've had a go twice with Margies edits in the middle.

After two and a half months of writing six days a week I broke down on Chapter 10. I expected it to be a walk in the park and instead it was a black hole. I understand the term writers block and have moved on to work on conference presentations and I'll come back to Chapter 10 after a break.

All for now,
Alana

One sentence and three words

Hi everyone,
Margie took this great shot at sunrise the other morning - so I am uploading it here so everyone can enjoy one of our views. Funny how the shots made our tiny beach seem big. We have regular help keeping the beach clean from the Cork County Council this year - so it looks grand doesn't it?

Today's short post is my attempt to catch the wisdom given me about writing from one of our shopkeepers. David is also an actor and perhaps playwright - a man with great talents. He and I were discussing a brilliant performance of Cambria -a play written and performed by Donal O'Kelly who also did a workshop, which David attended. Bottom line here is that David was telling me the workshop was brilliant and I asked him what was the best remembered bits? "One sentence and three words", he says, "A story ready to tell can be done in one sentence with three defining words."

So here it goes: Our story is about two women who redefine themselves and their live by moving half way around the world! Partnership, persistence, and playfulness.

Any thoughts?
Alana