17th of August - Tatting goes.....banding to Bray
I love Bray, it's one of the most busiest seaside in Ireland around Dublin, it's a gorgeous place to visit, food is amazing, ice-cream that only in Italy you'll find. Crown all that with an amazing performance of my local band. And yes I'm playing with them too, I play percussion (you know all those small bits that make beautiful noise.... Yep, that's me 😁😜🤦🤷)
It's only 1h30 min away from home, but it's always the bands fav place to perform.
Another awesome outing with the band, warm weather, delicious icecream, good performance 😜 I was working on a project for a friend, tatting autumnal leaves for napkin holders, (read all about it here). She wanted those napkin holders for her son's wedding that will take place in September. So my shuttles were smoking while creating those tiny leaves. The patterns was boring simple, but blink and Murphy will put a hold to the whole project. Sheeeesh. I wish Murphy would find another home 🤷🤦. Anyway skipping that obstacle I've actually manages to tat half of the leaf, that I started home, continued in the bus to the venue and back between a snooze, I was tired 🤦
24th of August - Tatting goes....for a ride 😜
Today we decided to go for a drive around. It was a nice spin after I and hubby and father-in-law went for lunch. Lunch was fabulous, I had fried brie on a bed of salad with cranberry sauce vinegrette and a small bowl of chips.... Yummm.... So yummm that I have forgotten to take pics. 😜😁😂 Hubs had kajun chicken wrap and father-in-law had bacon, veg and mash. Anyways....after driving around and admiring the landscape and enjoying the awesome weather we were having, we finally stopped for an ice cream.... One can't beat a 99 in a cup....yum yum...
Don't worry I cleaned my hands after the ice cream (Snowflake Lynn by Jennifer Williams). Tatting snowflakes in 22 degrees it somewhat makes you think and feel cooler. Does it? Kinda... Sorta.... Maybe a teeniny bit....however moving along, when the snowflake will decorate your Xmas tree, you'll think back to the hot, sweaty days of August.
Devouring the mouth watering delight we returned home, looking forward to the next outing.
On the way home we saw this field peppered with straw bales and the photographer in me just had to stop and play 😁😂😜
14th of September - Tatting goes to Kingscourt Band Festival
Kingscourt Band Festival.
St Mary's Brass & Reed Band, Kingscourt, will host 11 Bands and provide an afternoon of delightful musical entertainment, all culminating with the 11 Bands joining forces in a Massed Band Parade at 5.30pm
(pattern
here, Eileen Stafford's Blue Doily)
Once we played our lost energy was quickly restored by a cup of coffee, some snacks and ice cream, purrrrrfect ending of a purrrrrfect day. Among the bands there were old rivals we would bump into at competitions, but today was all about entertainment. 😜😁 Fabulous times and musical memories.
11th of October - Tatting goes North
This year like other years same date same place the band and this tatter/musician goes to Armagh for the championship.
The 2025 Northern Ireland (NIBA) Band Championships will be held on October 11 (Flutes, Accordions, and Concert Bands) and October 18 (All Brass sections) at the Market Place Theatre in Armagh.
1st pic on the buss, full of expectations; 2nd at the venue, 3rd pic is back stage, all set up and ready to play. Judging from the adjudication the person in charge, kind lady was nicely surprised by our performance, she liked what I played and prized many players and sections. Overall good performance that got us the cup for the 4th time. Best band over all Ireland and the Northern Ireland. We'll done everyone involved 😊👍You must have seen my little motif a few times through my posts, I've chosen this for travelling purposes because it's an easy piece, doesn't need much concentration and it's repetitive. (Blue Doily by Eileen Stafford). I always choose something easy when I travel either by car, bus, train or plane, thank goodness there's plenty patterns to chose from. Eventually I get to finish it 😂😁😜
27th of October - Tatting goes to.... Carligford :)
(pattern Beth Zipay TatChat Shuttle, pattern
here )
On the way to Carligford we stopped for some grub. I had salmon with veg and toasties and a healthy dash of white sauce. It was delicious, the salmon just melted in my mouth. Hubs had Mongolian beef and FIL had roast loin of pork with veg and all the trimmings. We washed it down with a very nice cappuccino.
You can read
here all about Carlingford.
14 November 2025 ..... Tatting goes to .... Galway :)
With very little planning we decided to get away for the weekend, a change of scenery does wonders to a challenged mind. Galway will always have a special place in my heart, not because we had our honeymoon there, because when I saw it for the 1st time, I fell in love with the place and the area, Connemara, the Burren, the Wild Atlantic Way etc.
Read
here all about Galway. It was raining when we started our journey this morning, but as we got closer to our destination, the rain stopped, but the wind kept blowing, and no matter how warmly you were dressed, the wind would find a way to get under ones coat. However the chill was fast cured with a nice cup of hot cocoa and a bun, it helped with the "thawing" of frozen knuckles. Bring in the heart of Gaeltachta (Irish Speaking Area) I did my best to use the cúpla focail (few words) I've learnt so far. My efforts were met with with ear to ear smiles from the ladies in the café, which made me giggle with pride.
Our 1st stop was at the Coral Beach, read
here about it. We always stop there when we go to Galway. Today the remnants of the Spanish storm made the wind extremely cold, but that didn't stop me from exploring the beach and gather a few bits of coral and shells. Shortly we will go into the town centre to explore the Christmas Market and have a bite to eat.
I must say the food in the Market was amazing, the hot dogs we had absolutely scrumptious and went down sweetly. We also bought a chimney cake, but it was devoured before I could grab my cam 😜😂
Today inspire of same weather conditions we decided to go to the famous Kylmore Abbey in the heart of Connemara. You can read more about this place
here. We walked around the Victorian Gardens, it's a huge place and I can only imagine what breathtaking can be during summer and spring in full color and splendour. Chilling wind and drizzly rain didn't discourage us, so we soldered on and explored every nook and corner of the garden. A cheeky little Robin was following us through our walk keeping an eye on us.
The wooden sculptures are made by an artist that decided to turn storm victims into art. Amazingly well executed.
on the way back to the hotel we were met by a light traffic jam, a mountain side that was peppered with sheep (can you count how many? 😂🐑⛰️😜) and a gorgeous sunset on the Atlantic that I was managed to catch at the roadside.
Once back in the hotel I was relaxing with my tatting (Mike Lyon: Adagio on Strings) and watching TV until was time again to leave for dinner.
We had the most amazing dinner ever, everything was cooked to perfection, portions were big enough. By the time we've finished, we were full to the gills, but we still had room for few drinks back at the hotel. I had the famous Connemara XO cocktail (yummm, I wanted to tell the waiter keep them coming,) while hubs had beer. (Link to the restaurant
here.)
Next day (Sunday) the sun decided to show up and warm us a bit (annoying isn't it, how on the last day of your holiday the weather improved! Typical🙄), so we went to see the Aquarium and then toddle back home (link
here). This is not my 1st time here, but whenever we are in the area we never skip visiting it. A lot of interesting facts and info about marine life local and international. Worth visiting :)
It was a good weekend, a needed get away, we enjoyed it as much as we could, under the circumstances, I did leave a few tatted bits here and there, hoping whoever finds it will bring a smile on his/her face 😂😁😜
6th of December 2025..... Tatting goes to.... The Christmas Concert
This is a major venue for my local band, everyone looking forward to it. This is the event where weeks and weeks of practising Xmas music and other tunes come together, pulling all the community of this little town together under the same roof for a bit of Xmas cheer. Young and all members performing on the stage brilliantly, parents beaming with pride and anthusiasm. Memories are shared, Santa giving out presents for the younglings....
When I was small I was looking forward to Xmas as a child to get presents, my parents couldn't afford much, but Santa always managed to leave something under the tree for me. As I grew up my views about Xmas have changed and I understood what Xmas was all about....Christmas was never about gifts, it was alway about family, big and small around the table, breaking bread, sharing memories, missing loved ones, being together, going to mass. All the things a family does together on this day....
As Tiny Tim would say: "God bless us every one"
All the best
Anna
