Home Sweet Home #BEDN

Home for me is on the west coast of Ireland in Co.Clare. It's been my home for 17 years, even if I've lived other places over the years too! The scenery is just stunning and so for today's Blog Ever Day in November post I'm going to share some of my favourite photos I've taken of the area.

Day at the beach

Beautiful bluebells

Didn't find a pot of gold!

This used to be the view from my front door!

Snowfall from 2009

Sunrise

This was taken on the island seen in distance of previous picture!

What are you lookin at?!

St, Patrick's Day 2015

Beautiful October day

Another gorgeous sunset

Not the west coast but this was from landing in Shannon, I love this view welcoming me home!

Current Music Loves!

Just a quick post with a few videos of songs I’m loving right now! Most are ones I’ve only discovered in the last week or so.

Let Me Go- Maverick Sabre

I heard this three times on the radio before I finally got the name of the artist! Maverick Sabre is London born but Irish raised and quite frankly I love this song. It reminds me of something Cee Lo Green might do, his voice has a lovely soulful quality. I played this to my boyfriend and he thought it was boring! My brother and sister however love it and hopefully you will too.

Bright Lights Bigger City- Cee Lo Green

Speaking of Cee Lo Green, I am still in love with this song. The beat is from Billie Jean and the violins remind me of ‘You Only Live Once’ by Nancy Sinatra. I’m a sucker for songs with violins really! This is an unlisted video that I had saved before they made it unlisted, I love all the pretty lights from New York.

She Said- CocknBullKid & Clare Maguire

CocknBullKid has apparently been on the music scene since at least 2008, when her debut single came out, but I only came across her yesterday. I’m listening to her other songs on her channel, but I just love this cover version of ‘She Said’ by Plan B. She opened for my 2010 music love Janelle Monae’s UK tour this year so I’m looking forward to getting to know more of her songs.

BE- Rhian Benson ft Jonas

Rhian Benson’s first album came out in 2003 but yet again, I only discovered her yesterday. This song was the second single from her second album and it’s got a dreamy quality to it, while at the same time being a bit quirky. It reminds of something you’d hear from Moloko’s ‘Make and Do’ album.

Moves Like Jagger- Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera

I’ve said it before, Adam Levine is a fine specimen of mankind. His voice is as sexy as his looks and this song shows it. I love the music too, it makes me want to dance!

What are your favourite songs at the moment? Both old and new, I’d love to hear them!

I have some stalkers…

 

There seems to be an abundance of swallows around my house and I often look out my window to see twenty or so of them there, sitting along the roof. However, they are getting cheekier!

And not just one, but loads!

  

It’s like a scene for Hitchcock’s The Birds! But I love looking out and watching them. It reminds me of when I was 10 in Fourth Class, when my class and I got to take turns to watch birds outside the classroom window thanks to out teacher being a keen bird watcher.

Local Tourist Part 1

Kat from thedemuremuse.com hit the nail on the head when she commented being a ‘local tourist’ on my Staycation post. That is what I have spent a good chunk of this summer doing, exploring my local surroundings and tourist attractions. It’s always something you aim to do but never get around to. It’s such a shame too, cos when people ask you what there is to do when visiting, you can usually rattle off a number of different places of interest to visit. Which naturally leads to their next question ‘Is it any good?’ and the reply is usually I don’t know, I’ve never been/haven’t been there since I was a child.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland is The Cliffs of Moher in Co.Clare. I’ve been there a few times before and all recent enough. But when a friend said she wanted to a do a boat tour along the bottom of the Cliffs, I leapt at the chance!

We left from Liscannor Bay, after getting a deal on the price of tickets and set off in the speed boat. I was glad I wore my jacket, as there was a good breeze when out in the water! We were lucky that it wasn’t raining though I say it would have still looked as beautiful as it did. To see the Cliffs from a different perspective was amazing, they looked almost majestic.

 

One of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing the caves used the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince film.

 

Hopefully you can see from the above photo the colour of the water. It was incredible, a gorgeous emerald green that I desperately tried to capture on picture but couldn’t truly capture the brilliance of no matter how many pictures I took.

Another thing I loved about this tour were all the birds! Millions of them, on the cliff side, in the air and in the water. We tried to sneak up on some puffins on the water but they were wise and flew away.

The trip was well worth it and I was easily go back again, especially if it was sunset as I think that would be even more beautiful.

Some pretty pictures!

One thing I love about summer (once the sun is shining) is that there are so many pretty things to photograph! Here are some pictures I took yesterday when I went for a walk.

Memories and Music: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

I started writing this the other night but the procrastinator in me failed to go back to complete it until now!

I love most types of music, I'm willing to give every genre at least one shot (though inevitably there are certain types of music I just don't like). Like a lot of people, certain songs and albums remind me of different times in my life. I love the feeling of hearing a song you have forgotten about and all the memories flooding back in. It can be very bittersweet though, as while we prefer to remember happier times, certain songs remind us of sadder times in our lives. It can be upsetting but in a slightly twisted way, I like it, as without low points, they're couldn't be high points.

This album however is definitely full of good memories. I first discovered The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in the summer of 2002. I went to London for my cousin's First Holy Communion and stayed with my Nana, in my aunt's room, which I was only delighted about. It was crammed full of interesting books, magazines and cds for me to discover during my stay. This one stood out. I just fell in love with it. I remember buying the cd in an airport on the way home (at a better price!) and have adored it ever since. I would have called myself a casual Lauryn Hill fan before, I liked her Fugee stuff and Sister Act 2 is one of my many guilty pleasures, but this album really instilled my love of Ms Hill. Everything about this album is amazing to me, her voice, her clever lyrics and awesome rapping skills. My favourite songs off it are probably Doo Wop (That Thing) and Everything is Everything, though I love the whole album and wait like most Lauryn Hill fans for another possible album (which at the time of writing could be coming soon enough).

The memories that this album bring are probably what a lot of people, especially Irish people, remember of the summer of 2002: The World Cup. Not only do I remember the matches and the Roy Keane 'situation' but also the atmosphere in London at the time, especially amongst the Irish community there. It was so full of hope and excitement. This album brings back a lot of happy family memories, which I think stand out more in my mind because I remember listening to this album there. Dinners, singing, shopping, playing football and just enjoying life in general, in a city that I love.

And while this isn't a memory as such, it does help to remind me to stay positive. I'm not a natural optimist, so whenever I need help in keeping my chin up, I turn to this album and in particular this line in Everything is Everything: 'Develop a negative into a positive picture'. Beautiful