Another week has almost passed by, with some joyful moments, big and small. One big joy this week has been improved weather! Finally some sunshine, less windy, and some very pleasant days. Still chilly, but not bad!

Photoshoots by the sea

On Monday I went with my camera club friend for some beach photoshoots. We have a coastal-themed competition coming up, and I have absolutely NO ideas. Monday offered nice sunshine, and although very pleasant, bright sunshine makes photos very contrasty. These won’t tickle any photo judge’s fancy, but I still like them because I love waves, I love the sea, and I had such a good time making these.

St Patrick’s day

Yesterday was St Patrick’s day, and celebrations are back! Whether it’s been an unwise choice to remove mask mandates and other Covid restrictions before St Patrick’s day remains to be seen. If we only see an increase in infection rates (which is very much expected) – fine. If hospital numbers and deaths also skyrocket – not fine. We saw the parade in town and honestly, I feel safer inside the pub on Tuesdays! However, I enjoyed the parade and having St Patrick’s day back as more than just a bank holiday. The parade in our little town showcases local companies, services, schools, and other activities. I always enjoy seeing them, particularly important services such as the Lifeboats, West Cork Rapid Response, and this year also Red Cross which I’m not sure I’ve seen there other years. This year they play an important role everywhere, of course.

Back to O’Neill’s bar – again

After the parade, there’s usually a music session in the hotel bar. I may feel ok about playing music in there on a Tuesday night, but not so much on St Patrick’s day considering the huge crowds – plenty of people go in for a coffee or other drink after the parade and the pub is usually packed on Paddy’s day. So we went back to the office, and later my husband suggested we’d go to Butlerstown and O’Neill’s bar to say hello to Mary and just enjoy the day. This was the absolute highlight of St Patrick’s day 2022!

I didn’t know what to expect in terms of crowds but there was only Mary, and a lovely local couple in there and we took a beer and had some good chats. Mary was in good form and looked fabulous. Being back there brought back such nice memories of what life can, and should, be like, and hopefully can be again! Honestly, I felt like being back in 2019. The atmosphere out there reminded me of all the good things about living in Ireland, the people we’ve missed during the pandemic, what we enjoyed most when we first moved here, all the good times spent in that pub with friends. In addition, with its remote location, it’s certainly a refreshing place and especially on this day being there gave such calm. We decided to come back on Sunday night, if all goes well, and play some music like we used to do in the good old days.

Spiders and social media

Some of you may remember this post and my love and fascination for spiders. Some may also know that I’m not a big fan of social media. Ironically I have two Twitter accounts and two Instagram accounts. I have a Facebook account but barely use it, especially after the pandemic started. I dislike it so much but have important contacts there.

However, I’m a member of a spider id group on Facebook, and it’s quite active. Recently I also joined an Australian spider id group. So now, most of my Facebook feed is about spiders. How fabulous is that! I’m learning a lot about Australian spiders. I mostly knew about redbacks, funnel webs, and huntsmen, but now I “get to know” many other species. And I found a British spider association, with a Twitter account. I now follow them, so my Twitter feed is also filled with spider posts. Social media has become so much less annoying to use! When I need to have accounts anyway, I can just as well make it pleasant to browse there!

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Over to you… how was your week? Have you had any joyful moments? You do look for them, right? Let me know in the comments!

This post is linked with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share.