Hi, everybody!

Some of you might remember that last year I posted about my cousin Helen, who won an EEC wide art competition for high school students. This year, Helen has designed a beautiful Christmas card, which I wanted to share with you — (her school is using it as their official card!)
The colors don’t come out perfectly in my camera phone photo — but isn’t the drawing lovely?

For those who celebrate, I wish you a happy and blessed Christmas, and for those who don’t I wish you a joyous and peaceful new year!

In other news, we’ve got a new and exciting podcast episode up and running — an interview with Megan Whalen Turner, whose “Queen’s Thief” books have won all kinds of accolades and awards.

Here it is, if you’d like to listen:

Or, you can go to the podcast page.

That’s it for today, everyone! Stay well, and enjoy the day!
~D.

Anyone for Guinness?, originally uploaded by Blazingstar.

Hey everybody!

Isn’t this an awesome photo? And definitely in the spirit of St. Patrick’s day, isn’t it!

Blazingstar took this awesome shot, & I hope you enjoy it!

Little dancers, originally uploaded by deirdrej.

I thought everyone might like this picture of two of the youngest dancers from our show the other day ;-D

Enjoy! And have a wonderful day, everyone!

Flying!, originally uploaded by deirdrej.

Our Saint Patrick’s day program this evening was really wonderful, & I thought everyone might enjoy a picture or two. Here are a couple of graceful dancers from the Lynn Academy flying through the air.

Enjoy!

Hi, again, everybody!

I just had to post this — it’s so great! And it’s filmed in Galway! If anybody’s read The Hounds of the Morrigan, the story starts two steps away from where this group performs the song. And the interview later is two steps away from my aunt’s house. But even if you don’t care about that the video is very cool — trust me ;-D

BTW, this is not the same wren song or poem I heard when I was a child. I never heard a tune for that one.

Williamsburg Wren, originally uploaded by William Dalton.

Hello, everyone, and happy (belated) St. Stephen’s Day!

Isn’t this a beautiful picture? I discovered it just now on flickr (William Dalton took it) and it immediately reminded me of an old Irish  tradition for St. Stephen’s day.  In the west of Ireland, kids walk from house to house on this day with a wren in a jar and recite a verse that goes like this:

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds
St. Stephen’s day was caught in the furze.
Although he was small, his family was great.
Rise up! good woman, and give us a treat.

That’s the version I know — but there are others, and some are much longer. When I was a little girl, staying in Connemara over Christmas, I happened to open the door on St. Stephen’s day to a little boy with a wren like this one in a jar, and he recited an entire epic about the wren, (well, a very long poem, anyway), all in Irish. It was very startling! (the wren looked a bit startled, too!)  So I think about wrens, this day of the year — especially that little fellow I saw in a jar that day.  I can’t for the life of me figure out how the kids catch them without hurting them! But he looked quite well, and very pretty, sitting on a twig in a little jar! I hope he raised a large family for himself later!!