Aurora And The Blue Sky

 Since signing up to host a Travelling Blythe, I occasionally wondered what I would do to entertain her when she arrived. I never really thought of anything exciting. And then her imminent arrival was announced! And it's winter, and I'm in a wintry flump. I live in a big town by Irish standards. In summertime we have a lot of touristy things going on, lots of river related activities and even the occasional barbecue at my parents. Winter here is a bit grim to be perfectly honest. But then I thought about what I love about my town. I love the River Shannon, the hidden quiet places, and our great big sky. So that's what I decided to show Aurora today.

Enid (my resident chatterbox) explained the following to Aurora: "Ireland is kind of shaped like a giant saucer, see? A ring of mountains on the coast and all flat like in the middle. So here in the Midlands we look up and see a big giant sky. Unless there's fog. Then we don't see anything". Which is basically true. But I love those ever-changing skies. Mostly grey, sometimes blue. Often raining.

Today was a blue sky day. Hard to believe it was snowing with a white-out sky yesterday. Still freezing cold mind. My girls lent Aurora the Woollyrockers owl sweater as she apparently didn't bring her own. (Enid: "Who comes to Ireland without a sweater?") I'm actually working on one for her to keep, so she'll have her own soon. I really love Aurora's little hats. 

Today we went on my usual walk. From teacupfaery central (The Wacky Shack) we make our way through the town centre. Past the gauntlet of coffee shops in the shopping centre. (Enid: "Jane is allergic to cake you know! So she never takes us to the fancy coffee-cake shops! How sucky is that!" Me: "It's not the cake, it's the gluten, and you are being insensitive!"). Ahem. We stopped outside the library where a nice lady complimented Aurora's outfit. She was very interested in the whole travelling Blythe business :)

After the town centre we headed to the Abbey Graveyard, a ruined abbey on the riverbank which looks particularly peaceful in winter. You can just about see St. Peter and Paul's church across the river. That church contains some particularly epic stained glass by Harry Clarke so it will hopefully be a stop for another day. My camera battery died before we got around to doing much on the other-side of the river, but we made it home before the rain.

I apologise for the high probability of dolly ramblings over the next few days. We are having a lovely time with Aurora. I don't have a very adventurous life but I feel lucky to be able to share it with Blythe. It has been nice to be taking photos outdoors again. It's actually a lot easier than quilt photography, and I missed it. Expect more Athlone adventures soon :)