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Typical Piscean, dreamer, story teller in the tradition of my country, I love to write. I'm not sure that I'm any good at it, but getting the words down has its reward.

16 July 2009

A meme from Frances...hmmmm!

So, I have been tasked by Frances to do a meme, well, here goes....it will be my usual random stuff

Five Favourite Songs;

  1. Flowers in the rain [forget the bands name but think 60's era]
  2. Scarborough Fair - Simon & Garfunkle [used to sing this in the folk group I was a member of back in the days of folk Masses.
  3. At Vinegar Hill O'er the pleasant Slaney...good old fashioned rebellious ballad.
  4. Such a perfect day [I'm glad I spent it with you...] love this song - sums up - well, perfect days perfectly.
  5. I will survive - Gloria Gaynor...this came out in the 70's when I was going through the break up of my first engagement - and that's engagement in terms of out and out warfare between The Plonker and I, thank God for OH.

Five Favourite films

  1. Watership Down [the original]...still get glisteny eyes when I hear "Bright Eyes"
  2. Ryan's Daughter, what's not to like? Robert Mitchum, The Kerry scenary, and an ill-cast Christopher Jones!
  3. Mogambo, Clarke Gable - There were two versions of this, 1932 Red Dust, starring Gable and Jean Harlow, and 1953 the overblown Mogambo with the glorious Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly. Have to say that Harlow & Gardner were the heroines for me in both, and as for Gable himself...swooooooon!
  4. Rear Window - Jimmy Stewart - never get tired of this film!
  5. The Maltese Falcon with my man Bogart...and I could go on, and on and on with The Thin Man, any of the Powell/Loy films, anything with Bogart & Bacall - if its a B&W I'm hooked!

Five Favourite Books

Frances, darling...I'm a bookworm and that's like asking me to make Solomon's choice!!! Here goes a few...

  1. "Peig", [Peg] the autobiography of Peig Sayers who lived on An Blascaoid Mhór [The Big Blasket] off Slea Head, Co Kerry. I love the lilt of the language, the story of her life - the whole thing. At school we were given this book to study, in Irish, for our Intermediate Certificate [O levels] and it is generally referred to as the bain of Irish students...however, having Munster Irish myself, it was a joy to me and no hassle at all to study. I treated myself to an English translation [by that wonderful Kerry author Bryan McMahon] when on holidays recently.
  2. "Wellington", by Richard Holmes - I love anything to do with The Iron Duke, despite his denial of being Irish ["...a man may be born in a stable..." but he was from Trim, Co Meath, and he was a brilliant master of strategy.
  3. "News from No Man's Land" - John Simpson. I have the highest regard for this man, and read anything I can get my hands that he is the author of. I love his reports from ... wherever he is. He is a truly classic reporter who reports the facts and doesn't try to impose HIS viewpoint on his listener/reader. Unlike so many modern colleagues of his who seem to think that the general public must be nose led to the thinking trough.
  4. "Darling Buds of May" - H. E Bates. This is one of those "comfort zone" books that you take out into the garden of a summers day, as you relax and sip a cool drink [although with recent weather that should probably read strong hot drink or nip of whisky] and watch the butterflies on the Buddleia.
  5. "Yes Minister"/"Yes Prime Minister" Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay's hilarious spoof of the ministry of James Hacker M.P. No matter where, when or in what Government crises - this one is a winner.

Five Favourite crushes eh?

  1. O.H., [should have been a politican with that one eh? ]
  2. Robert Mitchum
  3. Clarke Gable
  4. Chris Jones [when I was 15]
  5. A skinny, spotty, lank haired individual who, back in the days of being 13, I thought was a God...it lasted for six impassioned weeks - love from afar - until he sat down on the bus beside me one day and said hi. Loved died on a cross of bad breath, body odour and acne...the close up view was sadly lacking in the "from a distance" view. Met him two years ago at an agricultural show. His teeth are - well six to the gum, his beer belly preceeded him into the tent where his current wife was displaying her brown and soda breads, and he is farming on a sheep farm. It would never have worked. I'm a cattle person at heart being a Dairy farmers grand-daughter!

Five Random Things...aha!

  1. Sunday's when we are all fogged in here, and I can hear the fog horns in the Bay and the Woodpigeons clump across the lawn, wings down, depression on their feathers as they pick among the wet blades of grass for a tasty morsel of bug.
  2. Sunshine streaming in the sitting room window early on a summer's morning, the window open and the same wood pigeons cooing, magpies chattering and the Robin singing his little heart out before they all go quiet for the July/August moult. The buzzing of the bee's and the smell of the new rose I planted under the window - rich as Turkish delight - coming into the room.
  3. Cattle lowing as they are being milked, that deeply satisfied sound of theirs which tells you that the heavy udders are being lightened and they are looking forward to going back out to graze in their meadows.
  4. Leaning on the gate having a natter with the neighbours, or down the lane chatting to pals I grew up with - and reminiscing on our youth, that is when we can remember that far back :-}
  5. The play of sunlight and shade on the Sliabh Mish mountains viewed from The Spá [spaw] across Tralee Bay as the clouds cross over and create the different highlights on each peak. It is at moments like this you thank God you are alive and no matter what burden he has sent you to carry, you just know that he has sent you the back to bear it.

So there it is, my meme...and I have just remembered - it was The MOVE who sang Flowers in the Rain.

7 comments:

Frances said...

I thank you so much, Irish Eyes, for taking up the tag.

Your favorites are so intriguing. Lots that I have never before heard or thought of. It's great to have that collection of recommendations!

However, I must ask, is there some reason that the fabulous Mme Pounce does not figure in any of those categories?

xo

Faith said...

Definitely with you on Watership Down film - you say the original, do you mean the original cartoon that came out in, I believe, 1979? I was heavily pregnant then, and totally uncomfortable at the cinema. Bright Eyes always reminds me of my daughter though it's so sad.

Irish Eyes said...

Mme Pounce, the fiendish hussy pussy, no longer lives with us. She resides, in regal pawcontrol over YD and ED in the old matrimonial home. She occasionally decides to visit us, and one would assume that the Queen was coming to stay, talk about the Royal Progress...

She has psychological issues, feels a strong sense of abandonment that she has been left by The Two, who appear intermittently at the MH, she has taken YD under her manipulative paw and when that young lady returns home from work each evening, a priority yowl is sent her way "starve all you want, but feed me first". I continue to have a love hate relationship with the fussy-pussy, and view her eventual establishment here with some trepidation...murder one magpie madam and you are OUT. However YD maintains that she will abandon home here if that happens!

Frances said...

Oh, you are so funny!

Glad to see that Mme P has got her training of the next generation well underway.

xo

Cait O'Connor said...

Ah Robert Mitchum. I too had a crush on him and I have another Irish friend who did as well... by the way- did you know he wrote poetry and had Irish blood?
I loved reading this post IE.

Kimberly said...

Especially like the first two random things! Love to listen to the fog horn down the way too, even better with a steaming hot cup of java. And I like the photo of your kitty washing paws in the sink. silly things, mine does that too. :)

Graham Edwards said...

Flowers in the Rain was, as you say, performed by the rock band The Move and was the first song to be played on the UK's Radio 1 when it was launched in 1967.

Interesting.