I’ve added a new range to my I Love Mayo site. I’ve called it my “Love Ireland” range. Hope you like them. So far there are 6 typographic prints. Love Ireland is all about referencing Irish culture in a contemporary, bright and fresh way. Ireland is a modern country; it’s not all about leprechauns and shamrocks! That’s just my opinion of course!

I plan to add more prints very soon. The prints are available, mounted and unmounted on the site, starting at €8.00 each and are sized to fit into standard frames. If you have suggestions of sayings or quotes that you would like to see added to the range, do let me know.

I’ve set up an I Love Mayo page on Facebook. Please ‘like’ it if you are passing through. I also have an I Love Mayo account on Twitter.

Meanwhile in the hen house, our little Janet has two tiny chicks of her own. I must say, since we introduced new cockerels, Jedward, there has been a lot of activity.

When we lived in London the sound of a helicopter sometimes kept us awake at night. We knew it would be a police helicopter chasing some criminals or other and so it became quite a menacing noise. Now it’s the sound of excitement. I love to see it swoop over our roof and watch it hover as the next load is attached to the hook before it sweeps out over Clew Bay to the Island and back again. Then after all the excitement, I get to make tea for the pilot and flirt a little

For once, ‘bad mother’ Calypso is looking after her chicks properly! Regular readers will be aware that in previous years she has abandoned her chicks and on some occasions, pecked them and thrown them out of the nest. This has meant that in the past, we’ve had to try and raise the chicks ourselves in a cardboard box in the kitchen. This always causes problems and definitely reduces the chances of survival for the little cuties, especially when it comes to the time we have to re-introduce the chicks to the flock.

This year however, she has behaved beautifully. She has 7 chicks. On the day that she left her nest, she left one chick for dead but it recovered after Al discovered it in time and I kept it nestled in my bra for a couple of hours (yes, really). She accepted the chick back and has been looking after them like a proud mother. In the last few days she has brought them out into the run for the first time and has been demonstrating scratching techniques and other hen-like behaviour. It’s been a joy to watch.

We haven’t even thought about naming the new chicks yet as we have no idea what sex they are… In the past, my eagerness to name them has resulted in hen’s called Mick and Dave and a cockerel named La Toya! Naming suggestions are welcome.

Here she is leading them into the hen house. The one in the love heart is my special favourite.

You can see enlarged versions of my pictures on I Love Mayo.

I’m really excited (and a bit nervous) to have my work on show and very grateful to Trisha and James at The Creel for being so supportive.

Yes I really do and just to prove it, today marks the launch of ilovemayo.com. To start with, this is where I’m selling my own original paintings and prints. I plan to sell locally produced art by other artists, photographers and craftspeople. I’ve always been surprised at the lack of locally produced gifts and souvenirs for sale in the area. Many gift shops sell products that have very little in common with the Ireland of today, let alone products actually produced here.

I will personally source products that I consider to be appropriate to sell and add them to the ilovemayo range over time. If you are a Mayo artist, photographer or craftsperson, and would be interested in ilovemayo selling your products for you, please contact me.

In time, I hope to be able to provide the very best of Mayo products in one place. As always, it’s Al who’s done all the hard work on this project so well done Al, he’s made a great job of the site! Hope you like it.

The view of Croagh Patrick across Clew Bay from The Mulranny Park Hotel

I’ve been painting quite a lot recently. I’ve put 3 new paintings in my online portfolio. There’s the one above, one of Trudi and one of the view from the shore in front of our house. Mounted prints of the picture above will go on sale at the Mulranny Park Hotel in the next few weeks. The original painting is quite large. Full sized digital prints on canvas (Edit: I originally typed ‘giclée prints’ here. It’s the same thing but giclée sounds too pretentious) will also be available for sale there. I’m quite excited about the whole thing.

My last email to RTÉ has been passed on to the person responsible for compliance processes. I’ll report back when I get a response. I’ve heard nothing from the ASAI yet. Not even an acknowledgment of my complaint.
In the meantime, I just can’t resist getting another word in on the subject. RTÉ say that they don’t advertise online to children and seem to think that children won’t access the RTÉ home page. I beg to differ…sometimes, their actions contradict this. Here’s an example: