Those of you who read my blog will know that I have attended some flower arranging classes and I love them! They are finishing up this week though so I will then have to keep putting all I have learned into practice. The clocks went forward last night which means we have longer evenings. I like getting out and about in the evening time particularly now that spring has really set in. I have some extra days off work this week and the week after for Easter. Below are a few images from around my home this weekend.

From top left; Over my wood burning stove in the snug, the picture is from the Spanish Arch in
Galway and the rest of the photos are my Easter/Spring flower arrangements in my entrance hall

From top left; my dining room table with lilies and greenery and the rest of the photos are my other flower arrangements.

Now that Spring is here, I am itching to go shopping for home interiors. For the moment though, I can lust after the items below. All are cheap and cheerful and would really brighten up the home. All of these items can be purchased online but I much perfer to go to the shop myself and take a look at the items first. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and enjoying the Spring weather....

{Images from Dunnes Stores}

{Images from Heatons}

Hope you all have a wonderful Saint Patrick's Day.
Below are two collages of some of my images from rural Ireland.

{Images: All things nice...}

With Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow, I decided to post some photographs of the landscape around me here in rural Ireland. Those of you that read my blog will know that I spend all my time in the Irish countryside. I work in rural Ireland and I am passionate about the future of our rural areas. I am married to a full time farmer and this is rare nowadays as there are fewer full time farmers in this area. In my free time, I love wandering around the farm taking photographs of the beautiful landscape around me. Farmers are custodians of our landscape, they have shaped it over the years and utilised the landscape to make a living. I never lived on a farm until three years ago and I now know first hand how hard farmers work. My husband works up to 12 hours every day, apart from Sunday when he takes a few hours off during the day to spend some time with me (he still works around 7 hours on a Sunday). On top of the 12 hour days, there are hours of time spent up during the night with cows calving. To me, farming is much more than a job, it is a vocation and a lifestyle.

Things have been busy here these past few weeks. I attended my second flower arranging class again on Tuesday night and it was great. We prepared a basket flower arrangement with some beautiful flowers, lovely shades of pale pinks, lilacs and purples with white mixed through. Hope you like it. I went out for a lovely long walk this evening and picked some wild daffodils from the meadow. I generally don't like picking them but I feel they are wasted out in the middle of a field when my husband will more than likely spray slurry all over the field soon. So my home is full of lovely blooms this week, just what we need for Spring! Today the sky was blue; bright blue skies gives you more energy and entices you outside so much more than the dull days of winter. I get an extra long break from work this week as it is Saint Patrick's Day on Tuesday and I am taking Monday off as well. Hope you have nice plans for the weekend...

Every Spring I like to try something new. This year I have decided to try flower arranging. Below are the results of my first session. I have enrolled in a course in a local community centre for four nights. I am really interested in flowers and am looking forward to preparing a few more arrangements of my own. Next week we are trying a basket flower arrangment. Have you ever tried flower arranging?

This morning we woke to a winter wonderland with lots of snow everywhere. There was a chill in the air. I took a stroll around and as the day went on it snowed even more. I picked some daffodils yesterday- how pretty do they look with their little heads popped up against the white backdrop of snow. Did you have snow today? There is still a lot of snow out there now, so fingers crossed that it doesn't freeze too much tonight and I get to work in the morning.