Happy St. Patrick's Day.....

Now that I am the proud owner of a new Irish passport, I feel it is even more important that I embrace my Irish-ness and with it, take the opportunity to wish you all a very Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

As I child and into my adulthood I was always part of my family's St. Patrick's day celebrations, even on a school night!  All day long my mum would be boiling up crubeens (pig's trotters), tripe and onions and lambs tongues, all 'delicacies' that my dad and his friends loved, and these would be wrapped in foil or put in plastic containers to take out to the local Catholic club in the evening, when a fair few pints of The Black Stuff (Guinness) would be consumed to accompany the Irish dishes!!  I'll never forget how greasy everything would feel afterwards, door handles, tables, glasses...YUCK!!!  And no, despite my new Irish citizenship, I've never acquired the taste for any of the above!

Here is a little Irish Blessing for you!

I don't think I have any dolls clothes in green but here is Marisol wearing shades of turquoise....it is after all, the colour of the Irish Sea when it's not stormy!!!!

Who knows, one year I might even have clothing for my dolls that reflects 'special occasions'.....but it's highly unlikely as I'm not that organised!!!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and that the week ahead is a great one for you!

Big hugs, Sharon x

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

Because I've not been able to get out and take any dolly photos recently as I've been busy sewing, I thought I'd share some old photos that I found today on my laptop.  They were taken in  2005 in a place called El Chorro which is located in Malaga Province, here in Andalucia, southern Spain.  These photos show only a very tiny part of it, as it is in fact three artificial lakes created by a dam built across the dramatic 200 m. high Guadalhorce river gorge, known as the Garganta del Chorro.   These were taken at just one of the lakes and they really are soooo turquoise in colour, and the water is really very deep and can be quite cold even in the hot summer months.  It's also a great place to fish!

The first ten photos were taken in April 2005.....

Now I wouldn't mind living in that property right there on the lake, would you?

These last two photos were taken in November 2005...you can see from the shore line that the water level had dropped down considerably since the spring photos above. 

You can see row upon row of Olive groves in the background, all planted in neat straight lines!

I hope you've enjoyed this little bit of Spain and wish everyone a great week ahead :)