Thursday 18th June Paddy (18) wants to visit Galway City. He hasn’t been in town for three months, whereas we used to go once every couple of weeks. “I just want to go in and get a quiche from the Gourmet Tart Company,” he says in such a wistful voice that I cannot refuse, and…
Monday 15th June It is hot today. We have been spoiled with amazing weather lately, but then some wretched wind came in from the Arctic and we got cold again. Now the good weather has returned. I suggest to Liv (15) that we head off for a snorkel. She’s game, so just after lunch we…
It’s elderflower season in Galway. years ago I used to make elderflower cordial, but I have passed the baton on to my younger daughter Olivia (15), who is as domestically-goddess as I ever was, with the great benefit that she is extremely tidy and organised too, something I never managed. But she loves all the…
My brother Malachy paid us a visit. He bought clams and mussels from the guys down the road. They harvest them down at the shore where I sat on wet sand and sketched the other day, and bring them back to a little shed, where they are filtered (clams) and de-bearded (mussels) and flown all…
I am sewing a lot of pencil cases at the moment. They are gifts for the generous artists who contributed their work to my new book, Urban Sketcher’s Handbook – Drawing Expressive People, because I wanted to say thank you to them. For all I know they all already have loads of pencil cases, and…
It couldn’t last forever. The beautiful harmony we had enjoyed as a family for three whole months of being cooped up together cracked, and after a dinner that had taken me hours to cook one of my kids was rude to me. I am used to it with another of the kids, but not this…
Locked down, still? Yes. We can go no further than 5km from our homes, unless it’s for shopping or essential work. That hasn’t stopped much of Ireland from piling into their cars and travelling across the country for the long weekend. The roads are clogged with D-reg cars, meaning holidaymakers and hundreds of kilometres travelled.…
Thursday 28th May Summer seems to have arrived in Galway. Everything is green and lush and it’s much too hot for anyone in their right mind to go for a walk from about 11.00am (only because we’re not used to it, it’s probably chilly by some people’s standards). My girl Liv (15) lies on the…
Tuesday 26th May I emerge from my studio late this afternoon into a tranquil garden scene. The sun is still warm, even though it is time to start cooking dinner. I have just spent two hours teaching a group of utterly charming children via Zoom, and I need a little rest. I settle back on…
Saturday 23rd May I work on Saturdays until quite late, too late to start cooking dinner. So my husband Marcel cooks on Saturday. I thought it would be nice to capture him in action in the kitchen, and I was put in mind of Parisian urban sketcher Mat Let’s USk Talks Challenge: “Observe and Sketch…