Easter Creative Conversation from Jerusalem with Stephanie Bond.
Posts
Kitchen Inspiration: St Patrick’s Day
This Kitchen Inspiration series promised recipes, so today I’m sharing two potato dishes that are firm family favourites around our Irish kitchen table.
Kitchen Inspiration: at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace
Sometimes ‘the music of what happens’, as Seamus Heaney put it, sings out rather beautifully. For example, the timing of…
Kitchen Inspiration: Hospitality in Wartime
This week’s post in my Kitchen Inspiration series shares three things I’ve been learning about hospitality. I had no intention…
Creative Conversations … with Randall Graber from Lesvos Woodcraft
A labour of love: the inspiring story of an olive wood craft project helping refugees on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Kitchen Inspiration: provisions & pancakes
When I was a student, back in the heady days of the 1990s, my parents gave me a little book…
Kitchen Inspiration
The rain has been relentless. Today a friend shared a newspaper artist’s impression of animals peering two by two out…
Turner on a Rainy Day
Learning about art and creativity at the ‘Turner as Inspiration’ exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland.
Twelvetide Introduction
December 26th sees the beginning of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I’ve decided to mark this ancient tradition by posting…
Advent Meditation Fourth Sunday
This is the final week in our Advent journey. We have reached the Meditation for the Fourth Sunday, bringing together…
Advent Meditation Third Sunday
The protagonists in the events of the first Christmas are not just characters in a story in a book or…
Advent Meditation First Sunday
This is the first of four short meditations, one for each Sunday in Advent. Each will include a piece of…
‘Meditación de Otoño’: a new bilingual poem
The story goes something like this: about four decades ago I fell in love. And it was beautiful! The language…
‘He is my refuge’: a meditation.
‘Refuge’ is a word we have heard and read many times in recent months and years. Throughout history, and still…
Abiding in Creativity II
Christ is working in us and through us. This is the hope of glory … God has always been in the business of doing good: binding up the broken; proclaiming freedom and releasing prisoners; establishing justice; comforting those who mourn.
Flowers for the Queen
According to Psalm 116 v 15, ‘Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants’.…
Recuerdos de Soria
If the last few summers were all about the staycation, this summer has gifted a greater degree of freedom. Airport…
‘Learning in War-time’
I begin where I must, with a disclaimer: ‘Learning in War-time’ is a title coined by the great Irish writer…
Creative Conversations … with Hazel Southam
It’s that time of year when the days are longer and brighter, and the spring flowers and sunshine are inviting…
‘Unspeakable Gift’ – a new poem
After all the preparations, after the slow waiting of Advent, Christmas Day has arrived. For some, this Christmas will be…
Heaven’s song
Somehow, back in January 2019, I missed the posting of a video by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Somehow, this morning,…
Autumn at home iii – Telling an untold story
November has been remarkable this year. For one thing, the foliage on the trees, now just beginning to gather in…
Autumn at Home II: ‘Heritage of our Isles’
As far as dilemmas go, having to decide whether to take a short trip to Grasmere in the English Lake…
Autumn at Home I: ‘Still by the water’
‘It’s you, blackbird, I love. I park, pause, take heed. Breathe. Just breathe and sit’ Seamus Heaney, from ‘The Blackbird…
Windows
As I write, it is the first day of October. One year ago exactly it was National Poetry Day, celebrating…
On reading Tolkien (finally)
The secret is out: it has taken me a very long time to pluck up the courage to read Tolkien.…
Towards the Harbour at Ballintoy
From the natural arena of the splendid beach at Whitepark Bay, a path moves eastwards through quiet stretches of sheep…
Walking at Whitepark
There are three routes that I know of that lead to the windswept arc of fine sand at Whitepark Bay.…
By the Water at Portbradden
One of the best ways to admire the jewel-coloured glories of the fuchsia bushes that grace the North Coast is…
Into the Mist at Whiterocks Beach
There is something otherworldly about mist. On this July afternoon, the hottest ever recorded in our part of Ireland, it…
The Road to Dunseverick
There is no better time to cycle along the Aird than mid July. We set out in the early afternoon,…
Start here: Summer at home
Summer is my favourite time of year. I enjoy the earthy colours of Autumn too. And I acknowledge the particular…
Tender plants
This year in County Antrim, Spring has been wonderful, with a welcome introduction of freshness and colour. Yet she seems…
Evensong
It is Easter Saturday. The sun is shining on this quiet day of waiting between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.…
Primrose Poems
In the beautiful Spanish language, a language close to my heart, the word Primavera can be used to translate our…
Welcome to Writing Home
A friend asked me recently if there was a place where the pieces that I write might be found gathered…
Gifts of light
It’s mid December, and the duties of a long, demanding semester have finally come to an end. I’m sitting quietly…
Books, bakes, baroque & blossoms: best of ’25.
Usually I refrain from end of year reviews. This year I decided to buck that trend, and indulge, in the…
Creative Conversations …with Judith McQuoid
It’s December already – I can hardly believe it! The weeks seem to be flying round, and as the next…