Wow Wow Wow!

I'm only just going to start this blog update and probably will continue/finish it tomorrow as it feels like a lot has happened since I last properly wrote here...


Out of the blue I got a private message on my Selkie facebook page a little while ago, asking if I'd like to do an interview with their magazine as they had seen my blog (!) and liked it (!!!)

http://www.inspiredcrochet.com/

that's the link to their website, I kind of thought it might have been a joke at first because my blog never really feels very professional to me, and I always imagine really that I am writing it for myself rather than an 'audience'; but yes, they were genuinely interested and after I'd sent back my answers I waited with baited breath!

I still can't quite believe it -- I think it was a really lovely piece and they chose some fab photos from my blog/listing pics --- they had asked me to choose a few myself but I couldn't decide so I left it to their discretion and think that they chose really well :)

I'll see if I can take a screenshot or something to give you an idea of what it looked like; this is the link to the actual magazine which you buy online and then it downloads on to your computer/tablet or whatever.

Another big thing that's happened recently is that I've been on the news again :)

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it in here before or not but I am a member of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and have volunteered to go out to any local strandings to take photos, measurements, take a skin sample and verify the gender and the species. It's pretty interesting really, and of course I love being by the sea anyway. Sometimes it isn't exactly pleasant but I think it's such a good idea to get everything recorded, and the skin samples go up to Dublin where they are stored, ready for any research or studies.

Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon this week I'd a phonecall from my stranding coordinator to say that there was a report of two whales on the White Strand, about 12 miles away. So Peter and I set out in order to get there before dark -- it's been SO stormy lately that I was worried that whatever was there would have been taken back out by the turn of the tide. All we could find there was a dead common dolphin so I did my stuff and we headed back - only to be met by a man who said that the whale was on Cuas Crom, just a little further up the coast. We nipped over there, just as it was blowing a gale and getting dark - to find a dead pilot whale! We took a quick measurement, some photos (using the flash on my camera as it was dark) and headed back home. I set off there at daybreak the next day to find not one but two pilot whales and another common dolphin :(

I decided against adding a photo of the whales and dolphins, they aren't very photogenic really :( so here's my lovely husband battling against the wind while we were looking along the white strand.


It's so sad to see even one dead whale or dolphin, let alone three like that in such a small area.

It turned out that a journalist for RTE (our national tv station) wanted to shoot a piece about it, as it isn't an isolated event -- just lately there have been more than normal strandings recorded around the Irish coast.

You can watch the video here if you like http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2013/0206/3483108-concern-over-dolphin-strandings-on-west-coast/#category=Ireland - at first I thought it would just play within Ireland but it's international so everyone can take a look and laugh at my accent!

I've been doing a tonne of beach combing now that the worst of the stormy weather is over - it feels SO good to be back!

 I found all these goose barnacles on a buoy that had come all the way from America!! Imagine that journey ;)

 I've always collected any pieces of sea glass that I've found but I've started actively looking for it so that I can sell it in my Etsy shop...
 

and look! I've found pieces of sea-pottery too!

So far I've started selling the bigger pieces of glass as mermaid's/selkie's tears in my shop - I've sold one already!! Isn't it just gorgeous? It was the most lovely shade of blue and is even tear-drop shaped.

I've only got one set of tears listed in my shop at the moment but I found all those pieces in the 'group' photo today so that will keep me busy for a while...The blue is my most favourite colour of sea glass :)

I'll finish up for now but hopefully will be back tomorrow to finish updating on life and everything else so watch this space....