Another long (summer) day in Ireland

Facing Mr. Bull.

Dee and Mary looking swell.

Everyone pitching in to turn the hay.

Has Sean got pom-poms?

Where did Patrick disappear to?

Small boy, far away and rapidly retreating.

Hay is fun to blanket yourself under.

Apparently that is the case for frogs too.

Aw he's cute. And now, won't be tossed or furrowed or baled!

After a long morning's work in the sun, a cool bit of wading...

...dam-building...

...and stone washing.

What, there's more? Why yes, we went to pick raspberries!

Bottoms up!

A wild part of the walk. A determined walker.

Look how many raspberries Aine and Aoife picked!

One long day in Ireland

At the playground, swinging along, ...

... and spinning around.

At the farm.

Herding sheep.

Hanging out.

Brian looking cute.

Anthony with ol' Minnie.

Granny Ann found the lost lamb.

Looking fly with a hip hop lid.

A goodnight story with Grandad.

Wiped out after a long day, falling asleep reading a book (upside down).

Close Encounters of a Sheepish Kind

That thing is a lot bigger than me. But if I stay close to Daddy's legs maybe it will think I am as big as it.


All in all though I feel safer up here, looking at what is going on down there.


And what a lot is going on! Grabbing sheep, splashing in footbaths, climbing fences...

Flipping sheep!


And... selling them? What are those two up to?



Aunt Deirdre looks like she knows...

Totally Transported

Giddy up, Granny Ann!

Cruising in a chair-car with Aoife.

Little tractor...

BIG tractor!

Fire engine/knight's steed.

My turn to be the transport. Pulling a seaweed trailer in Tramore.

Back to Space

Last month, we touched down again on the planet of the Space Cousins from Space. Here we are, mingling with the natives.



The local nutritive substances were intriguing, as were the implements used to ingest them. I learned a lot of fun things to do with food from my Space Cousins.



No trip to Space would be complete without a session of the Intergalactic Council. Here I am, working with Mr. Dog to fight a popular but ill-advised motion. In the end Mr. Dog recused himself, but the motion failed in any case due to cookies. Intergalactic diplomacy is complicated.



Space Cousins appear to have the same number of fingers as people on our planet. But why is she hiding her feet?



Cousin Tom showed me how to use a novel form of virtual reality generator. One's motions and gestures become reified in a temporary platform of concrete abstraction. And there is a pen on a string.



Cousin Aoife liked riding around on a Space Horse. I tried to figure out how I could do the same with my favorite vehicle, the Space Digger. But the diggers seemed to have originated on a smaller planet.



Wow there's a lot of Space Cousins! I hope Space is big!

Boys, balloons, and books

Sure, playing with balloons is fun. For a while.



But then you just want to curl up with a good book.

Diggin' the Digger

So much gravel. So many diggers. So little time.



Diggers make babysitting easy.



Everyone likes diggers.



But sometimes you just need a break from diggers, you know?



Then back to work, team.



Teammates come and go.



But Leo has found his calling. Dig. DIG. DIG!