Fiacre Banks

@xFiacre (13289)

Ireland

Joined myLot 10 years ago

An Irishman who has called many places home, enjoys whiskey in moderation and reads Dostoyevsky frequently.

Fiacre Banks's Discussions

Girls and more girls.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 18h

I’m back in Ireland for a while, and next week we’ll drive up to Donegal for our daughter’s birthday before flying to Scotland to see another daughter then down to England to see yet another daughter. I do love having daughters -...

3 responses •

5 people

Random plantings.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 18h

My style of gardening is random rather than planned - I just take notions and do daft planting, and the result this month is as photoed above. I do tend to forget what has been planted where, but at least I get colourful, zesty...

5 responses •

7 people

Tariffs on pyjamas? Yes please.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 23h

I note from my isolated little idyl, complete with quacking ducks and croaking frogs, that manipulation by tariffs is the order of the day. Much as I view this as folly, I would excuse it if applied to price certain harmful...

7 responses •

9 people

Angel and us.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 10 Mar

Bells from the distant village Church reached us through the Brittany mist as today’s vespertine hour arrived, the air heavy with farmyard whiffs. The Angelus, calling people to lay down tools and toys for a moment and to...

3 responses •

6 people

Pesto, jacuzzi and a vivid sky.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 9 Mar

My contribution to this evening’s repast is pesto Genovese. When I asked what we were having for dinner I was told “Pasta”. I then had the temerity to ask “With what?” That was not appreciated so I thought I’d better take charge....

4 responses •

5 people

Rude city.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 8 Mar

I learned today, while doing an online quiz, that the small Caribbean island of Saba (which is part of the Netherlands) has as its capital a city called The Bottom. Oh yes - Google it. Now maybe you knew this, but I didn’t, and it...

4 responses •

5 people

Put it away Max.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 7 Mar

Max is certainly an odd sort of person for me to have as a nephew. Twenty seven years old, lanky and with a beard and a messy mop of very lustrous hair, he has recently graduated from a university in the Netherlands studying...

4 responses •

5 people

Ennui.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 6 Mar

Frost really took hold of the fields last night and they looked spooky but smart this morning. With a cold shower taken in a cold bathroom behind me, I took a walk among the trees down to the duck pond: it’s just water lying in a...

5 responses •

6 people

Bathroom from Hades.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 3 Mar

The bathroom in this house is enormous, bigger than my bedroom - too big a space to house just a shower, wash hand basin and a toilet, and the ceiling is extra high. The window is set higher in the wall than I can reach, which...

6 responses •

7 people

Earth stood hard as iron …..

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 2 Mar

The house I’m staying in is two kilometres back from the coast on an exposed plain and a murderous frost took hold of it last night. We spent a lovely evening in front of the open fire in the kitchen with wine, and it was only...

6 responses •

7 people

Erquy.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 1 Mar

Erquy is cold and pink, especially at sundown in early spring. The pink is due to the local sandstone used in buildings and paving, the cold is due to the town being found in Brittany, northern France. I like small coastal towns...

3 responses •

5 people

An Irishman happily lost in France with no sign of Bonnie Tyler.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 28 Feb

There’s a tousle-haired weirdo sitting at a small, round table on the pavement outside a café down by the harbour in a small village on the coast of Brittany. All the other customers have sought refuge inside the café, but this...

3 responses •

5 people

It’s a rainy night in Paris.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 18 Feb

I can think of nothing sweeter than to wander the streets of Paris on a cold February night with rain falling. I’ve been doing a lot of that and now I’ve stepped into a bar at Place de la Contrescarpe for a whiskey. It’s the bar...

7 responses •

9 people

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 21 Dec

Walking along Princes Street this afternoon I felt intimidated by the crowds of shivering shoppers bearing down on me, and it seemed that everyone was going in the opposite direction to me, that I was invisible and was going to be...

6 responses •

6 people

Bumfuzzled.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 1 Dec

December has rolled in, but you knew that. In rolling in it has obnubilated the soft November memories that I’m desperately trying to hold onto because I find December to be the most depressing of all the months, what with...

2 responses •

5 people

No Nonsense November.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 19 Nov

Today’s date, the twentieth of November, issues forth with a sober and serious tone when said aloud, don’t you think? There’s certainly nothing twinkly about it, in fact if dates were occupations this one would be a bank manager...

2 responses •

3 people

Cold at last.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 19 Nov

Today is the first time I’ve actually felt cold this winter, and the first I’ve worn a sweater outside. The temperature has dropped to 4 degrees, the sky is piercingly blue and the strong, cold shafts of light coming like arrows...

5 responses •

7 people

Under a murderous sky.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 15 Nov

Late this afternoon, as dusk was starting to gather, I took myself out into the back garden with a bottle of red wine. A mild November afternoon it was, the air full of the smell of decay and the trees almost devoid of leaves....

6 responses •

5 people

Drifting about a bit.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 22 Oct

I was taken by surprise this afternoon by a burst of unexpected autumn sunshine. I sat in the back garden for half an hour, sheltered from neighbours’ eyes and cold winds and I took a bottle of red wine with me though I only had a...

6 responses •

8 people

Free lunch.

Fiacre Banks @xFiacre (13289) • Ireland 28 Sep

A man came over to our table as we lunched today - I was having souvlaki. I assumed he was checking that we were satisfied with our food, but no. He was telling us that he was paying for our meal. Oh. Why? He was overjoyed that...

8 responses •

9 people