Autumn has officially arrived. The leaves are just starting to turn color and the drizzle/mist and chill wind has arrived.
It makes for a moody and yet lovely photograph, don’t you think?
A Rainy Autumn Evening
Taking the 39 Bus
Went to the city today for a massage. On the way back, the weather was fabulous, and I had a front row seat on the 39 Bus. So, as we moved through the city, I decided to take a few pictures and share part of the interesting architecture seen as we move through the city of Dublin.
I got on the bus along the quays, at the stop along Wood Quay. The stop is quite close to the location where an old Viking boat was found. There’s an iron monument here which is rather an abstract shape of a serpent headed boat – with seats inside for those waiting on the buses. There was a man at the stop who was from Australia – and we had a nice chat about his visit to Dublin after he asked me about which buses go where. I get that a lot – people asking me for directions or bus stops – I guess I must look like I know where I’m going? Anyhow, the bus goes from here along the Quays (pronounced “Keys”) until you turn Right onto Church street to cross the River Liffey (below).
From here, the bus passes the law school on the left. As you continue heading out of the city to the north, you eventually pass a Centra grocery store and some interesting buildings. The one that looks out of place on the far left below is The Glimmer Man pub. I’ve never been inside, but I like the building – it’s very traditional looking.
Now, we move up into Manor Street. Along here are some red brick terrace style Victorian style houses inter-spaced by Georgian style houses. The area is mixed, and Smithfield is just a few blocks away. Smithfield has several modern buildings – and here there’s a horse market held – though I’m not sure about the trading that goes on here (I hear it’s sort of dodgy but I’ve never been to say if that’s the case or not). Below are a few of the grey stone Georgian houses that come up as Manor Street merges into Prussia Street.
At the end of Prussia street, there’s a beautiful old turn of the 19th century hardware store. It’s John J Hanlon’s and the outside is always well painted. I love the arched windows and the clock at the top. I’m not sure what the building started life as (maybe a grocery?)but it takes up nearly a full city block.
From here, we continue up to Old Cabra Road. Along Old Cabra Road, there’s a series of old side by side cottages. There’s nothing too special about them, but one I have been watching for the last year is along a line of cottages called the “Roosevelt cottages”. It started out when I first moved to Dublin looking rather derelict. Since then, someone has bought the property and put lots of work into it – adding everything from a good lick of paint to gingerbread detailing and a new front door. They’ve added a little fence and – despite having no rear garden and only being located on a walking path (the cars are parked in an alleyway at the top of the cottages) – added to their land. You see, the land is across the “walking path street” and they’ve put in a beautiful brick patio and some lovely gardens.
After passing this house, the architecture becomes more mundane and the bus trip becomes boring. The road widens and the houses become bigger and more modern. Then, we go around the Ashtown roundabout (which heads into the Phoenix Park) and up onto the N3 highway toward Blanchardstown… until I hop off in the village.
Sewing Class
Well, I did it. I finally broke down and bought a voucher to learn to sew with a sewing machine. The funny thing is that I’m not quite sure how I managed to make it for 30 something years without actually learning to use a sewing machine – my mom, dad, grandma, and great grandma all make quilts, clothes and so on. Somehow, however, when it came right down to my learning how to do this, I quite simply didn’t.
Mom would say it wasn’t for lack of trying. I can remember her offering to teach me several times and me just saying no thanks. My grandma, I know she did get me seated at her machine when I was knee high to a rattle snake – we made a pillow – but I was more interested in trying to go outside and play when I was about 5 years old than I was in learning how to sew something together. Dad – when I mentioned about the class, he said I really thought you knew – didn’t you take that as a class in school?
Well, I did take a home economics class in middle school (6 weeks to cram everything in from sewing basics, to cooking basics, to how to balance a budget and a checkbook). As I recall we did learn a few basic stitches – eg. learn to sew on a button, a snap and repair a hole. We also “learned” to use a foot treadle powered sewing machine – there were 3 for 30 students – for about 20 minutes in the basic course. Let’s just say that it didn’t stick. I’m not sure if I just didn’t learn, or if I didn’t remember because I didn’t want to learn – but modern machines are quite different than this treadle powered beast of a machine which we used.
Anyhow, I decided, after seeing a pile of trousers that needed hemmed (and spending 15 Euros each to have them hemmed) that it would be a great idea to finally learn to sew. The voucher came just in time, and was a basic 3 hour course at When Poppy met Daisy to learn to use a sewing machine. Me, H, and J all decided to attend, as a “girls night out” type event. We had to each pick out our fabrics – H chose a pink print with little hearts, J chose a fabric with cats and funny social networking quotes. I chose an abstract big flower print from ikea.
The class covered the basics – from threading the machine, to creating a bobbin and bobbin thread.
Once we learned the basic parts of the machine, the instructor started us out sewing on a piece of lined notebook paper – both a straight stitch and a zigzag stitch. The paper, because of lines, let us learn to sew straight lines. It also helped us to judge if we were going too fast / too slow (the paper would tear) or if we needed to adjust the tension higher or lower. Brilliant idea – as it wasn’t actually messing up any fabrics.
Once we had mastered the straight lines, we moved on to some scrap fabric – sewing a basic hem. Then we moved on to the French Hem.
Finally, we started on our project, combining all that we had learned together. It was a makeup bag, closing with a smidge of velcro. We had 3 happy girls by the end of the class – and I think that I’ll eventually go back and learn some additional stitching – like shirt or skirt making.
On a side note, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a makeup bag, J decided it made a better hat than a bag.
Well, I guess that’s one way to do it!!