I had to investigate. So I followed the path.

Then I came upon this Oriental vision

And a jolly Buddha

Soon, I met a wise man and he bid me look for the disconsolate one

So, I set off in search and came upon this sign, which claimed to know the essence of my being. There is wisdom in this.

And then I found her, in most sorrowful repose.

I said. “What ails thee so?” She sighed and said she could not see the beauty in life. I said, ‘you only have to look around’.

She spoke of black birds following her.

Twas true. They eyed me with intent

I said fear not, and brought her to a nearby Inn

Whereupon, we merrily ensconsed ourselves and wondered at the beauty of it all

The above adventure took place in the award winning Griffens Garden Centre in Dripsey, just 10 minute drive from Ballincollig.

Here are some other photos:

Where to Find Griffins Garden Centre

Tags: griffinsgarden centre, gardening, cork

Very busy month ahead of me. Interesting events on the horizon. So I’m going to be doing a season of videos. Lots of strangeness and philosophy on the menu like the one above of Carl Sagan.

YouTube - Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

Tags: ‘CarlSagan’, ‘Pale Blue Dot’

Tips from Neil Gaiman on what to do if you find yourself in a fairytale, especially for Vanessa Valencia, who looks like she could do with this advice;-)
Continuing my series on top Artisan Bloggers, check out the amazing work of Judy Wilkenfeld.

Did you know that I have a beard? I respect men with beards and bands with names like ‘Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip’.

View Larger Map

Inspired by the logic behind this post from Jenny Vorwaller and this successful initiative by James Corbett, I’ve started a map of places where you can find healthy fresh farm produce.
The map will include farmers markets, artisan food retailers and individual farmers who sell directly to the consumer. Let me know, if I should add to that list.
The idea is that anybody can see at a glance, who is providing fresh food in their immediate vicinity and when they are open for business.

This is an open collaborative map, which means that anybody can add a location to the map. If you are unsure how to add a location, have a look at this video to see how. It’s really easy and will only take a minute or so. Click here, when you’re ready to add a location to it.

If there are any bloggers out there interested in this subject, it would be great if you could link to this post and spread the word. If this is popular,  I’m going to try and creat a badge for it, so that people can put a permanent link to it on their sidebar.
Update:
There does seem to be an interest in this, so I have created a badge for it, which you can see on my sidebar. If you want to add this badge to your blog, you can use the following code snippet:

<br /> <!– code fresh food map banner start–></p> <p align=center> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2cnamz" target="new"><br /> <img border="0" alt="Irish Fresh Food Map- click here to edit it" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2359/2336251976_9ee959d4ce.jpg?v=0"><br /> </a> </p> <p><!– code fresh food map end banner–>

This is an excerpt from the fantastic Heima Film Documentary. You can view the whole film on Youtube.

Tags: heima, sigur ross, youtube, documentary

Last week the Irish Arts Blog got featured on the Irish Examiner and things are looking good for the blog.

But I don’t want to just focus on Irish Artists in this blog. There are some really wonderful international artisan bloggers out there and in this post, I am going to draw your attention to some of them.

I  particularly like Bloggers who are whimsical, fanciful and playful.

Thanks to Cliodhna Quinlan, I have discovered Vanessa Valencia of A fanciful twist. This is a most astonishing blog, wonderfully inventive, with fantastic attention to detail and sense of comedy. Her stories are long, but highly entertaining and well written. She uses sequences of images that look like stills from a movie plot and a wonderful sense of fun emanates from it all.

I find that Artisans are mostly meditative and introspective by nature. They have a sense of the present, nature and the shifting of season. You get a feeling of calmness and sociability from their blogs. Artists like Jenny Vorwaller look beyond their art and apply their mindfulness to other aspects of their lifestyle in a manner which is refreshing and inspirational.

Rima Staines is another blogger new to me. She’s an artist and animator and her blog really is a treat for the eclectic eye. Here is a wonderful animation from her, set to the music of Polly Paulusma:

So these are some artisan bloggers who I admire. I believe art made out of love is inspirational, and the more we surround ourselves with it, the more elevated our mood and consciousness become.

These are reasons why I believe art blogging is so important. We need to resurrect our connection with Art, Nature and our Intuition.

Tags: artisanblogging, art, artisan, artisan revolution