Els' little creeper and Micro climates inside stone walls.

Last year Els, my mother, moved into a home after living on her own became too difficult for her, after losing her sight, and after she had been found lying on the floor a few times. she had always enjoyed living on her own and was happy that she had been able to do so until last year. when friends helped her move into her new rooms, Ger, a good friend of Els, had the honour of hanging Els' many paintings. After running out of space inside her new home, Ger took many into the corridor where they hang on both sides of Elly's door.
My mum also has a huge collection of little travel books, in which she would keep a diary of brief descriptions with lovely little black ink/watercolour sketches of what she went to see or what she saw on the little streets of wherever she went. and travel she did love.

I came upon a number of photos, Els, would send me now and then. Her ME often made her too tired to do a larger painting, so she tried to do a little one each day in one of her little books, before the cancer took hold of her, and later made her lose her sight.
Ger would travel with little books also, as did I.

I found Els' photos the other day and one reminded me of a a few photos I had made myself, last week.

I have loved these little worlds you find inside or atop the many walls inside our hedgerows. And I am always amazed that whatever the temperature 'outside' as in ground level where there may have been a few degrees below zero, inside these walls and inbetween the stones, where there is perhaps this little pocket of soil, it is still warm enough for these little plants like certain species of Ferns(?), to grow on, regardless of the cold temperatures below-ground.
These I found on the top of a wall (the Moss) and inside the wall, next to a house at the end of a terrace of houses at the other side of the school.

A micro climate on top of a stone wall.



The little creeper from Els' little book and the one in the wall here in Durrus.





A little cottage somewhere in county Clare. Els painted this when she still went to a local community centre where this group would meet and stimulate each other and do some painting or sketching.




Cyclamen and a Sunflower in Elly's little book.



A view of Riverside Cottage, by Ger in the 1990's when he and his partner had erected their little tent in our backgarden. (Riverside Cottage was our previous house, where we lived for 14 years, before having to move due to it being too cramped for my wheels. It was a lovely place; the river on two sides, a large garden and the bay just 200metres away, at the other side of the Church of Ireland.