Today is World IBD Day - for those of you who don't know what IBD is, it stands for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, not to be confused with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) which manifests differently.
IBS is quite common but it's unlikely that you will go on to develop IBD, however people with IBD may have similar symptoms to those with IBS, as well as a host of other (often serious) complaints.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease is basically an autoimmmune disease - here is a brief summary from Healthline:

'The immune system may also play a role in IBD. Normally, the immune system defends the body from pathogens (organisms that cause diseases and infections). A bacterial or viral infection of the digestive tract can trigger an immune response. As the body tries to fight off the invaders, the digestive tract becomes inflamed. When the infection is gone, the inflammation goes away. That’s a healthy response.

In people with IBD, however, digestive tract inflammation can happen even when there’s no infection. The immune system attacks the body’s own cells instead. This is known as an autoimmune response.'
To mark the occasion, I wanted to share our own family of experience of Ulcerative Colitis and how debilitating and serious it can be.

My daughter Síomha was first diagnosed in her Leaving Cert. (final exam year) of school. She had been feeling ill and exhausted for some time but we had no real clue about what was happening and put a lot of it down to study stress. However the symptoms steadily became worse, the most worrying for me was that bowel movements increased to up to 8 a day with blood and severe stomach cramping. We went to the GP and were put on a referral list but we couldn't wait as things seemed to be steadily going downhill.
We made the decision to bring her to A&E where she was immediately put on a drip and the fight to get her immune system under control began. On that first occasion she spent 10 days in hospital with the symptoms only alleviating at the very end.

Leaving the Ward!

In the Corridor

Downstairs, nearly there!

Escape at last!

It seems mad that we have already come to the end of February and January just seems to have passed in a haze. The grey and dull weather has really cast a pall over things and the occasional bright day this year was like a little beacon, moving me forward to brighter times.
It doesn't look like the weather is improving at all but nonetheless there are cheery little signs of spring everywhere and nature coming to life, I'm really looking forward to longer, brighter days, in fact, I feel like I really need them at this stage.

My February was a mix of things, many health related!
I finally got a follow up MRI to see how the tear in my artery is healing. Being a public patient has huge disadvantages sometimes and having to wait so long for something so important was one of them. However, I had the MRI and follow up appointment at the public clinic. I'd had a cardiology appointment the previous week (this was scheduled at the time of CAD) and the scan results were actually there but the doctor wasn't able to read them - it is a bit of a specialist area but still a very frustrating experience to have the information there, literally in front of me, and no way to access it.
Anyway, I did get the results finally at the subsequent appointment and after an initial chat with one of the trainee docs I got to talk to the consultant who explained that the tear was healing well but that the way it healed had created a narrowing of my artery which means that I'm on aspirin for life. Luckily the path of the artery is completely smooth so it's not like the artery is clogged, it's just narrower than it was.
So, good news really. Although it didn't feel like it at the time, I left the clinic feeling teary and out of sorts and couldn't quite figure out why. I guess it just hit me in a big way that this was something that would affect the rest of my life.  And at the same time, I was more or less signed off (with a yearly follow up scan), but still suffering a lot of symptoms that have an impact on my daily life.
I do know how blessed I am and things are improving but sometimes it's hard to deal with the fatigue and head pain and tingly scalp and on the bad days I usually go to my CAD Facebook group for chat and comfort, so thankful to have found it and the lovely people who understand the whole experience.

Another health related issue cropped up in February. My daughter Síomha unfortunately suffers from Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune disease which is a chronic inflammation of the large intestine.  She was diagnosed in her final exam year of school and had to spend time in hospital getting it under control as her symptoms were so severe. She had a very bad flare up again recently which was really worrying as we were very afraid she would have to be hospitalised again.  Luckily, our GP is great and through a combination of his care and hospital visit, she got the medication she needed and it is now hopefully under control again. Unfortunately, the immediate solution is steroids and she has been taking those for some time now - the side effects are pretty awful and not pleasant but they are working which is something, I guess.
I'm so amazed at her resilience and strength, it's such a tough thing to go through, to feel constantly ill and suffer such debilitation symptoms and still be positive. She's been channeling a lot of her emotions into her art which is incredible although I have to wonder if I'm the only mum to come home to pictures of intestines all over the living room floor! :)
This is work designed as part of her current assignment:

This post was inspired by my husband Mark who nominated me to post photos of nature for 7 days on Facebook. I loved doing it so much and got such a nice response that I decided to put them all together here in a blog post.

The reason I loved it so much was that each photo was not just a picture of a landscape or a flower but also a memory of family time and days out together. Each photo that I posted was a little sliver of time captured and it made me happy to see the lovely places we have been and beautiful things that surround us.

So without further ado here is my Day 1 photo:

It was taken in 2014 on our annual Donegal holiday.  We have been visiting my friend Sue for so many years and I never get tired of the incredible landscape.  This was on a beautiful day on our way to Magheragh Beach (I think!) The sky was incredible and the greens and blues were stunning.

This is my day 3 picture and it's a more dainty close up from my own garden. I love to see ladybirds in the garden, not only are they beautiful with their cheery red colour, they are also great predators for garden pests. I try to keep my garden pesticide and chemical free so it's always a joy to see it teeming with insect life.
This is an incredible avenue of yew at Huntington Castle in Clonegal, Co. Carlow. We visited here last year for a talk and of course it rained the whole time but there was shelter in the trees and I took a picture of this avenue of yew trees, over 600 years old! If there's anything that can make me feel small and insignificant, it's a tree, and these are so amazing in real life, to see how the roots entwine and their solidity.


This is the daintiest little viola taken on our lovely trip to Glasgow earlier this year. I was delighted that the Glasgow Botanic Gardens were so near our Hotel.  I've always been fascinated by tiny little flowers, they can be incredibly hardy and have such detail of pattern and colour and this violet is such a cheery little thing with a lovely soft colour.
As I've so many amazing pictures of Donegal and our hols with Sue it was really hard to choose just one. This is actually from 2014 but it's a beach we go to every year and it's just brilliant for swimming. I picked this because of the mossy stones and the sea stretching out into the distance. We've had so many gorgeous swims at this beach, I can't wait to get back there again!
This picture was taken in Burtown House in Athy, a fabulous place to visit and eat. We ate outside on that particular day and it was sunny and the flowers were in full bloom, gorgeous!  I think the octopus-like tendrils in the centre of the flowers are amazing and it was such a pure delicate white.

It's probably a bit early for a recap of the year but nonetheless, events in my life lately have forced me to think back over this year and how it has been for me.

In general Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year, I'm like a child when it comes to anything Christmassy and it's not about the gifts but rather more about the happiness and twinkling lights and prettiness and carols.

This year though, for the first time, all I can feel is sadness - it will be the first Christmas without my lovely Dad. I wrote about his passing here - Saying Goodbye to Dad. Since I wrote that post, I also suffered from a tear in my carotid artery, a very serious and life threatening condition which left me debilitated and struggling for a long time (Carotid Artery Dissection).
I suppose the physical events and worry consumed my whole life for a time and the grief for Dad's passing was pushed away to the back of my mind. Now though, I'm feeling a little better and all of a sudden there's lots of room for thoughts and memories to come crowding back into my head.

Like Dad driving down on Christmas day - Mum would always get out of the car first and then Dad would park and he'd come in - using a stick in latter years. He'd always have a coffee and maybe a little treat - although he might demur initially as they were heading onwards to my auntie's house for dinner.
He was always cheery and bright and I know that this Christmas will feel so wrong without him. He loved Christmas Day, particularly because of the food :)  I've definitely inherited that part of him!

He always encouraged my business and would ask how things were going and I know that he would be proud that I've done so much this year. Yet although success is great and in a normal state of mind, I'd be delighted, somehow it all seems a bit hollow right now.
I know it will be impossibly hard for my mum and hard too for the grandchildren but we will get through it I guess and I have to remember how blessed we were to have such a kind and gentle man in our lives.

I guess I just need to say for myself and for the spirit of my Dad that we are thinking of you and we miss you.

Dad at a family dinner in Portarlington

Dad and Izzy in Kerry in 2009

 If you are looking for somewhere to visit one of these Autumn days, do consider Russborough, such a fabulous place.



Have a look also at our Summer visit to Burtown House:

Burtown House

I've been reading lots of blogs lately, many of them parenting blogs and it's made me a bit nostalgic for the baby days. - not that I would actually like to go back there, it's just nice to think about it :)
So I decided to  take some time and look back on all the years with our eldest 'baby', 20 now!


Here's Síomha as a baby, I couldn't have been more excited about being pregnant, I remember rushing off to buy baby clothes the minute I heard the news and I couldn't wait to tell Mark who was at the cinema with a friend.  When she finally arrived with a big mop of black hair, it was love at first sight.

That's not to diminish how hard I found being a new mum - I didn't have any friends with children or a particularly 'maternal' mother so I was at sea altogether and obsessed with getting everything right and reading every parenting book available, basically setting myself up to fail.

Baby Síomha

Clearly coordinating clothes was not a top priority for me at that time ;)

Siomha in Dunmore East

We moved to Kildare after a little bit of time living in Clondalkin - Síomha went to a Steiner Kindergarten in Tallaght run by the wonderful Marie McCarthy and was also taught by Solvje and it was a whole world of loveliness and a place I was very happy for her to be.

Siomha in France

Above pic is Síomha in France, we had many lovely holidays there with my parents. I remember one year going home asking Síomha what her favourite part of the holiday was? She said 'the cows' :)

Síomha Donegal 08

Síomha Kerry 09

Síomha Russborough House

Having negotiated through the worst of the teens, things started to improve ;)

Daddy & Síomha Tree Climbing

Mark, Izzy & Síomhs in London

Siomha & Izzy Christmas Day 08

Siomha developed an amazing singing voice, something that has always seemed astonishing to me as I can't sing a note!

Síomha & Izzy London

Síomha & Izzy London Park

She finished school, looked gorgeous at her debs, did an art portfolio at Conleth's College in Newbridge..

Síomha Debs

Síomha Graduation Conleth's

I'm not long back from a great trip to Glasgow city - I've always wanted to visit Scotland, probably more so the highlands and Scotland's natural beauty but I was on a budget and managed to get a pretty good deal on GoHop for myself, my husband and our 13 year old. It was approx. €600 for the 3 of us for 3 nights but we had 4 long days so I thought it was pretty good value.

I didn't entirely know what to expect from Glasgow - I did know that it was associated with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, part of the Art Nouveau movement and I was dying to see anything of his.
What I realised soon after arriving, however, is that there is an absolute wealth of things to see and do in Glasgow. Many things are free and it is a truly beautiful city. I absolutely fell in love with it and I will definitely be going back!

The first thing we encountered was Glasgow's Botanic Gardens, situated very near our hotel in Glasgow's West End. They are beautifully kept and feature stunning glasshouses, most notably Kibble Palace, erected in 1873. There's also a cosy little tearooms where we had scones with clotted cream and jam, and tea, yum :)



We had reasonably good weather so I was able to take pictures of some of the gorgeous flowers
there