The road less traveled by...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost.

One of my favourite Poems, so very poignant. The Picture is from Ballyannan Woods in Midleton. Taken on my Iphone while out walking my dog last week.

Where to start.. It's been several years since my last confession.. er.. blog post. No particular reason why, possibly laziness, possibly that I was too busy doing to be spending time writing about it. To give a quick synopsis.. I spent most of 2008 and 2009 in pubs, yes nearly all my spare time was devoted to them. With Rob and John Coffey I played in a 3 piece folk group called Am Ar Bith (Anytime). Christmas 2009 was my last gig, No time off was beginning to tell on me, we gigged as much as we could, took any gig that would pay us. But I had stopped enjoying the gigs and it had become a chore, the costs were also rising, what had been a hobby was now an income, but as the recession deepened, pubs closed and the pay being offered for our talents was shrinking by the week. As 90% of our gigs were in Tipperary and Limerick and I lived in East Cork, I was

really making next to nothing, some weekends actually making a loss. Once long ago,,I had put away my instruments for several years after becoming disillusioned with whole thing, I was anxious to avoid that situation repeating. So I retired from the band and they've since moved on and gig now as Blackthorn. I must go see one of their gigs. Unfortunately, I hardly play at all now. Time constraints are one reason..also I think without the need to practice for a formal gig.. there just doesn't seem to be the same drive in me to play. I hope I can change that again. I do really miss playing, but after playing with the two lads, so much for so long, playing alone just isn't the same (Try and control the one liners please).

In 2009 I met a very nice Girl, Gillian for a coffee, timing was bad and it never went anywhere, thought we stayed in touch. After much missed opportunities and dissorganisation, we agreed to meet up and have a coffee in the summer of 2010. Somehow, and I still don't know how, this managed to evolve from coffee into me taking Gillian for dinner... Women are devious lads! ;-) However I have no regrets, it is now 2011, coming into the summer

and I live in a rented house, still in Midleton, with my gorgeous lover Gillian and her Daughter, Freya. My two

favourite people in the world. I really cannot and do not wish to imagine life without either of them. They moved

down last October, and a week or so after that we moved into the house we are in now on the 21st of October 2010. The week they moved down we got a beautiful Boa Constrictor, whom Freya decided to name "Slinky". He's now not so little at over 2 foot and growing. On the second of April we extended the family further with the addition of a Rescue puppy from the good people at DAWG. (http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/). Kimmie was an instant hit, we saw her online and fell in love immediately.

On the website they listed as her as a Terrier cross, we thought perfect, small size, we only have a small garden. When we got her, the first thing we noticed was the enormous size of her paws, after her booster shots at the vet, we had a new impression of her from the Vet. A Bernese Mountain dog cross.. a little bit larger than a terrier.. estimated max size of 40kg's or so... At 16 weeks she is now bigger that any terrier, has outgrown the Crate, Kennel, Harness and Collar we originally got her with a terrier in mind. She was 5kg's when we got her, she's just under 9kg's now. But we couldn't be happier, she's a happy, healthy delight to be around. We are trying hard with Positive reinforcement training to ensure she stays a happy, well behaved dog that we can bring away with us when go anywhere.

I realise that is a rather brief update. With a hell of a lot of information crammed into a few lines. I do hope I can get myself back into regularly updating this blog, having read back through it, I quite enjoyed my own writing. Does that seem a little vain? Conceited perhaps? Well so be it. I think we are all entitled to indulge in a little self admiration once in a while, it's good for your confidence levels.