Probably another week or so of Irish Grandmother and then we'll move on. It's nice for me to put them all out there, here on the blog. It makes me edit down a little and then whenever I open the blog I get to see them again, and a new understanding of what's working and what's not dawns on me. But now I'm at that point where I'm almost sick of this project and feel the need to move on. This year was the third year that I went to Ireland in December to photograph my grandmother and it's always around now (end of Jan, beginning of Feb) that I begin to feel that it's all been done and that I shouldn't go back next year. Then by the time September comes around I feel the need to go back again. Recently I heard David McMillan talk about his Chernobyl series. He said that the first time he went he thought that he only needed to go once, and yet he has gone back just about every year for the past 15 years. I'm not saying that this Irish Grandmother project is anything as epic as that. There are definitely some problems with this subject that has been done so many times before (as Muse-ings mentions here). As an aside David McMillan mentioned that one of the things that originally inspired him to go to Chernobyl was an article by Alan Weisman. Weisman has since written a great book called "The World Without Us". Definitely worth a read. One of the best books I read in 2008.

2 perspectives.

She uses the window light to read the headlines. The essential window light.

More Irish Grandmother.

My grandmother getting her fire ready as she does every day in the winter.

When I first saw her chop the little pieces of wood I kind of freaked out. Here is my 87 year old grandmother, kneeling down, in the cold, wielding as axe! I asked her to let me do it but she said something like "don't be silly, I do this every day. You go and take some pictures." And so I did.

More images of my grandmother in her daily life.

I've been walking through a lot of cold, ice and snow these days and it makes me realize how lucky my grandmother is not be exposed to a Canadian winter. Winter in Canada must seem very dangerous to the elderly. That and isolating since I imagine they don't go out that much in these conditions.

More images of my grandmother from my December trip. Many shades of pink.

More stills from my grandmother's house in Dublin, taken during my recent visit.

Some stills from my grandmother's.

Sorry for not posting recently. I went to the cottage on the 26th and just got back on Saturday. Lots of shoveling and snow-shoeing and skiing and skating, it was great. I hope you all had a very happy holidays and a happy new year!