Dalkey Dog Delves into a few Dalkey Delights during the Dalkey Book Festival 2012

http://www.dalkeybookfestival.org/

 

Hey there my growing fan club... I was most pleasantly surprised in my wanderings on Friday, as I strolled through my lovely Village of Dalkey... snoopinng and sniffing to see if any festival goers had been so kind as to drop a sausage or two.. for my convenience, you understand.... When I was approached by a young fellow, in an orange t-shirt who asked my assistant quite nicely if I was the famous Dalkey Dog around town..... OMG.... I am famous now?!!!!  How cool was that....  He gave me some lovely pats, and even asked me to sit ... which of course I did... being very aware that 'sitting' does have it's rewards at times.... teehee... to bad he did not have one of those sausages I was smelling....  better move on... teehee.... 

My new working clothes... how I love  my new bright pink t-shirt!!!

Castle St.

 Well, this will be a short journey as my assistant is in a rush.. but you can see all the people wandering around....  might even get lucky with a sasuage!!!

Ticket sellers..  these ladies are cool!!

Don't the posters match my tee-shirt beautifully??

Oh wait!!!  what's that smell???

 

Dalkey Tramyard and some nice ladies enjoying the festival

Yes!!!  it's coming from here.... here in the Dalkey Tramyard.... come on, stop gawking and doddling along......   The best of the scoops and snoots and smells..  Yum... and what smiley friendly folk...

M. Kennedy... Lampshade Artist.... 

These shiny Mosaic Lampshades caught my eye.... and so did the very friendly Artist/shopkeeper!!  He tells me he has a dog very like me.. only a different colour (If my memory serves me well!!).. He is selling out of one of the new small artists chalets that have appeared in the Tramyard.. Gorgeous blue and white...  it is nice to see the growth of artists/craft people in our Tramyard.... M. Kennedy can be reached through his website... these lovely shades are made from small pieces of colourd glass and pieced together by hand... each a unique design...

Another view of the lampshades... and ME!!  teehee!!!

Going Home and childrens writings

I  have to go home now, as my assistant needs to keep another appointment.. harrumph!!  fortunatly though, I was able to ge a little look at some of the wonderful information all the school children have shared in the windows of all the shops in the town!!  have a look above.. 

Pretty shop in Dalkey selling Unique interior design wares..

That shop accross the street is all decorated for the day... they not only sell Interior design linens and bits and pieces but also super Flowers and arrangements.... Well I guess I better move on... I am sorry I was not able to do more on the day, but sometime life just has to many goings on in it.... Tomorow my assistant will be away.. darn it!!  this means I may not make it to the Saturday goings on... Oh well, I know .. we can't always do what we want, and after all at least I got to visit a little bit of it... perhaps we might just make a little visit in the evening tomorow to see if we can catch the 'Tail End' of the festival... I hope so....  Bye... ;-D

Dalkey Dog says Dalkey Book Festival is the Best!!

Dalkey Book Festival is taking place this weekend!

Dalkey Book Festival

I am very very excited, that the Dalkey Book Festival will be taking place here in my village this weekend.  It is a beautiful place to visit, and there will be so much going on...  I only wish that my minder could be here for it, but it looks like she'll only have one day to play... still.. as a run up to the festival, I thought I would share some of the beautiful photos that we took on our walk the other day.. it might make you decide to come out and have a look around for yourself...  If you would line to get more information on what is going on in the Village, you may click on the thumbnail above, or visit the Dalkey Book Festival facebook page for the event information too.

These fotos are not of the village, per se, or the main street, but they do show a lovely walk one can take when you have finished eating all the wonderful yummy stuff that will be available all over town... Unfortunately I have lost my I Love Dalkey T-Shirt.. so I am not wearing it in these fotos, still it is a good thing that a number of these will be on sale again this year.. I may be about to get my assistant to purchase a new one for me... After all, an Ace Hound Reporter should NOT be seen on festival days without proper attire.... !!!

Convent Road, Dalkey

 What a beautiful sky and colours to match... it is rather warm and I'm feeling a little lazy....

However, with delightful blooms like these to discover along the way I'm encouraged to keep on going...

Dalkey Dogs favorite Shop

I pass by my altime favorite shop THe Pet STop... it is staffed by just the nicest of people and they always allow dogs inside, and ever ready with a small treat or two for me and my friend... tip: if you are walking your dog in Dalkey?  We are a rather particular breed here, and do like to keep things tidy.. so if you think of it, this is a good shop to get a pooper scooper, or bags to help keep our town clean... I would not want my assistant to get a fine... I would rather he used that money to buy my tasty bones from this shop....

,The Club Pub

We walk past the Club Pub
(a great place for a pint and some pub grub, or so my assistant tells me... good on a hot day, after a long walk..... hmmm ... may on the return journey, we have places to sniff out now...

What a nice house!

Like having a look at some of the beautiful houses along Colimore Road by the sea... they say that the coastlines in this area remind one of the Italian Coastline....

Dalkey Island and Me!!

We arrive at the viewing station where one can sit and relax looking at the view of Dalkey Island, and its old tumbled down church and fort... there are telescopes here to get a better view.  It is an old island with a history too.. and in summer they tell me you can get row boats out to it from the adjacent harbour and have a walk round it...

Another view of the island and fort...

Dalkey Harbour

A view of the ancient old Harbour, which also has a very interesting history, from which one can hire boats out to the island.

Goat Park

Next up the road is Goat Park... You can also get a good view of the island here, where there used to be a herd of goats living.. and a statue of two goats in this park, however I believe the sculptures are gone at the moment and being refurbished. There are a number of other thing to see in this small green space.. it is a good place for a picnick too... Oh look...

What beautiful flowers!!

And the old victorian bandstand by the sea... I can just imagine a musical quartet here.... magic...

Poppy

And here is one of the old setting places, it looks like I have an audience of wildflowers...!!!

What a wonderful warm rock... my assistant likes to sit here from time to time to soak up the view and the warmth from the sun....

Fishermen

These two young fellows seem to be having a good time on the rocky shores of the park...

Goin Home

Whew... I'm panting and tired now... well, I hope you enjoyed the tour... if you like you can stay here and enjoy the view, or wander back down into the main street of town along the way we came.  I will be going home now though as it is time for a drink!!! 

I do hope you will come and visit us this weekend, June 16-17 2012, and if your lucky, you just might see me on the Saturday... if my assistant bothers to buy my a new tee-shirt... I'll be the Ace Hound Reporter Retriever... The Dalkey Dog Around Town..... dressed to impress... sniffing out the stories around here... what's the scoop??

Dalkey Dog Discovers Chess.....

I first must appologise for my long absence, I had a very inconvenient illness, and my assistant was very boring indeed, not allowing me out too much around town, while I was getting better.  They were so busy with me and other things that they did not get a chance to catch up with my entries... bother the thing is, paws and claws are just not up to typing on keyboards... so.. I now that I am a little better, I have asked if we could at least include a few main news items that took place over the last while...  Just before I got sick, I was invited to attend the inaugural Dalkey Chess Championship.. this was really cool, and I do hope that it continues, as my own boy was once a school champion at chess and it was so much fun for him... and a great learning experience too.. Chess has a cool history... and has a lot  to do with math amazingly enough...

I only made it to the afters of the competition... but then, that is my favorite part of these events, as often the children are very happy to see me, and the best part is there is usually some pretty good snacks left for a hoover nosed reporter like myself to discover, and tasty treats they were too!  

Hmm what a nice smell!!  popcorn perhaps?

Oh my... See these pictures of me with some chess pieces, I wonder if there has ever been a dog chess champion?  hmmm  ... I bet I would do well!!  Check mate!!

Don't I look proud!!!

 Hey, look up there, now if I were a kid, I'd love to be taught in as colourful a classroom such as this.. it's neat!!

I'll bet there was some fun learning with those colour wheels!

I was very excited when I received this from a fellow reporter who attended the event, it was so well written I decided to post it here...along with a good photo of some of the young champions.  Congratulations!!

Dalkey Dog friends & Champion, cool!.. teehee...

All the primary schools around Dalkey are so much fun.. there is always something going on... have a read of this event....

Dalkey Schools’ Chess

Competition 2011

                    

This inaugural chess competition was held on Sunday December 4^th    in the Harold Boys’ School NS in Patrick’s Street. The event was run in conjunction with the Dalkey Business Group and our local schools. This was a non profit making event with the aim to promote chess, enable children to represent their school and keep it all local.

Thank you to Harold Boys’ NS for hosting the event. Their hall was a perfect venue and very convenient. Thank you to Eurospar for sponsoring runner up prizes. Thank you to all the parents who were involved, chess teachers and Ivan Baburin our adjudicator.

Thanks to all the supporters who gathered in the hall, dodging the showers and waiting to enjoy the rest of the activities in Dalkey on the day. We were also visited by Megan Hound, the Dalkey Dog about town.

Congratulations to Castlepark school who won triumphantly on the day. Harold Boys’ NS came in second place and runners up St. Patrick’s NS and DSP put up a good show against these experienced teams. Concentration was intense and energy was high in the room from all the players and it is certain that all the players enjoyed the afternoon.

There was talk of the possibility of a new chess club in Dalkey….so here’s hoping this is a start with lots more to come.

I'd like that too... oh look... some more crumbs for me!! teehee!

 I do hope the organizers have luck with this as my assistant says that Teachers should take note that Chess is fun and extremely good for developing thinking skills... They could get some very good ideas by clicking on that link.   I wonder if I could better thinking skills by learning this game?  What do you think??