GIVEAWAY CLOSED !!!

Yes giveaway is closed - finally :)

Thank you to all who join it :) Now I would ask you to give me a little time, for go and check all your comments, and everything, and on the end pick the winner, but lately I'm low with time (school, and all other stupid things) so please be patient to me :)

Mystery Girl - She's a Mystery to Me

She's A Mystery To Me




 Bono

Darkness falls and she will take me by the hand
Take me to some twilight land
Where all the love is grey
Where I can't find my way
Without her as my guide

Night falls, I'm cast beneath her spell
Daylight comes, our heaven turns to hell
Am I left to burn, and burn eternally
She's a mystery to me

She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl

In the nigth of love
Words tangled in her hair
Words soon to disappear
A love so sharp it cut
Like a switchblade through my heart
Words tearing me apart
She tears again my bleeding heart
I want to run, she's pulling me apart
Fallen angels cry and I just melt away
She's a mystery to me.

She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl

Haunted by her sight
Its the darkness in her eyes that so intrigues me
But if my love is blind
Then I don't want to see
She's a mystery to me.
Night falls, I'm cast beneath her spell
Daylight comes, our heaven turns to hell
Am I left to burn, and burn eternally
She's a mystery to me

She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She....'s a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl
She....'s a mystery girl

Look and Music of the Day - I'll Take the Rain

I'll Take The Rain

R.E.M.

The rain came down
the rain came down
the rain came down on me
The wind blew strong
and Summer's song
it fades to memory.
I knew you when
I loved you then
in Summer's yawn, now hopeless.
You laid me bare
and marked me there
the promises we made.
I used to think, as birds take wing,
they sing through life, so why can't we?
We cling to this, and claim the best
if this is what you're offering
I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain.
The nighttime creases
Summer schemes
and stretches out to stay
The sun shines down
you came around
you loved the easy days.
But now the sun
the Winter's come
I wanted just to say
That if I hold
I'd hoped you'd fold
and open up inside, inside of me.
I used to think, as birds take wing,
they sing through life, so why can't we?
We cling to this, and claim the best
if this is what you're offering
I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain.
This Winter's song
I'll sing along
I've searched its still refrain.
I'll walk alone
if given this
take wing, and celebrate the rain.
I used to think, as birds take wing,
they sing through life, so why can't we?
We cling to this, and claim the best
if this is what you're offering
I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain, I'll take the rain.

My Boots - I Love Boots

Ugly Boots: ( Really Ugly!)

Ankle Boots Open Toe

Ankle Boot Open Toe

Sandal Boot ! ( Argh!)

Summer Boots

Get On Your Boots

Bono / The Edge

The future needs a big kiss

Winds blow with a twist

Never seen a moon like this

Can you see it too?

Night's falling everywhere

Rockets at the fun fair

Satan loves a bomb scare

But he won’t scare you

Hey, sexy boots

Get on your boots, yeah

You free me from the dark dream

Candy floss ice cream

All our kids are screaming

But the ghosts aren’t real

Here’s where we gotta be

Love and community

Laughter is eternity

If joy is real

You don’t know how beautiful

You don’t know how beautiful you are

You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?

You don’t know how beautiful you are

That’s someone’s stuff they’re blowing up

We’re into growing up

Women of the future

Hold the big revelations

I got a submarine

You got gasoline

I don’t want to talk about wars between nations

Not right now

Hey sexy boots...

Get on your boots, yeah

Not right now

Bossy boots

You don’t know how beautiful

You don’t know how beautiful you are

You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?

You don’t know how beautiful you are

Sexy boots

I don’t want to talk about the wars between the nations

Sexy boots, yeah

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound, sound

Let me in the sound, sound

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound, now

God, I’m going down

I don’t wanna drown now

Meet me in the sound

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound, sound

Let me in the sound, sound

Meet me in the sound

Get on your boots

Get on your boots

Get on your boots

Wishlist

Cirré Legging or Wet Legging

Looks:

Executive Bag

Looks:

From: The Sartorialist

From: The Sartorialist

From: The Sartorialist

From: The Sartorialist

From: The Sartorialist

From: The Sartorialist





GIVEAWAY GIFT

I know you all have been waiting for this like months, because I was actually telling about it, even before Christmas , and now I’m proud to say I finally make it, and I’m right now writing about it. This is my first giveaway, so I’m not sure how everything goes, but I think its nothing to be scared of. Because I don’t have any sponsors, I paid for this bag and for everything what is in it.
And the gift is….

Its Cath Kidston little bag. Its super cute. I already have it in black and red color, and its really great, so now I’m giving you this hot pink with white stars all over it. Inside of it I hide some gifts for you, so I hope you would like it.

Rules are very simple:

• you MUST be visible follower on my blog to enter this giveaway, and put your nickname in comment
  
• you can become follower on my Twitter page (click!), put your nickname in comment
  
• you can join my Facebook page (click!) put your nickname in comment   
  
• you can  post about this giveaway on your blog, or just put on sidebar      
  
• there will be only one winner (if I don’t get a response in 5 days after I send you email, the second picked will be contacted and given opportunity to receive the prize …)
  
• giveaway is International (please note that you are responsible for all eventual costs of customs taxes, etc.)
  
• computer program will pick the winner
  
• END: 27.2.2010 at 16:00

GOOD LUCK !

Ireland - History - Pre-history and medieval period

From Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia

History

Pre-history and medieval period

Most of Ireland was covered with ice until the end of the last ice age over 9,000 years ago. Sea levels were lower and Ireland, like Great Britain, was part of continental Europe. Mesolithic stone age inhabitants arrived some time after 8,000 BC and agriculture followed with the Neolithic Age around 4,500 to 4,000 BC when sheep, goats, cattle and cereals were imported from the Iberian peninsula.
At the Céide Fields, preserved beneath a blanket of peat in present-day County Mayo, is an extensive field system, arguably the oldest in the world,dating from not long after this period. Consisting of small divisions separated by dry-stone walls, the fields were farmed for several centuries between 3,500 and 3,000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops.

The Bronze Age – defined by the use of metal – began around 2,500 BC, with technology changing people's everyday lives during this period through innovations such as the wheel, harnessing oxen, weaving textiles, brewing alcohol, and skillful metalworking, which produced new weapons and tools, along with fine gold decoration and jewellery, such as brooches and torcs. According to John T. Koch and others, Ireland in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that also included Britain, France, Spain and Portugal where Celtic languages developed.

The Uragh Stone Circle a Neolithic stone circle in Gleninchaquin Park, County Kerry.

The Iron Age in Ireland is traditionally associated with people known as the Celts. The Celts were commonly thought to have colonised Ireland in a series of invasions between the 8th and 1st centuries BC. The Gaels, the last wave of Celts, were said to have divided the island into five or more kingdoms after conquering it. However, some academics favour a theory that emphasises the diffusion of culture from overseas as opposed to a military colonisation.Finds such as Clonycavan Man are given as evidence for this theory.
The earliest written records of Ireland come from classical Greco-Roman geographers.

Ptolemy in his Almagest refers to Ireland as Mikra Brettania (Lesser Britain), in contrast to the larger island, which he called Megale Brettania (Great Britain).In his later work, Geography, Ptolemy refers to Ireland as Iwernia and to Great Britain as Albion. These "new" names were likely to have been the Celtic names for the islands at the time. The earlier names, in contrast, were likely to have been coined before direct contact with local peoples were made.
The Romans would later refer to Ireland by this name too in its Latinised form, Hibernia,or Scotia.Ptolemy records sixteen tribes inhabiting every part of Ireland in 100 AD. The relationship between the Roman Empire and the tribes of ancient Ireland is unclear. However, a number of finds of Roman coins have been found, for example at New Grange.

Ireland continued as a patchwork of rival tribes but, beginning in the 7th century AD, a concept of national kingship gradually became articulated through the concept of a High King of Ireland. Medieval Irish literature portrays an almost unbroken sequence of High Kings stretching back thousands of years but modern historians believe the scheme was constructed in the 8th century to justify the status of powerful political groupings by projecting the origins of their rule into the remote past.
The High King was said to preside over the patchwork of provincial kingdoms that together formed Ireland. Each of these kingdoms had their own kings but were at least nominally subject to the High King. The High King was drawn from the ranks of the provincial kings and ruled also the royal kingdom of Meath, with a ceremonial capital at the Hill of Tara. The concept only became a political reality in the Viking Age and even then was not a consistent one.However, Ireland did have a unifying rule of law: the early written judicial system, the Brehon Laws, administered by a professional class of jurists known as the brehons.
The Chronicle of Ireland records that in 431 AD Bishop Palladius arrived in Ireland on a mission from Pope Celestine I to minister to the Irish "already believing in Christ." The same chronicle records that Saint Patrick, Ireland's best known patron saint, arrived the following year.

Saint Patrick's Day

There is continued debate over the missions of Palladius and Patrick but consensus that they both took place and certainty that the older druid tradition collapsed in the face of the new religion.Irish Christian scholars excelled in the study of Latin and Greek learning and Christian theology. In the monastic culture that followed the Christianisation of Ireland, Latin and Greek learning was preserved in Ireland during the Early Middle Ages in contrast to elsewhere in Europe, where the Dark Ages followed the decline of the Roman Empire.
The arts of manuscript illumination, metalworking and sculpture flourished and produced treasures such as the Book of Kells, ornate jewellery and the many carved stone crosses that still dot the island today.

Book Of Kells

Druids Stonehenge

A mission founded in 563 on Iona by the Irish monk Saint Columba began a tradition of Irish missionary work that spread Christianity and learning to Scotland, England and the Frankish Empire on Continental Europe after the fall of Rome.These missions continued until the late middle ages, establishing monasteries and centres of learning, producing scholars such as Sedulius Scottus and Johannes Eriugena and exerting much influence in Europe.
From the 9th century, waves of Viking raiders plundered Irish monasteries and towns.These raids added to a pattern of raiding and endemic warfare that was already deep-seated in Ireland.

Amazing Grace

Celtic Woman

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home
When we've been here a thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun
Than when we've first begun

Ireland

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 53°N 7°W / 53°N 07°W / 53; -07

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Ireland

Native name: Éire / Ireland Sobriquet: The Emerald Isle / The Island of Saints and Scholars
Geography
Location	Northern Europe or Western Europe
Area	84,421 km2 (32,595.1 sq mi)
Area rank	20th
Coastline	2,797 km (1,738 mi)
Highest elevation	1,041 m (3,415 ft)
Highest point	Carrauntoohil
Country
Republic of Ireland
Largest city	Dublin
Demographics
Population	6,197,100 (as of 2008)
Density	73.4 /km2 (190.1 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Irish, Ulster Scots, Irish Travellers

Ireland (pronounced [ˈaɪɾlənd]; Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə]  ; Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from it by the Irish Sea. The island is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers just under five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remainder and is located in the northeast of the island. The population of Ireland is approximately 6.2 million people. Just under 4.5 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just under 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
Relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain epitomise Ireland's geography with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable oceanic climate, which avoids extremes in temperature. Thick woodlands covered the island until the 17th century. Today, it is the most deforested area in Europe. There are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland.
A Norman invasion in the Middle Ages gave way to a Gaelic Resurgence in the 13th century. Over sixty years of intermittent warfare in the 1500s led to English dominion after 1603. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. In 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. A war of independence in the early 20th century led to the partition of the island, creating the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades. Northern Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom and saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. This subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973, both parts of Ireland joined the European Community.
Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, particularly in the fields of literature and, to a lesser degree, science and education. A strong Irish culture exists, as expressed for example through Gaelic games, Irish music and the Irish language, alongside a common Western culture, such as contemporary music and drama, and sports such as soccer, rugby and golf, and the English language.

Irish version Amhrán na bhFiann	English version The Soldiers' Song
Sinne Fianna Fáil, atá faoi gheall ag Éirinn, Buíon dár slua thar toinn do ráinig chughainn, Faoi mhóid bheith saor Seantír ár sinsear feasta, Ní fhágfar faoin tíorán ná faoin tráill. Anocht a théam sa bhearna baoil, Le gean ar Ghaeil, chun báis nó saoil, Le gunna scréach faoi lámhach na bpiléar, Seo libh canaig amhrán na bhFiann	Soldiers are we, whose lives are pledged to Ireland, Some have come from a land beyond the wave, Sworn to be free, no more our ancient sireland, Shall shelter the despot or the slave. Tonight we man the "bearna baoil", In Erin’s cause, come woe or weal, ’Mid cannon’s roar and rifles’ peal, We’ll chant a soldier's song

Verses

The anthem consists only of the chorus of the song. The original has three verses, set to a slightly different tune. The lyrics of the verses are as follows:

Amhrán na bhFiann	A Soldier’s Song
Seo dhíbh, a chairde, duan Ógláigh	We’ll sing a song, a soldier’s song
Caithréimeach bríomhar ceolmhar	With cheering rousing chorus
Ár dtinte cnámh go buacach táid	As round our blazing fires we throng
’S an spéir go mín réaltógach	The starry heavens o’er us
Is fonnmhar faobhrach sinn chun gleo	Impatient for the coming fight
’S go tiúnmhar glé roimh thíocht don ló	And as we await the morning’s light
Fé chiúnas chaomh na hoíche ar seol	Here in the silence of the night
Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann	We’ll chant a soldier’s song
Sinne Fianna Fáil...	Soldiers are we...
Cois bánta réidhe, ar ardaibh sléibhe	In valley green, on towering crag
Ba bhuadhach ár sinsir romhainn	Our fathers fought before us
Ag lámhach go tréan fén sárbhrat séin	And conquered ’neath the same old flag
’Tá thuas sa ghaoth go seolta	That’s proudly floating o’er us
Ba dhúchas riamh dár gcine cháidh	We’re children of a fighting race
Gan iompáil siar ó imirt áir	That never yet has known disgrace
’S ag siúl mar iad i gcoinne námhad	And as we march, the foe to face
Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann	We’ll chant a soldier’s song
Sinne Fianna Fáil...	Soldiers are we...
A bhuíon nach fann d’fhuil Ghaeil is Gall	Sons of the Gael! Men of the Pale!
Sin breacadh lae na saoirse	The long-watched day is breaking
Tá sceimhle ’s scanradh i gcroíthe námhad	The serried ranks of Inisfail
Roimh ranna laochra ár dtíre	Shall set the tyrant quaking
Ár dtinte is tréith gan spréach anois	Our camp fires now are burning low
Sin luisne ghlé sa spéir anoir	See in the east a silv’ry glow
’S an bíobha i raon na bpiléar agaibh	Out yonder waits the Saxon foe
Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann	So chant a soldier’s song
Sinne Fianna Fáil...	Soldiers are we...

My Playlist

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Joy Division - She's Lost Control



New Order - Blue Monday

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence

Depeche Mode - Strangelove



Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough



Noel - Silent Morning



Noel - Like a Child

Erasure - Oh Lamour

Honeymoon Locations in the South: Part 3

In Part 3 of my series, I will now take you Richmond, Virginia to stay at The Jefferson Hotel for your honeymoon!

The Jefferson Hotel is a beautiful old hotel in downtown Richmond, Virginia.

There are many elements in the Richmond area to take in, from the Cary Street shopping district, called Carytown,

to the Museum of the Confederacy,

to the Poe House,

to the world-reknown Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,

who has just started a huge exhibition of Picasso (the only East Coast locale on this tour) that will go from now until mid-May. If you go, you MUST check out their Faberge collection - it rivals the Forbes collection in terms of eggs and photographs & frames of the Romanovs!

The Jefferson itself is a sight to behold.

The Rotunda lobby is gorgeous (which used to be a Japanese palm garden),

[note the Tiffany glass atrium]

the restaurants are the top rankings of the entire Commonwealth

and the rooms are heavenly.

What more could you ask for?

Photo sources: The Jefferson Hotel, Carytown Association, Museum of the Confederacy, VMFA and the Poe House.