here comes the Exxon Valdez

At last! The piece is finished and titled 'Here Comes the Exxon Valdez.' It is a warning to us all of the havoc brought on by the greed of oil companies, by our own thoughtless use of petrol and by moronic statements such as those from Sarah Palin, "Drill, baby, drill." And, to my delight, the quilt placed second in the wall quilt category at the recent Tinahely Quilt Show.

Ester: stitching the legend

When faced with the challenge of creating new work based on the theme of 'Stitching the Legend' I begin by looking at what is on my doorstep.

I moved to Co. Galway in 2005 and by coincidence our new family home is not far from Tuam where my mother grew up. The front of my house looks towards a hill called Knockma, of which I knew very little.

Local folklore says it is a fairy hill, and that Finvarra, king of the Connacht Fairies and Queen Maeve of Connacht are buried there.

Archaeologists believe it was a significant ceremonial area dating from Neolithic times. There are four stone cairns at the summit and there may be passage tombs. Several new tombs and the remains of a hill fort were also found on a nearby ridge.

One of Galway's 'tribes', the Kirwan family, built its base at Castlehacket, at the foot of Knockma in the 18th century. It seems that the monuments at Knockma were 'remodelled' around that time and that other field monuments nearby were destroyed, without excavation, by farming. Today, local quarrying poses a further threat to this landscape.

I often walk on Knockma, where there is now a signposted 'Golden Mile' walk. This photo shows the view from the summit looking back towards my home. There is something magical about this landscape where the surrounding plains stretch towards Loch Corrib and the Maam Turk mountains in Connemara.