The day before I received the KRF: notebook, Waggy Fitzpatrick a.k.a. Wags our 13 year old golden retriever died. Around the same time, I had access to the decommissioned light house on Howth pier. Without much planning, I started by using both ends of the notebook.

Using text here and there, a collage of colours that remind me of Wags and the other dog - Coco a chocolate labrador feature (I love David Hockney’s ‘Dog Day’s’ paintings of his 2 sausage dogs). Had fun making a paw print and enjoyed the happy memories of a dear friend. Having buried Wags, a physically hard task and breaking the news to family living away, she was on my mind and features lots in this notebook.

I walked, cycled, ran and sailed past Howth Pier light house, drew and photographed it over many years, so observing the familiar surroundings of Howth harbour from the ‘light room’ in this landmark building was great as well as seeing the enormous bulb with another enormous back up bulb that served as a guide to all seafarers entering and exiting the harbour since the year 1818 until 1982 when the new automatic lighthouse took over. An old A4 frame offers information such as the nominal range of the white and red lights, 12 miles, 3855 candellas and 9 miles, 1041 candellas. Now this redundant structure, musty, oven like in the summer probably holds a few ghost stories as a visitor suggested to me.

Looking back at the view of the harbour from the lighthouse, getting a bird’s eye view of kayakers and observing seagulls fly past the window offered new visual pleasures in this familiar area.

The notebook simply reflects a short period referencing life and emphasising what is important at the time.