June 27th

So, today I got up and made porridge with berries for me and Marie to share. Twas grand and we chatted for a while. I was invited to go to Inish Torbot with Brian Hughes and a couple of fellas who were going as well. Basically i was crashing their outting but thats ok. I showered and then made my way over to the Abbeyglen for one oclock.

I met up at the Hughes house and was invited in to see my painting, something i have been waiting to do for a year! It was so exciting to walk in and see it beautifully framed and hanging in a prominent spot on the wall of the livingroom. Clearly my artwork appreciated and valued, making me a happy Irish camper.

we got ready to drive to the pier. the two dogs belonging to Brian jumped into the trunk and that is where they stayed all the way to the peir, bouncing around back there not making a noise.

The day was beautiful for photos and i took many of the guys with me and the landscape. The funny thing about the boat ride over to Inish Turbot, is when we got close to shore, Brian picked up his dog, Gypsy, and threw her in the water. I was shocked and let out a gasp. Apparently she loves it!

So in the photo above, Rob is sitting watching Brian throw his other dog overboard too. There were two dogs with us. Rob and his dad Mick were the reason for this boat trip, I guess they are going to use the cottage of the Huges over on the Island.

Here are a bunch of photos from the day on the water and island hopping:

Above, is the Hughes cottage on Inish Turbot. Its 160 years old and has been renovated, even has running hot water! such a luxury!! The view from this cottage is of the ocean, beautiful and rugged.

above, gypsy the dog, have ye ever seen such a tongue on a dog before?? she looks like a cartoon!

mick on the left, rob on the right

below is my friend winifred gibbons, who last year said i could stay with her if i needed a place after i broke my collar bone. she is awesomely  nice!

Spent some time in the Abbeyglen, invited for dinner by Brian to a type of business meeting he was having with Pat and Paddy re tourism promotion stuff. I ate the salmon......of course. It was great meeting these gentlemen and getting to know them over supper. Then off to the bar downstairs where i actually did not have my uke with me and Mary the pinao player asked me to play and sing on my uke, i had to turn her down, i can't do it without my uke!

Perhaps if i ever need a job in Ireland, I'll be Freda's right  hand behind the bar at the Abbeyglen.

sorry, this blog is a long one, it was a very full and beautiful day full of people and scenery!





june 26

well, Martina's awesome sister drove me Clifden, which took about 1 hour 15 minutes. if she had not offered her time to me, it would have taken 5 hours cause i would have had to go to galway first.

When Dolores dropped me off at the Topaz gas station, Marie met me there and took me back to get settled into the appartment she is letting temporarily. we went out for a power walk after that and we saw a baby donkey.

here are a few other shots that were pretty.

After the walk, me and Marie and her friend Mary went out for supper at a place called Derryclare andn i ate the salmon, of course. I went on my own to the Abbeyglen after that cause marie was tired. i walked out there, it takes about ten minutes from Marie's appartment and it was dusk-ish so peaeful. i even video-ed the walk leading up the Abbeyglen cause i have been dreaming of that all year and imagining how it would feel to walk back there. it was grand and i couldn't wait to say hi to all the staff that i knew. i saw Kevin first, then Roger and Brian. They all remembered me of course, i seem to have  made a reputation for myself as the broken collarbone journalist.

Into the bar for some craic and then i pulled out my uke and sang "All the Little Details" by Orla Gartland and then "Oh my Dear Ireland" , my original one. They loved both and my head got swelled with ego as they clapped for me. I walked back to the appartment around midnight and Marie was in bed sleeping already.

that is brian hughes at the piano in the Abbeyglen Castle Hotel

below is Roger on the left and Kevin on the right. great chaps in the Abbeyglen!

more adventures to come. I love that each day I am not sure what i will be up to and what beauty i will see. LOVE IRELAND! and of course, I love Canada too. I am still a Canadian and proud of it. xo

june 25th evening

tonight we went into westport for the annual bluegrass festival. AMAZING!! it was great music and full of life. there was Tim Rogers and the Clew Bay Critters, Dustbusters, and an English bluegrass band i forget right now

some people even got up to dance, and that is a very brave thing to do, and i would never slag someone for that. but i must mention the one lady dancer who looked like Elaine from Seinfeld and her strange random jerky dancing movements, I almost split a gut laughing. I have never seen anyone so uncoordinated. she was very cute though, so in her honor, i leave you with the photo i got which pretty accurately shows her appendages flying around to no particular beat at all.

and that guy to the left, he was a male version of her, TWO quirky dancers in one night. i feel so lucky to have spotted it. me and my new friend Barbara the photographer from Westport who paints and loves zumba too, were getting a kick out of the two of them.

and lastly, the piece of toilet paper, that came on the floor by some womans purple shoes, stuck to her shoe as she dance. i watched it finally come off her shoe and then onto her partners shoe. from then on, the toilet paper was doing it's own dance on the dance floor, getting stuck on a shoe, then coming off. here is the famous dancing toilet paper.

am tired now..............must sleep!

june 25th

today was fun. it was a soft day, with a bit o sun at the end of it all.

we went in to see the Louisburgh horse show where Delores was making crepes with all sorts of yummy stuff inside them.



the view is amazing off Clew Bay, even in the overcast skies. the water sounds lovely and strong too.



There was a cute little boy with sweets all over his face from eating chocolate and icecream too, he was so cute. i spoke to his mother and told her she should never wash his face, she said somedays, she doesn't. :)

I look around me and still can't believe i am here. i have to pinch myself almost daily to believe it. I love the smell, sounds, music, people i am with. I love seeing old Irish men with their hats and smiling blue eyes. sometimes i just feel so lucky, i have to fight back the misty tears from forming in my eyes. As though i once lived here and left it, when i come back, it feels like home, like i am a whole person. I'm not trying to be dramatic here, just trying to explain what i feel when I am here. not that i don't belong with my family, i wish we could all move here, my whole family, all my friends back in london. I get an overwhelming sense of belonging and completeness here surrounded by mountains and ocean air. Perhaps not everyone would love it as i do, but i find that hard to imagine.

Martina is so wonderful, truly spoiling me. she is like another sister whom i love. I feel so welcome in her family's home too, such inclusion, surely this is what life is about,  making people feel loved and included.

below are some other sights of the show:

see the old gentleman in the photo above, I just wanted to go up and hug him and get my picture with him. He is a picture of an Irishman with his had and face.

tonight I made supper for the family i am staying with. there are two kids and so i made lasagna for everyone, with salad and garlic bread.

Tim led a tutorial type session on fiddle playing that was great, I borrowed his fiddle and joined in and learned two tunes, neither of which i can remember now, will have to get him to play it so i can record it and relearn it.

tonight we are going to the concert in Westport that Tim and his band are playing in. the music should be grand and i guess we are staying out til 2:30 when it ends! I am never out that late, but it is the norm around here it seems, either that or people stay up just for me? i don't know

I love it here.............

xo

june 24

yesterday was a driving day. I woke up and made breakfast of pancakes (from scratch, never done that before, Martina helped with the mix) and provided maple syrup from home for everyone to use. twas quite good, I was surprised how well the pancakes tasted. I took a photo of Aidan`s syrup, he used a tiny bit compared to how much we drench our pancakes in my house.



we drove about 7 or 8 hours to Westport, on the west coast, to stay with Martina`s sister and brother in law Delores and Tim. They are lovely people, really friendly and musical with two great kids. On the way here we stopped at Westport House, a large estate and then drove to Louisburgh where they live.

below, the swan paddle boats at Westport house





we arrived to find everyone at the town hall at some kind of talent show. I saw the couples with men dressed like women and women dressed like men, then the couples had an Irish dance off. much laughter and fun, i think the whole town was there.

stayed up til about 2:30am chatting, playing music and irish dancing with martina and showing my rubiks cubes and my uke. Tim plays everything it seems and there are musical instruments all over this house. my room, the den, is full of books and stringed instruments, the best room every. i sit here reading all the titles of the books in the wall shelves.

i must stop eating!!! everything tastes so good, martina makes the best sandwhiches ever, she just throws all kinds of neat stuff between the bread and it tastes great. yummmmmmm

Inch Beach, june 23

today i slept til almost 11am, which for me is nutz! was up til 230am so my schedule is all weird. we made mash and bangers and eggs and stuff, i fried salmon for breakfast. we went to Inch beach, beautiful and tonight it is my turn to cook supper with Colm (Aiden's friend). should be fun, he calls me "missus".

breakfast around the table with everyone above, and below, inch beach!

tonight into dingle to the pub to find some music an craic! no time for photos as this dumb website seems not to let me upload them right now and i am paying for my time on this box.

below, we went out in Dingle looking for the craic

O`Flaherty`s pub

the man in the photo above, had a beautiful voice and sang a song in Irish

the air feels good in my lungs and i feel energized by the sea air and great friends all around me.

slan, le gras (farewell, with love)