The Emerald Isle

Happy Tuesday to you. I hope your day has been good and that you are all staying healthy. Today I decided to share some photos of Ireland with you; these aren't mine, I will be sharing mine between tomorrow  and St. Patrick's Day.

I've taken two walks today, one was with hubby and Hunter and then I joined two neighbors for our 3 mile walk.  I'm trying to stay out of the gym or any other large crowds while the Covid19 seems to be spreading more.  We are doing our best not to react to the fear that the media is spreading, but are being cautious just the same.
Have a peaceful afternoon.
Noreen

My Ancestry in Thomastown, Ireland

Happy Friday to you.  I am revisiting the land of my grandparents, from a trip we took three years ago. While I didn't plan to blog everyday, it gave me a chance to journal all of our activities. "Yesterday was an extremely busy day for us and today this gal feels like my tank is on empty. I've already told hubby we will be taking it slower and easier today, with not too many places to see~one is a castle here in Kilkenny and the other is Rock of Cashel. More about these places tomorrow. Yesterday morning we left Dublin and couldn't be happier to head to the open roads. Dublin is a wonderful city, so beautiful and charming, but the traffic is hard to deal with if you haven't been there before. We headed toward Wicklow to visit a quilt store, after all we had gone to Jameson for hubby on Wednesday. The roads were very nice along the way, mostly highways. When we got to the town, we discovered that the store wasn't there but back about 1/2 hr. Hubby was more than willing to go back, but due to the fact that I have about 6 more stores to check out and we still had quite a way to go,  but we passed. From Wicklow to Thomastown was quite an adventure! Our Garmen took us on back roads and gravel roads, again they were very skinny and in some places quite scary. WE went to Thomastown specifically to see cemeteries and find, if possible, graves of my ancestors. We hiked through the ruins of old cemeteries, which to me is such fun. We walked up and down streets and had to find a caretaker of the key to one cemetery; the old church is owned by a lady now who lives there, so we couldn't disturb her. So without further delay, here is a sample of our photos.

Entering the small gate to a cemetery owned by a lady; we were told not to bother anything on her home.

We were successful in finding four headstones-what a thrill. When we were finished, we headed to Kilkenny.  This city is incredible and we loved it!  We walked up and down streets, had dinner at a pub with live traditional music and two young teens clog dancing.  Such fun!!!! Everyone is so nice and friendly.  Hubby and I are falling asleep before 10:00 p.m. and today we slept in, quite late for our standards. After having a continental breakfast downstairs, we are now ready to get a move on(albeit a bit slower) and start exploring here.  I just hope the Iron in my vitamin kicks in.  So there you have our time here so far".  To be honest with you, hubby and I had a trip so filled to the brim and I actually felt like we've seen it all(silly me) and that we wouldn't ever need to return, too many other places we want to see.  After looking at these photos again, I would consider going back, but like I said earlier, our trip would be totally different.
May your day be bright and your life be full of joy.
Hugs for now~
Noreen

Did you figure out which President it was I referred to in yesterday's post?

I love the photo below-it was everything about Ireland I loved-rolling hills, sheep and cattle and homes from decades ago.  This picture was taken from the cemetery where my great grandparents are buried.

We will have a girlie tea party tomorrow and then a traditional Irish-American dinner tomorrow night.  I grew up eating Corned Beef and Cabbage and thought everyone in Ireland did as well-the answer is it was something available for the immigrants and relatively inexpensive.  In Ireland you are more likely to have Lamb Stew, Fish and lots of Potatoes.
Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day.
Noreen

New Ross

Hello again, The photos below are where my paternal grandparents were from; it's in Southern Ireland and a previous President's family were from there-can you guess who? I've mentioned it previously that there was a good chance we were distant cousins.

This doorway led to a church, but residents reside there so we couldn't disturb them.  The cemetery was intriguing though-we didn't find any relatives headstones there.

May the sun shine brightly on you today.
Noreen

The Emerald Isle

Hello lads and lassies, As promised I'm sharing more photos of our trip to Ireland two years ago.

If I'm not mistaken these were all taken at Kilkenny Castle.  Every time I look at them, I think of my family and how both parents loved the heritage we have.  My brother embraces his Irish genes as well, love it about him-he reminds me so much of my mom.
I hope you have a great day.
Blessings,
Noreen

Nature's Bounty

Happy Wednesday to you, or as the camels say on t.v. Happy Hump Day. I got my hair cut first thing this morning, it feels so much lighter and I'm happy. Looking through the photos on my IPhone and ran across these beautiful flowers we saw on our trip.  The poppy is glorious.

We've watched our slide show several times now and are still in awe of how beautiful Ireland is. 
I'm heading over to our oldest daughter's to pick basil; I plan on spending several hours making our first batch of pesto for the freezer.  This afternoon we have seven, yes seven, granddaughters coming for a sleepover-should be so much fun!!!  I'll probably be tired tomorrow though.
I hope you are finding beauty and joy in your life today.
Blessings,
Noreen

Just A Few More

It's outdoor Wednesday and I'm enjoying our nice warm weather; didn't go to the pool today, had to help a friend with wedding decorations for her daughter. My days are so busy, but not a huge amount of things to blog about...so I keep going back to our photos and pulling ones I didn't share while we were on the trip. Hope you enjoy!

Below is peat-which they used in past years to heat the houses; some folks still use it today.

As we shared out photos from the trip with our family last night, it was like reliving it again.  Simply loved the land, the people and the animals.  We have numerous photos we'd like to have enlarged and hang; just need to decide which pictures to use. 
Hope you have a fantastic day and find time for a joy!
Hugs, Noreen

Wild Rhododendrons

When we lived in California, two of our favorite bushes were Azaleas and Rhododendrons, we had them in our yards all of our married lives. You can imagine how disappointed we were when we moved to Colorado, only to find out that they didn't do well here. I'm sure there might be areas of Colorado where they grow, just not in our area. Bummer! We'll we had previously seen photos of Wild Rhododendrons growing on the walls or side of the road in Ireland. It took us days of driving, going on adventures before we finally spotted some. OH, they were glorious. Many were the shade of purple that we had in Sonoma County and we also saw Azaleas. Be still my heart.

It was quite surprising then when we were on the Horse and Cart ride at Muckross House that the fellow told us they are taking over hillsides and trees and killing some of the landscape.  Really?  We saw hillsides that had a purple tint and it was from the Rhododendrons.  I really didn't realize they could be so invasive and destroy other trees and plants.  I guess many things in life are like that-it might be something good occasionally, but too much of it isn't.   I  still love these plants and the beauty. 
It's like the Oregano that was growing in my flower bed-a good thing if you use it for cooking, but it totally took over the bed.  Then this weekend when we were gardening, I sat pulling it up from the area between each piece of flagstone-it was a pain. 
Well, I'm off to walk Hunter and then to join my girls at the pool for swim lessons, lunch and more swimming.  I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday.
Joy to you.

A Little More Of Ireland

Good Morning to you!  I hope you had a great weekend, filled with relaxation and enjoyment in some of your favorite activities.  Our weekend was production~we got the new plants put in the garden, cleaned up the patio, cleandc up our upper deck plus a little R&R.  Hubby and I actually hit the pool Saturday afternoon, alone, which is pretty unusual for us.  I always prefer to go with the grands. There were some fun things we saw in Ireland that I thought I'd share.  Love this sign, especially it being in the colors of the flag.

 Got to love this one!

 I didn't get to enjoy any of these treats, but had enough desserts to last a lifetime or maybe just a month.  I'd love to say I didn't gain any weight, but I gained a couple of pounds-which just means that I have to get out and exercise it off.

 Love these door signs.

 This was in a pub-loved that it was authentic.

 Such an incredible salad; can't remember where I had this, but I think I could live on this salad for a week or two.  One of the best salads I had while there; in fact, once I ordered a Caesar and it was mixed greens, cucumber and Parmesan cheese with no dressing. 

Some of the funny expressions were Pancake=Popcake.  Amach=exit, Traffic Calming=reduced speed, Slip Road=Expressway.  A typical Irish breakfast included Scrambled Eggs(sometimes fried eggs), Bacon-but there bacon would be our ham slices, hash brown potatoes, sauasage, broiled tomatoes, mushrooms, plus an assortment of pancakes/breads as well as yogurt and an assortment of fruits. I found that if I asked many of the hotels had gluten free bread; in southern Ireland they referred to anything gluten free as Celiac, but in northern Ireland/Belfast it was simply Gluten Free.
  One cute business we saw, but I couldn't get a photo from the car was
Paws Tea Room-a pet friendly tea room.
Well, that's about it for today.  I'm off to walk with Kam and then to meet my girls and grands at swim lessons. It is supposed to get up to 90 today, so maybe I'll be at the pool this afternoon.
Hugs,
Noreen

The Southwest

Greetings to you all.  We had such a busy weekend!  On Saturday we drove from Kilkenny to Cork and got to our new hotel.  On Friday night there was quite a party, called a "Stag and Drag", this is what they call bachelorette parties.  I didn't not sleep past midnight; we even called the front desk because the girls were partying in the hall.  When we checked out bright and early Saturday morning we mentioned it and it sounds like the parties are common at that hotel.  The gal was nice enough to give us free parking for our stay, but we will be letting our travel agent know about this and that the hotel needs serious renovating.  We headed to Cork and checked into our hotel; it is a very nice one and I doubt there will be any issues here.  After checking in, we walked to the English Market. I love how people shop daily for their food here; it is such good exercise walking everywhere.  In fact, by Saturday night we had walked 7.5 miles.  Here is a view of the market.  There is a restaurant and also a bistro upstairs for eating your lunch, but I believe most people just come here to buy their meat and produce.

After eating lunch, we walked back to the hotel, got in the car to head out. Our next stop was Rock of Cashel; another ruins that was fascinating. I've got to upload all the photos on my phone so I can share some of our meals.

The painting is almost gone, but there is a restoration team using ultraviolet lights to aid them in the paintings restoration.

This was one of the houses on the long walk to the English Market. Love the bright color and window boxes. After exploring the Rock of Cashel, we headed down to a little town called Kinsale. It was charming, but by this time I was running out of gas-which is why no photos were taken. We headed back to Cork and ended up eating at the Bistro in the hotel. They were having several specials, which were as cheap as Pub Grub and we loved the food. Needless to say I was asleep by 8:30 p.m. and slept till 6:30 a.m. We set our for another adventure yesterday, but right now I'm going to see if I can pull up some photos from my phone to share. I hope you've enjoyed our trip; we certainly are.
Blessings,
Noreen