Pages

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Ireland Remembered . . .

Happy Saint Patrick's Day
~ ~ ~
Travel along with me to Ireland
and I will show you some
memories
vistas
flowers
history
green
homecoming



Mother of friends of ours
owns a home in the
South West near Bantry.
We feel so fortunate to be able to stay here.


Large fireplace inside the cottage
where the peat burning warms us up.


We do just as much reading and relaxing as we do touring.


 We have used this map many times
as we have traveled East of Shannon to Dublin,
South of Dublin to the Kennedy Compound,
around and through Cork and more and
then over to Bantry in the lower South West. 
We have visited villages and many off the road places.
And no, we haven't kissed the Blarney Stone or toured Waterford.
We take off in a tiny rental car and see the non tourist sights instead.

  

One year while we were at the cottage we
rebuilt the stone wall in the front. 


On our first trip to Ireland we slept in the loft of this garden shed. 
A large window facing North gave us views of Bantry Bay.
charming indeed
The Crocosmia and Fushia
are prolific along the road sides of Ireland. 
This by the way is the main road leading to the cottage. 


Crocosmia Views



 vistas are wide and many


One trip we searched out Standing Stones and Stone Circles
We are talking about thousands of years old . . .
Below, Jack is looking at a Standing Stone outside of Bantry.



Stone Circles, gathering places for families.
Often Dolmen Stones are found near Stone Circles.
The Dolmen is a large burial marker.   



Dolmen
It is difficult for us to imagine
the moving of these stones in a day
when there wasn't the heavy equipment
capability like there is today.
The most profound evidence of stone construction is
New Grange
North of Dublin. 
a must to see if you are planning a trip


We of course needed to tour the Kennedy Compound,
Jack being a Kennedy after all.




 Grandfather Kennedy Birthplace
(not Jack's)




Kennedy's visit to Ireland three months before his assassination.
Tried something different in this post. 
We have so many photos in albums from our trips
so I pulled a few and then took pictures
of the photos instead of scanning them.
It was much faster doing it this way instead of 
scanning them one at a time
to load them on and into this piece. 


Donovan Castle in restoration


a bit of levity
While touring the Jameson's Distillery near Cork
Jack volunteered me to be a "tester" for Irish Whiskey
I am now an
Official Whiskey Tester
and without a doubt
PADDY'S
is my favorite
straight neat smooth delicious






Favorite Window



 Old Man Waiting
Favorite




Climbing Sheepshead
Favorite



Favorite
Mop Heads
or
Hydrangeas
as we call them


HOMECOMING
favorite
for
Snickers
and for us too





Snickers today
loving the sunshine
 wishing each and all
 Happy Day

SLAINTE'

13 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

such a beautiful countryside. :)

Pamela Gordon said...

HI Lynne, what a wonderful time you must have had in Ireland. Your photos are beautiful and I enjoy the 'wee little visit'. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!
Blessings, Pamela

~from my front porch in the mountains~ said...

Just beautiful images! I love my visit to Ireland :) Could there be a part two?
have a fab weekend!
xo, misha

At Home in English Valley said...

Hi Lynne , my Irish blessing... Such a lovely country with a rich heritage. A perfect way to celebrate St . Pat's Day. Thanks for taking us along! Love, Penny

Jill said...

Such a beautiful tour today. Thank you. I just adore the cottages there!

LANA said...

Simply Beautiful! Happy St.Patrick's Day and top o' the mornin' to ya.

Unknown said...

Thank you for the tour . I enjoyed it so much. Do you remember where you saw the "Donovan" sign" ? That was my maiden name and they were from County Cork.

My granddaughter is going over for her last semester's work in May. She is a phys.ed teacher, but jobs are so hard to come by. So, she went to grad school and is finished with classes this week. Now her internship is in Dublin with the blind children. Very exciting !
I'm so glad you had the opportunity to visit and tour.
Go while you can !!!

koralee said...

So beautiful...thank you for sharing such loveliness...one day I hope to visit myself.
Such a beautiful country.
Thank you for you sweet comments that you left me on my blog. xoxoxo HUGS

Nancy said...

Lynne, thank you SO much for sharing these fabulous photos. I was oohing and ahhing so much that my hubby had to see what I was looking at. As an artist he really appreciated your landscapes, the sheep, and the gorgeous flowers. So many wonderful captures. The garden shed and the "mound" of hydrangeas is stunning. The way you toured Ireland is exactly the way I would want to do it. . .off the tourist path. Great! By the way, you and your husband make a lovely couple. Cheers!

Thistle Cove Farm said...

what a wonderful post, loved the trip to Ireland. what does peat smell like when it's burning?

Sheila said...

I read your post on Pondside and decided to pay you a visit. You have wonderful memories of Europe. I'm hoping to go back to ireland one day and posted some pictures on the 17th as well. It would take many paragraphs to describe our visit so this time I let the photos tell our story.

Carol said...

Wonderful pictures! We're planning a trip there for next year!

Anonymous said...

Magnificent beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a blog site?
The account helped me a acceptable deal. I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast
provided bright clear idea

Take a look at my blog post :: http://podcast.nhart.org/groups/test/wiki/95bee/Terminating_Rapid_climaxing_utilizing_Found_Practices_Matt_Gordons_Male_climaxing_Tutor.html