A Quiet Walk

Sometimes you just need a quiet walk alone, then life gives you wild apples!

Our Haunt

Cork Coffee Roasters was our haunt. I think I always need a local place to go and sit, do crosswords, knit, chat and drink coffee/eat cake. So that's what we did. 

A place out of home where you can simply relax and just do nothing. People can be observed, thoughts can pass. You can build a nest of sentiments around that local place, letting it grow bigger and become a part of your life and memories. 

Mist

Misted landscape on our way to lunch a fair distance away. I knitted hat and sleeve on the way. The lunch was gorgeous. It was at a small restaurant/garden where a woman keeps her own chooks and pigs for meat for the restaurant, she is vegetarian herself though. Pity about the weather. 

ten things

1. lovely self-sown poppies in a forgotten corner in Ballycotton

2. so many, many fuchsias here, the symbol of County Cork

3. ah, weather... (but can you see the rainbow cloud??)

4. I bought knitter's almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann and have re-kindled my love for her

5. speaking of knitting (always), i've been doing a lot of it. so far I've knitted for the good people of Ireland five hats, almost one jumper, almost two dishcloths and i've taught 2 to knit. (well, re-taught one)

6. as a general rule I dislike cats. this one, a three-legged, i like. 

7. this Rekorderlig orange and ginger cider is a lovely discovery i have made.

8. I have a pile of postcards to be written, so i'll get onto that today...

9. I have nearly finished Austin's jumper

10. I'll be sad to leave Ireland next wednesday, but oh so excited to see Scotland and England.

Ormondes at Kilkenny Castle

If you know me quite well, skip to the next paragraph. otherwise read here: my mother's family name and also my middle name is Ormonde. that is the setting for this post.

Kilkenny Castle is grand. we managed to skip the €6.00 fee for a €2.50 each on my youth card. The walls were lined with paintings of Ormonde residents mounted on the golden taffeta wallpaper. Staircases wound through towers, leading to libraries, drawing rooms, music rooms and lavish bed chambers. It was lovely imagining living in the house, sweeping long silk skirt hems across the polished floor to lounge on the chaise-longue or perch on a plump-cushioned mahogany seat at a chess table.
The gardens were tailored to perfection and the outside of the castle was monumental.

The weather was nice if you are a duck. I am part duck, i think.

We had stopped before panini lunch at a curious sign pointing down a lane advertising a pencil drawing exhibition. we stepped into a silent, near-empty pub where the barman gave us a long lecture about the history of his pub and also about the pencil artist. there were 2 paintings upstairs in a dusty theatre, apparently painted by a 21 year old, we were told several times. (he made us guess how old she was, first). then we went on our merry way and left the lonely man.

we did the crossword over raisin scones and coffee in a cafe for a few hours, went to an art/design/knitting centre and then poked our head into Kytelers inn, apparently owned by a red haired witch in the early 1200's i think.

the drive home was 3 hours, so i took bored photos of my feet and various inanimate objects and the speeding-past landscapes.

love

The Burren Perfumery

A delicious €4.50 bowl of carrot and coriander soup with unlimited brown soda bread in a kitsch, sweet cafe next to the perfumery. The smells, oh the smells of organic lip balms, hand made flower-essenced soaps and creams, lotions and sprays. Everything packaged in neat brown paper, glass bottles and wicker baskets. Outside, bumblebees thronged in the organic flower and herb garden - a pretty, scented maze. There was a calmness about the whole place, it was all beautiful.
The drive to find it was impossible: tiny grass-hidden one-way tracks, hairpin bends and miles of isolated farmland. it was certainly worth it, though.

p.s. Melinda if you're reading this, I couldn't stop thinking of you and your family while I was there. If you ever get the chance, you must try to visit The Burren Perfumery.
love

The Cliffs of Moher

Beautiful wild Irish cliffs.
We stood on the edges, taking turns holding the other's hand for balance, feeling our stomachs turning over and over. gulls wheeled nearer the sea, kee kee - ing above the pounding swell.
buskers along the way serenaded the walkers: old, young, with crutches, with babies in slings, with wheelchairs, with prams, with holding hands.
purple sprays of heather and thistle clung to the windy face, still pretty after constant wind-beating.
it was wonderful.
x