The Shops And A Walkabout

As in any trip you spend a lot of time on sometime things just don't work out. So you have to regroup, redesign and let go.

On day four I took the train to Sligo a 3hour journey.  The a taxi to the garage where my car was supposed to be. I rented an automatic but alas they couldn't get one.  I haven't driven a stick in 11 years. I took up the challenge and it was frickin hard. The stress was all across my shoulders and down my back.  I drove the 40 km to Carrick on Shannon, not sure how because it was not pleasant by any stretch of the means.  

That night I could not sleep worrying about having to drive. Take the fact that I recently had a car accident so I am not comfortable with driving yet.  Then add the manual transmission issues and that I am driving on the wrong side of the road. You shift with your left hand and the rear view mirror is now on the left. Then add driving in a foreign country with unfamiliar road signs and you put it all together no wonder I stressed out big time. For my well being I decided to let go of the car.  The company will pick up the car tomorrow and then I will leave Carrick and head back to Dublin for some more adventures.  

I also cancelled my car in Wales and will have to rethink what I may want to do for those days. I've let go of many of the plans I had initially.  Gone is the idea to visit all the locations.  Now I will find some of them, I'll explore the areas to get a feel of what it was like living in these places.  Sometimes when you get somewhere you realize it's not as easy as you thought it would be. Or that it will take far longer than you ever imagined.

The shops and a walkabout

I spent the day in Carrick on Shannon. I went to see all the shops and so forth. In my walking I came across this.

And a sign pointing to the Famine memorial graveyard so I followed.

Nano information on who was hung and why but I thought it was interesting.

Next was this cairn and time capsule I. Honor of the ancestors.

In the graveyard there were places with information on them. 

This was a soup cauldron mentioned in the above plaque.

A poem or prayer to a fallen victim.

This was in the center of the area, no information about it.

Another monument to honor the fallen from the famine.   There was also a workhouse but it was closed so I'd didn't get to see more.

A Ride on the Shannon

This is the boat The Moon River, that I took a little one hour cruise on.

The marina at Carrick on Shannon, Ireland.

There was a bar with drinks and snacks and live entertainment.

The view out the window.  I saw several swans on the shore.  The ride was quite peaceful.

Weaving Show

I found this weaving show on display.  The exhibitor was Barbara Falkowska from Poland. The pieces were fabulous.

This was my favorite piece, it was very big and stunning.  I see a woman in there, can you?

I thought these addled like onions.

At first I thought these looked like feathers but some of them look Iike people.

This was just a sampling of the tapestries, what an amazing collection it was.

Newgrange and the Hill of Tara part 2

After seeing the tomb we went to the farm for lunch.

There were a couple quilted wall,hangings on the walls of the lunch area.

You can see the Newgrange tomb in this one.  

This is the barn in the farm.  There were animals in each one of the doors.

Who couldn't love a face like this one.  

Or this one.

The hill of Tara is where all,the Irish kings  took power and had their ceremonies. It's hard to photograph from the ground.

This what it looks like, lots of indentations. The Irish kings were pretty brutal guys, the made Game of Thrones look tame.

I can't remember the name of this stone but I do know it where the king got his power and sweared his oath.  

This was the offering tree. How it got started was never made clear to me.

It had everything imaginable tied to it.

I didn't have anything but a candy wrapper in my pocket so I tied it on to one of the branches.

This church was also on the property. The Church always seemed to make its presence known at pagan and pre-pagan sites. There was a graveyard too.

Newgrange and the Hill of Tara

This is Dowth, it's one of the many burial mounds in the area.  They look like big hills on the landscape but they were all man made.

This headstone marks the entrance as is found in most of these mounds.  Carvings are always found.

On close up they look like small suns.

On the grounds ther always seems to be a castle remnant.

This is Newgrange, it's the only burial chamber you can go into.

The white stone is quarts  and the darker egg shaped rocks were for fertility.  They don't really know what they were used for and while.

At the tomb entrance the spirals carved here are not like any others anywhere else. They don't let you film inside the tomb.  On the winter solstice, light enters the chamber and fills it with a honey colored light.  It was simulated with a flashlight when we were inside and that was pretty cool.

Here I am communing with a stone. The stone circle on the property. That all I have time for today. This blogger app is not the best so I had to do this twice.  Till tomorrow.

I made it to Ireland

I made it to Ireland, finally.  I had a 3 hour layover in Denver and an 8 hour layover in Toronto .

They must have had 500 iPads all free to use. It was a tiring day though.  I got into Dublin around 10:30 am.

It took awhile to get through customs and take a bus from the airport. This is where I am staying for a couple days.

It's a guesthouse in an old building.  I sort of feel like I am in an Agatha Christie story.   When I leave I turn in my key and hen pick it up when I come back.  It's simple but comfortable with some old world styling.  I like it so far.

My daughter loves skulls, so when I saw these in a window I had to get the picture for her. Sarah, no I am not bringing you one of these.

Dublin has a lot of Georgian architecture that I just loved,  all sort of colorful doors are a treat for the eyes.

Little bits of inspiration strike me, so I stop with my iPhone and take some pictures. I loved this streetlight. Being in the big icy again is such a change of pace.  There are people everywhere and it can be overwhelming at times. I am not used to so many people smoking, I rarely see that at home. Another thing I have not seen anyone who fit the stereotype of an Irish person.  You know red hair and freckles.  I've heard so many different languages in one day that I can't distinguish them anymore.there appears to be a big Asian population along with African, Arabic and Eastern European. A melting pot of sorts.

Another thing I've noticed that I first encountered in England ten years ago.  It's easy to be In a big city at all hours.  Haven't felt vulnerable at all. I wouldn't say that about big cities I the US.

There is this big statue of some Irish orator I think its Connolly, but at the bottom are all these angels.  I wish I had some editing software loaded on my iPad so I could lighten theses up.

They are all really beautiful. 

I may have to take more pictures at a better time a day.  I love how you can be walking along and here is this magnificent statue just out of the blue.

This bridge just appeared.  I don't even know what river it was but I thought it was pretty.

That's about all for today.  Time to get some rest. Tomorrow I am going on a tour to Newgrange.

A Week in Yellowstone

We had a great time in Yellowstone, there are always beautiful views.  This is Lamar Valley, you can sometimes see wolves and Grizzly bears here.

We saw lots of Big Horn Sheep, these are the females.  I saw males too but never got a picture of them.

This is something I have never seen in the 30 years I have been going to Yellowstone. Ranger/cowboys herding buffalo across the road.  That was quite cool to see.

Here I am on Dunraven Pass.  They had just opened the road.  As you can see the snow banks are a little high.

This is a cinnamon black bear.

This is Rosie the black bear with her three cubs.

I got around to doing a little art one night. Playing with paint and stencils and a bag of scraps led to this collage.

Its funny that I didn't realize there was that white line going down her face. Old book pages are always fun to draw on.

Back To Reality

Since getting back home its been a whirlwind of activity. We sold our trailer and bought a new one.  I've been tying up all the loose ends for my trip out of the country. I leave for Ireland on Tuesday.  I am taking along my iPad with the idea of blogging a little while I am there. I am not sure how long I will keep that up. If I think it is taking up too much time, I 'll postpone it until I get back home.  So I will guarantee at least one blog post from the road. I may end up being more active on FB or Instagram so you might want to follow me there. There are links to do this in my sidebar.

For Sunday Sketches I drew some flowers in a small notebook I had in my purse.

The first page was just some random flowers.

Then I decided on a bigger flower and it became a zentangle. Sketching is always great fun. Check out what others are doing here