Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sunday with the locals

Sunday morning we woke up and walked to the local church in the little village. It was a simple church with rock walls and an old painting of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit about a saint that was praying. It was a bit strange though. I wanted to ask someone about it but I didn’t get a chance. The saint was a bishop but two angels were playing with his mitre and crosier. Also all the people in the painting did not have any indication of holiness like a halo or light above their head. This seemed strange knowing the era that it was painted in. The people of the church were very friendly. They noticed that Regi was looking for something and asked her what she needed in French only to find we couldn’t speak French so she found someone in the church that could speak English to help us. He was a nice man and we asked when the Ash Wednesday mass was going to be. We found that there was only one priest for 5 churches so the mass was going to be held in another near by church. The man also had a daughter that was very eager to try out her English on Regi. It was very cute. She told us she had a dog and a cat and wanted to know if we had any.

We feel kind of strange coming from a place were growing food was the priority to a place were aesthetics and enjoyment are priority. It’s also strange to come from a place that was a temperate to a semi-tropical climate. There are a lot of eucalyptus trees and a tree that is going on the driveway in Freshwater. I can’t remember the name we call it but they call it the Mimosa tree. It has beautiful bright yellow fluffy round flowers all over the tree and the village even has a parade dedicated to the flower. I will post a photo of it later on.


Regi and I get to live in a guest house that they rent out in the summer. It has an old rustic stone fireplace in the kitchen/dining room area and a cozy bedroom with wooden timber beams that have not been hewn. The bathroom has a state of the art shower that has more shower heads than any that we have ever seen coming from every direction all contained in a glass tube that looks like a space portal.



Until next time…

Saturday, February 26, 2011

From Ireland to London to Cote d’Azur

We left rainy Ireland for foggy London and arrived at the Morgan House. It was a quaint bed and breakfast that cost a lot less than most places to stay in London. The first day was a whirlwind of underground tube (subway), enormous amounts of tourists crowding the streets like there was a festival, beautiful architecture, and friendly locals. We headed to Leicester Square that contained at least 15 theatres. We searched diligently for half priced tickets which we read about in our Lonely Planet’s “Europe on a Shoestring” book. Regi and I really wanted to see “The Phantom of the Opera” but the vendors on the street said that either there was no tickets left for that night or there was only one left. Not to be deterred, we headed to the actual box office at “Her Majesty’s Theatre” a few minutes before show time. Our persistence paid off and we got two nice seats for a good price. It was a powerful performance with stunning stage affects.


The following day we met up with Jolanta (Regi’s Lithuanian cousin). We had a spirited time chatting in a coffee shop, dinning at an Italian restaurant with hot waiters that couldn’t speak much English, and walking around the city at night seeing the sites. There was a lot of waiting for me (Bernie) to finish taking photos.

We even stopped in at an elegant pub across from the Parliament that Jolanta works at. Five Lithuanians work at this pub and they want to convince the owner to rename the pub to “The Lithuanian Pub”. :-)



On the third day we were off again to Nice, France by plane followed by a bus and train ride to La Roquette Sur Siagne, a village near Grasse. We met our host family and they seem very friendly. We get to live in a 150 year old house that is just amazing. I will be sure to tell you more about it all in the blogs to come.

Until next time…

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Last Day in Ireland



As all good things must come to an end so our time in Ireland has ended. We had a very educational and engaging stay with the Cronin family. They have been most gracious and kind to us. I hope that the work that we have done for them will help bring them a step closer to their goal of self sustainability and increase the quality of food that they eat.


To Regi and I, this type of vacation is a far superior way to see a country. You get to see the famous landmarks and interesting places but you also get to live with the people of the land and learn what daily life is for them. We get to do the day to day activities with them and build relationships with them. There is no way we could ever do that on a short site seeing trip.

The next step in our journey is London to visit Regi’s cousin Jolanta. Jolanta is studying in London but she is originally from Lithuania. We plan to stay for only two days but we hope to catch a stunning play called “Love Never Dies”. It’s a continuation of the play “Phantom of the Opera” and the review looked very captivating. London is known to be the most expensive city in Europe but on the positive side all the museums are free to the public. We plan to stop by the Tate Museum that contains a lot of the artists that I studied in my art history classes.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Finally Some Vitamin D

We finally had our first full day of sun! It was so great to soak up as much vitamin D as possible. I knew that this was the only time I could photograph Ireland in the sun so Regi and I played hooky in the morning and went for a long walk. Regi was a bit tired so she turned back to start work and I continued on.

Farther down the road I found an abandoned house. It was a strange feeling being in an old skeleton of a house and wondering what it was like when the house had life in it. There was the old stairs and I could hear the old farmer’s foot steps trudging up the wooden stairs after a long hard day of work. The fire place was warming the food that the wife had put on. Why was it empty and dead? What had happened?

There can be only so much fun before you have to get back to work. Today’s task was to plant lettuce and finishes the raspberry beds. After planting the lettuce and about 15 wheelbarrows of dirt later we were bushed. Tuckered out.

The last chore was to watch the kids for a few hours. The kids had fun making shadow puppets and strangling each other.

It was a good day.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Dream

It's late at night and I awake after a dream. I was small. I couldn’t wait for Mama to arrive after a long trip. She comes with open arms and tells me she had something for me. I am excited to hear what it is only to discover that I will never receive it. Why won't it ever come? Where did it go?

I awake in the dark. Lying in bed, I remember the time my mother returned from a trip Austria and upon arriving home her luggage was lost. It was a simple, old leather suitcase but it had a great deal of memories attached to it. I was with my mother when she packed that worn leather bag. It was a dark brown color. A few scuff marks marked the life that it had lived. A sticker or two gave a clue to some of the destinations that it had seen. Inside was lined with a sliver cloth and pockets on either side. Mama carefully folded each piece of clothing and gently laid them in their proper place. Bright chrome latches attached to leather straps held together all the bit of home that my mother was taking with her.

This was not the first time this bag made the trip over the ocean. In fact, it had traveled quite extensively over the years not only with my mother but with my grandmother and grandfather as well. They also traveled to many location with that bag; Egypt, Venice, Greece. Always carrying a bit of home with them.

Time has moved on and now it is I who am traveling to distant lands. I carry a bit of home with me as well but no longer in a simple, old leather suitcase. No, today I carry my home in a weatherproof backpack on my back. Very different from the black suitcases on wheels being dragged behind other travelers. Maybe it’s my way of holding tight to the home I brought along hoping to never loose it.

I wonder where that old leather suitcase ended up. Is it sitting in a long dark warehouse, high up on a self marked by the fateful day that it was lost? Was it tossed into the trash? Does anyone know the memories that old leather suitcase contains? Does anyone care? I guess I will never find out.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Killarney

For the past couple of days, we took a break from farming and visited the largest national park in Ireland: Killarney National Park. We stayed in nearby Killarney which also happens to be the most touristy town in Ireland, having practiced tourism for 250 years!! All the shops and restaurants claimed to be traditional Irish even though some seemed to sell food dominantly of the Italian persuasion and a large number items that may or may not have been traditionally Irish (like Spongebob guitars).
A good part of the park is a bog.

There are also three lakes in the park, the tallest mountain range in Ireland and Ross Castle.
We climbed around the castle and enjoyed the view across the lake.
We contemplated what it would be like to be a king living in a castle like this in the Middle Ages. What would the king do each day? How would he keep warm? What would he eat?

We were able to get a great deal on a room with a jacuzzi in a nice hotel in the middle of town because it is the off season and we went during the middle of the week. I found that using the body wash and the jacuzzi jets at the same time resulted in the biggest bubble bath I had ever experienced.
We are back with the Cronins and apparently the scheming pigs found the part of the fence that we had not electrified or reinforced and burrowed underneath it into the neighbor's yard. The neighbors were very angry. The pigs are now in an electrified pen in the glass house (which we had just organized before we left).

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Irish Mexicans?


Regi missed mexican food so we decided to find the one and only mexican restuarant in Cork: Cafe Mexicana. I must say it was quite the experience. They had interesting Irish twists on mexican food. How would you like some of these fillings in your taco or enchilada:
Spicy chicken, spicy beef, picadillo (spicy beef, raisins & almonds), potato and spinach, potato and bacon, refried beans, garden vegetables.
How about a little mexican soup- Tomato And Tortilla Soup*
A tomato cream soup made with wheat tortillas, mildly spiced and served with corn chips or garlic bread. The food was great tasting but I would have liked more than a teaspoon of refried beans on top of my rice. Regi ordered the enchilada with garden vegetables. The vegetables were potatoes and cabbage. The burrito (which we did not order) was € 15.50. I guess it's nice to have a monopoly on Mexican food...


The farm chores today was to organize the glass house (the greenhouse). It was rainy outside and a bit cold. We got quite warm adding gravel to the floor so I took off my coat and Regi took her hat off. We placed them in a little crate for the time being. In no time Tittles, Beguira, and Dorcha had all curled up on the pile of clothes. It was so cute that we didn't have the heart to take it away from them.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sunday Drive

Sunday came around and we headed off to mass with the family. The church was a quaint little country church placed up on a hill over looking the rolling green hills. It was a children’s mass and the whole church was packed with young families. It was quite nice except that everyone said the prayers as fast as they could. The whole mass was 30 minutes max.


After mass the family was gracious enough to take us to the local national park. The forest was covered in a carpet of bright green moss. It was so beautiful.

I took a family portrait of the Cronin family. They said that they hired two other photographers to take their photo but neither of them was able to get a decent photo. I was the first one that was successful.

There were lots of trails but it was quite cold and it would be too complicated to take all the children on the paths although the oldest wanted to walk up to one of the waterfalls. We saw a couple of sheep grazing on the grass along one of the many creeks.


Mike took us to an old monastery that was right on a lake that looked like it was filled with black water. It was established in the seventh century. We saw the cells for the monks and they were small coves built where they prayed the Stations of the Cross. They were very drippy coves. Although there are no monks there anymore, people come to pray. The little church had stained glass windows with a number of Irish saints we had never heard of.

We joined the children at the playground and played around a bit.

When we returned home, the family had some wine (from their wedding!) for dinner and then left the half used bottle and their half full glasses on the table. Meanwhile, while we were busy in the sitting room, Eamon wanted to play with colored pencils and a coloring book on the dinner table. Fiona went to check on something in the kitchen and discovered that Eamon had stuffed the bottle to the brim with colored pencils. He had also filled the crystal wine glasses with colored pencils!! Kids!!

Today we put in six raised beds for raspberries. It took most of the day and was a lot of fun. The weather was really interesting, too. It was very sunny in the morning, then it snowed for about half an hour around 10AM. The sun came out again and then it hailed for about half an hour around 12PM. Then it was nice for the rest of the day.

We had bought some chocolates on our trip to Cork and were saving them for Valentine ’s Day. Bernie picked out a chili chocolate truffle. I think he wanted to blog about it so I will let him. Or maybe he’s not excited about it anymore. He thought it was really great. Super spicy and sweet.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Black Pudding

Yesterday Regi and I were beat after a fun filled day in Cork.

The sun finally decided to come out as we walked the streets. My favourite part was the English Market. It was a maze of sellers selling everything from meat to vegetables, to chocolates, and more. The butchers would cut up whole sides of cows right there in front of you.
We also went to the Crawford Art Gallery and saw a very touching photo exhibition called "All My Love". Very postmodern but it actually worked quite well. Several artists photographed their own relatives at different stages in their lives. I really enjoyed that.

We came home in the evening to find that the pigs that were under house arrest had managed to move a pallet and a metal gate that was blocking their way and was able to stand up and use their hooves to open the glass house door! Mike, Regi, and I had to chase those bandits for over 30 minutes before we could get them in their electrified pens again.


Today we were treated to black pudding! It's actually a sausage made from blood from their own pig, lentils, rice flakes, barley, and more. It was pretty good but I couldn't eat too much of it. It reminded me of the blood sausage that Mama ate in Austria. Mike and Fiona like the idea of using potatoes in it and are going to try that recipe next time.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Cross Bulls and Dogs

Another adventurous day in Kilmichael. We had no more pig adventures for the day because they were under house arrest for bad behavior. We spent most of our time in the garden rather than chasing them. The morning started out in the green garden surrounded by a thick fog. The leeks needed pick'n so Regi and I pulled them up, peeled off the dirty layers, and chopped them up for freezing. We ended up with about four gallons of chopped leeks.

In the afternoon we asked about where to go for a walk. The lady of the house told us about a cross bull down the road that would stampede us but it is an otherwise beautiful path to the river. That sounded great to me so Regi and I headed down that way. The road used to be the main road to town but the river kept washing it out so now the road just ends at the river. The road lead straight to a farmers house. There was a beautiful barn with a wall that the concrete had fallen away from the inner stones. I have to go back on a sunny day to photograph it. We saw the bull but could not figure out where the road continued. We decided to turn around and head the other way on the road. The lady of the house, Fiona, told us that there was a cross dog that way. We came to a house that had a colorful painting on its gate. It had bright flowers, green bushes, and a cross looking dog named Bono! It was so funny. Then we heard the nasty dog. It sounded like a little ankle biter so we didn't think much of it. After we got back Fiona said that if that dog gets out we have to kick it hard and run for it because it will draw blood! I guess we were luck today.



The little baby was having a hard day today. She is teething so life is hard for her. She is very cute though.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a bit of sun. If it does come out it will have to be a photo shoot day.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

February 9, 2011 in Ireland

The morning started out fairly warm and sunny. The pigs were good and stayed inside of the electric fence for most of the day. We had a good Irish experience of sorting through loads of homegrown potatoes. We gave the bad potatoes to the pigs.

As we were removing our shoes to re-enter the house, their orange and white cat ran into the house. Not thinking much of it, we washed our dirty hands. We were not in the house for two minutes when we heard a tremendous crash. We ran into the kitchen where the cat had dragged the thawing steak for dinner down from the stove and onto the floor. He had taken the tea kettle with him. We threw the cat out and cleaned the mess. Then we ate fresh duck eggs and sweet potato soup for lunch. Unfortunately, the rain came. We were hoping for an afternoon of running and photographing. Instead we "topped and tailed" the rest of the brussel sprouts that we had harvested yesterday. We learned that bargaining is necessary in Ireland (and most of Europe) if you want to avoid being ripped off. This will be very important information for us to remember, especially when we plan on renting bikes to go mountain biking on some of the Irish trails.


Around 4:30PM the pigs got out and Bernie ran down the road to catch them and I lured them into the glass house with grain.

That was our day so far. In the meantime, we are planning a future mountain bike excursion and possibly trying homemade blood sausage which is allegedly delicious.

Regina

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

First two days in Ireland

Hello everyone,

  We made it safe and sound to Macroom, Ireland!  Our flight went off without a hitch and we even got to see the Statue of Liberty as we flew into New Jersey.  We landed in Shannon, Ireland at 6 in the morning and found our way to the bus station.  The roads were amazingly narrow and I was sure that our bus was going to clip the passing cars several times.  The houses were beautiful in their Irish style and we saw several abandoned castles on our way.  After an hour we made it to Cork.  We walked through the popular shopping centre with our huge backpacks and walked into a local pub for a short break.

  That backpack weighed over 70lbs.!

Traveling on we made our way to the university where we were to be picked up.  Our host picked us up and we drove off on the left side of the road!  Quite strange.  After driving through even narrower country roads we arrived at their home.  It was a quaint country house on a hectar of land ( a little over an acre).  Mike and Fiona are lovely hosts and they have three happy kids.
They don't have any sheep this time of the year but they have three pigs that love the back of our legs (Regi received a perfect muddy imprint of a pig snout on the back of her leg), chickens that like to stay warm in the glass house (greenhouse), and ducks that like being in the rain.  Today we fixed the electrical fence for the pigs (they like to get out and travel down the road) and picked the last of the brussel sprouts of the year.  We have a little jet lag but it's not too bad.