Coal

You know - coal gets a bad rap for being bad for the environment. But after a day of running around Ireland in the cold rain, there's nothing quite like walking into a real pub and there's a coal fire going.

Surprisingly the heat was very even, and it didn't seem to put off a bunch of fumes or soot - but I was just happy I wasn't freezing my ass off, so I might have been biased.

Charles Fort

A quick trip out to Charle's Fort, which sits just at the entrance to Kinsale harbor. It's not a far walk - but it's probably an hour - so we did drive out there since we were in a bit of a hurry.

The place is pretty large, but not much of a military strategic stronghold - since the neighboring hill can bombard from above. Windy like you wouldn't believe.

Also surprisingly enough - my suggestion that we play paint ball at the Fort someday was not well supported by the locals.

Blarney Garden Path

After kissing the Blarney Stone, we walked through the grounds - which are very nice. They did this raised walkway with compositie wood board that worked really well. I figure what else are they going to do when it rains everyday.

Another lesson in traveling through Ireland - don't do anything or don't don't do anything based on the rain. We walked into the grounds of Blarney Castle and it was a miserable downpour, so bad that we were thinking of taking refuge in the pub for the rest of the afternoon. But we forged ahead, and 10 minutes later we were on top of the Castle (roof long since gone) and it was clear blue sky for miles to see - freaky weather.

Jameson Distillery

Ah, no trip with visitors would be complete without a trip to Midleton and the Jameson distillery.

This was actually the first time I had been there. And although the Irish give an almost mythic reverence to alcohol making, this wasn't nearly as spooky as the Guinness Tour in Dublin several years ago.

Happy Birthday, Patrick

Happy Birthday Patrick !!!

He turned 39 (yes, he's quite a bit older than I). This is a picture of him looking at the Ballymaloe menu whilst sitting in the greenhouse (no space left in the drawing room).

And in case you can't see, he's sitting under a huge display of Stephanotis - famous in the Bousquet-Smith side of the family for being a nickname of niece Steph and were the flowers in Bonnie's (sister-in-law and soon to be canonized Saint having the responsibility of being married to Michael).

I figure if they can grow them in Ireland - I could grow them in Indy at some point.

Inproper eating of grapes

Ah I thought of my mother the other day as the grapes were attacked by Andrea, Tim, and Patrick - and not one of them got scissors to cut of a bunch - instead leaving unsightly stems.

Did anyone else grow up having to cut grapes into smaller individual bunches or was my mother the only obsessive compulsive one?

Ross Castle

Went out to Killarney with Tim Whittaker - in addition to going to Ross House, we also went to Ross Castle.

It's a tower castle which are pretty much all over Ireland. Think an ADP security system for the countryside before there was electricity. Interestingly, this tower castle has been completely restored and the required guided tour is really good.

Considering the Lord of the area lived here, it was kind of amazing the conditions they lived in. The tower had about 50+ people living in it at one time in the event of a seige, and the whole square footage is basically that of a medium-sized house.

This tower house configuration is almost identical to what people see at Blarney Castle - but this one is not in ruins (and the entrance fee is half as much).

Tim and Andrea come for a visit

Ah, the first guests of the season - Tim and Andrea Whittaker. They relocated to Geneva for a couple months right after Xmas, and they decided to spend Easter with us.

It's a little tricky to get from Geneva to Cork, but not horrible - you just have to go through Heathrow.

In case you're wondering - this is them in front of the Ballymaloe Country House - which is its own blog entry. But we had a great time - ran around southern Ireland, ate some great food, and just caught up over the weekend.

Lady's View, Killarney

Short day trip out to with Patrick and Jamie. It was kind of a scouting mission before we had some friends come out (we have to at least appear knowledgeable of the local area).

Killarney is about 90 minutes from Kinsale towards the west. Pretty famous for the Ring of Kerry, Ross Castle, and other major tourist attractions. By the time we actually got a morning scone, coffee, and were on the road - we were running a bit late. But we were able to go to Lady's View (named after the point where Queen Victoria stood on her visit) and overlook a huge valley that had been carved by a glacier a pretty long time ago.

Hopefully, the next time we go we'll have time to do more stuff.

Easter Bunny is on his way

Driving to Killarney this past weekend, we couldn't help but take some pics of the cute little lambs that would soon be on the Easter dinner table.

Don't mean to be a militant veg - you all know I look bad in a pair of Birkenstocks and a burlap saddle bag - but when Jesus said (at least I think he did) "And the lion will lay down with the lamb" - I don't think he meant go shoot lambchop and have a big dinner.

OK, moment of mindfulness over...but you have to admit, they're pretty cute.

Scones

So what is the greatest source of carbohydrates in the Irish diet besides some form of potatoes and Guiness? That would be a scone.

It's a lovely thing if done well, and a lethal projectile weapon if done poorly or not consumed before it's 30 minute halflife expires. So with boldness only that could have come from my experiences in France, I decided to actually make scones one day for a bunch of Irishmen (actually, three Irish women and two english - but you get the idea).

Recipe came from The New Best Recipe cookbook - my all time favorite source on all things baking and cooking - the author is just a simple freak of nature.

Check back in a bit, and I'll post the recipe - but the secret was to use cream instead of milk . . . and to eat within 2 hours, which apparently wasn't an issue. Although my mother will say that they were just being polite, the reviews said my scones were better than the scones in the cafeteria (and they have a small revolt if they miss those). Need to work on the rising thing, since the baking powder was not enough with this flour over here (US recipe vs. Irish ingredients can sometimes cause issues).

Patrick is Home !!!

Thank God that is over.

Patrick and I have been apart for more than 6 weeks - which might not sound like a lot for some of you; but before this month, the longest we had been apart was two.

I know I'm a hopeless romantic. But it was great for him - he had the chance to go to Fegersheim again and to Shanghai for the first time (albeit without me). We'll eventually get around to doing a post on his China travels as a guest poster.

Although we were both really busy, I don't think I'd want to do six weeks again - it's just too long, too many unshared experiences, blah, blah, blah. Glad he's home.

There be rainbows in Ireland

Although all my Irish colleages are about as impressed with seeing a rainbow as a Hoosier is with seeing a field of corn, this was still pretty cool to us. Must be the constant raining against the spotty clear skies that makes rainbows so common (I've seen about 10 now)

On the drive into work, Jamie and I saw two rainbows. This one actually ended a few hundred feet from us in the water - never had that happen before. Unfortunately we were late for work, so we couldn't stop and dig for the pot of gold, and no, we did not see any leprechauns yet.

Waterford

Ran off to Waterford (yep, the crystal making people) to see how really expensive crytsal glasses are made. Honestly, wasn't that impressed. Most of the demos were just for the benefit of the tourists - not really the mass produced production areas. Although it was totally cool to see how glass blowing is done over here.

This particular picture is one of the visitors tapping the punty to release the vase.