The country came to town ...

And so did 3 million people ... or so it seemed while trying to navigate one toddler through the thronging crowd.

There were ladies in bicycles ...

animals galore ...

tractors and steam engines ...

tanks (hey this is N Ireland) ...

wagons ...

and an American preacher

Around Armagh

Another humble abode

I'm determined to get the most out of my NT membership but it just won't stop raining. A couple of Saturdays ago, we drove to the coast thinking we'd do the Giant's Causeway and beach. Although not quite biblical proportions, the deluge must've been getting pretty close. For those of you who don't have the privilege of inhabiting this cold, damp island, we've had the worst flooding for over 40 years (or something like that.)

One afternoon the last weekend in August, it did stop raining and the sun actually shone so I took a walk around the grounds of The Argory which is an old country estate in the county where we live. Here are some snapshots of the well watered garden.

I'm not sure what these great plants actually are. The leaves are huge and the inside intriguing ... to little old me anyway. Any clues? I'd love some in my garden.

Next weekend our local shopping town hosts 'The Country comes to Town' - one day a year when they close the town off and bring in animals, tractors and stalls etc. Usually it's the same old stuff from the previous year, even down to the layout of the stalls but this year is the 10th anniversary, so there may well be subtle changes. EJ is tractor and animal mad so it will be nice to go with an enthusiastic charge. The full report shall appear here.

Cliffs of Moher

I'm guilty of blog neglect. Nothing new there. Thought I'd wind this up with a blurb about the cliffs of Moher but found a nice website that tells ye all about it. You can even take a little tour.

These photos were taken in Doolin with the cliffs in the background. The ferry to the Aran Islands run from this quaint little village. The volcanic rock around the sea front was pretty amazing.

I'm not sure what will be happening in September. Miss T is due for a reassessment in the south of England which is temptingly close to the channel and Europe. I was severely tempted to try and squeeze in a trip taking in Pompeii in Italy, old Corinth in Greece, Ephesus and Cappadocea in Turkey and Iran (the border crossing is a bit of a nightmare but once there, the country and warmth and hospitality of the people is amazing), however budget and my cute little night owl have scuppered that plan. At the minute I'm trying to arrange a home exchange in England although couples that can travel in school holidays don't necessarily want a pile of kids in their homes, and the ones with a brood like us, have them in school. Maybe Dad and T will just fly over. We'll see.
If I can get the old scanner up and running, I'll score the archives for past exploits. Thank you for visiting.

West coast of Ireland - Connemara

Photo album

Connemara National Park was founded and opened to the public in 1980. It features 29.57 square kilometres of mountains, bogs, heaths, grasslands and forests. Dotted throughout are peat bogs and mounds of cut turf that are being harvested for burning. The scenery closely resembled that of Skye and the Scottish west coast.

More to follow ...

West coast of Ireland - driving dangerously!

Total gridlock

Almost a head on collision

West coast of Ireland - Murrisk

Just as the big blue blue skies in America are amazing, the light in the west coast of Ireland is equally as fascinating. The first campsite we pulled into was at the foot of a fog engulfed mountain. Behind us was the sea and sunny blue sky. By late evening, the fog turned slowly black and the sun shone brighter. It never rained.

View from the tent

The following day we walked around an old abbey and stopped by the National Famine Monument and Croagh Patrick, which was only a couple of minute's drive. The bronze sculpture is monument to the Great Famine of the 1840s and depicts a 'coffin ship' with skeleton bodies in the rigging. This was of particular interest to the dc as they've been reading about it over summer.

We were trialling a tepee tent. Fantastic! Having looked at every other type out there, this is the only thing that ticks all the boxes. It's amazingly cheap, easy to put up (less than 10 minutes), has no inner tents to mess around with, has a sewn in ground sheet, is water proof and mould proof, exremely spacious - can sleep 12 and is lightweight to transport around. Cost £295 with free postage to Ireland. Total saving on equivalent - £1500! If you need details, get in touch.

West coast of Ireland - Drumcliff

We're back again after a whistle stop tour of the west coast of Ireland. Had three full days sight seeing - it was unanimously decided that after a second grim night in the tent with junior that we'd spend all day Friday tiki touring around and then do a long drive home late evening. Once we sort out his night time thing at home, we'll pick up where we left off :) Despite the sleep deprivation, it was a really neat and refreshing couple of days! I guess I'm used to running on not much shut eye.

We lunched in Castle Coole but didn't hang around for a tour as they were pretty booked up then drove to Sligo stopping in Drumcliff to see the high cross (above) and round tour which are all that remains from a monastic settlement founded by St Columba in 574.

The poet and writer WB Yeats is buried in the churchyard which houses the high cross where his grandfather was once the rector. Athough originally buried in France after his death in 1939, his wishes were granted in 1948 when his remains were brought back to rest at Drumcliff. I confess to knowing absolutely nothing about his work. The location is pretty with Ben Bulben visible from the rear of the church. The sun broke through and was hitting the mountain when we were there which was magical. The epitaph is taken from one of his poems which is entitled "Under Ben Bulben". Another excerpt from the same poem reads "Under bare Ben Bulben's head In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.

From here we headed south and set up camp in wild and woolly country at Murrisk.

Around Ireland - Mount Stewart

Monday it was dry so we decided to head to County Down for the day. Hubby is off Monday's and usually takes Miss T for therapy but things have been closed for the July holidays.

First off we visited the Ark Open Farm. They are now taking Tesco Days Out coupons so I paid with them which was very handy indeed. Every quarter, the points you accumulate are converted into shopping coupons. If you chose not to spend them in store, you can quadruple their value for travel, dining or days out - so £2.50 becomes £10.00. Earlier on in the month we went to the Ice Bowl and the kids did bowling, skating and romped in Indiana Land - all paid for with my coupons. Makes it easier to shop there, although I'd rather support a local organic farmer's market - if we had one.

After we'd seen the animals, fed the lamb, stroked the chicks and played in the park, we went for a walk through the grounds of Mount Stewart - another National Trust Property. I thought it would be best not to drag the little ones through the actual house as we can only fit Gracie's chair into the car which left our 2 year old on foot and bubs in a sling.

Lakeside walk with Temple in the background

We love walking through gardens and the lakeside one was stunning. Dotted throughout were a lot of New Zealand natives - ponga ferns, club palms and the pohutukawa to name but a few. Very nostalgic. I was surprised that they were suited to our climate.

club palm

Ponga Ferns

Pohutukawa or 'New Zealand Christmas tree' is found in the North Island of New Zealand around the coastal areas. It blooms from November to January but peaks mid December, hence the nickname. One year we visited the Coromandel in the North Island and they were putting on a fine display.

Cj and I walked through the formal gardens en route to the car which very pretty too.

As usual, I took way too many photos but seeings I like flowers, I'll put yet another slide show on my blog! As sole author, I reserve the right to bore my readers with whatever takes my fancy.

Around Ireland

If the housing market picks up and we get our house sold, this summer could well be our last one in these parts. So, we plan to make the most of it and take day trips all over ... that's if it stops raining long enough!

I joined the National Trust so hope to check out all their properties and visit the beaches and Giant's Causeway on the north coast. Further afield we may drive south to Kerry and Clare, taking the tent with us. In saying that, the cost of diesel is crazy here - over £1.33 (roughly $2.70 ish US) per litre and set to rise.

So watch this space ... weather and fuel prices permitting of course.

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I took a walk around Ardress House which is near our home in County Armagh.

Believe it or not, this used to be a farmhouse. I think the owners must have had delusions of grandeur or something, as it has been extended in all directions in neoclassical fashion. Note fake wing at front. No European bureaucratic rubbish in these days. We can't even convert our roofspace without having to almost rebuild the entire house.

There is a fantastic old cobbled farm yard to the rear, complete with chickens and a couple of peacocks which EJ thought were amazing although they took one look at him and fled. Mustn't have fancied being rugby tackled by an over enthusiastic two year old. The out buildings are unpretentious and date from around the 1850's. The equipment is simple and built to last. I reckon that I could have lived back then :)

Next week we hope to make the most of our membership and call in on the Argory (another NT property) which is a couple of miles further up the road from this one. Armagh is known as Orchard County due to the milder climate and fruit produce and dotted all around the countryside are large houses and estates like this one. Makes our teeny wee house feel like a garden shed!

It's Friday again!

The Potato Famine

This week we took our American visitor - Flat Duke (a horse) to visit some gardens near the shores of Lough Neagh. Dotted throughout are wooden sculptures. This one is particularly poignant, depicting victims of the potato famine which claimed almost 1 million lives. During the famine which lasted six long years, another 1 million Irish would immigrate to North America.

These two sites are the most informative that we've found. We used this one at History Place two years ago when we did a short study on the potato famine. This other page at Digital History is concise but thought provoking.

Visit Mary in Canada to read some other entries for her Friday S&T

The Emerald Isle

I've just been to my dashboard and found some unmoderated comments. I've no idea why some come through to my inbox, albeit as spam, and others don't come into my gmail at all. Computers!

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting information about our 'adopted' homeland and photographs of places we visit with our new flat visitors that are expected any day now.

We live in the North (dark green) in rural Armagh, surrounded by farmland, some forest parks and peatlands. We love walking in the nature reserve close to our home, which is one big bog. I recently wrote about our latest visit on my Nature blog.

If anyone has any questions, please shoot and I will try to answer them.

Ireland S&T

I'm not having much joy with things at the minute. The scanner isn't working, the sewing machine has decided to eat fabric and the pc has expired taking with it my new son's baby pictures (and all the photo archives dating back four years.) I would be distraught, but I'm trying to maintain perspective. :)

Once the scanner was pronounced dead thus prohibiting me from blogging about earlier travel exploits, I decided to do write posts on Ireland but now with the pc gone, so are my photographs. I did find a few on flickr that I happened to upload last year.

These snapshots were taken at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra. This is my dd with a flat traveller that she was showing around from Mississippi.

The open air museum is set over 170 acres and the buildings there have been brought here from all over the province and sympathetically rebuilt/restored.

This street is typical of old Belfast.

An Irish cottage was small and consisted of an open room which was both kitchen and living room with a hearth where all the cooking was done. There would have been one bedroom to the side and a loft for the children. In some peasant cottages, the family would all have slept in the open living space. The photo below was taken in the rectory (below it) where soda farls were being cooked on a griddle over the fire. There are flag stones on the floor - this would have been a very grand house.

We also enjoyed browsing the old fashioned sweet shop and watching a weaving demonstration.

Great link:

Today I found J's new travel blog which is titled Cottage on Wheels. As the wind and rain were beating down on the window I was transported many miles away! Great antidote to grey skies and cold temperatures. So nice to grab a cuppa - lemsip in my case for a stinking head cold, and enjoy the read and relaxing sounds as you follow this family on their 2 year adventure in an RV.

I will post some more links on my side bar of some other neat homeschool blogs that I have to finish up for now. Kids are all sick. To view other Show & Tells, visit Mary in Canada.