June 10th and June 11th - Althone and the Midlands

Today is my last full day in Ireland and we are back to rain! I like to think that the skies are crying because I am leaving. :) I really don't want to. 

However, it is not a day that will have me accomplishing much. I headed east with the idea of seeing Portuma Castle, Thoor Ballylee , Birr, then heading back to Althone and seeing the cathedral and whatever else came to mind.  

In the case of Thoor Ballylee, a 16th C roundhouse where WB Yeats spent 11 summers, I never found it. It really sounded  interesting but Michelin's directions were no better than the standard Irish directions. On the way to the airport on R66, I saw a sign for it…Next time! 

In the case of Portuma Castle and Garden, which is a restored 17C Castle and gardens, I found it! But although all the signs said it was open, I could not find an open gate anywhere.

 

But I did get pictures

 

It is right on the water and has moorings right there. A storm was coming in and really whipping up the wind so it looked interesting.  Hopefully next time it will be open because it looks awesome.









Along the way, I did find an interesting church ruin.

Then I tried to find Clonmacnoise Church, found the signs for this one but no church.

 

By that time, it was getting too late to go to Birr with its restored Georgian houses if I wanted to see things in Althone, so I headed back to the hotel. Dropped some stuff and headed out to see the castle and town.

 

 

 

Found the Castle, it is closed on Mondays!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I got pictures along with the a look inside St.

Peter and Paul Church

 

What I actually accomplished was a lot of driving in the very green and lush midlands area. I also saw lots of ruins but realized that they aren't all castles and churches. That a number were homes. Some just left as one I saw where the curtains still hung in the windows but the glass was missing and there were holes in the roof. Others where a house built right next to it. It reminded me of Bunratty where the Bunratty House had been built because the new owners of Bunratty Castle in the 19th C found the castle to cold and inconvenient, so they just left it to go to ruin while the built their new house on the property. My first encounter with the concept had actually come 2 weeks earlier when I was following the cycling directions the guys had which said 'in the direction of the ruined mansion'. But the real thing is that Ireland keeps growing with the new while not turning its back on the old. Castles from the 15th century, houses from the Georgian period and many more. But what we also noticed and Mike commented on was that there are many old houses that look like new. You can generally tell by the trim on the windows and some other features. The houses are taken care of, the outside stone covered in a stucco like finish that can then be painted and brightened. Ireland is not a throw away society like ours. In the B&B's we stayed in, furniture and accessories had been handed down for generations. In fact, only one of the places we stayed was new, the Kinvara Guest House (and of course, the 2 hotels that were part of chains), the rest were over a hundred years old and some had been in the same families for generations like the Sea Mist. Things were cared for and updated. It was a nice and warm feeling. 

I left the Athlone Sheraton at 8 am to head home. While it lacked the homey l and true feeling of Ireland, it was a very nice hotel with a wonderful bathtub and feather pillows. Because I was using points, I decided to stay for the last 3 nights instead of finding another place closer to the airport. It made for an hour and a half  trip to the airport that was fine. 

The airport experience was both better and worse than the US. I did not hit ANY lines. However, security is much stiffer. They found a pair of scissors in my make up that I didn't know I had with me (I wish I had!) and tossed a water bottle that had about 2 T of water in it. They also wouldn't let the jams I bought at Kylemore Abbey through. I had meant to pack the few things I bought in the suitcase but once I put the quilts in, I had no room. The nice part was that they security guy let me go back to the check in (again no line) to check them. I went to the check in, they told me I had to get a box from the bookstore. The bookstore found me one, gave me tape to seal it. I took it back to check in and she put the fragile stickers on it, then sent me to drop it at another point. It was annoying but at the same time, I can't imagine US security letting me go back and check it in. In Ireland or at least with Aer Lingus, you go through US passport control and Customs before you get on the plane in Ireland. It makes for a lot of checks to go through but it is so much faster, again no lines, that it is much better.  

So I am now home and looking forward to the next time I go. 

I am going to continue this blog because my food experiences in Ireland were wonderful. I brought home a bunch of recipes that I am looking forward to trying and sharing with you.

June 9th, Galway

For those of you who have no interest in quilting, you may want to skip most of this days entries because the bulk is about the International Quilt Festival of Ireland where I had 2 quilts. I will cover most of the no quilt stuff in the first paragraph or so...

Mike and I did a bit of Galway City when we ended up there due to my visit to Galway Health Center. When we had an hour or so to kill between getting our tickets for the bus and the bus leaving. We walked over to the main part of town to refill one of the phones and see a bit. We walked thru Eyre Park which is a wonderful bit of green in the middle of Galway. The castle was under scaffolding, we assume for renovations and we were not able to see it. But we were able to see St. Nicholas Church which was really lovely. Like so many of the churches in Ireland, and much of Europe, you had memorials to those who died this week, those who died 400 years ago and everything in between. I wish I had been able to get a picture of it but we didn't have camera's with us for my impromptu visit to Galway City on the 30th. 

In looking for directions to the show, I had found the winners list….I got first place in its category and $500 for Rain and an honorable mention for I Believe. I was ecstatic. But the fact that I believe got anything had me wondering….

 

I started at the Cathedral, which we had stopped at briefly that day. I knew I Believe was there. The cathedral is beautiful and RC which means it was built in the last 200 years. Mass was about to start but I found the quilts and the very sweet lady who was the quilt angle for the exhibit. I began to understand why I had won. There were some really amazing quilts including the one that won first place for I Believe (second quilt). There were also some that should not be in my guild's show no less one labeled International.

 

She gave me directions to the main show which I followed, parked and paid to get in. Extra bonus, parking was free that day. I went to find registration because I needed to first find out about picking up my quilts and also tell them that Kathleen at the cathedral really needed some brochures. I also needed a ladies room and when I came out, I came right in front of rain. It was a good feeling to have the first place, and there were some good pieces in the category, but there were only 7 of them!

So now was the time to head to the medical center that was basically across the street. I had to wait, I was totally not an emergency, but still it was Sunday morning. I am ever appreciative of the Kindle on my phone, so I sat and read for probably a half hour. The co-ordination nurse took care of me, had a doctor double check the stiches before she removed them and we talked of her upcoming NYC vacation.

 So when it was finished, I walked back to the show. The campus is really beautiful, but fairly deserted and the show not well attended, although I don't know if Saturday was better.






One of the cool things was that I saw my first electric car parking spot









The show is really uneven and some exhibits are much better than others. I won 2 prizes but my quilts were definitely not in hard categories. Rain got a 1st place but as I said, there were only 7 quilts in the category. There were a lot of entries in the category for I Believe but the quality of workmanship was really poor. I won an honorable mention but the quilt that got 1st place was very good. I was amazed that mine won honorable. It is a good quilt but the quilting is not exceptional at all, which shows how poor the competition was. I think I need to rethink the quilting. 

 

 

 The category Manley was great and had some really good quilts in it, one of which I don't understand why it didn't win It was made by a guy but maybe unless the only thing it had going for it  It was a Baltimore Album. 













 The other category that had some incredible quilts, and some real amateur ones was Under the Sea. The first place was incredible, and I really expect to see it in Houston. It had to be incredible to beat Marilyn Belford's Neptune which took an honorable mention.


 

There were some special exhibits of interest. Prison was an exhibit of quilts that were made by prison inmate. One guy had 4 including the 1st place that were really good. There was an exhibit of Hoffman Challenge big winners which was excellent and a group of winners from national shows, including Houston. I recognized a bunch of them. I hope they can inspire the Irish Quilters to push the envelope and really bring the level of quilts up for next year. They had an exhibit of hands that people from all over the world had done. My favorite was this one.

 

It Is held at the University of Galway which is an beautiful. They spread it out over several buildings of the campus. Under the Sea was in the 'Castle' while I Believe was in the Cathedral that was down the street.

While waiting to get my quilts I sat in the bar and wrote some of this and finished another. When they were closing up, it was back outside to sit under a tree and finish a book. The women I got my quilts from were Americans who were just there to help. I don't know how much American participation there is. Apparently they are planning on 2014 because there was a notice up with the hands about participating next year. I am thinking it may be a good thing for the art quilters group at NSQG. Either way I will talk to the group about entering as soon as the entry details for next year come out. The show could use the boost that the members of the art group would give it. 

I headed back to the hotel for some wine, cheese and blog catchup.













 

June 8th, Newcastle West to Althone

We had a nice breakfast which included poached duck eggs and griddle bread, a first for all of us. I would like to try the griddle bread at home and maybe make some adaptions. None of us thought the duck egg was very different than a hen's egg. It was our final meal together. It was time to pack up and get the guys to Shannon airport.

 

Mike and I were also chomping at the bit because we had no wifi!

 

We got to Shannon way early but Mike would rather be early than pushing it. I then headed off to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The books all give it 3 stars/top attraction status but it had sounded very touristy. Well, it is totally designed for tourists but not in a touristy way. It was incredible! I spent 3 ½ hours there

 

 

The castle is an actual castle that was restored by Lord and Lady Gort. Although none of the furnishing are original to the particular castle because it was a ruin when they started, everything is original to the 15th C. The plaque at the  door says that the earliest wood fort was built in 1251 and followed by 3 stone castles, this one being the O'Brien castle that was built in 1425 and altered many times since. When they started the restoration in 1956, they removed every thing added after 1619 which was when the decorative ceiling in the chapel was added and the 15th century battlements restored.  It is really unbelievable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Pennsylvania history nuts, the sign also says that Admiral Pens was besieged here in 1646 and it is generally believed that his son, William, then an infant, was at the castle.

 The first picture is from the front, the second from the back.

Did you know, they said the people were not that much shorter than us, about 2” but they made the doorways so narrow and low because they wanted to insure that only one person could go through at a time and that they would go through head first so if they were the enemy, they could be beheaded.

 

They gave us an orientation in the great room which is pictured here. And gave us interesting facts. In contrast to what you read in historical novels, women did not join the meals and entertaining in the great room but took it in the salon above where they could see down but not deal with the male crudeness of the time.

 

 They also pointed out the spy holes and murder holes, where people could be dropped to the dungeons.

There are stairways off each corner of the great rooms where you could clime and see rooms that were set as they would have been then. The bedrooms, salons and chapels. You could also clime to the top of the castle and see the view of the surrounding area.

Surrounding the castle there are a bunch of cottages that would be true to the time in question, and though I am sure it is cleaner than things were at the time, you smelled the peat from the fire even in cottages that it was not lit and saw the blackness it created on the ceiling.
 

I wish I could show the insides but they were too dark because of a lack of windows. They did have chickens everywhere though. The only thing I found a bit off with any of the cottages or later in the village, was that they often had a room set for dining in any of the multi room  dwelling but I suspect given the number of children most families had, unless you were very well off, your kitchen, dining, living was 1 room and the rest were used for sleeping.

There was a house where a well off family would have lived with a housewife there making real scones and giving out buttered samples (she baked them in another room that had a gas stove) but made and rolled them for you to see. She gave me a bunch of the recipes which I am looking forward to trying and sharing.

The village was from a later time but still  everything in it pretty much in keeping with the time. Although there were some things being sold, they were in keeping with a shop that would/could have been there and still had the real tools like the potter’s wheel and the weaver’s loom.

 

 

 

 

 

 Beyond it were actual houses from the time including Bunratty House where the owners of the castle had built and moved to when they found the castle to cold and not modern enough, and yes, there were deer in the yard. This is actually the back of the house, the front has no room to take pictures. 

 

Another house of 2 brothers who grew up to create the ice cream that all of Ireland ate and the a collection of actual farming tools.

 

 

They had houses that would be common to different counties and different economic levels, including the kind of farm house that the farmers shared with some of their animals. Nana Heasley’s family kept chickens in the room I saw as the living room according to what Jimmy saw when he was there during the Korean war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside that house was the pigsty with 2 real pigs. In fact, everywhere there were animals where there should have been. Scott, I got you lots of picture of various fowl. I think the roosters were having a crowing competition! Also saw goats, deer, a donkey and pony as they would have been kept.

 

  The corner of the house you see on the right of the pictures of the pigs is the actual house above, they kept their animals that close.

 

 

 

 

 

The church had been moved stone by stone from Tipperary.

 

I have 2 favorite pictures from the village. One is this man with the 2 Irish wolfhounds walking around the village offering to take pictures of people with their own cameras of them with the 2 dogs. The kids loved it but it was obvious so did some of the adults. Unfortunately, with my great camera skills, I cut off the man's head(but got the dogs!).

The other was the potter. We had a great discussion on crafts in Ireland. His brother and sister are also potters and between them, they make everything in the store that also has a potting wheel and full set up. He said that there were lots of crafters in Ireland who had learned from family past down skill till about 20 years ago when the boom came. Then people abandon them for the high paying jobs in construction. Now there were far fewer crafts people.

 

Afterwards I went to a little pub having tea, sticky pudding (extra yummy!) and wifi! I was able to catch up on the email and blog that I hadn't been able to do in the morning at the B&B. Then went across to the Blarney Mills to look at sweaters and crystal. There was a really incredible home goods store on the 2nd floor of one of the buildings. It is fortunate they didn't have anything in cobalt blue and that I would have had to pack it, because they had really neat things, at really good prices.







Now it was time to head for the hotel. I am using points to stay at the Sheraton Athlone which is right in the middle of the country. The drive was quite nice and uneventful. Much of it was on what they call dual carriage ways and what we think of as a 4 lane divided highway. But I did have a bit on a secondary road. The country is beautiful, very green and the skies (yes, I am on that kick again) were really lovely. Lovely is a word you hear a lot in Ireland.