Wednesday 1 June 2011

Greetings from Ireland


It''s as beautiful as you imagine - stone walls, shrubbery fences, ruins everywhere. (This is a building at The Rock of Cashel, which we toured on Tuesday afternoon.)


But in the morning we visited somewhere more significant to the family - the home of Raymond S. He and my MIL are distantly related by marriage, and he is in possession of a family coat of arms and the original documents granting the coat of arms to the De Herez Smyth family. It was so exciting and interesting to see, he and his aunt and brother were so hospitable, it was just delightful. Raymond works the family farm that dates back generations and historically changed hands from his mother's and father's side more than once. See the castle in the background? The project was halted in the 1800s by a combination of war and accident. I thought it was so cool, but I wonder if ruins in the back yard are so commonplace here that they could be a bit taken for granted?


One of the original parchments in Raymond's possession.


(Comic relief yesterday at a wollen mill store. The jacket was actually very nice, the hat was just to be funny.)

We slept at our first B&B last night, which was fun in some of the same ways as meeting Raymond - just a closer interaction with the 'locals' than you'd get in a hotel. However, the pillows were lacking, Ken woke up with a sore back. We probably need to raise our standards tonight and get a little more particular about our inspection before we choose where to stay!

6 comments:

Neighbor Jane Payne said...

Oh Barb! How exciting. A castle in your backyard . . . that sounds so foreign and exciting.

I love the Irish brogue. Do you hear much Irish music?

Ortensia Norton said...

So fun!! It looks beautiful. That pic of Ken is hilarious! He looks so Scottish! The shoes and hat go perfect!

Marie said...

Wow! Wow! Wow!

That first picture is amazing. It could be a postcard.

Jill said...

It looks so beautiful! Oh my goodness, I hope you're soaking it all up and will continue to blog about it. Wow!

Barb said...

Hi mom!! It looks so beautiful there and green!! speaking of green the first sprouts are in our garden and the crab apple tree is just starting to bloom! one bad thing though is that flex broke the screen door off its rack but Im sure can be put back on. When your in London please go see Big Ben the clock tower, Buckingham palace, and the Princess Dianna monument!! Please call home soon so I can talk to you more.

Love Carmen

Mark said...

Hey Barb,

Looks like you're having fun. We had a little Irish celebration ourselves yesterday as we went to the U2 concert.