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!