Indiana vs. Ireland

Well, we’re back.  Returned in a whirlwind trip in November and I’m STILL adjusting.  I guess there’s this thing called reverse culture shock and it’s pretty common.  I didn’t expect it, tho.  I had no problem coming home for a visit and driving on the right for two weeks, but this time it took me more than two months to really feel comfortable.  (Plus some luck that there were no other cars on the road when I DID drive on the left!)  And that’s not the only thing that’s hard.

Indiana: flat, brown, straight roads, the same stores and restaurants all over, bland American accents. On the other hand, Kim and John are close, Bryan came out for Christmas, and I spent a couple weeks with my parents in January and will be going back in May.

Ireland: green, hilly, winding roads, lovely Irish lilts interspersed with unintelligible West Cork accents, fun phrases like half-seven (7:30), Tuesday week (next Tuesday), and “don’t get your knickers in a twist.”  On the other hand, the winters are are gray and rainy and, oh yeah, my family was way too far away.

So . . . we’re in Indiana again, most likely to stay.  House sitting for a friend right now.  Blaik’s sort of on TDY at the company – does make-work and gets paid while he waits for a permanent position, which aren’t so plentiful right now.  Some good interviews but not the right one yet.

I love being with my family, I love seeing old friends, and I enjoyed the snow up to a point (could have skipped the ice storm, tho).  But oh do I miss Ireland!

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Touring Ireland with Jensens & Haskells

We had an awesome week being invaded by family.  Will, Ric & Karen Sue, and Rick, Leslie, Ritchie & Lauren arrived in Shannon on Saturday the 8th, the last UK/Ireland flight out of JFK before the ash cloud cancelled flights.  We spread all seven of them between our two big spare bedrooms and an air bed in my office, and made it work.

We went a lot of places that I’ve been with other visitors, so I didn’t take a ton of pictures, but got several good ones of all of us, plus a couple places that were new to me:  Lough Hyne and the Ring of Kerry in particular.  Lough Hyne  happened mainly because we went to Skibbereen to the Famine Museum, but it was Monday and it was closed.  You think I’d learn.  But the lough was gorgeous and we had a nice walk/hike around part of it.

The Ring of Kerry seemed over-hyped to me.  After driving in a lot of different places in Ireland, and especially around West Cork, it seemed like normal.  Some spectacular views over the coast and out to the ocean, though.  And the Torc Waterfall was worth the steep climb for the second time.  Click on the pictures if you want to see them bigger.

Lough Hyne in County Cork

On the Ring of Kerry. I think it's the Skellig Islands in the bay.

Town of Killorglin, just starting out on the Ring of Kerry

The clan at the Cliffs of Moher.

Atop O'Brien's Keep at the Cliffs. Can you see Will in one of the openings?

Ruins along the Ring of Kerry between the Stone Fort and Torc Waterfall.

Common view of Rich, Rick and Ric at home - gotta stay connected!

Along with Lough Hyne, Kerry, and the Cliffs of Moher, we took them to Bunratty Castle and the Irish traditional banquet, the other-wordly landscape of the Burren, and of course they kissed the Blarney Stone.  At the end of that, most everyone took a day trip to Dublin, and exhausted people stayed home!  Some of my pictures didn’t turn out well, and they took many more than me, so maybe I’ll invite guest posts here to share them.

We really loved having everyone here and highpoints for the family seemed to be Bunratty and the Cliffs, and just hanging out.  Lots of good chat, a few hearty laughs and just plain time together.  For me, it was not only seeing everyone again, but the Family Home Evening we had Monday night, and a family prayer before they started heading home.  Very powerful witness from the Holy Ghost of the importance of family and the eternal relationships we share.

It’s been a quiet house since Sunday, but recuperation turned into a jam-packed week trying to catch up on everything.  I’m knackered!  And it’s way past bedtime. <g>

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Galway – Connemara Weekend

I had a Branch Conference to attend in Galway on Sunday, and it’s a long 3-1/2 hour drive.  So instead of driving up by myself, or trying to organize a lift, Blaik took time out from his Cork Branch Presidency duties and we made a weekend of it.

One end of the pub for breakfast

Got into Galway on Friday night and stayed in a delightful little hotel called Ward’s. It has old-fashioned decor, soft seats in corners for a chat, a large room with a wide screen tv (perfect for watching GAA matches), and a pub on the ground floor.  I had read that they had a trad music session every Friday night, but evidently that doesn’t happen in the off season.  Staircases with twists and turns, old photos and paintings, an antique globe on a hall table, the whole thing took you back a century.  Except the rooms had modern en-suite facilities (bathrooms).  Overall, much more enjoyabe than a generic chain hotel, and a full breakfast came with!

Winter in Connemara

There’s not much happening in Galway in the winter, so we drove out to Connemara on Saturday.  Not much happening there, either.  The countryside is very barren – lots of rocks, peat bogs and sheep.  And a few ponies.

Watch out for sheep while driving!

Connemara ponies on winter grazing.

It’s interesting to see where they cut peat – basically harvesting a layer at a time over a wide area, then going deeper.  I don’t know if the peat that’s piled up will be dried and sold as is, or if it’s compressed into the peat briquettes that we buy in the stores.

Peat Bog - see the sharp drop where it's been harvested

Peat Stacks

We had lunch in Clifden and wandered the shops and bought some stuff (can’t help myself), and then headed back.  Connemara National Park is supposed to be great, with a visitor’s centre that explains a lot, but the visitor’s centre was closed and there’s no road that drives through.  Our clear day had turned to spits of rain, so we didn’t feel like getting out.  Around a few corners, there was suddenly a castle – Kylemore Abbey, magnificent against the hills.

Kylemore Abbey

I took a picture, but we didn’t stop to find out if it was open or not.  I want to go back in the summertime anyway.

Back in Galway that evening, we  headed down to an Italian restaurant near the hotel, but found a pub by the Promenade that looked to have good food and had their Saturday night traditional music starting at 9.  So we stayed, ate good food, and I had a ball!

It’s a family run place, and the gal that played the piano, the gal on the fiddle and mandolin, and the guy on the fiddle and flute were all part of the family.  It was good, just music, no vocals.  Then another fiddler showed up who I think was part of the band.  But then someone started playing the spoons with them, the mandolin player pulled out her bodhrun (an Irish drum) and handed it to someone – she knew he played – and another fiddler joined them after a bit.  A guy close to us pulled out his harmonica a while later and joined in.  It really was an awesome jam session, and I guess it happens every Saturday night.  Which is how they know the regulars who play, etc.  I want to go back!  (I have probably poor quality photos on my phone, but haven’t figured out how to get them off.)

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Winter Weather in Cork

I’m finally getting around to posting the winter pictures from our house, instead of various other photos from all over Ireland.

Front corner of our house - looks better if you click it.

Snowy Sunrise in Kinsale - Click to enlarge

The cold continued, and we  ran out of oil!  They only gave us half a tank last time and we didn’t realize it, and of course it was Saturday afternoon when we figured it out.  They didn’t come over the weekend, and Monday it snowed (we did get our four inches – beautiful, although with no snow plows, nobody was driving anywhere).  But instead of another week of cold, it rained on Tuesday and washed it all away!  I was sorry to see it go, but it meant that the fuel truck could get out and then we had the plumber out to re-prime the boiler, and we had glorious hot water again!  We’d been warm enough – a bag of coal and closing the living room doors so the fireplace was only heating one room kept us warm enough, as long as you don’t count frigid toilet seats!  But showers were oh, so nice that night!

Overall, I’ve been enjoying this winter.  The cold that freezes the Irish isn’t so bad for us Midwesterners, and it’s meant lots of clear, sunny days and not the everlasting dreariness of last winter.  And they say that with a cold winter like they used to get here, perhaps that means we’ll have a lovely sunny summer, like they also used to get.  Here’s hoping!

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Icy Ireland

Swans on the Canal

While all you American northerners live with three or six feet of snow and sub-zero temperatures, we’re dealing with snow, ice, and sub-zero here, too.  Of course, it’s sub-zero Celsius, but whatever.

Actually, it’s hit pretty hard.  Started in early December, and we’ve spend the last three weeks hardly getting above freezing.  Down in the teens (Fahrenheit) at night.  The frosts are heavy and very slick on the roads for some reason, and while there hasn’t been much sleet, we get freezing fog.  Roads are treacherous, and THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE IN IT!  (Actually reminds me of a college friend  who said she hated to drive in the snow.  I asked why, since she was from Montana. She said “because you Oregonians don’t know how!”)

Because it doesn’t happen often enough for them to learn, the Irish tend to be very very very cautious.  Long line of cars doing seventeen kilometers an hour going up a wet hill on  a good highway, and then, wow, up to thirty on the way down.  Then I got off at a roundabout, curved nicely around, and came to a dead stop.  Here, the road was icy.  Everyone had slowed down to about 5 mph, but there was another hill and we ended up in a line just sitting, with one car stopped in the oncoming lane.  (Yes, it was wide enough to have two proper lanes.)  The second guy in line finally got out, slipped and slid his way to the front car, talked for a bit, and we finally moved on.  Judging from the tracks on the ice when I passed, I think she had been going slowly, saw a car coming, got scared and either braked or jerked the wheel.  Anyway, got scared some more and just sat there.  And the oncoming car figured that if she was stopped, he better not pass!

Finally got home.  That was Christmas Eve, but it hasn’t changed much.  I wish they’d learn a few things:  1) drive smoothly, don’t hit brakes, downshift, or jerk the wheel.  2) don’t slow down to almost nothing on a hill or you’ll never make it up.  3) use the grass or gravel on the side of the road for traction, especially if it’s frozen.  (Two people were pushing a car up a hill, slipping and sliding themselves.  We were going the other direction, Blaik leaned out and suggested they get over on the verge, and once they did, they were fine.)

Current Snow in Ireland Mountains

On the other hand, we’ve got snow coming in, even in coastal Cork.  Four inches, if you can believe that!!  The county, which is large and very hilly, has only four “gritters,” so not very many roads or intersections get any help.  (They don’t sand the roads, they grit them.)  Met Eireann’s forecast goes out 10 days, and the cold snap has no let up in sight, here or across the country.  Part of Ireland have lots of snow already.  Cork ran through their year’s worth of road salt in the first 3 weeks of December, got some more in, and will finish that tonight.  More isn’t coming until Tuesday – not good for a city built on steep hills, or for the hilly highways running to Killarney, Bantry, Limerick, or even to Dublin or Waterford.  Dublin ran out of salt, got more in late last week, but will be out again and they say on the news that it will take the next ten days to source more from Europe (the UK is out), get it here, unloaded and delivered to local areas.

Lough Rea in Galway

City buses shut down sometimes (not good for a country where many people don’t drive, but rely on public transit), cross-country buses are on a very restricted schedule.  Schools are out, but kids are having fun.  Except for the stupid ones who fell through the ice on the lough.  Generally good for skating, but not out in the middle!

Ah well, hope you’re all warm, wherever you are.

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Back Home in Indiana–Temporarily

Glorious, glorious blue skies in Indiana!

We arrived on Saturday and had two days of sun and 70+ degrees.  Now it’s in the 50s (10-12 centigrade for all you Irish friends), but still sunny.  Bright sunny, which I’ve missed in County Cork.  Spring is farther behind–the daffodils here haven’t started to bloom yet–but I walked in Starkey Park yesterday and really enjoyed it.

We’re staying with friends, Tim is with us most of the time, and we’ve had a few great evenings with Kim and John.  Lots of shopping to take back with us, plus doctor and dentist appointments keep us busy in between.

We spent Wednesday at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and are going to a family-friendly comedy improv tonight in Indy.  And Blaik and Tim are glad to help Kim and John move into their next-door apartment (slightly larger, nicer layout) while I do the dreaded shoe and fabric shopping.  Blaik says he’d rather have a hot poker in his eyes than go fabric shopping!

It’s odd being here without a home of our own, but we’re having a grand time catching up with the kids and friends we haven’t seen for 8 months.

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If God had wanted me to see the sunrise . . .

The very first cross-stitch piece I did was a simple picture with the words, “If God had wanted me to see the sunrise, He’d have scheduled it later in the day.”

Well, He has obliged.  I sat on the couch looking out the window and watched the rose and pink and gold of Saturday’s sunrise.  Of course, it helped that it was 8:15/8:30!  (No, I didn’t take the picture.)

Even after being here for six months, I’m still surprised at how far north we are.  At the winter solstice, it was still full dark at about 8:00, and pitch dark again by 4:30 or 5.  And in July and August when we first arrived, we didn’t need headlights unless we were still out at 10:30 or 11 at night.  And in the rather dreary Irish winter, I’m looking forward to long days again!

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November is an Assault on the Senses

And no, I don’t mean a riot of fall color or the scent of burning leaves.  I mean dairy cattle.

Living in dairy country generally isn’t a problem.  It means that when we look out over “our” valley, we see black and white cows in the pasture, not horses.  (And I’ve learned that Freisan cows look just like Holsteins and I can’t tell the difference.)  Still a pretty picture.

And I had already learned not to walk certain roads when it’s been raining.  The cows travel from pasture to barn along the roads, sometimes for 20 feet, sometimes for a few hundred.  That’s ok – the rain washes off their leavings.

But sometimes there is enough room by the side of the road for the farmers to have an aisle for the cows.  They use white tape fencing to mark it off, and the strips of land used to be grass, I’m sure.  Now it’s slurry.  There’s no chance for the rain to wash it away, so it builds up.  Dry, no problem.  Wet, ugh.  So I choose another walking route when everything is wet.

But when November hits, it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s been raining or not.  The farmers all fertilize the fields through these weeks.  Especially the field right behind us!  The few steps from the house to the car became unbearable.

The smell died down after about a week, but they were doing other fields.  I began exploring different side roads for my walks, and decided that one hill I went down and back up probably connected with another hill I hadn’t come down from the other side.  I was right, and discovered a new loop.  Unfortunately, going up the new hill took me immediately past two dairy barns.  Not just fields, the actual barns.  With manure piles outside, and the indoor residue hosed down into the yard.

The field behind us seemed pleasant compared to this.  The trick seems to be to plan your walking route so you pass the dairy barns going downhill, so you can breathe lightly (if at all).  Then make sure the uphill part has no barns, so when you’re huffing and puffing and gasping for breath, you don’t gag in the process.

However, it’s now November 30 and we’ve had a very unusual four days of hard frost.  Scraping windows, slick roads, and brisk Arctic air, but sunshine, not rain.  And no dairy smell!

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Irish Fall Foliage

The brilliant emerald of the Irish pastures has gone, disappearing as October pushed on and turned to November.   Fields are still green, but even on the occasionally sunny day, they are mundane shades of green.
The trees here are nothing to rival Indiana’s fall foliage. Most trees morph to a drab brown before dropping their leaves quickly.  Along rivers and across West Cork’s rolling hills, the stands of trees are filled with bare branches reaching up through green and brown.  Birch adds brief splashes of yellow, but without maples and dogwoods, the brilliant russet, gold and flaming red of home are absent. A few evergreens provide occasional rich contrast, and will be beautiful in the few frosts of a mild Irish winter.
But there are surprises around the sharp turns in our narrow, winding roads.  Driving from Kinsale to Inishannon the other day on a road I usually avoid, the tree canopy along the Bandon River suddenly looked like home.  I followed the Irish way of driving, pulling onto the non-existent shoulder and making other cars go around, and smiled, camera in hand.

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Europe is Hooked on US Election

I’ve been rather surprised at how interested everyone here (Irish, Brit, French, South African, etc.) is in our elections.  I know that as a world power, events in the US affect the rest of the world.  But whenever someone hears our American accents, including in the ladies’ room at a restaurant, they want to know what we think and why.  And almost to a one, they wanted Obama to be elected.

They had entire-day coverage of the elections on Tuesday (on all the main channels, to the consternation of those who wanted their regular programming), when the results would even start coming in until well after midnight here!  I didn’t bother turning it on.  I get tired of pundits talking about exit polls and what might happen, when if you wait a day, you find out what really did happen.  And Europe is giving great cheers for Obama’s election.

I’m also suprised to find that the US is considered an “ultra-conservative” country.  I’m not sure if this is true from the Irish viewpoint, but it certainly is for the rest of Europe.

I picked up a copy of the Irish Independent, which had a 16-page section devoted to our elections (out of maybe 50 pages total), and came across a really interesting article titled “Goalposts have moved when it comes to American Politics.”  It’s originally from the London Times and talkes about the changes in Americans themselves, historically and demographically, and how that has changed the impact of the political parties.  Taught me a few new things–you can read it here.

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