Time is an Illusion

I am sitting outside at the picnic table on the patio.  To my left I have a group of annoyingly loud chickens, roosters, ducks, and an old grumpy gander.  It is a beautiful day, though I fear I have probably not used it to the best of my abilities.  I did manage to finish my book though, an impressive feat considering I just started the 600 page novel yesterday.  I have been told I read rather quickly, it just never really occurred to me that there were people that didn’t read that fast.  Hmm, I will have to take that into consideration in the future, I don’t want to be seen as bragging about finishing things so quickly…  Anyways, I am going to be home in eleven short days and I cannot believe that time has passed by so quickly!  Sometimes it seems as though it was only yesterday that I stepped off the plane in Dublin.  But then I think about all that has happened, the good and the bad, and I realize how silly that is.  I have learned a great number of things on this trip, the majority of which shall be very useful for the rest of my life.  The small things, such as you can never only have one pint of Guinness will not be so important, but nonetheless I learned them J  Oh, and that in Ireland rain is no more noticeable then snow during a northern Michigan winter, everything still continues as planned. 

This weekend has been quiet and very relaxing, exactly what I expect of the weekend.  The past week passed by rather quickly as well.  Monday was spent mainly gardening and planting things.  Tuesday I watered the Polly tunnels and planted some kale among other things.  The Tuesday evening we went out set dancing again, which was an enormous amount of fun!  Wednesday we were all rather tired and spent a good deal of time dragging sticks about.  In the afternoon we took a trip to Kenmare, a nearby town.  After wandering about there for a while and acquiring a book entitled “Feeling Sorry for Celia” we continued on driving around.  We went to a very beautiful stone circle which had a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains.  In overlooked a lake and on the far side we could see a tall waterfall working its way down the side of a mountain.  Sadly it was a rather misty, foggy day and our view soon become obscured.  It was a soft day though, so the rain was only a mild annoyance.  We followed a winding road up through the mountains and looked out at the spectacular drop off to our right.  With the tops of the mountains shrouded in mist it was exactly like a scene from “The Mists of Avalon”. 

Thursday a local man named “Jack” came with the wood chipper he built himself to chip all of the branches we had been dragging about for the past few days.  We had many more to drag that morning so we took turns hauling branches and then dumping the wheel barrows of chips around.  My personal favorite part of the afternoon involved standing in the goat field chucking branches over the fence.  Then I hopped over the fence and threw the branches down a small hill into a pile on the other side of the road.  Thursday evening was rather uneventful.  Friday I went over to Christine’s friend Linda’s house to WWOOF for her for the day.  It was fun to have a change of scenery and I spent the day helping here with her blueberries, planting, and filling her raised beds with dirt and manure.  Friday evening we had planned to go to a local music festival, but then the mother goat who kidded about a week ago got very sick.  Christine decided to stay and look after her.  We took the news with a good spirit and spent the evening playing hearts and euchre.  Great fun J 

Well, at the moment the sun is out nice and strong.  I think I’ll take advantage of it and lie out and tan for a bit.  That sounds exactly like what I need at the moment.  I can start the second book in my trilogy as well!

Three Weeks

To preface, I began this blog a couple days ago and am finally finishing and posting it today.

I am currently on the bus from Doolin to Cork.  I love riding the bus.  In fact I really enjoy all public transportation systems, mainly for the convenience of them.  I mean, there is not a single possibility that I could get lost while on the bus.  I get on and then get off at the correct stop, none of the annoying checking to make sure I am going in the right direction.  For me this is a excellent thing, I mean, I got lost driving from Grand Rapids to Traverse City.  I was going to try and write this blog entry on here ad then just be able to post it later, but I’m starting to get nauseous.  So, I will have to finish either later tonight or when I get to my next wwoofing spot tomorrow. 

I am at my last WWOOFing placement in a beautiful area near Coomolah.  The house and land surrounding it are called Mill Little.  The woman who owns the area is named Christine.  Currently there are two other wwoofers, both from Cincinnati, named Nicole and Alex.  There are also two students who are here to learn English.  Martha is from the German area of Switzerland and Alesandro is from the Italian speaking part.

It's now Thursday and things are going great :)  On Monday I did some trimming and weeding outside.  Tuesday was spent hauling wood from different areas and stacking it in piles.  We then went into Bantry for a few hours.  That evening we went Irish Set dancing at one of the local pubs.  It was great fun!  I got a couple really good partners who just kinda flung me around.  It was easier when the other people knew what they were doing...  Then  on Wednesday I hauled some more wood and tried my hand at chopping it!  It took a few minutes to get the hang of it and I'm still not very good but I will get there.  I'm pretty sore today..  Wednesday afternoons Christine and her friend Linda take us for outings.  Yesterday we went first to a stone circle, then to an old English manor.  The ruins of the manor were right in the middle of a cow pasture!  We had to slip under the electric fencing to go wander around.  We then went and took a nice walk on the beach.  Sadly the water drops of suddenly and has a fierce current so it's not for swimming.  I waded in and got my pants wet.  After that we went to a pub for some coffee and to sit by the fire.  This morning I chopped and hauled some more wood.  Then I helped move gravel.  We had to shovel it into wheelbarrows and then spread it out over a drive way.  It took about three hours and my arms feel like putty :)  But I'm building my muscles for the Mulder Olympics this summer!  I want the paddle this year :)  

After working Nicole and I went for a dip in the stream.  It was very fresh!  Now I'm off to go read and then have dinner.  My current book is a parody of the Lord of the Rings and is quite funny.  After dinner we'll probably be up for a movie or something relaxing.  toodles!  and only three weeks until I return to terrorize TC again :)

Mummy, I want a pony for my birthday

It's been a crazy ride lately.  I left Mike and Julia's last Monday and went to Galway for a couple of days.  It is an absolutely beautiful town and I really enjoyed just walking around and enjoying the city.  On Wednesday I went to Cork in preparation for flying to London Thursday.  I met a very nice French-Canadian girl at the hostel Wednesday night.  We went out and celebrated with the rest of Ireland that evening leading up to St. Patrick's Day Thursday.  Thursday morning we went into the city center and wandered around the market there.  Then we watched the parade which I have to say was very unique....

I have been trying to write this blog entry for awhile, but things just keep coming up that sound like more fun.  Sorry to all of you who are wanting to hear about what I am up to but you will have to wait.  London is amazing, completely due to the people here.  I came to visit my friend Rachel who I met in France.  The thing I had not totally planned on is that her house mates (Shing, Tom, and Rex) are also totally awesome.  One of the things that you seem to forget about while travelling is how lonely it can get.  I was very lucky to have my friend Heidi while I was in Ireland for the first six weeks and now I have these four.  Just being around friends makes a huge difference.  As anyone who has met me can attest, I am rather easy to get along with.  I over share, which in this case is good because I let people in easily.  The thing I find when travelling is that unless you find people that can also let you in it's very lonely.  Where I am right now I feel like I have friends and am closer to home.

Anyways, enough with that sappy crap.  I have become a hermit recently and am relishing all that comes with it, i.e. the slovenly behaviors and copious amounts of time spent watching "Glee".  I ventured out this past Saturday with the house and we visited a prison and pirate ship, ending the outing with a trip to a cheese and wine festival.  Altogether a most excellent adventure.  The evening was topped off with a party making it quite a glorious day.  Now I have retreated to a life of waking up after eleven and eating potatoes.  This behavior cannot last forever, unfortunately, so I am venturing out again tomorrow.  I have a good friend from Quaker Camp (FGC) named Kieren living in London and we are going for breakfast.  I shall then walk into Bravissimo and die of sheer delight.  I am predicting a most excellent adventure!!  Well that's all for now, but I shall leave you all with many new pictures.

Just another reason for Vegetarianism...

I think my culinary friends will get a kick out of this, but I have to warn you if you this gets a little gross...  So on Wednesday I had the wonderful task of cleaning out the chicken coop, duck house, and Emmy's home.  I started with the duck house which didn't take too long but had the most effect on my gag reflex.  The smell of wet straw and duck shit was rather overwhelming and I had to take a few breaks to get some fresh air.  After that I moved on to the chicken coop.  It took me over an hour to get it looking nice again.  First I had to get all of the dirty straw out of there.  Then came the gross part; the chickens started going crazy over the old stuff I was taking out.  They were picking at it and eating bits of straw mixed with their own feces.  I became eternally grateful for not eating animals that eat their own droppings.  They then started going insane, clucking around and staring up at me while I scraped and brushed the cement floor which was coated in a good couple inches of shit. I then continued to but new clean straw in all of their baskets.  I thought to myself, "this is gross, eating animals that just get filth everywhere."  I then began to give it some more thought, "if this is how these loved, free-range chickens live and I am disgusted by it, how much worse is it for the commercially raised chickens?"  These birds get fresh backed bread in the mornings and occasionally wander into the kitchen and under the table just to see what's going on.  They are loved and very well looked after.  I wouldn't eat them because I would feel horrible taking them from their beautiful life.  On the other hand, I wouldn't eat other chickens because of the gross factor.  I think I am pretty justified in my refusal to consume poultry after this experience...
The rest of Wednesday was much less disgusting and far more exciting.  Julia dropped Heidi and I off in Durrus at the secondhand shop.  We are going to my friend Nicola's birthday party tonight and were looking for things to wear.  After about thirty minutes we were very discouraged at the lack of dresses that would fit us.  Just as I was about to give up I spotted something turquoise on the floor.  The woman in the shop had just emptied out a bag of clothes they had gotten that morning.  The turquoise item was a skirt.  I also found an adorable black cardigan, a purple dress, a black sparkley shirt, and a simple blue dress.  I also had found a really cute pair of espadrille shoes.  The woman in the shop loved me as I came out and showed them everything I tried on while them drank tea.  I nervously held up the items I wanted to the woman running the store to see how much they would cost. I almost gasped when she said, "is 10 ok for the clothes? and 2 for the shoes?"  I couldn't believe I was getting five items of clothing and a pair of shoes for only twelve euro!!  Sadly Heidi didn't find anything so we decided we would go into Bantry to look at the second hand stores there.  Julia had already gone home so we decided to hitch in.  Luck was on our side as a car stopped after only a minute or so.  Even better it was a young woman driving who had a baby seat in the back.  We figured she was safe enough which is what she said about us.  She dropped us off in Bantry no problem.  I then called our friend Sheila who often goes through Bantry on her way home from work.  She happily said she could collect us.  We spent about two hours going through shops without a whole lot of luck.  I did manage to find a cute pink dress.  Sheila then picked us up and took us back to her house for a cup of tea.  All in all it was a lovely afternoon.
Last night we went out to this place called the Boathouse.  It's not actually a pub and is technically illegal.  It is more of a private shed type building where people gather to play music and drink.  Heidi had been recording with a  friend of Mike and Julia's, William that day.  He goes to the boathouse every Friday to play music and we decided it would be nice to go.  We ended up having a brilliant time just hanging out by the fire.  William and Heidi sounded great together and all of us were singing along and drumming on our knees.  Around 10:30 we went back to William and his wife Elise's house with another couple from England.  We stayed there for another hour and a half until the thought of the lasagna Julia had made earlier at home was too much.  After an excellent evening we headed home to to our beds and food.  Tonight I am going out to Kenmare, which is about an hour from here and now I have to get ready!!!

Great Craic!!

Craic is an Irish word pronounced "crack" that basically means anything fun.  My friend Nicola loves to say that things are going to be "great craic" or that is was great craic.  This week has been rather exciting and busy.  Sunday night Heidi and I were out far too late at the pub and ended up getting a taxi home with Nicola.  Monday I ended up doing a mild form of child care.  Mike and Julia's friend Trish has an eleven year old daughter named Sarah.  Sarah had hurt her arm last week and was going easy on it.  Then to top it all off she got sick over the weekend.  Trish had to work on Monday do Heidi and I went over to keep an eye on Sarah.  She was a very easy charge which was excellent for Heidi and I in our not so good shape after a late night.  We invited Mike and Julia over to Trish's for dinner along with a few other friends.  It was a great evening.  I fried up some chicken, pineapple, and bananas as part of the meal.  It was a great evening with lots of laughter and good wine and food.

Tuesday Nicola invited Heidi and I to go to Cork with her for the night as it was her friend Ashling's birthday.  We drove out around 7:30 and got there close to 9.  We were staying at Ashling 's apartment/dorm and that's where the beginning of the party was taking place.  It was great craic :)  There were around thirty people at the apartment and we then moved on to one of the best pubs in Cork.  It is called the Baily and has three floors.  It was packed which surprised me as it was only Tuesday night.  There were about fifteen of us who ended up there and had a wonderful time dancing.  Now, I have to say that my choice of shoes became largely annoying at this point.  I was wearing my very adorable three inch stilettos.  And let me tell you, after about four hours in them my feet started to get blisters.  When we finally left the pub I could hardly walk.  I told Nicola I was taking them off and she cried "No, you'll step on a piece of glass and get AIDS!!!"  I laughed and told her I had walked in far worse places barefoot :)  We went to a McDonalds as it was the only place still open and we were all craving fries.  We took a taxi home and six of us crammed into one small dorm room to sleep.  I was sleeping on the floor with three other girls on top of couch cushions.  It was altogether a wonderful experience.

The past few nights and days have been rather uneventful compared to the start of the week.  But that's ok, I have high hopes for this weekend.  It turns out that Ashling, the girl who's birthday it was, lives just down the road from me and it home every weekend.  I am going to see if we can get something together for tomorrow. Right now I am off to bed as it was kind of a crazy day.  Julia threw out her back last night and was in horrible pain today.  The osteopath is out of his office until next week so she's hoping it corrects itself.  Then to top all of the off the computer crashed and Mike was working on that all day.  All in all we made it through, but it was busy.  Luckily our guests that are with us right now are very down to earth and easy going.

Hope everyone at home is doing well.  Just for an itinerary update:  I am at Carbery Cottage until March 14 which is a Monday morning.  Then I am taking the bus to Galway where I will be until Wednesday night or Thursday morning.  Thursday evening, the 17th, I fly to London to stay with my friend Rachel.  And yes, I did realize that I am LEAVING Ireland on St. Patrick's Day, but oh well.  The plane ticket was about $20 cheaper...  I come back to Ireland on March 28.  I go to my next WWOOFing place on April 3 and don't know what I'm doing after I come back from London until then.  And of course, I fly home on April 28.  Ok, now for bed, more later.

Road Bowling

Did you know that in Ireland then have a game called "road bowling"?  I kid you not, they all go stand out in the middle of the road and roll a very heavy ball down the street.  They don't put any signs and there is no notification.  You will be innocently driving along and go around a corner to find a group of people (usually all men) standing around with a huge ball.  Apparently there is quite a lot of money in this sport.  The use clumps of grass and dirt to mark the spots where the ball stopped.  Then whomever rolls it the furthest is the winner, or as far as I can tell.  If they ever thought about starting anything like it in the states the cops would be all over you.

Today I went in the ocean.  That's right, on February 19th I went in the Atlantic.  I can't say I went swimming as it wasn't really like that.  Heidi and I walked down to the water straight down from Carbery Cottage.  It's quite rocky down there with no sandy bits.  The tide was out and so we had to walk down where ever we could to get the water.  I then proceeded to strip down to my swimsuit bottoms and a tank top.  The rocks were kinda sharp so I ended up going in with my hiking shoes on.  The waves were rather rough coming onto the rocks which made me nervous about letting go and diving in.  I didn't want to come crashing back on the sharp rocks.  So I devised my brilliant plan: I crouched down on the rock and held on with my hands.  Then when the waves would come in I would stick my head under the water.  I only managed to do this twice before my head went numb.  But I went swimming in the Atlantic in February.  I think that's a pretty awesome accomplishment.  And it wasn't in some lame part like going off of the Caribbean Islands.  No, it was off the coast of Ireland.  Yeah, beat that :)

This past week was pretty busy.  We had a full house on Wednesday just for the one night.  So there was us getting the rooms ready for them to come and then stripping them down after they left.  For me this meant lots of vacuuming, mopping, dusting, making beds, and ironing.  I don't mind doing any of it, I was just bummed I didn't get to go outside. I really like doing the outside work in the fresh air.  It was ok too because we had some horrible rain this week.  Yesterday was especially terrible.  It just poured all morning.  As soon as the sun came out in the afternoon I jumped at the chance to go for a quick walk.  Oh, I just had a poached duck egg for lunch.  That I got out of the duck house this morning.  The duck house is really gross because that's how they like it.  They actually get scared when we put fresh straw in for them.  They enjoy living in their own filth.  This has the unfortunate effect of making their eggs really gross to pick up.  I have to take them in and wash them off as they get horribly covered with their own waste.  But after that they taste delicious.  And no one eats the shell anyways.

This week was really fun.  Heidi and I went out with some locals on Wednesday night and played a lot of pool.  I actually didn't do too bad, i mean I probably sunk at least two balls every game.  Last Sunday was the usual at Eileen's.  She had a really good Scottish guy playing.  He's a local and plays frequently.  I'm excited to see who will be there tomorrow night.  Otherwise the week has been fairly uneventful.  On Monday I am going to stay with Julia's daughter Emma who has an alpaca farm about thirty minutes from here.  She has two little boys name Luca and Reuben.  I am going to go help her and her husband with some outside and inside work.  The boys are 7 and 9 (I'm pretty sure) and love to play games.  I'll be there until Thursday or so.  It will be nice to have a bit of a change in scenery.

On Wednesday I bought my plane tickets to London!  I'm going there from March 17 to the 28.  Then I have a few days free before I go to my other WWOOFing job in April.  I can't wait to see Rachel as i haven't seen her in almost three years.  She is of course having a party to celebrate my arrival two nights after I get there.  It should be a blast!

Ok, well I'm off to finish my book.  Hope everyone is staying sane at home.  Love to you all

Sunshine and Soft Days

In Ireland they have "soft days".  In any other country we would call these days gray and wet, complete with a steady drizzle from sunrise to sunset.  That is in other countries.  Here in Ireland they are "soft" with the steady rain a blessing that everyone knows is necessary for the green and fertile fields.  Yesterday began as a soft day but then turned a little too wet, even for the Irish.  I realized the difference is that on the soft days you can still go about your daily business with little to no inconvenience.  The rain is light enough you hardly notice that it's there, you just may have to change when you get home as you will be a little damp.  This was not the case yesterday - every time I ventured out I got soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds.  Julia and I went into Bantry yesterday so that I could see the doctor.  I had to get an antibiotic for the sinus infection I have.  It's not too bad, just terribly annoying.  We ended up having to drive to the different stores that we had to go to even though Bantry is a very small town.  It was raining cats and dogs!  I have discovered that I much prefer the soft days and their
calm wetness.

On Sunday evening we went out to one of the local pubs, Eileen's.  Every Sunday she has live music and Mike and Julia make it a regular occasion.  This past Sunday it was a mother/daughter duet who were quite lovely.  As it was one of the last nights for Renny and Jean we got them up to play as well.  Jean sang and played a couple of songs and Renny played a few while Heidi sang before doing some of his own.  I loved the whole atmosphere of the evening, with the warm fire and the Irish blokes discussing the week's happenings.  There was one man that they had warned me about, Finbar.  Finbar is a gentleman in his early forties who looks to be in his mid fifties.  He has a very bushy beard and mustache that are always full of foam from his excessive drinking.  On his head we wears an old sailors hat.  He staggers around the bar asking all the women to dance with him.  Oh, and he has very tight pants :(  He spotted me rather quickly and asked/pulled me on the dance floor.  There he proceeded to dance with me, I had to keep pulling away a bit just to not get too close.  He is a very kind hearted man, he just gets a little too exuberant/drunk.  He told me many times how pretty I am and that I am a lovely dancer.  He also asked me repeatedly if I was married or had a boyfriend.  Apparently he has proposed to most of the women there.  I managed to keep a marriage proposal at bay (at least for the moment) and insisted a couple of times, when he got a bit too persistent, that I really had to go talk to Renny or Heidi.  All in all he was quite the stereotypical drunken Irish man in the bar.  After our excitement at Eileen's we went to a much quieter pub to finish off the evening.  The couple who own the second bar are quite a pair, at least the wife is rather interesting.  As a visiting friend of ours said "She must have eaten all the lemons for her face to look like that!"   Julia hushed her saying "We have to live here with her!"  It was a very different atmosphere then our first place.  When Heidi asked for a cider the sour puss woman said "That's an awful lot for just you."  I think there is definitely something wrong for a person like that to be running a bar.


Monday was a most excellent day.  The sun was shining and I got a large amount of weeding done in the gardens.  To top of a beautiful morning and early afternoon my luggage finally arrived at 3:30.  I excitedly checked that nothing was opened or missing.  Then I gratefully took a shower and put on a full set of CLEAN clothes.  I still had about forty-five minutes before I had to feed the animals so I walked up into the hills a bit to get some pictures of the sun setting.  It was magical as it sunk over the hills, casting an orange-red glow on everything.  I also saw a rainbow while I was outside working on Monday.  I debated with myself for a good twenty minutes about going to find the pot of gold at the end.  Then I decided that I would surely see another one at a more convenient time.  I was rather dirty and didn't want to go visit the leprechauns in my coveralls!  Monday night Renny took us all out to dinner for a last supper.  We ate at a pub in Bantry called "The Snug". It was very good, I had the vegetarian lasagna, and the decor was excellent.  There was a tree growing out of the middle of our table!  There were also a numerous number of tress around the place.  I came up with two reasons for the name: One is that the woman's bathroom is rather snug.  Two is that the portions are so large that when you leave your pants feel very snug.  It was a lovely evening and we all miss Jean and Renny very much.  


Tuesday was dedicated to painting as it was sunny again.  I have been painting all of the wood outside - the fences, chicken coop, duck house - green.  That is what I did this morning as well.  Tuesday afternoon Renny gave Heidi and I a ride into town when he was leaving.  We had some errands to run and a few items to post.  We walked back from town which takes about and hour and a half.  It was a rather soft afternoon and when we were about twenty minutes from the cottage a car stopped in front of us.  It was our friend Sheila who teaches woodworking at a local school.  She gave us a lift to the house her friend is watching right now.  We all sat down for a cup of tea and a chat.  I was very grateful to be out of the drizzle with a warm mug in my hands.   It was a very pleasant afternoon.  


I'm off for now.  I'm putting up some pictures and a couple videos as well.  So far I predict the Ireland and I are going to become great friends...