Beautiful Ireland

I love to go away on adventures , but I love to come home just as much if not more...it's the nesting thing. I have renewed energy for my house, cleaning, organizing, and getting back to normal. They say there are , what, 400 or so different shades of green in ireland? We saw a few...spring was just beginning to creep in...daffodils, but no leaves on trees yet. Cold and WINDY! We had a great week though, exploring and just taking in the differences. First big difference: we listened to the radio alot and I never heard anything that would be considered political, even in the news! I lOVED it! And the comedians were funny without slamming a politician or latest target. Ireland is a huge growing economy and the people are getting wealthier, but they still don't have the places to buy "stuff", no huge stores on every street corner, no car dealerships everywhere, no Mall of America, NO FABRIC STORES, unless you want to count the tiny dark one that sold drapery material and looked like a fabric store from the 60's, large rolls of my grandma's stuff. But I looked at the women and what they were wearing and they were beautiful, so it leaves one wondering where does it all come from?

Ireland is the stuff of art...everywhere you look it's another picture! This one was taken because we took the wrong road to the ferry to the Aran Islands:




Someone had carefully placed a blue vase on the windowsill, (not sure you can see it) knowing the artistic effect it would have had.

And the stone walls in just this little area...there must have been as many as there are stars in the universe. This is one section of a wall:



Kind of like piecing a quilt.

We took a lot of detours from the major routes. We'd see a small sign on the side of the road and go exploring! Or climb over a sheep fence and tramp across a field because I saw the tippytop of a castle over the edge. This is what we found:





Of course we didn't actually "find" it, it had been there for centuries!

This one might have been my favorite though; the wild sea in the background. Imagine spending any time in this cold, damp, circular tower. But what a view!



Look at the manhole covers:



Even they are beautiful!

I did a little bit of journaling and have some nice sketches to draw from (no pun intended) so now I can't wait to ge to work.

Today is our first Frayed Edges meeting without Deborah physically being there. It won't be the same:(