Back to Basingstoke

We had a lovely Christmas and New Year in balmy Ireland. Yes it was around 12c there and contrary to popular belief, it didn't rain much at all. We even had glimpse of a blue sky. This whole picture was almost tropical compared to what was waiting when we got back to Basingstoke. The house had been empty for a fortnight and any ambient temperature in it had long gone. The temperature in England dropped to its lowest in years, with days consistently below freezing. Not that I'm a weather, whinging Aussie but this is us on our first night back in the house.

Malahide Castle, Dublin

Dublin is truly a fair city. I loved the bridges and the river views. We stayed in a B&B there that looked out across a bay and the host suggested that we take the day to have a look at Malahide Castle. It was very interesting as the castle had been in the Talbot family since 1185 and the final living member of the family only sold it to the local council in the 1973 and moved to the family estate in Tasmania, yes Tassie.


Lord Milo Talbot was renowned for collecting plants from the Southern Hemisphere and he created a walled botanical garden. He apparently wrote an introduction to a book called The Endemic Flora of Tasmania. Many of the plants in and around the Castle are Australian natives; eucalyptus, wattle; gravillia etc. Note the gum tree at the front of the Castle in this picture. I have to say when I crushed the leaves in my fingers I was transported immediately to Strawbella and felt quite homesick.


The furniture in the place was old and interesting and much of it had been in the family for centuries. The local Fingal Council, who now own the place are collecting examples of Irish furniture of the period. The families influence on history was also interesting. It was said that 14 members of the family had breakfast together in the dining room before going off to fight the famous Battle of the Boyne, where they were all killed. Oliver Cromwell gave the Castle to one of his supporters, Miles Corbet, who was later hung, drawn and quartered when the Castle was returned to the Talbots in 1660 after Cromwell passed over.

There was also a brilliant collection of minature furniture from Irish cabinet makers. Apparently when apprenticed cabinet makers were in the final year they made a number of minature pieces to show thier customers what they could do. The customers would then be able to order the full size piece with confidence that the craftsman could do a good job. The minatures were absolute masterpieces in their own right.

The Giant's Causeway

After we headed off from Castlerock, we went to Belfast and took a day's tour to look at the amazing heritage listed Giant's Causeway. The rock formations were incredible and the coastline continued to be beautiful. It was an icy cold day but not rainy and when the sunlight highlighted the cliffs and grassy banks it was easy to see why Ireland is the Emerald Isle. The green is luminus and like I've never seen before.

While we were in Belfast we visited our other in laws, Gordon's parents Cecil and Isobel, who made us very welcome. We had a day out in Lisburn visiting the Linen museum where I bought a hand made damask linen runner (should have splurged and got the table cloth too but was too tight). We also me one of the weavers there, Alison who is one of only 3 weavers left in the country who know how to make the damask linen. She told us that it takes 7 years to learn how to thread the loom and weave the linen. The looms were 160 years old and had come from local weavers cottages. The museum showed the whole process of makng the linen fibre and it also had a lot of interesting local history information. I was impressed.

We left Lisburn and headed for Enniskillen. We drove through Armagh and Sligo to get there. Unfortunately we kept underestimating the daylight hours. It didnt get to be daylight until around 8.30 and was dark at 4.00. Of course we didn't get going until about 11am and were just getting into it and it was dark. Consequently we didn't see as many things as we could have had we been better tourists. We spent the night in Enniskillen and had a look at the Castle and Barrack grounds but it was shut because tourist dont go there at Christmas, or apparently much in winter. We wandered up the mainstreet and looked at the churches, the Catholic church was open and we went in. It was a beautiful church and had a statue of my patron saint (St Therese, the little flower). I think I chose her as my confirmation saint because I like it that she carried a bunch of roses. I really had no idea at the time that she held an significance from a spiritual point of view. It was only years later that I discovered she is also the patron saint of children, which was interesting given my years in child and family services.

St Stephen's Day

Well thats what they call Boxing Day, here. We had a lovely outing today, walking among the hills and along the cliffs of Castlerock. We visited Downhill Castle and the Mussenden Temple, build by the Bishop Hervey, the Earl of Bristol. The locals tell us that the Temple was a romantic hideaway built as a meeting place for the Bishop and his cousin, who apparently he had a love affair with. It was cunningly disguised as a library and is perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. From the Temple you can look down the coast along a 6 mile sandy beach and then on the other side across the coast to the village of Castlerock with its church steeple rising up out of the mist of the day.

It was truley lovely. We have had a great stay here. Wonderful hospitality from Stuarts' family with a traditional Christmas Dinner served hot at lunch time. Very different from my family Christmas Dinner in Australia, cold meat and salad served at dinner time when the evening is cooler. We are off to Belfast today and then intend to travel towards the west coast on our journey back to Dublin and back to England.

Happy Christmas

Many blessings to everyone who has managed to keep looking at the blog and to all of you who gave up. We are in Ireland for Christmas with Alan's daughter, Charlotte and her family. Ireland is warm (up to 12c) compared to Basingstoke and the sun has been shining and the rain has only fallen once. We are truly blessed. Today Alan and I went for a drive to Donegal County and had a look at Greencastle. We drove around the coastline which was very picturesque and spent a little time in Derry looking at the city walls and shopping for some last minute presents. We are off to dinner with Stuart's (Charlottes' husband) family this evening and have been invited to share a traditional Christmas dinner there tomorrow.

Have a lovely, safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you all.

Down in the Bayou; Louisiana, no its still Texas

Well Alan and I are trying to dredge up our memories of the US again. After Galveston we drove on through Austin and headed off to Louisiana. We could have gone to the space stuff in Austin but it was late afternoon when we got there because we spent ages looking at the Galveston Oil Rig Museum.

We drove for ages and eventually pulled up at an RV camp on the side of the road and asked could we camp there. The camp was actually a community of road workers and their families living in 45 foot camper trailers and Winnebagos with all the mod cons. We were the only campers there. There were US flags at the front doors of nearly every trailer.

It was a warm and balmy night and we set up camp at the back of the RV park as far away from the large family gathering that was happening on the other side of the road. It initially sounded interesting because they had a band playing latin music. Then we noticed the singing. Visualise Uncle Fernando, playing his piano accordian and casstinettes hogging the karaoke machine and singing pissed and off key for hours and you have it.

We had just settled in and cooked our dinner when the sky got dark and brooding and it started to pour rain. Next thing the RV owner came over and told us that a gale force wind was on the way and would we mind spending the night in one of the vans. We gratefully accepted and while the van didn't blow away the rain came in in buckets, dripping on the bed, and floor etc. As it turned out the tent was intact the next morning, dry as a bone as we had coated it with water repellant from our stay in Galviston. The owners of the RV park refused to accept payment for our stay. They were like most of the American people we met, kind, helpful and generous.

Stonehenge

Now that we have our little car. Its a Ford KA, a tiny little thing that looks like a noddy car, we are able to go out visiting local points of interest. We took a day trip to Stonehenge and after queing for 2 miles to get to the site we got there. It was very interesting but because its so touristy it was hard to get into the ambience of the place. The wind was howling and it was as usual overcast and bloody freezing. You can no longer go up and walk among it or touch anything anymore but we all herded round it and took some great pics. I am having trouble uploading pictures on the blog and on flikr at the moment but I will keep trying. To avoid the traffic we drove home through the countryside and visited some small villages. The army seems to own most of the area near Salisbury and there were road signs saying Slow Tanks Crossing.