We’ve been very busy

Well, we’re not in Dublin anymore. Since I’m so late writing this, we’ve seen three or four or five castles, starting with Drimmagh castle, a 13th century Norman castle still in Dublin, I believe. Actually, quite interesting and our guide was lovely. Then we traveled and traveled. We’re in a Mercedes small bus, basically big enough for all of us to have our own row. In Kildare, we went to St. Brigid’s Cathedral, which is on the site of the Celtic Christian abbey founded by her in the 5th century. Beautiful and interesting, but the story of Brigit to Brigid is the story of Catholicism taking over the Goddess — I have a particular dislike of St. Patrick, because his story is the story of the church destroying the Goddess (his driving the snakes out of Ireland). After a fabulous lunch of myriad Irish dishes, we drove to Kilronan castle where we stayed overnight. Google it — the height of luxury, just yummy; gorgeous grounds, beautiful rooms, great dinner. I sure wish I had booked a spa treatment!

Up Saturday morning and back in the van for county Galway. Went to an oyster farm on Clew Bay, and then, oh, the eating of oysters! And the cakes and scones and more oysters. . . and about 45 minutes after that feast, we went to lunch. Of course we ate more! No one is surprised about that are you??? Then a tour of Velvet Cloud sheep farm, with — what else — more food! We tasted their sheep cheese and yogurt (the BEST yogurt!). My highlight was feeding the sheep — they were quite shy, but came running when our host poured some pellets on the ground; he gave me some in my hands and after a lot of hesitation, a couple of brave ones ate out of my hand, so softly delicate their mouths. More riding around Ireland (no direct route to destination because of various road closures) and we arrived late to Lisdonaugh Manor, where we’re staying for four nights. We have the whole manor house to ourselves and it is lovely, lovely. 9 bedrooms, drawing room, library, great kitchen, downstairs “den” — very swell! And now I have to go to class.

Our first evening at the manor, three women friends of Kris’ came from Cork to stay overnight. OMG, they were funny — I haven’t laughed so hard in awhile, tears-streaming-down-the-face laughter. And they know every Broadway song and practically any other genre of song — wow! What a fantastic night that was! Louise did a performance for us as a nun that was hysterical.

On Sunday, we went to an abalone farm to learn about them, but most especially, about seaweed and its deliciousness. Salad, something else, and seaweed spaghetti. And a seaweed cookie, too. The dishes were so delicious — the most amazing, though, that they really need to figure out how to make commercially was sea lettuce chips (basically tempura’d). Oh my god, so addictive — we demolished a big basket in no time at all and kept hinting for more, but to no avail. Then off to Kylemore Abbey, a Victorian castle that is now home to chocolate-making nuns — full habited Benedictines, though it was Sunday so we didn’t see any of them, alas. We also didn’t have time to tour their gardens and greenhouses. They make the sexiest chocolates! one with gin and something, one with an Irish cream liqueur that they make (better than Bailey’s!). The house was wonderful — originally 70 rooms, 30 of them bedrooms (my kind of house!), after the original owners, a duke and American heiress duchess bought it, then the nuns came from Belgium at the beginning of WW1 and bought it, took out a mortgage — I forgot to ask how much they paid or what the monthly payments were. They started a girl’s school and they were not the cliched Horrible Nuns; isn’t that great? Fire in the 1950s, so they closed the school. Currently there are 14 nuns, but Benedictines travel around a lot, so they get nuns from other houses for awhile. They are a semi-contemplative order, but they do talk. As I understand it. P.S., all these places, you should google them! It is the most beautiful place imaginable — the castle, the setting. . . makes me want to be a nun. But, their motto is work and pray — not really my thing, I think. This night, we had a Seamus, a storyteller, to entertain us. He was quite good, but his voice was soft, so I missed a whole lot of the stories.

Dublin was HOT, the west was cooler, but still sunny and warm. Today, it rained. Really rained, not that “Irish mist” kind of rain. And turned kinda chilly. We went to yet another castle, this one 16th century, and visited Brigit’s Celtic Garden, laid out on the Celtic calendar — even in the rain, it was lovely and fragrant (Ramona told me that part; I lost my sense of smell in menopause). On to Galway City for, yes, another meal: lunch. As usual, family style with several courses — chicken, salmon, beef, potatoes (of course potatoes, three or four different ways) and a frangipani pistachio tart with the most amazing whipped cream I’ve ever had. We walked around, but gloom and rain didn’t really inspire Laird and me to do much, so we whiled away time in a pub before the van came to pick us up. Home for class and dinner (Kris keeps saying it’s just snacks) of salad, cheeses, olives, crackers, salmon, yogurt, salami, bread and delicious wine. Some of us hung around and talked about ghosts, ouija boards and other paranormal stuff, because why not scare ourselves in an Irish Georgian country manor house??? No writing, but a fun time anyway.