On the left we may view the lime, hydraulic lime, hemp, water, stone, sand structure we worked on at Sunrise farm. It will eventually be for meditation/yoga.We would mix a wheelbarrow full of paste then slap it on the walls to 'touch up' or fill in between two boards to make a solid portion of the wall. Very laid back work, the 'midgies' were the only bother...small biting flies-similar to the 'Nosee' of Breitenbush.
On the left we have Didi... (always in Orange) doing so Meditation. She did not know this picture was being taken. I know I have mentioned this many-a-time...so we will move on.
As you will view on the right, our first castle! Castle Birr Demense. The fam still lives there so we did not get to enter. More photos are online from the garden with over 300 tree species, a telescope the biggest in the world for 70 years (starting 1830?), A place where some boys were hung, and Clea eating an orange...very exciting.
The biggest carrot I have ever seen. It grew in Didi's garden. She also dilutes our urine (we pee into a bucket) and pours it on the apple trees because apparently that gets rid of the spots.OK... you should just go to my online photo album to see the the rest of the photos.. most have captions and stories...and we are paying to use the internet right now. Also you can see more photos that Clea has taken. Both of these links are also on the right side of the blog.
Over all the trip has been awesome! Last night a friend of our current host came over to play the fiddle. It turns out Miriam (our host) has two fiddles so we all got to play together (Clea, Mecky, and I)! We learned a Jig. OK a story about Mecky... she has this friend who was last seen in Seattle named Terrence 'Terry' Conlan. He would be about 53-54 now and is an excellent Mandolin Player (MOM, DAVID!) He also was/is a carpenter. She hasn't seen him in 22 years but was wondering about him so if any of you Seattle-ites knows anything....let me know. I am to email her. It is a long shot but why not?
I was thinking I will probably post stories or things on here I don' t have photos for...and just put stories in the captions of photos I have online.. more work for you to keep up with me but I am not a huge fan of just writing this stuff down.
This new farm is pretty awesome. We are on top of this huge hill overlooking the Burren. This is a huge archaeological site ...absolutely filled with wedge tombs, court tombs, and other cool stuff from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Iron Ages, Bronze Age - until the present it has been occupied. Our host Robin is an amateur archaeologist which means he is also our personal tour guide for the region. He said the Burren has not been studied extensively because the Irish government will only fund research if it is absolutely necessary(i.e. they are going to build something) . Also in Europe the old archaeology is still in effect which means...whatever the head honchos said is final...and this leaves no room for the new ideas or using modern people as a reference for research ideas (and I know this is not always a good idea, it has to be done very carefully).
Robin also keeps bees, this is a photo of him explaining some ideas to me. He has alot of ideas about the region and archaeology and the specifics of what could of happened. He also spelunks... all you cool people will know what I am talking about if that is spelled correctly. We taught him to play speed scrabble.
Miriam and Robin have 3 kids. Miriam is super cute. She and Robin make really tasty food (and especially compared to Didi who does not use onions or garlic...part of Ananda Marga) and you can tell some of the Indian influence because they spend some time there every winter. They are a British but have been living in Ireland for the past 30 years. Miriam knits, studies Spanish, is taking up the fiddle, works in the garden. She pretty much is doing everything I want to be doing when I get back from my trip... learning a language, playing the fiddle, being sustainable. She also has a pretty lively social life.
This farm is way better than the last one. OH!! I forgot to mention Robin and Miriam's house is freaking amazing.. I will take photos of all the details but just a mental note for now.
We have spent the day in the city of Galway today because Robin and Miriam work the Saturday market here. This city is about the size of Bellingham and contains a University also = cheap food.
I also have been thinking of taking up Archery when I get back AND I got a super good Soda bread recipe compliments of Didi. Soda bread doesn't need time to rise...how cool is that?!
Slainte! (Irish for 'Good Health' usually said in place of cheers).
Rose
P.S. I just remembered a very funny story. We were out in Scariff one night (the first and only night so far) and people kept saying to us, ''so you come here for the crack?'' and I was thinking, 'geeze...straight up asking about the drugs? I didn't even know that was big in Ireland'. Later I was reading in my guide book all the local Gaelic terms. Turns out the word that is pronounced 'crack' is actually spelled something like 'craic' and means 'fun, lively atmosphere'. yeah...
