A SHORT BREAK IN IRELAND

We have just got back from a very relaxing few days in Ireland. We stayed in County Cork, right on the coast in Ballycotton Bay. The sea was very moody at times and we could hear the waves crashing relentlessly along the beach from our room. Sometimes at night I counted the seconds between each wave as they crashed onto the beach just like you do between lightning and thunder.

We visited Blarney Castle, climbing to the very top!

And yes, I did kiss the Blarney stone!

The gardens around Blarney are truly beautiful. 

 We walked through the fern garden

 and also took a stroll along the path to the lake.

It was so quiet and peaceful there.

There was so much colour, even in the bark of the trees.

Another day we visited the Titanic Experience in Cobh. It was from this quay that the tenders carried the last of the passengers out to the Titanic before it made its first and last transatlantic voyage. Each entry ticket had a name of an actual passenger on it and at the end of the tour we were able to find out if they were lucky enough to make it to America. Sadly Michael's man perished in the disaster but my lady survived and made a life for herself in New York. I have to say, for a moment I was quite choked.

Our stay in Ireland wouldn't have been complete without a visit to the Jameson Experience in Midleton. I'm not keen on whiskey at all but Michael enjoys it.

The tour was very good and interesting and Michael enjoyed the two glasses of whiskey that came his way. For the rest of the day I became the designated driver!

While we were in Midleton I came across this lovely shop. Whenever I'm away I always try to find some local yarn and in KNIT I found some sock yarn by hedgehog fibres which is hand dyed in Cork.

The shop this year is supporting a local charity - East Cork Rapid Response  with a "knit a stocking campaign" and the socks collected so far are winding there way around the shop. The socks will then be sold in December for EUR2 and the money raised will all go to this charity.

I thought they looked really colourful so I had to take a picture to share with you and also as I spoke to the owner Lora, found we have something in common, we both have Attic 24 on our blog reading list. How bizarre is that?

On our last day we went on quite a long drive into County Kerry and to Killarney. Wow, considering the weather was not good at all, the scenery was amazing.  We were so pleased we took the time to go there.

We really enjoyed being in Ireland, we loved the food, the people and the places we visited. Seeing high streets full of individual shops and petrol stations a long the road was brilliant. If we want fuel here in our town we have just two petrol stations, both belonging to supermarkets, Morrison and Tesco. There were others but they closed a while back.

It was also nice to take time out while the cows crossed the road on their way to be milked. They weren't going to hurry for anyone.

Enjoy the rest of your week!