Europe & UK

We have spent the past few days tracing Angela's past generations. Initially the area of her mother's family in the Sligo / Drumcliff region, followed by the Ryan history mainly around the County of Tipperary. Ange made her Ryan heretige complete by kitting herself out in the County Tipperary colours, a County cap and shirt, yellow and blue.
We have loved Ireland so much and as our time in Ireland comes to a close our thoughts are of Ireland's beauty. The 50 shades of green wherever you look, the well cared for, tidy homes, mostly large in size. The homes, as well as being tidy are mostly surrounded by manicured lawns and colourful gardens and town streets that are awash with colour of the ever present window boxes and hanging baskets We were also a little taken by the fact the Ireland has fantastic highways with many roundabouts and flyovers, and country roads lined with narrow hedges or stone walls . The farm equipment always seemed to be the latest and best models. Farm animals were in top condition and grazed on lush green pastures. We loved the idea that although Ireland is a modern country they still have time to entertain the idea of fairies and wee folk living in secret places. We were told of the belief that if a Hawthorne tree out in the field grows alone from other Hawthorne trees than it is a home of the wee folk and should not be disturbed. You will see evidence of this in fields where a fence is placed around a lone Hawthorne tree to keep it safe. Apparently one of the new freeways had its course altered to go around a single Hawthorne tree when the initial plan was to pass straight through the area.
We were keen to check out a game of Hurling, an Irish sport but only managed to watch the Kilmallock men's team train.
Little 12 week old black labrador puppy, Lilly was delighted to say hello, a real treat since we had Lilly the black Lab.
We took our little fellow companion Mawson to Ireland, took some keeping him out of the pubs though. As usual he loved having his photo taken, from sitting on a rock at the entrance to the Templemore Park to sitting on flowery cars.! Czytaj więcej