There once was a man from Nantucket

Last night the wind howled as it rained, so we slept in snug as a bug in a rug. After a leisurely breakfast of scones and tea, we discovered that the wind had blown down a tree that was now blocking the drive to the house. Mark, our host, and Mike headed out with a handy dandy chainsaw to clear the road. Meanwhile I had a lovely chat with 2 young ladies from Germany who are touring Ireland for 2 weeks. They highly recommended we visit Scotland as well, so put that on the list for next time. Also had a nice chat with an older lady from Australia. We compared travel notes. She did a day trip to Inis Mor a day before we and the rain arrived. She took a horse cart tour around the island and said it was very beautiful in a rugged sort of way. We’ll take her word for it. We headed into Limerick to explore again with a new set of eyes. In search of the Milk Market, we wandered up and down streets in the vicinity. Settled into a little restaurant for a brunch of bacon and eggs plus our first cup of coffee in 2 days. We were the only tourists in the place, and to add to the authenticity an older gentleman started up a conversation in Irish with me. All I could do was smile and nod. We still had time left on our parking space so decided to explore a bit more. When we finally decided we should head back to the car, we were so turned around we weren’t sure where it was. In the process we stumbled on the Milk Market, an open air market with all sorts of goodies: produce, baked goods, meat, honeys and jams, plus a variety of arts and crafts. We had a delightful time wandering the aisles, then somehow managed to find ourselves back at the car. It’s a beautiful sunny day with just an occasional stray shower, perfect for exploring the grounds of our lodging. There’s an old stone church, enticing but locked up tight and in a sad state of repair. The gardens and lush green meadows lead down to a river where one can fish for salmon. The apple and pear trees are loaded with fruit and raspberries are abundant on the canes. Wisteria vines and ivy cover the house, and it’s all picturesque and quaint. Hard to imagine growing up here as our host did before leaving to serve 35 years in the army. We were amazed to learn he’d done a tour at Ft Bragg. He’s now retired and doing his best to restore his childhood home that’s been in the family for 5 generations. We wish him well as it’ll be a never ending task.Weiterlesen