the green green grass

it's been relentless heat 
so in the need to reset my inner thermostat:

one of my best friends moved to Ireland

3 years ago and for those 3 years
I have been promising to visit
so the time felt right to book a flight

hello Emerald Isle

gaelic words look so complicated

home for 8 days
all that green grass!

the landscape is breathtaking

little houses
sheep, cows, horses, peat piles

lakes

photos don't do it any justice

enniscrone

achill island

clare island

cullanamore

portavade

reminded me so much of the thames estuary

where I lived for most of my life

cockles, mussels, samphire, bladderwrack

driving through the lost valley

it really is like a place that time forgot

the wide open beach to the atlantic

to silver strand

the weather wasn't always kind

lashing rain didn't stop me walking up to 

downpatrick head

there are many legends about this huge rock

on the wild atlantic coast

hearing the sea crash through the fissures

and of course you have to visit one of the many

bars

and have a guinness!

a country rich in history

and still in touch with it's roots

it won't be my last visit for sure
~~~~~

♣ green eyes

this tiny propeller plane

took us to Ireland for the day

to inspect some equipment

in the hospital that was 'nun run'

Bono's kids had been born there

the taxi driver told us

you can't go to Dublin without visiting 

O'Donoghues

a swift half pint

watching dapper men

shirts tucked in

flaked paint and the smell of ale

then home again