December 4 - 5 - 6 -7, 2009
Thursday, Friday, Saturday ~ Happy Birthday Kevin  
Sunday, today ~ Welcome Santa and Mrs. Claus 

Here are highlights from our birthday celebration adventure to Cork City.  We stayed at the Vienna Woods Hotel in Glanmire, fifteen minutes outside Cork city centre.  Unfortunately, Kevin was ill the entire time, but he persevered and we made the best of our road trip.  We returned today, in time to welcome the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus.

This is the nice gradual climb of the driveway up to the hotel, being repaired from all the rushing waters from heavy rains.  {Gentle reminder: double click on any photo and it becomes HUGE, then click the back button to continue}

Cork is a coastal city, surrounded by water, on the southern tip of Ireland.

View of Cork city from the roof of our downtown parking garage:

Notice the street going up hill - we're not in flat Florida anymore:

Great name for an Asian restaurant - TemptAsian - temptation!  Very clever.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . .

In the "English Market" of Cork, a collection of shoppes under one roof:

Notice the price of the lychee, .49 EACH!  I could eat them all!  And don't the figs looks delicious?!

Mussels by the scoopful . . . .

Not today!

Pick a fish, any fish:

Monkeys Huckleberry and Galway, in display of Brown Thomas:

Enough already.  Back to the hotel for the night.  Time for Kevin to take care . . . .

Friday

After a bountiful buffet breakfast around half nine in the Blue Room, we returned to our spacious hotel room and relaxed in luxury for the entire day.  My man was really suffering and just needed to relax, watch tv in bed and rehydrate all day.  As Kevin remarked, "It's cheaper than a hospital room."  Poor guy.  I guess if one had to be sick, this was the place to be.  We made dinner reservations for 6pm and hoped for the best.

Dinner was served in the beautifully decorated Conservatory.  We each ordered caesar salads, to be followed by their special Irish sirloin served with garlic butter, potatoes and vegetable.  Kevin almost made it through dinner - we retired to our room before dessert, but I took it with us.  A yummy strawberry cheesecake for me and a chocolate "bowl" filled with four flavors of ice creams for birthday boy.

Saturday

Slept in as late as possible, enjoyed another fabulous Irish breakfast buffet, then checked out.  We were on the road again at exactly noon.

 

Kevin felt well enough for a detour on our drive north, back towards Mullingar. We turned west in Thurles (pronounced turr-less), passed through Templemore, and right into Tipperary (it wasn't a long way).  We wanted to touch base again with Miss Clare in person, about our move to her place in January.  Here's a hint of things to come:

 

We left TIMOTREC [Tipperary Mountain Trekking Centre] around 4pm. The remainder of the drive home was in the rain, through small towns, down back roads, into the dark night.  Our ride was not confined to boredom.  We witnessed a bad accident where, thankfully, the Garda were cautioning traffic.  A jeep pulling a small trailer of peat had overturned, straddling two lanes.  We didn't see any people.  As we were directed around the accident our car thumped the ground as it traversed the deep gully that was the shoulder - probably what had overturned the vehicles. 

With all the "gatorade" fluids Kevin was drinking we needed to make many stops along the way and there weren't always appropriate places to do so.  At one stop alongside the country road, as I waited and listened in the dark and rainy night for Kev's return to the car, a lone vehicle approached from the opposite direction.  When Kevin climbed back in he was groaning with discomfort.  His topsiders were covered with mud and his socks and pants legs were soaking wet.  He explained to me that when he saw the car lights approach he took a small step back and found himself sliding down a slope backwards into a ditch of water.  What a scare.  He was wet and dirty, but all right.  Whew!

Not ten minutes later we had another good scare.  Rounding a hilly bend we (the car and us) actually left the ground and floated sideways, landing in the opposite lane, in order to stay ON the road.  It all happened so quickly.  I just reacted in the moment.  Double WHEW!!!!

I soon found the N7 and cruised safely back into Mullingar.  After a quick stop for fresh milk we arrived home, exhausted, at 9pm.

Sunday

Santa and Mrs. Claus, with Comet and Vixen, greeted children at the Farm Safari Park today.  It was grand!

Doesn't Santa bear a striking resemblance to someone we know?  Same height, maybe a little pudgier, but look at those eyes . . . . is there a Cotter in him . . . . ?

Santa Claus was brilliant!  The only difficult thing was remembering NOT to wish a "Merry" Christmas (that's considered British).  After forty years it was a mental challenge for American Santa and his spouse.  Anyway, it was good practice for the weeks to come.  Children will be coming to visit Santa and his reindeer in the little Grotto every weekend until Christmas. 

Have a Happy Christmas everyone.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Bright, sunny day . . . . yeah!  The frozen puddles won't last long.

Kevin and I have been preparing a holiday exhibit representing the Farm Safari in a HUGE empty downtown store.  There will be several exhibitors and all proceeds will go to charity.  We will have a chicken, goose, and rabbit in our exhibit.  We spent the day assembling the display pen for the critters that Kev built back at the farm.  We are decorating it with pine boughs from our cut Christmas trees. 

Santa will greet the children from inside the igloo being built from a store counter. Phil, the property manager is doing this construction.

Back at the ranch, Kevin and Brendan have replaced the canvas tent (that enclosed the back of the lodge) with pine trees.  They meticuosly cut to size each tree and fit it precisely between the floor and ceiling cross beam.  It smells divine and looks marvelous, just like they're growing there!


 

 

Tomorrow, Kevin and I will be driving three hours south, towards Cork, for the beginning of Kev's birthday celebration.  We will return on Sunday.  We have been watching the news and the weather reports to make sure the roads will be clear.  There has been such bad flooding all around the country I wasn't sure we would be able to travel. I called the hotel this morning and got the go ahead, so we'll get back to ya'll in a few days.  We'll be at the Vienna Woods Hotel in Glanmire.

A special hello to Kev's SJ and her husband.  Hope you're both feeling better soon.  The plans for your backyard sound fabulous! 

Enjoy the full moon.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Frost on the lily this morning and thick fog all day today.  This is our driveway from the main road, lined with beautiful laurels.  I couldn't even see the gate less than 50 yards ahead.

It took me a little longer to get dressed this morning.  I added another layer of clothing and another pair of socks.  I was plenty warm.

I guess everything is all about Christmas from now on, except for Kevin's birthday, December 5th. (Ha!) Kevin and Greg drove to town and put up the fence surrounding the Christmas tree in the town square of Mullingar this morning.  It's a pretty wooden picket fence (unpainted) about three feet tall, and fifteen feet wide per side, just high enough to keep out the children and other little critters.

This coming Thursday we will we taking off for a few days of birthday celebration if the flooding has cleared up south of us.  I have my fingers crossed.

As I'm sure you know already from seeing the international sports news, Ireland beat world champion South Africa in rugby today at Croke Park in Dublin.  We watched the game on the telly.  It was fantastic.

Enjoy your Sunday, stay warm and well.