I’ve spent a little more than a year in Ireland and always had fine weather. Oops! Always until the past few weeks. Since I last wrote to this blog the weather has been cold, cloudy and very windy.  I can go exploring in cold and cloudy but winds over 20 miles per hour kept me inside for two weeks. The photo above, taken from the lane into the farm this morning, shows you how the clouds look when they roll in from the west. Here are a few more photos taken close to “home” recently.

The view from my bedroom window early one morning this week.

At the pond at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Garden and Arboretum. Note the white sky!

The garden gate here at Fruit Hill Cottages.

Another view from Fruit Hill.

One day this week the sky was blue and the sun was shining! I took a nearby ferry to the Waterford side of the river.

In the village across the river I found Mother McHugh! (She wasn’t home.)

Yesterday I walked through the woods at the JFK Arboretum.

One nice thing about clouds — they make good sunsets!

I’ve returned to my favorite place on earth, the countryside of Ireland. For the third time I’ve rented a vacation cottage on the ancient farm of my friends, Susan and Dick. I plan to stay for a couple of months. While Ireland is beautiful indeed and I love this area, most of all it is the friendliness of Dick and Susan that keeps me coming back to Fruit Hill. It feels like my second home.

The farm dates to the 17^th century as does the enormous house that Dick and Susan restored. Formerly their dairy farm, they now offer three self-catering rentals. Recently I took my camera for a walk around the farm, capturing some images for you. I hope they’ll explain to you why I come here, year after year, for months at a time.

Fruit Hill is reached by a long lane that leads to a narrow country road in Southeastern Ireland. Once much larger, today it contains a few acres, a huge ancient home and three fully-furnished rental cottages.

Mocha, the watch cat, guards the place.

This old gate opens to a garden filled with perennials. Every week something new is in bloom while something else goes to seed. In late summer striking blue-flowered plants more than 6 feet tall, grow in the space to the right of the gate.

Now, in May, columbine blooms in white and blue and pink.

At the rear of the old garden several apple trees are covered in blooms.

Apple blossoms

Dick’s old Massey-Ferguson tractor gets little use now.

Dick stays busy on his smaller tractor these days. Susan and Dick maintain four old houses and the land around them, and a family of five plus many visitors. The clothes line gets lots of use!

Four chickens are all the livestock on the farm now.

This lovely lady crouches among the blue bells near my door and seldom goes away.

Life for me is slow and easy here, peaceful, restful.

You can read about my 2017 stay at Fruit Hill by clicking here.

Read my “10 Favorite Things about Ireland” starting here and moving back by clicking the “previous page” link at the top of each post.  Or just click the word “Ireland” in the table of contents on the right side above.

Libbie

My home in Ireland this year and last was on a former dairy farm that dates to the 17^th century. My hosts, Dick and Susan, sold their cows and some of their land a few years ago and turned to hosting visitors in their three self-catering rentals. (“Self-catering is a British term for a vacation rental with cooking facilities.) I discovered Fruit Hill last year, While there I made new friends.

This year I stayed in a small cottage that Dick built in the early years of this century around a massive chimney that was all that remained of an old “bake house.” Dick and Susan have rescued a large late-17^th century house from ruin and live there now with several of their children. They never seem to stop working, but they always made time for conversation with me.

Just outside my windows a local farmer grew a field of hay.  After he harvested and bailed it and hauled it away he brought in a large herd of steers. Sometimes they peered at me over the stone wall separating us.

The view from my window.

Opposite the cottage there’s a beautiful view from my kitchen window of a large field of hay. I enjoyed photographing the changing of the seasons there. (A photo of the view from my kitchen window is here.)

Fruit Hill farm has truly become my Irish home. I am very comfortable there. I feel fortunate to have found it. I now have two more generous Irish friends. I have the luck of the Irish, indeed!

Libbie

The photo at the top was sent to me by Susan. It was taken by Gareth Landy.
The lower photo is of a nosy steer who wanted to know what I was up to. He was just outside my living room window.
Here’s a link to a post with many photos I created last year at Fruit Hill.

Here’s a link to Fruit Hill’s website: fruithill-cottages-ireland.com

The Irish people – as a group, a culture – are the friendliest, nicest people I’ve ever met. It seems they are all friendly, welcoming and interested in talking with strangers. Many times people who noticed my accent asked me where I’m from. When I said “America” they would then ask “where in America?” Then we’d begin to talk about their trips to the U.S. or their desire to visit my country.

I met the ladies shown above baking Irish soda bread “the way our mothers did” and had a nice chat with them while they continued mixing bread. They were participating in a community fundraiser which took the form of a local fair and “tractor and old car rally.” The proceeds of the event, which was sponsored by their priest, went to an orphanage in Romania and to a group providing clean-water wells in Africa. For years men from their small village have gone to Romania for a week each year to build and repair structures there.

During a trip around all of Ireland this summer I spent one night at a lovely small hotel in Belfast. Áine was the young woman at the reception desk morning and night. She was delightful to my friends and me. She was warm and chatty and helpful, always smiling. I find the people of Northern Ireland to be very welcoming.

A story about my husband’s distant cousin, Mary, whom we met on our first trip to Northern Ireland. Mary had no idea who we were or that we would be calling her but when we did she immediately came to meet us, took us home to dinner, took my husband to play golf at her club, introduced him to her priest so we could learn more about his ancestors, and gave us old family photos sent back to Ireland in the late 1800s. That didn’t all happen in one day but over just three or four days. Mary and her husband have become good friends and have welcomed us and other members of our family warmly many times. I’ve always been really happy to know her.

Louie is the 16-year-old son of the owners of Fruit Hill where I’ve stayed on my last two trips to Ireland. Louis is cute – he has a head full of curly black hair which he has been wearing in a large “afro” but recently changed to a “man bun.” He was always polite to this older American lady. He was very helpful to me this summer, doing any favor I asked. Louis and his brother and sister work hard around their home, clearing brush, cleaning rental cottages and more.

Jerry is one of the guides/gatekeepers at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Gardens and Arboretum. He is one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Jerry learned my name on the first day we met. He always greets me with a big smile and a promise to take me on a tour of the garden to show me something special. Jerry once told me that 100,000 people a year visit the arboretum. Being remembered from one year to the next makes me feel very special.

In Ireland I had brief conversations with friendly clerks in supermarkets and retail shops. Rental car agents are always helpful but I remember one young man in Waterford especially for his interest in my travels and my country.  I remember the lady at the table next to mine in a café who struck up a conversation and (before it was done) recommended a perfect place for me to retire to in Ireland. I remember more people than I have space here to tell you about. I love the Irish people. I look forward to returning to be with them again next year.

Libbie

50 Shades of Green. Look at lovely Ireland from almost any spot, look in any direction, and you’ll see a world of green. As you drive the highways and old farm roads in Ireland all around you are rolling hills covered in green pastures, crossed by hedges and stone walls. Tunnels of trees made by overarching branches are found along many roads. Driving south from Dublin through low green mountains you’ll see cattle and sheep munching on green hillsides. Driving around the country, you’ll pass green pastures (that turn to gold in late summer) and many homes proudly decorated by beautiful flowers and blooming shrubs. Climb the hills following winding roads to the top where you’ll find a green view over the expanse of Ireland, the emerald isle.  It seems that it’s always springtime in Ireland.

Human beings have lived in Ireland for about 10,000 years. A great many relics of ancient cultures have been found in Ireland. Standing stones (many of them in circles) are found throughout the country. County Cork has a large number of prehistoric stone circles.

Newgrange Tomb (shown above) is thought to be about 5200 years old, a thousand years older than Stonehenge. It is 279 feet in diameter and 45 feet high at its peak. It’s called a “passage tomb” and visitors can walk into the center of the tomb where there are three large chambers. The tomb was constructed to allow a beam of sunlight to pass directly through it on the morning of the winter solstice, illuminating the chamber 60 feet inside.

This is a photo of the entrance to Newgrange Tomb which is about five feet high. The box above the capstone allows light to enter the tomb at the time of the winter solstice. The carving on the huge boulder in the foreground, made by prehistoric people, is commonly found on stones in this area.

This site, Newgrange.com, has an excellent description of the tomb. The Irish government has constructed a visitors center at Newgrange that provides a helpful explanation of its history and construction. There are a number of other passage tombs located near Newgrange but none as large. Many are still buried in centuries of earth. The famous “Hill of Tara” where Irish kings were crowned and reigned many centuries ago is located nearby in this area of Ireland’s Ancient East.

Christianity came to Ireland in the year 432 AD with the arrival of Saint Patrick. Since that time it has been the most important cultural influence in Ireland. Many monasteries were built and their remains can be found throughout Ireland today. My favorite is Jerpoint Abbey located near Thomastown in County Kilkenny. It is roofless but the walls of the abbey church still stand. Sculptures are found on medieval tombs and on the reconstructed cloisters, some of them sacred and some of them actually humorous. Glendalough, located on a hilltop not far from Dublin, the “Rock of Cashel” in County Tipperary and Clonmacnoice mid-way between Dublin and Galway, are among the most important historic sites in Ireland.

If you’re going to Dublin don’t miss spending an hour or two at the National Museum of Ireland. Under Irish law, every artifact found in the country must be sold to the government. This has resulted in a spectacular collection of ancient gold jewelry and many other relics of centuries long past. The Museum occupies several locations. The most important articles are housed in the main museum building in central Dublin which is open Tuesday through Sunday with free admission and frequent guided tours.

I’ve just skimmed the surface in telling you about the many important historical places to experience in Ireland. The site, Ireland’s Ancient East and the site for the Wild Atlantic Way, covering western Ireland, will show you much more.  They are valuable planning tools for people who would prefer to enjoy Ireland’s history rather than Guinness’s brewery.

Libbie