Kerry Trip

Here are some souvenir photos of our recent trip to ireland. We had a great time and enjoyed being with The Irish Family again and seeing where they live and what they get up to, some of them at 4am!

Here are the Clan playing at a hotel.

A bowl-shaped farm park complete with enormous waterfall.

Muckross Gardens with the Littles.
Each one a delight.

Getting there

In case you are wondering how the great works are doing, here are some pictures of HoF's labours in the past months. The end seems to be in sight now, but then there are always the snags, so we don't get too hopeful.

But we do have: a tiled floor with underfloor heating, kitchen units,

painted walls above tile height, an internal window with glazing fixed, handles on the units and as of last week, fitted worktops. Oh, and lots of dust! If you cared to look closely at the last picture you might see an error which has caused one door to be returned to the manufacturers.

Now the sink is fitted rather than balanced on the worktop and tiling is in progress. Tiles chosen by I.M. because of the trouble we two have agreeing about decor.

New Mayor

The village has created its own traditions. here is the new 'mayor' inside our very own Parlour Pub. She hosted a Ladies' Night which I gatecrashed, not having actually received an official invitation. I was told I was 'on the list' and didn't like to enquire why my name got no further. It was good fun and hopefully more such events will follow.

Coming into view

The felling of trees in the rectory garden has certainly improved our view. We enjoy opening the curtains each morning although I can't pretend we often actually witness the sun coming over the brow of the hill.

Gipsy Caravan

I went on an outing on BH Monday to see some gardens in Morville. Behind one was this superb gipsy caravan, the fulfilment of many a childhood dream. Visions of Romany, of Mr Toad, of Meg Merrilees.......................

Wildlife

Bother, I got rumbled because of my last entry and lost my village anonymity. Let's hope it's only one person, and that a friend. I've tried editing The Word to see if that makes any difference and notice that it's not found now if you search under UK, but is if you search under World. Strange.
Easter was rather quiet, not a single egg to give or receive though I did get HoF a bar of milk chocolate as he complained about it's lack. I suppose we are saving, not having to buy thirteen Easter eggs a year, but some hugs would have been welcomed from little people. We are going to visit the Irish Family soon which will be nice.
Here are some photos of local wildlife. The first is 80 year-old Mr Bob cutting trees in the rectory garden. We watched with a mixture of horror and admiration, those of us who could bear to watch. My neighbour took herself out for the day! We have benefited from his daring though as our view has improved tremendously.


















And this is a female sparrowhawk sitting on our hedge, the first we've seen in the garden. A pretty sight but with less pleasing intentions. We hope any baby birds will survive her watching eye and that of the black and white cat who lurks under the golden cypress up the garden. The Kitchen is coming on. Walls are painted, units are in place. The next job is the worktop but rain has stopped that work for today. Very welcome rain for my garden though.

Yuddut

What can all these people be doing halfway down our street at half past nine on a Sunday morning?


Well, it was Palm Sunday and the festival began with a donkey, or apparently 'yuddut' in dialect, to represent the 'unbroken colt, the foal of a donkey' that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. There was a good turn out as you can see, waving palm branches (pampas fronds) and walking on those thrown on the ground (yew branches from the churchyard).
Can you see HoF providing musical accompaniment? And can you see children? Wow! I feel like the child-catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - someone catch them quick before they run away. There seemed to be quite a goodly number in the Sunday school that day.
It was also the first occasion, in our time anyway, when Methodists and Anglicans joined together. Service in one building, coffee in another. HoF had a good chat with our visiting preacher for the day, and was encouraged by his faith and that he is part of the selection panel for our next rector.

Our weekly prayer meeting continues to be the highlight of our days. I can hardly believe I'm writing that. It may be the reason why we seem to be on the receiving end of some brickbats too. Don't imagine that retirement is a time for cruising through life, it doesn't seem to be like that.