A stay-in day for me as those galleys won’t do themselves. And it’s a changeable day weather wise. Rain, sun, clouds, sun, rain. I guess we’d call that an indecisive day. Kat makes a run for a few things, and reports we’ve just about cleaned the little local chemist out of Kleenex.

I have to say it’s very strange to immerse myself in New York, fall of 2061 with that view out the window.

But meanwhile, laundry’s happening. I do a load while I’m working out, Kat follows me up. Colt’s on the slate and so on.

JR, Kayla and Jason are also doing some remote work while Kat and Savanna take off for the craft village. I think Logan’s stretched out somewhere.

Kayla and JR take a break and a walk in the breezy sunlight.  I really meant to do that myself. Jason and Griffin play roll the ball down the hallway—and this Griffin appears to find hysterical.

Later, Colt and Griffin play throw the stuffed Pikmin toy in the TV room, which Griffin again finds hysterical.

He’s easily entertained today.

I’m making solid headway, take a break to do a little packing, make some soup for Kayla. And get back to it.

Kat and Savanna return from a very good time, with shopping bags to prove it.

Dinner orders placed—the day came and went. Once again Kat’s our delivery girl. Next trip, we’ll make sure there are eateries in the neighborhood. But with our varied choices we sit around the big table for family dinner.

More laundry as we’ll be out most of Friday, then leave for Mayo and Ashford on Saturday.

And I head down to stick with the work until bed time with the wind blowing fierce against the windows.

Looks like another indecisive day today, starting cloudy. But the wind’s quieter, by a lot. There are two seagulls taking a walk over the lawn out my bedroom windows. Not sure I’ve ever seen gulls walk on anything but sand before. Or in pairs, but these two appear to be a couple.

We have the adventure park, with escape room today. Most of the adventures seem to be indoors, which is probably good since rain’s coming, at least off and on.

Then it’ll have to be pack it all up as we’ll be on our way to Ashford in the morning.

Nora

PS: a random portrait of Colt – who’s having a fine time.

Another PS: a photo from Kat with no explanation, thus #randomkatness

A third PS: I explored the Lake District — descriptions and photos here.

Kayla’s feeling a little punky this morning, but Kat hits the chemist for meds. My voice is pretty rough, but seems to be improving. I feel fine, so this little hitch is mostly just annoying.

After workout, I fry myself a rasher of Irish bacon, toast a slice of brown bread. Mmm—hits the right spot! We’re all up and about, in various stages of ready for today’s adventure at Glengowla Mines in gorgeous Oughterade. It’s a cloudy start to the morning, but they’re saying light wind’s not as fierce and the temp’s up a bit. I’m going with Fresh. And layers for wardrobe.

Most eat some lunch before our proposed one o’clock departure.

Then off we go under skies with layered clouds. Our group follows Kat’s group. Those right turns for us Yanks are tricky, but Jason’s got a handle on it. It’s only about a 35 minute drive, but so changeable, in roads and in weather. Wide-ish, which are pretty easy, to skinny and windy which are definitely a challenge. And why is the speed limit 100 km on the windy and skinny and often 80 on the wide-ish. A mystery.

The mountains rise up with their peaks hidden by the clouds. But those clouds part here and there to hopeful blue. The lake below turns a dreamy blue in its mirror response. Just gorgeous, the spread of blue, the rolls of green with their gray stone fences, the rise of round-peaked mountains.

Big tour buses pass—breath-holding time. Tourists gather at pull outs to take photos of the wonderful views. Sheep dot the fields.

That hopeful blue above pushes clouds away, the sun shines, the green—so many shades—rolls on.

And so do we, arriving at Glengowla in a timely and no-incident manner. And the day’s turned bright, warm and breezy.

There’s a gift shop to check out, and where the mining group will check in. Lots of fields and black-faced sheep, flowers, a little playground, a place to pan for little bits of gold (fool’s, but still adorable). The old entrance to the mine, like the mouth of a small cave. I need a picture of Griffin in his Minecraft hat there.

And right at the mouth of the cave, wild foxglove grows.

Off the brave below-ground group go. Kayla and I, firmly above ground, go for a long, lovely walk. Sheep—some shorn (so at a distance I initially mistake one for a pig!) some wide balls of wooly white. More foxglove along the roadside and buttercups dots of sun in the fields. It feels so good to walk in the sunshine, talking in our weird voices.

We round back, and the wind suddenly blows fierce again. We walk against it, push back until the trees break it. And there’s a big, beautiful bush of fuchsia.

Into the gift shop, to browse and consider. I must have this cute scarf dotted with black-faced sheep! And a greeting card of a sheep playing a fiddle. Also bag my first Christmas gift of the trip. There will be more!

We sit, chat with the girl at the counter who’s thinking of trying the University of Maryland. Kayla deletes a couple hundred spam texts from my phone as I (to her eye-roll) often forget to do.

The adventurers return, with tales of the underground. It seems the mine was initially started to mine lead for bullets for the American Civil War. Three guys would go down, one would hold a chisel (if I have this right), one would twist it, the other hammer it. In this way they’d drill three holes. Then set the black powder and fuse. The lucky one to light it would have to then run—but not fast enough to blow the candle out on his helmet—then cover his ears to keep his eardrums from exploding along with the rock.

No thank you.

The guide also points out a spider’s next down there, one that holds live baby spiders that won’t hatch for awhile yet. A second no thank you to spider’s nest.

The photos taken were more than enough to convince me Kayla and I made the right choice. But for the rest, a grand exploration.

Griffin pans for gold, and picks a little rainbow black-faced sheep as his souvenir. Colt picks a small, smooth arrowhead shaped piece of obsidian. I’d say they both chose well.

And back we go through the gorgeous scenery. This time we’re the tourists who pull off for photos. I give Jason top prize for his shot of a sheep who with its colorful painted markings qualifies as a rainbow sheep.

Just beyond the fence is a stand with a bucket. And a sign that invites you to toss a coin into the bucket and make a wish. Tougher than it looks! And clever of the farmer.

Along the drive, we’re told, Kayla has activated the text to voice on her phone, and stunned and delighted Griffin by being Carl The Talking Car who says hi, Griffin. How did he know my name??? Oh, Kayla told me all about you. So they converse on the drive, and he bids Carl goodbye when they arrive with promises to talk later.

We discover our little village has two choices for a meal tonight. Pizza or Chinese—both take-aways. So why not both? Plus if I make more pasta, there’s still plenty of sauce left. Menus are studied, orders are taken. Kat, JR and Savanna head out.

I boil spaghetti. Mix it with the left-over sauce. We get the table set up, the kitchen set to rights—sort of. I make the mistake of sitting out on the little deck, and soak my jeans. Easy change into yoga pants for the rest of the evening.

Food arrives, is divvied up for our Chinese-Italian feast. Dumplings, rice, beef whatever, pizza, pasta and other Asian dishes chosen. Also milkshakes for many.

We’re nothing if not eclectic.

More cleanup with the dishwasher full to the brim. Logan fades early. I’m not going to be far behind. But we have cake! I’ve eaten an ice cream cone and have no room for cake. But I have a lighter and a candle. Kayla pulls up another app and we sign a very rapid happy birthday to Kat. Griffin says he likes the slow one better. So we reprise in the traditional way. He agrees that’s much better.

Blow out the candle, cut the cakes—one lemon, one chocolate.

And it’s off to bed for me.

Today, the sky’s gray, but the clouds look thinner. A check of the weather calls for cloudy but not (fingers crossed) rainy for our trip to Galway City. We’re got a car and driver for this one. Getting into Galway is tricky, I know this from previous visits. Then dealing with parking for two cars would be madness.

The lovely people at Ashford have arranged for us to be picked up at eleven. So a day of lunch out, shopping and other adventures awaits.

Time to work out and get myself dressed for it.

Rain’s one thing, but wind that turns the air into raw, blustery March? It calls for a fire in the sitting room. It’s cozy and comfortable there. Logan and Savanna are sleeping in as they stayed up until about four watching a basketball game—Logan’s team won. When Kayla gets up and around, she’s lost her voice. Since mine’s been whacked on and off for days, I understand her annoyance.

But she looks so much better.

Tea and honey for us.

Kat sits with the doorstop Atlas, searching for sites and activities. If we were golfers, it lists every golf course in Ireland. But no.

We’re not right next door to historic sites here in our corner of Galway, but will scout some out on the way up to Mayo, and again once there. But we do find activities close enough.

But not for this raw, rainy day.

The Switch entertains many, and the view’s dramatic outside the windows. And when the sun peaks out, JR and Kayla go for a walk in the very brisk fresh air. Then out in his new rainbow rain coat goes Griffin with his mom even as the rain returns.

And in our little corner of Galway, it seems many things are also closed on Monday. So off to the market go Kat and Savanna for what I need to make spaghetti.

Kayla and I converse with our whispery voices.

As the rain stops, the sun comes out and the wind blows and blows, I make red sauce, Kat puts together a salad bar. On this changeable day outdoors, it’s nice to have the whole gang gathered inside with various activities and conversations. And it smells really good!

Logan’s requested steaks which he pan fries. That smells good, too. The boy’s a good cook when he decides to cook.

I cut thick slices of French bread, Jason butters and adds the garlic salt—and because that’s how I do it, we sprinkle on a little basil. The oven’s completely foreign to me, but we figure it out. Pasta’s boiling, bread’s broiling. And here’s a big spaghetti/steak dinner for nine.

Griffin’s a big fan of Nana’s spaghetti, and inhales an adult portion before falling asleep against Kat. He stays out through the rest of the meal until JR carries him down to bed. After all, the kid was up at dawn and hasn’t quit all day.

We were going to have cake for a belated birthday celebration for Kat, but Griffin’s out, and the rest of us are stuffed.

Clean up time. Many dishes, many pots and pans. More tea and honey.

The younger set wants to play Monopoly, but until everyone’s back in one place, we have a short game of Hearts in the sitting room.

Time for Monopoly, and no, I am firm on it, I don’t want to play.* Visions of endless games in my childhood lurk. Monopoly is forever! Glaciers melt, land masses form, eons often pass before the end.  This one adds a kick as it’s the Brit version. So it’s Fleet Street and Piccadilly instead of Boardwalk and Park Place.

And I learn, at least for me, this is a game more fun to watch than play. Colt, the novice, jumps into an early lead. Logan tries wheeling and dealing off the jump. Kat recounts the Pong House rules when she was a kid playing with her brothers. The players incorporate a couple.

Logan, land rich, cash poor, gets dinged hard, has to sell off, and is still down to mere dollars. Colt owns the railroads, and they appear to be magnets for the other players. So it goes, round and round, trading, selling, buying, mortgaging.

I go out to pour a drink, and see smoke blowing across the bay, and a fire beyond the trees to, I guess, the north. I alert the troops.

After watching, we decide it’s someone’s barrel fire, but keep an eye on it, just in case.

It burns in that single spot, and finally goes out. So no need for 999.

At the game, JR looks strong, then boom. Reversal of fortunes. Logan makes a come back, then goes bankrupt. Savanna’s been hanging in, nice and steady, but cash and property dribble away, and another bankruptcy.

Kayla’s quietly taken one side of the board. Colt adds hotels. Kayla’s whispery voice is very sinister as she slowly but steadily collects on her properties.

And JR hits one of Colt’s big ones. All gone!

It’s down to the siblings. Colt has a pot full of money, the lion’s share of property, but Kayla’s scrappy and hangs on. Hangs on until I admit defeat. I need my bed. And as I leave, Colt is victorious. The newbie beats the vets.

The sun’s supposed to make an appearance today, and the wind is scheduled to take a bit of a rest. Thanks to Kat’s research we’re off late morning for: A mine, sheep and turf. Not sure what that’ll be like but we’re going. Kayla and I quickly and decisively opt out of going down in a mine. We’ll have sheep, turf and a gift shop. And hopefully some pretty weather.

Gotta go get my workout in, then head up to see what’s doing.

Nora

Notes from Laura:

*excuse me???? A game someone named Nora will not play???????? I am vindicated.

My last two travelogues are up:

Weekend

Up to the Lakes