The morning’s beautiful and bright, and off we go. With Kat at the wheel, Jason running GPS through his phone, and BW making sure Kat doesn’t get too close to walls or hedgerows on the right, Griffin and I get to sit back and enjoy the ride.
All those narrow, windy roads with the hills rolling up, the fields spreading out. Mountains of hydrangeas in gardens of tidy houses. Horses, cows, sheep enjoying the sunshine.
We climb up and up into those hills with their outcroppings of gray rock and steep folds of land, and all in dozens of shades of green. And into Cork.
We’re heading toward Corriganess Castle—an old stronghold set above the river. We wind and climb our way there, hitting a couple little pockets of rain, then sun again.
It’s a glowering old keep with spreads of green fields and lovely flowers.
We walk to the river first, with its energetic little falls that has Griffin squealing in delight. The boy loves water.
Around the road and over the bridge to the keep where a trio of workers sit at a table having their lunch while we explore. Apparently during some attack a few hundreds years ago, the invader killed the castle holder’s wife. He retaliated by tossing the guy off the parapet and into the river.
Can’t blame him.
We walk about, take pictures, Griffin enjoys the grass and likes feeling the old stone walls.
Me, too!
Around and out again, and BW asks one of the workers what this large crab appley looking thing is. Rose hips. I’ve never seen such enormous rose hips.
And it’s off to Killarney—and the weather begins to change. Clouds roll in, the rain falls. None of us brought rain gear—except Griffin! Clouds blur the hills, turning everything soft.
Now and again the sun peeps through giving everything that luminous pearly light.
Kat navigates the very big and busy town of Killarney, finds a car park. And as the rain’s heavy now, we out to sit in the car a bit.
Jason checks his weather app which claims there’s no chance of rain. Well, that’s what we thought, too.
When it slows enough we head out. We want some lunch, had thought to take in another site.
We hit a couple stores, more for shelter as the rain’s come back than shopping.
And find the Wild West (American style) for lunch. It’s a fun place, decorated cowboy style, wanted posters, a big cowboy, a big Native American, a saddle. And an expansive menu that’s going to hit the spot for all.
Nachos for the table—guacamole for Griffin. And enough food after that to satisfy.
Griffin wants to walk, and since it’s there, Nana puts him on the saddle. He must’ve been a rodeo rider in another life because he knows just what to do.
There’s another little boy, so we have to go say hello. They have quite a conversation, and the mama says she’d love to know what they’re saying to each other.
Another break in the rain when we leave—and hit the shop with Irish gelato and enormous donuts. Griffin and I go for the gelato, and leave the donuts to the rest.
Since I’ve had experience with Griffin and ice cream, I get two scoops.
More rain, so it’s back to the car. We’ll see more sights another day.
We drive right out of the rain into the sun. The afternoon towards home’s as gorgeous as the morning had been. We have the time and weather to play outside a bit, take one of our traditional panoramic shots.
Griffin and I walk around after he plays in the grass. He’s very interested in the gravel, plops down to play in it, decides to taste it.
That’s a no, says Nana.
Walk a few steps, plop, play, attempt to taste. No. Repeat but instead of tasting, hand Nana some gravel to distract her while you try to taste the next.
Nana’s not so easily fooled.
After a full day we opt to stay in, cook some pizza, warm up leftovers, and just chill out.
Rainy this morning, but that’s already passed. Workout’s done, and Griffin has his morning dose of mash-ups.
Kat’s heading into Kenmare later. I may hole up and work a couple hours. No set plans yet.
If the weather looks promising, we may drive out. Or it may be a day for Griffin to try out the indoor pool.
Plenty of time to decide.
Nora
In today’s #randomkatness
The saga of Griffin and the grass, in photos by his mother and Grandda.
Lull my family with a crawl 
Distract the family: What’s that??? 
While they are distracted, see what you’ve grabbed
