Sunday the 9th, Mother's Day

Sunday, May 9th, dawned sunny and clear in Brannockstown.  Sunday was a busy day, as Mark preached a sermon in the morning at 11:00, and, as it was the second Sunday of the month, Mark also had an evening service.

We had a leisurely morning, had breakfast, then got ready for church.  Alisha took Mark early, and then then 3 of us followed, arriving about 10:45, in time to have a tour of the church and the outbuildings that have been renovated and are now put to good use.  We also got to meet most of the congregation, which was great, as we had heard a lot about them.  The Brannockstown church has been operating since the 1800's, so a lot of families have grown up there.  The church members are all very proud of the changes that have been brought about in the church since Mark and Alisha's arrival.

After the service and tea, where we got to visit with everyone, we headed back to Mark and Alisha's for lunch.  Also, they had some work to do, coordinating church messages, etc., before we went back in the evening.  And, Mark was finishing up preparing the evening service.  We took some pictures, both inside and outside of their home, including the veggie garden, which is coming along nicely.

It wasn't Mother's Day in Ireland, but we got to be part of a huge Mother's Day surprise for Alisha.  Gary and Joyce had gotten her an i-Pad!!  Now, the i-Pad isn't even available in Ireland yet, so we knew that they would be very surprised!  We scheduled a skype call with Gary and Joyce for Mother's Day, and had arranged to bring out the i-Pad at that time.  When the signal came, Lee handed the i-Pad to Alisha, and, through the miracle of technology, Gary and Joyce were able to see her reaction, and be there with her when she got it.  Needless to say, they were both so surprised and happy and excited!  In fact, Mark managed to work it into the evening service, by asking people to rate their day on a scale of 1 - 10, to let everyone know that Alisha's day had been a 10, as her parents had sent her an i-Pad!  There was an audible gasp from some of the members, so they knew what it was.

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful Mother's Day!  I got cards and e-mail wishes as well, which really meant a lot to me.

Tomorrow we are off to Kilkenny castle!!  How exciting is that??!!

This is the Brannockstown church spire.  I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the front...

Here are Mark and Alisha, with matching Mac's getting all of their messages and notices coordinated.  Lee and I were just lazing about - you can tell it's after lunch, because of the chocolates!

This is the deck at the back of their house.  As you can see, it was a really nice day, with lots of cloud activity!

And here are the "girls", Gertrude and Chickie!  They're pretty good about contributing two eggs a day to the larder.

This is the "country kitchen" - it's like a green house, with all of the wonderful windows and natural light.  It gets really warm and cozy in there - you can see that the top windows have been opened.

The back door into the kitchen

Inside, looking out.  The plants along the nice wide window sill are tomatoes!  Very happy tomatoes.

The view from the back yard - lots of shades of green!  You can see the chicken house in the distance.  Mark moves it regularly so that the girls get fresh grass and things to peck. 

Operation i-Pad!  Lee has just handed it to her - you can see by her expression that she was NOT expecting it!

I know that Joyce and Gary were enjoying being "front and center" and seeing Alisha's reaction - almost as good as being there!

Two very thrilled people!  I won't comment on the sequence of pictures below, but, you'll get the picture!  These are the shots we e-mailed to Alisha's parents, so that they could see it from our perspective.

This is Hishey cat!  He's such a sweet, loveable cat, and it was great to have some quality "cat" time, even if it was temporary

Mark watering the vegetable garden.

This gorgeous gardenia was blooming away on the window sill in the kitchen.  It smelled just wonderful.  Alisha said that it reminded her of home, as her Dad always had gardenias.

Glendalough

Saturday we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day, with white, puffy clouds in the sky!  We had a leisurely morning, and then Mark and Alisha took us to Glendalough, via Hollywood!

It was a beautiful drive through the Wicklow mountains to Glendalough,  the remains of Saint Stephen's Monastery, that was built in the 6th century, if you can imagine that!  The ruins were just amazing and the setting was just incredible.  And between the two of us, we took 2.5 million pictures!  We had a lovely walk around the nearby lake, and then went to lunch at Wicklow Heather restaurant, which was just wonderful!

After lunch we stopped at a local craft shop, which had lovely hand knitted items.

On the way home we made a stop in Kilcullen and had a nice little wander around.  We visited the new yarn shop, and St Vincents, a thrift shop where Alisha volunteers two days a week.  The proceeds from this shop are used to help the homeless in the local area.  We visited the local butcher and picked up meat for dinner, the local veg shop to get fresh fruits and vegetables, and most important, the Carry Out, for wine!

When we got home, Alisha and Mark fixed a lovely beef burgundy for dinner.  We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine (or maybe two!), and even though we had decided to make it an early night, we managed to stay up talking and visiting till after 11:00!!


What a lovely day!  We're looking forward to tomorrow and hearing Mark preach the sermon in the morning and evening, and meeting all of the people we've heard so much about.

Here we are on the way to Hollywood in County Wicklow!  Note the sunglasses, which were not only necessary, but seemed appropriate for the sign!

This is the tower remaining at the monastery - you can see it from the road, as you're driving in.  Totally amazing!

Notice the door to the tower - it's a long way off the ground!  A ladder would have been used to access it, and then pulled inside to prevent intruders.

The inside of the cathedral of the monastery.

Looking through the openings at the back.  Those are gravestones on the ground, and also against the wall at the right.

Some of the VERY old crosses, some of them at very extreme angles.  Note the Celtic cross in the middle.

A close up of the Celtic cross.

This is another church located on the monastery grounds.  Originally there were 7 churches.

Here is the tower from the church.  You can see the wall in the foreground and some of the crosses in the graveyard.

I love this shot of Mark and Alisha with the Celtic cross and tower behind them.

This is the entrance to the monastery.

Lee took this picture as we were walking around the lake - we'd never seen such tall grass.

Another picture of the tower and Celtic cross.

 

We had a guided tour of the site and this was our tour guide.  She was explaining that this particular cross is unique in that the circle hadn't been completed - there were no cut-outs.

 

Mark and Alisha in front of the tower.  Can you tell that we LOVED the tower?

 

And one of us, as well.

This was a great view of the tower from a little stream, as we took our walk.  It was absolutely beautiful!

 

And a close-up.

 

And from another angle.

 

Good grief!  We've sure put up a lot of these pictures!  But we loved the church and church tower in front of the big tower.

 

Upper lake.

 

One of the many old stone bridges that we've seen here.

The gorse is in full blooms all over the area!  It's just beautiful, and has a light, citrusy fragrance.

Our arrival and the Dunamase ruins...

After much uncertainty we made it to Ireland.  We had a connecting flight in Atlanta before continuing on to Dublin.  Just before we boarded, the agents were concerned if the flight would leave since the airports on the west coast of Ireland had been closed due to the volcanic cloud.  But the flight left and we landed about an hour late due to the flight taking a more southern route.  At least we weren't diverted to another airport and we very happy to be in Dublin.  We were also extremely pleased to be seated in business class!  That enabled us to get about 3 hours of sleep before they woke us up for breakfast.

After making our way through the airport clearing customs, immigration, and getting our bags, we found the ATM machine for money and then the bus to Naas.  Alisha and Mark met us at the bus stop at our scheduled time.  Even though we were an hour late, we manged to get the bus we had told them we would try to catch.

We enjoyed the bus trip and seeing all of the towns and villages, as well as Ireland's famous "40 shades of green".   Mark and Alisha have a beautiful home in the country, and we got to meet their cat, Hishie, and chickens Gertrude and Chickie.

As a way of counteracting jet lag, Mark and Alisha took us to Dunamase - an ancient ruin not far from their house.  The weather was on the cool side, with gray skies and wind, but it was beautiful all the same.  We were the only ones visiting the ruins, so we got to go all through them at our leisure.

After our outing, we came back home, and Alisha fixed a wonderful roast chicken dinner.  I think that we managed to stay awake till 10:00 pm, and believe me, we slept well!

It was wonderful to finally be here, and to see Mark and Alisha in their Irish home.

 

 
This is the approach to the Dunamase ruins - isn't it amazing?

Going through the first tower on the way to the ruin

The remains of some of the walls - you can see how thick they are.

The view through one of the openings.  You can see the beautiful Irish countryside and the little stone church in the distance

Mark on the top of the hill!

 

More ruins - I would love to be able to see what it looked like when it was first built - it certainly had a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.

 

Another view of the church from the top of the hill.

 

Some of the main building.

Lee, Alisha and Mark and what we think is the main entrance to the fortress.

Mark and Alisha with a very green background!

Mark was peeking though one of the openings, as I was peeking through another.

These are steps that are built into the stone wall.  Very clever!

Sheep, crossing the road!  You always have to be careful of sheep on the roads - they have the right of way.

Here's a picture of Mark and Hishie, relaxing in the country kitchen.  Notice the tomato plants behind Mark - they are about 10 inches taller.