Because, these past few months, I have eaten a surfeit of sugary treats aka slices of cake and put regular exercise on the back burner the land of healthy living seemed as distant as the far reaches of the solar system. It was time for a change, so this week I munched my way through gargantuan quantities of fruit & vegetables. And I walked, walked and walked some more. As I live beside the sea, my neighbourhood is a pleasant place to stroll around but if I was to pound the same route continuously I could very easily get bored. Variety is after all the spice of life so it was time for a change of scenery.
Tag Archives: Ireland
Walking: Killiney Hill
Lismore
I am going to stick my head above the parapet and declare that Lismore is quite simply the loveliest town in Ireland. Of course, I should say that I haven’t seen absolutely every town in Ireland and of course I should let you know that when I saw Lismore, for the first time, a few weeks ago it was on what was probably the nicest day, meteorologically-wise we have had in a slew of summers. Still I feel that Lismore would be equally alluring even on the dullest of dull days.
Greenan Farm
I recently picked up a leaflet about Greenan Farm and its museums and mazes in a coffee shop. As I was idly flicking through it I had a light-bulb moment and suddenly thought it is exactly the sort of place that I would like to visit. And so it was that I found myself travelling the highways and byways to get there yesterday. Well actually I am exaggerating a tad because Greenan farm, in the beautiful Glenmalure valley, is actually very accessible being a mere hour’s drive from Dublin.
Filed under Ireland, Sustainable/Green, Travel
Briefly in Birr
I was briefly in Birr this weekend just gone by. I stayed less than twenty-four hours as I arrived early on Saturday afternoon and left not long after a nine o’clock breakfast on Sunday morning. Birr, in case you don’t know, is a heritage town in the Irish midlands. I was there on a short break with a small group of friends. It was a catch-up-with-friends opportunity rather than a weekend for in-depth exploration of the town and surrounding countryside. J our organizer had booked us into the local four-star County Arms Hotel on an amazingly good value deal (details at the bottom of this post).
Filed under Travel
Irish Writers’ Centre
A couple of Saturdays ago when I was in Parnell Square visiting the Dublin City Gallery I popped into the Irish Writers’ Centre, which is a few buildings down from the gallery, to pick up a leaflet giving details of their creative writing classes. Such was the pull of the place that there and then I signed on the dotted line for membership.
Showcase: Ireland’s Creative Expo
On Wednesday, I visited Showcase, Ireland’s Creative Expo, which is a trade fair, featuring the best of Irish craft, gifts, fashion and interiors, organized by the Crafts Council of Ireland. The craft sector in Ireland is worth close to half a billion euro to the economy and employs just under six thousand people. The Crafts Council of Ireland is keen to develop new markets for Irish craft and Showcase is one way of doing so. Last year, at Showcase, visiting buyers from forty countries bought over €20 million worth of goods. It’s a large show and sadly I had just one short hour to hoof my way around all the stands. It was impossible in that short space of time to see everything. Below are some of the items that caught my eye as I whizzed around at a rate of knots.
Filed under Craft
Cloona: Health Retreat Centre
I arrived home yesterday from a six-day sojourn in Cloona, a health retreat centre in the West of Ireland. Now that I am safely home, I realize that my decision to go to Clonna was one of the best, if not the best, that I made in the past twelve months.
Filed under Healthy Living, Ireland
Hello from Westport
I have just arrived, following a four-hour drive, in Westport a smallish town in County Mayo in the west of Ireland. Westport is a laid out town as opposed to, a hey let’s just stick another building here and there topsy-turvy type town. Architect James Wyatt designed it in the eighteenth century. His client was the then Lord Sligo, from nearby Westport House, who wanted a place for his tenants and workers to live.
Filed under Travel
Lost in Translation
George Bernard Shaw described America and England as two countries separated by a common language. Perhaps because he was Irish he didn’t delve into the differences between English as spoken in Ireland and English as spoken in the rest of the Anglophone world. I was reminded of one of the differences when I saw the ‘KEEP GOING SURE IT’S GRAND’ poster in the Irish Design Shop before Christmas. Here in Ireland we pepper our everyday conservation with words or phrases that are probably incomprehensible to visitors to these shores. Here’s a small selection.
Filed under Musings
♥ Christmas at Bow
This is the second in a series of posts showcasing items that I think would make very acceptable Christmas gifts. The emphasis in the series is on: craft, homemade/handmade items, and independent shops. My hope is that wherever you live in the world that the images might inspire you (if you don’t do so already) to check out locally made beautiful items that are far removed from the madding mass-produced crowd and independent shops that are a world away from the homogenous high street.
Filed under Dublin, Fashion, Shops/Shopping
Just Add Attitude
Just Add Attitude 