valeriesbookofme

This is what my morning walk with Mitzi is like when the sun shines. We both love it. I sit on the rocks and look at the ocean and try to just "be." And sometimes it even works 😊 I am present, here, and nothing else really matters. This was what Friday morning was like. Actually it was the third sunny day in a row and, after being thankful and quiet, I was raring to go off somewhere for the day. After much discussion, R and I decided that we would go to Lismore, a two-hour drive away, and then on to Cahir Castle. The drive was so beautiful. I am getting good enough at driving that I can actually flick my eyes from side to side and appreciate the hills and the cottages and, yes, even the sheep at the side of the road. It took a little over an hour to get to Lismore, which is the "seat" of the Cavendish family. They still live there occasionally so the only part of the castle that was accessible were the gardens. We decided that as we wanted to go to

I see that the last time I blogged was March 11th, almost three weeks ago. It was foggy then and it is foggy again today. But Spring is creeping in and we have had a few beautiful sunny days. I think I will actually post two blogs today, one a "catch up" and the other, a blog about Birr Castle, which we went to see this past Monday. It deserves a blog of its own. The last time I blogged, Richard was sick with a heavy cold. Like the fog, the cold lingered for two weeks. Thankfully it never developed into pneumonia, but he spent a lot of time on the couch and we tried out the Irish versions of cough medicine and nasal spray, etc. They worked about as well as they do in the U.S., which is middling. The big reason, I believe, why he didn't end up with pneumonia is that he rested from the first moment he got it. A blessing of retirement! The last few times he's had it, it worsened because he kept on going to work. Anyway, while he stayed at home, I continued my regular

Fog By Carl Sandburg The fog comes  on little cat feet.  It sits looking  over harbor and city  on silent haunches  and then moves on. Sandburg's poem is very appropriate for here, today. I woke to fog and it has "sat" pretty much all day. And at 6:00 p.m. it is still sitting, sitting. Richard is down with one of his horrible chest colds. Perhaps he got chilled when we went walking along Woodstown Strand on Thursday afternoon. The strand is a beautiful, Oregon-like stretch of beach but the wind was quite cold by the time we went down there at 4:00 p.m. And even an order of fish & chips afterward didn't quite thaw us out. Richard has stuck close to home yesterday and today and doesn't plan on leaving the house tomorrow either. Good plan. Last Sunday there were no church services in Waterford so, as it was a beautiful day, we decided on the spur of the moment to drive over to Wicklow and spend the night at a dog-friendly h