Skip to main content

Birr Castle

We actually went to Birr Castle on March 27th but what with getting ready to go to Mallorca, then coming back with a load of photographs, catching up with my cemetery project, I never did post the photos of Birr.

Birr Castle is in County Offaly (I think it used to be called King's County), a 2-hour drive, 155 kms. We have been wanting to see it since we arrived but it only opened on March 17th, as so many castles and gardens do.

The drive was uneventful and most of it was pretty good motorway. We did pass an old abbey we were tempted to stop at but we wanted to get to Birr first. By the time we arrived, it was lunchtime so we stopped into the cafe for sandwiches before going out to the castle grounds.

Birr is privately owned by the 80 year old Earl of Rosse. He and his wife rattle around in the castle by themselves with only a butler, or so we were told by the folks at the ubiquitous gift shop. In fact, I may have seen him walking ahead of me as we were going around the public area of the castle



He actually looked a bit like a middle-aged Prince Philip and I was so tempted to go up and say hi. But given that garden visitors are specifically told that the castle is "private" (although open for tours on specific dates) I thought that might not be good etiquette.

The castle grounds were gorgeous. So many of the trees were flowering, the daffodils were like Wordsworth's clouds and all was well with the world that day. We have still been going back and forth, back and forth about whether Ireland will be a one-year experiment or not. There are lots of reasons why it should only be a year (mainly relating to healthcare and the fact that we would have to take driving lessons (!) at the end of the year because we couldn't continue to drive on our U.S. licenses. The Irish feel that one can't take the driver's test without lessons. Fair go but at that point we will have been driving over here a year. Oh well, this is Ireland.)

Anyway, the talk gets me down because of my live-for-the-moment mentality so anytime we can be in a happy place, the kind of place where we say "Yes! This is why we came to Ireland!" is good.

So to the photos:









This is purportedly the largest "treehouse" in Ireland. Made me think of Quinnie. How I would have loved to see her and the rest of the grandchildren running around the play area.



As I said, the last week of March passed quickly as I was trying to finish a large cemetery project before going to Mallorca. I knew that the old section of Ballygunner St. Mary's cemetery looked big but I had no idea I would end up with 1600 photographs! I am still transcribing the results. Loads of Phelans (are you listening Tony?) and even a couple of Gahagans (another spelling of your name Gary!)

I will post photos from another garden we went to see last Saturday and then I think I am caught up on the interesting aspects of my life right now.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January 2024 and blogging

  I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. Partly that was due to not knowing what to write about and partly it was wondering if I wanted to put myself "out there" anymore. And in what way. I subscribe to a few blogs on Substack, which is a subscription-based blog. You can pay to have your own blog, you can pay for someone else's blog, and that means you get to write and post and get comments back from a whole lot of people. You can comment on other people's blogs--if you pay--or else you can just read the blog and not pay. Of course you might miss some of the "pay only" content--much like modern news media has teaser stuff but to read the whole article, you have to pay for a subscription. The Substack blogs cover all kinds of topics and there are a few "professional" writers--meaning they're journalists and writers who have published and been paid larger bucks than the $5 a month they get per subscription on Substack--but I think most
12 comments
Read more

It’s just another day

  Yesterday was the final day of my 8-day assignment in a 4th grade class; I’ve written something about that assignment in a previous post, “Revolt of the Guinea Pig,” It’s been a challenging 8 days which, as Dickens might have said, brought out the best in me and probably the worst in me as well. But yesterday morning I had that experience that every teacher dreads—shelter in place, also known as possible shooter situation. I had arrived at the school at 7:20 thinking how wonderful it was that our heat had broken a bit. The skies were overcast, we’d had rain the day before, there was a cool breeze. As I walked to my classroom (photos below of what the buildings look like), I waved to the students already gathered on the other side of the gate, who were waiting to rush in, some to the cafeteria for their breakfast, some to the playground to run and hopefully get some of that energy out before the bell rang at 7:55. I unlocked the outside door to our building, walked down the corridor t
2 comments
Read more

And now for something a little different from the substitute teaching lens

  I subbed for my daughter yesterday. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope as I am still somewhat jet lagged but she has a very well behaved fifth grade class: they’re respectful, good humored (most of the time) and willing to learn (most of the time). She warned me the night before that there had been some “issues” this week—kids fighting on the playground, some backtalk in class from a boy who’s normally a very hard worker. With that in mind, I started off my day in the classroom addressing this up front. “I hear it’s been a tough week,” I said and then waited for a response. Some shifting in the chair, some rolling of the eyes, a couple of “Yeah, it really has” emanated from the kiddos. I then sat on the corner of my desk and talked about how I remembered being their age, the emotions, how things seem so very important, so very “raw” in the moment. I shared with them how my own teachers reacted to misbehaviors, after-school detention (Wow, Mrs A, AFTER school? They could DO that?) But then I
1 comment
Read more