Monday, Dec. 26, 2016
I was so tired this morning that although I got up and let Mitzi out and gave her breakfast, I went back to bed about half an hour later and slept another two and a half hours! Woke up at 10:30 with the sun shining in the window. A day not to waste--sunshine is so precious.
We decided to go to Emo Court, which is about 26 miles away. Not a long distance but on narrow winding country roads it took 45 minutes. Before going to the gardens, we stopped at The Heritage Golf & Resort for a leisurely lunch. One of my Facebook friends wonders if we spend all our time going from restaurant to restaurant. Well, eating at our current residence isn't that exciting (although I have finally mastered the oven for reheating things and the grill for toasting.) We have decided to budget one meal out per day for now. Especially as there are so many things that we can do on a sunny day!
Emo Court was only 3 miles from The Heritage. There were loads of people enjoying the day but the grounds are so large, 35 hectares, that it wasn't crowded. Many people had dogs which surprised me. I had read that dogs weren't allowed at Emo or I would have brought Mitzi. Actually I should have because during our five hours away she managed to reach the second shelf in the kitchen and steal my packet of shortbread biscuits. Sure could use a shortbread biscuit with my herbal tea tonight. She is looking quite smug curled up in her basket chair.
We walked around Emo for about an hour with Richard insisting I take loads of photos of trees. I think he is planning on doing a series of pencil sketches of trees. I just enjoyed being out in the sunshine. Although it was cold and the wind was a bit nippy, it is still not anywhere as frigid as Montreal at Christmastime.
Photo time, Emo Court:
We watched a History Channel documentary on Youtube tonight called "A Short History of Ireland." Whew! It ran through thousands of years in an hour but things are a bit clearer now. It's not that I haven't tried to learn about Irish history before I came, but this program put all the pieces together in chronological order whereas I have studied it in bits and pieces before. Now I understand the flow.
According to Ancestry DNA, I am 63% Irish, 18% Great Britain, 5% Scandinavian with 13% European and 1% Caucasian. That statistic--the 1% Caucasian--really threw me. Means I have been ticking the wrong box for decades. Anyway, as I was watching the documentary tonight, learning about how the Celts overthrew the native population and then the Vikings came along and the Normans, etc., etc., I started to wonder just how my Irish heritage evolved.
I only know of two Irish surnames in my tree, Reilly and Gilleece. My Torrances didn't stay in Ireland past one generation; they were Scots who came over to Ulster as plantationers and then my line left Ireland and went back to Scotland. Reilly is a very common name in Cavan as it was the name of the original King of Cavan back in the 10th century. My ancestors were probably converted to Catholicism by St. Patrick. I don't know much about the Gilleeces. Gilleece is a translation of "servant of Jesus" and the surname began to appear around the 10th century as well.
So much to learn! I could really use that shortbread biscuit to keep the brain cells firing tonight....
I was so tired this morning that although I got up and let Mitzi out and gave her breakfast, I went back to bed about half an hour later and slept another two and a half hours! Woke up at 10:30 with the sun shining in the window. A day not to waste--sunshine is so precious.
We decided to go to Emo Court, which is about 26 miles away. Not a long distance but on narrow winding country roads it took 45 minutes. Before going to the gardens, we stopped at The Heritage Golf & Resort for a leisurely lunch. One of my Facebook friends wonders if we spend all our time going from restaurant to restaurant. Well, eating at our current residence isn't that exciting (although I have finally mastered the oven for reheating things and the grill for toasting.) We have decided to budget one meal out per day for now. Especially as there are so many things that we can do on a sunny day!
Emo Court was only 3 miles from The Heritage. There were loads of people enjoying the day but the grounds are so large, 35 hectares, that it wasn't crowded. Many people had dogs which surprised me. I had read that dogs weren't allowed at Emo or I would have brought Mitzi. Actually I should have because during our five hours away she managed to reach the second shelf in the kitchen and steal my packet of shortbread biscuits. Sure could use a shortbread biscuit with my herbal tea tonight. She is looking quite smug curled up in her basket chair.
We walked around Emo for about an hour with Richard insisting I take loads of photos of trees. I think he is planning on doing a series of pencil sketches of trees. I just enjoyed being out in the sunshine. Although it was cold and the wind was a bit nippy, it is still not anywhere as frigid as Montreal at Christmastime.
Photo time, Emo Court:
We watched a History Channel documentary on Youtube tonight called "A Short History of Ireland." Whew! It ran through thousands of years in an hour but things are a bit clearer now. It's not that I haven't tried to learn about Irish history before I came, but this program put all the pieces together in chronological order whereas I have studied it in bits and pieces before. Now I understand the flow.
According to Ancestry DNA, I am 63% Irish, 18% Great Britain, 5% Scandinavian with 13% European and 1% Caucasian. That statistic--the 1% Caucasian--really threw me. Means I have been ticking the wrong box for decades. Anyway, as I was watching the documentary tonight, learning about how the Celts overthrew the native population and then the Vikings came along and the Normans, etc., etc., I started to wonder just how my Irish heritage evolved.
I only know of two Irish surnames in my tree, Reilly and Gilleece. My Torrances didn't stay in Ireland past one generation; they were Scots who came over to Ulster as plantationers and then my line left Ireland and went back to Scotland. Reilly is a very common name in Cavan as it was the name of the original King of Cavan back in the 10th century. My ancestors were probably converted to Catholicism by St. Patrick. I don't know much about the Gilleeces. Gilleece is a translation of "servant of Jesus" and the surname began to appear around the 10th century as well.
So much to learn! I could really use that shortbread biscuit to keep the brain cells firing tonight....
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