We're busily committing our dollars to our summer's visit to the island.
Birr, in particular, in a county nobody's heard of -- Offaly -- to be visited by a guy from a county nobody's heard of, either -- Chenango, in New York state.
So, today we reserved our car for a month, and sent out e-mails to people we want to see and talk to again (after our short stay there four years ago).
As part of that, we checked into what little Edmund, son of the Enrights of Enrights' pub in Birr, was up to.
Seems to be doing okay, he does:
Most of my efforts concerning meeting folks in Ireland this coming August are now concerned with astronomy-type stuff, not necessarily interesting to SherWords readers (except Brian, maybe), but seeing "Mundy" is high on our list of hoped-fors!
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Sherwood Contemplates Some of His Ancestors
Ordinary thoughts and pretty pictures from California's Santa Cruz Mountains -- and, occasionally, elsewhere.
Loughcrew
Sherwood Contemplates Some of His Ancestors
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A Satchel of Ordinary Treasure contains accounts of day-to-day life in the early 20th century in Upstate New York. Posts will be taken mostly from family members' reminiscences.
PicShers contains one post and picture for each day of the year from the Harrington images archive. More images from the archive (and current ones) can be found on my Flickr photostream.
PicShers contains one post and picture for each day of the year from the Harrington images archive. More images from the archive (and current ones) can be found on my Flickr photostream.
Blogs of People (Mostly) Who Have Said Nice Things About Me but are Worth Reading Anyway:
- Brian Fies Writes Inventive and Enchanting Books -- and All of the Entries in His Blog
- Coyote Crossing: Writing and Photography from the Mojave Desert and Elsewhere by Chris Clarke
- G. Dan Mitchell is a music prof at my school, and was one of my successors as president of its faculty senate. Despite those impediments, he has managed to become the finest Northern California landscape photographer (both rural and urban) since Ansel Adams. Note that I don't use any "IMHO" or similar weaseling in that assessment; the man is THAT good.
- Give me liberty or give me Todd. On second thought, give me both, since it's a double-d and not in German anyway.
- Mary Ellen Carew's "Xtreme English: Love Notes to the English Language" is probably the best thing coming out of DC these days. Faint praise, I know, but check it out anyway.
- Mike Peterson's Ruminations from New England. A lifelong journalist, Mike's observations are insightful, often provocative, and always entertaining.
- Mojo-the-Cat: "bouncing thru life for 10 consekutev yeers"
- Painting On: Newfoundland artist Margaret Ryall's words are crafted as skillfully as her brushstrokes. That she is also a veteran of Birr Castle's Bothy is a plus, but not a sine qua non, for inclusion in this blogroll.
- ronniecat's observations. Canada's contributions to Western Civilization include William Shatner, Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, and Pierre Trudeau -- but they all fade into the whiteout when compared to the fabled ms. cat.
- Ruth Channels Lucy van Pelt from South Carolina.
- The best comic strip or panel of the day, as selected by Mike Peterson, more expert than whom no one is.
- Vicki teaches physics in sign language and calls herself oddprofessor
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9 comments:
Don't forget to admire the scattered flower, tree and shrub!
I'm excited for you. Planning is half the fun, isn't it?
Was it really four years ago that you last went? Time flies like an arrow! (Fruit flies like a banana.)
Looking forward to many more photos and blog posts from your forthcoming trip!
Marxist ronnie!!
Remember that the major blog posts from our last visit to Ireland were a year after the fact -- it took that long to sort things out to put in a compositional form, and I doubt that the coming visit will be any easier to encapsulate. Harder, is my guess, since we have actual PEOPLE to visit this time, and that always complicates things. In a good way, of course. Usually.
For example, I just finished an e-mail to the curmudgeonly husband of the woman from Phoenix, AZ, who is refurbishing an ancient tower house just north of Birr. (It's called Clonony Castle, and the link will take you to a Google results page for a search on its name.)
His Scottish self is a prolific author of thrillers and other works, under a variety of pseudonyms, who has written little one-act plays for the past three Birr Vintage Week festivals, and our e-mail interchanges over the past three years have been a hoot.
And so it goes. The Enrights, the Parsons, Campbell Black, Tony Mulraney, etc. etc. etc. -- people I never would have encountered without the internet (like you!) nor would have interested me without a prior, almost random, visit to a place I had never been, are now a major part of my plans for the future: there's a book or two or three in here somewhere, I'm, sure!
The world is so much different now than what it was when we were young, isn't it?
Dominican nun friend of mine, Bridget Kelly, is from a village less than ten miles from Birr - it starts with Clon and ends with lough and there's another syllable inbetween - maybe fen. We were so pleased to discover this. She'll be coming over to see the pictures from your previous trip ...
That's great, Ronnie! I bet it's Clonfanlough, up by the Shannon. It's a long stone toss from the ancient monastic ruin Clonmacnoise, and if we'd gone one way instead of the other when we left the ruin we'd have gone right through it.
I hope Bridget enjoys the photos. In addition to the blog, there's a larger collection over on the slide show that Doug wanted us to put together for him. Even that contains only about 20% of all the photos we took and kept in digital form, so if she (or you) don't see something illustrated, feel free to ask me if I have anything of it.
The castle website caught my eye with THIS:
"Writers' Services
"Editing, manuscript reading, ghost writing, Fiction and nonfiction.
Writers' seminars also available.
Write for details to...."
Hmmmmmm
That's Campbell Black, Mary Ellen. He churns out fiction at a prodigious pace (mostly under the pseudonym Campbell Armstrong -- or maybe Campbell Black is the pseudonym.) He's the fellow I've been conversing with off and on for the past couple/three years. Most of his stuff is of the thriller/mystery genre, but he has done some other interesting things, also, like plays and the novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark. His most acclaimed work is the unblinking, autobiographical All That Really Matters, which I'm going to be taking with us this summer for an autograph.
to be visited by a guy from a county nobody's heard of, either -- Chenango, in New York state.
*clears throat pointedly*
astronomy-type stuff, not necessarily interesting to SherWords readers (except Brian, maybe)
*does it again*
You really should have that end of your alimentary canal checked out too, Chris.
You're right, and an unintended slight is still a slight -- sorry!
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