I'm back….

….which supposes I've been away! Which we have, we are just back from a holiday in Ireland with J's sister and his Mum. We took Mum back to visit her old home and see relations. The family try to get her back each year, she is nearly 88 years so it is important that she can still make the visit. A few years ago when she was more mobile, she and Dad would spend most of the summer over at the old house and our girls (and all their cousins and aunts and uncles) loved to go and spend time with them. It was like stepping back in time, the house was built by Mums father and it has no electricity or water and was heated by turf fires, with a singing kettle hanging over the fire, and lit by calor gas lights. The girls would go with their grandad to collect water from the nearby pump, and we would all go fishing with him on his little boat. Relations and friends would drop by and the girls would be fascinated listening to their broad Irish accents. We all have very happy memories of our holidays. Now the house is in poor shape, a few years back a static caravan was moved next to it, so we can still visit. However, Mum is not so mobile now so this visit we rented a lovely cottage nearby for the week.

Just look at this fabulous sun set from outside the old house, it looks as if the countryside is on fire!

Just a few photos of the old house

and a few of the inside…...

…….and a few of a visit to the marina at Portumna where Dad used to keep his fishing boat at the fishing club. The marina is a stop off place for boats cruising Lough Derg on the River Shannon, in County Galway and is very busy in the summer.

We did have a good week with the weather, showers and sunshine mainly but with lots of blue sky - we did also have this beautiful rainbow one day.