Posts by Rose:
April 3rd, 2012 by Rose
Here in Ireland, for the last 2 weeks we have had the most exquisite weather. It’s been sort of warm (warm for here being somewhere between 11 and 15 C) and rather sunny. I took a trip to Northern Ireland (more on that later) and on April 1 (April fools day) I went to brunch at the schoolhouse bar near the Grand Canal:
It wasn’t hot, but it was warm enough to sit outside in a nice new spring jacket that I got for my birthday
and enjoy the atmosphere. From there, I walked down past Merrion Square Park (they have an amazing outdoor art gallery there on the weekends) enjoying the work of the individual artists and checking out the Georgian buildings.
From there, I noticed that the Irish Museum of Natural History was open, and because it was getting chilly / looked like rain decided that a free museum visit could be just the ticket. To say the least, it’s not at all what I was expecting – for the Natural History museums I’ve been in, they start with the natural world and include things like the flora/fauna fossils that developed into the dinosaurs and so on. This was just a bunch of creepy stuffed animals (spread over 4 floors), which over the years have earned this place the nickname of “the dead zoo”.
 Some kid is going to have nightmares tonight…
After about 5 minutes in the place, I had the willies. As you enter, you’re towered over by the skeleton of an 8 foot Giant Irish deer, and all around the room are the heads of various animals staring down at the main gallery. It’s dark, dank, and dusty – and crowded with families who piled in to get out of the forboding weather. I thought that this may not turn out well, but decided to perservere. The main floor was all dead Irish animals – with a huge emphasis on fish, crustaceons, round and flat worms, corals, and various creepy crawlies. They had a huge display on bugs (including lice and ticks and how they live “with” humans), slugs, and bees. They had a few moths and butterflies (ok those were not so creepy even with the pins through their thoraxes) which are now extinct; and they also had a few starfish which were all in jars of formaldehyde alongside random shellaced fish that were slowly decomposing and had turned white / bug-eyed with age.
When I couldn’t take it anymore, I opened a set of double doors and followed a wide georgian style staircase up to the second floor, thinking that it had to get better. Ugh, no. Sadly, It just got more wickedly creepy. In here were the stuffed mammals (the other 3 floors were closed) from around the world stacked floor to ceiling – and the lighting was better because of the skylight above.
The thing is that once again the ancient cases were stuffed to capacity with 100 + year old specimins that were strangely preserved and again, off color because of dust and light. In some cases the animals were not labelled very well (if at all) – and I found the the style that someone used to preserve the animals quite creepy.
Some of the cute animals were made with angry / strange expressions where their “fangs” were out (seriously? wallabees and kangroos don’t have fangs!). Some you could tell that they were not kindly treated – (the rino missing the horn; the elephant with shreadded ears; the hippo missing teeth and looking like he was fresh off the autopsy table). Then there was the big animals – which in some cases still had the bullet holes in their heads or were lopsided because of the options used to put them back together.
Even some of the ones that were more “normal” – had strange expressions like – You’re going to put what where?!?!
I will say, however, that the worst was the one above. This one haunted my dreams on Sunday night…It’s like a little nightmare demon monkey of some sort. The taxidermy on most of these animals was such that even the cutest things were made to look like they were going to kill you in your sleep, suck your blood, or just were plotting the demise. I’m not planning on a return trip – and I wouldn’t take kids there – despite the fact that many parents did. Perhaps it’s because it’s cheaper than a trip to the Dublin Zoo? Either way, it was free- and they desperately need donations (no kidding people! They need some lighting and some labels!) so if you’re into this kind of thing, I suppose it’s not as bad as some would lead you to believe…
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March 29th, 2012 by Rose
Not too long ago, I made a tea cosy for Aoife, and learned a new stitch in the process. Well, in honour of spring, I made another – for her mom.
This time, I learned to make the daisy at the top, and experimented with front loop / back loop only crochet. I think it turned out rather well, though I think if I were to choose the colors again, I’d look for a brighter yellow to go with the blue and white.
Here’s a closeup of the stitches.
The free pattern for this is at:
http://www.favecrafts.com/Kitchen-Crochet/Daisy-Teapot-Cozy-Crochet-Pattern#
** Special thanks to Aoife for the picture with the teapot – since I don’t have one!**
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March 19th, 2012 by Rose
As a few of you know, I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and so was my mom. It’s supposed to be a lucky thing – the descendents of the Dragon bearing dragon children, as they were traditionally the leaders of society. Since this year is the year of the Dragon, of course, I had to go celebrate. Here in Dublin, back on January 22nd, there was a big party in the newly “umbrella” covered Meetinghouse square.
For some extra fun, I took my friend’s 7 year old daughter, because I thought it would make for a great day out – and a lovely bit of different cultural exposure for her. When we got there, the gates were closed initially, so we wandered around a little, taking some pictures in the temple bar district – including some of the foam flowers in the top of the trees.
When the gates opened, the first thing which welcomed us was the booming of the drums, loud music, and fabulous red lantern decorations hanging from the roofs and the stage.
Once the crowd was in place, the music was followed promptly by the dragon dance put on by a series of Kung fu and Tai Chi dojos. As the children moved to the front of the crowd to see better, they were mesmerized by the noise and the acrobatics that were shown by the dancers.
Next up was the Tiger dance – which involved 2 acrobats that kept dancing and then balancing atop each other’s shoulders. They had a beautiful costume in “Irish colors” which had the mouth opening and the eyes blinking – which really gave it a personality… especially as the lead dancer took the head and interacted right in the crowd to the faces of the kids – to many screams of delight.
After that, there were some chats and presentations, and C and I went over to make a dragon kite as a fun memory of the day.
When that was complete, we popped out for some lunch, and then came back in time for the traditional fashion show put on by University students from China who were all dressed in traditional costumes – representing the Emperor and his court. As C put it – they looked like the characters from Mulan!
Finally, we bought a pink Lantern for C’s room, and I was invited up on the stage to represent the year of the dragon for 1976 – and received a fabulous 20 euro Gift certificate. When that was done, we then watched the last of the dragon dances of the day – this time, put on by local children – between the ages of 5 and 8. This was a hit with C – because she realized that this was totally something that she could do too.
After a bit of ice cream and the bus home,all that C could talk about on the way was how cool it was to see everything and spend some time celebrating the Chinese New Year. I later heard from H & J, her parents, that she had taken to wearing a red silk robe around the house, pretending that she was Chinese, and talking all about the Dragon Dance and wanting to know more about Chinese Culture. In my view, it was a great day out – but also, mission accomplished to help make this little lady even more aware of the beauty of the world and the cultural differences. 
March 11th, 2012 by Rose
The local Waterville Park a few blocks from my house is still a work in progress. They’re still adding benches, building workout equpment, and doing some landscaping. On Saturday, March 10, the county council and Ikea hosted a party where everyone in the community could come out and plant trees along the freeway.
Great marketing – because Ikea had a raffle (I won a computer backpack filled with goodies), face painting, and provided the trees. The County council provided the equipment and 3 organisers for a few hours.
And the community came out and provided their shovels and labor to make the park more beautiful! I got to see some neighbors and their kids – whom I hadn’t seen since last fall. The best was that I had got to invite my friend H and her daughter, C to come have some fun “playing in the dirt”. All told, we planted two trees – the first one, Charlotte and I did – and the second – Charlotte planted by herself!
All in all, it was a great day out – planting trees, and adding a bit back to the park that we enjoy so much.
Yay! Trees!
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March 1st, 2012 by Rose
Earlier in February, the my team at work (mostly me) organised a book and art supply drive for the children a local charity creche so they could expand their Library. The crèche specialises in low and no cost childcare to enable parents to avail of employment, training, and education opportunities.
On March 1, 2012, World Book Day, me and my supervisor were pleased to present the crèche with 50 books, some toys and art supplies for the children all raised from the Dublin location’s generosity. That works out to 1 new book per child at the crèche!
Why is it important that we helped by donating books and supplies to the crèche?
• On average, children in economically poor areas have only 1-2 age-appropriate books in their homes
• Inability to read is linked to poverty, dependence on welfare, unemployment, and crime
• Many children don’t read because they don’t own or have access to any books
By donating 50 books – roughly one book per child and expanding the library at Little Learner’s crèche, we’re instilling the children with a lifelong love of reading and learning.
Special Thanks to my team and company for their Generosity!
For more information on world book day please click here : http://www.worldbookday.com/
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February 15th, 2012 by Rose
Continuing my travels up the West coast of Ireland last summer, I drove from Salthill’s beautiful Galway Bay hotel, through Connemara and its detours, and then on to Kylemore Abbey. Yesterday, I mentioned about the gardens at Kylemore.
There are several Gardens at Kylemore Abbey – there’s the lower gardens, which are filled with trees and walking paths around Lough Pollacappul. Then, there are the upper gardens. A short drive (or walk) by bus leads you up the hill to the top of the Mountain. When you first get out of the bus, the view (above) is breathtaking and natural. As you walk on the pathway, you begin to see the Walls of the garden – surrounded with these giant trees that were so big that I couldn’t get my arms around.
The Tea garden cafe is to the right, and as you walk past it, you enter into the first of the walled gardens. Below you can see the interesting layout with the white Victorian greenhouses on the far end, a caretaker’s cottage, and lovely white benches throughout. The second picture is with your back to the caretaker’s cottage, looking toward the entrance.
In addition to the caretaker’s cottage (below) which is heated by peat (peat pile 2nd picture) there’s also a second carpenter’s cottage and some ruins (very first picture at the top) of a heated conservatory that is in the process of being restored.
Other than the main sculpted garden, there’s also a really nice vegetable garden / herbal remedy garden. This one’s more rustic and has a stream off to the edge.
The stream runs off into a grove of white beech trees.
As I left the upper gardens, It started raining – just in time for me to head back to the Galway Bay hotel. Luckily, I was able to get out the map and avoid all of the fun detours that took me so far out of the way, and get on some main streets to get back to Galway for a massage and a good nights rest with the windows open to the fresh sea breeze.
The next day, I headed back, stopping in Athenry and Clonmacnoise. More from those later.
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February 14th, 2012 by Rose
Happy Valentine’s Day!
For my colleagues today, I thought it would be fun to make a few Valentines. I wasn’t sure what to do this year, and then I saw a simple idea on one of the Martha Stewart pages here.
After gathering some lollypops and some colored paper, I thought it would be brilliant to cut some heart shapes out of the paper using both the scissors and a hole punch. I then glued all of the shapes together and hole punched the main larger hearts. Sliding the heart “petals” up the stem of the lollypop and securing on the reverse side with tape (being careful to NOT tape the paper on the lolly) I think they made some cute flowers.
Next time, I think I’ll try making some with words on them (like fun Valentine’s Day slogans or something), or maybe adding some other features like ribbons. Otherwise, I would say this is a great craft for the kids too!
February 13th, 2012 by Rose
Continuing my travels up the West coast of Ireland last summer, I drove from Salthill’s beautiful Galway Bay hotel, through Connemara and its detours, and then on to Kylemore Abbey.
The story of Kylemore Abbey is a story of love and loss, vision and tragedy, and finally hope. Without getting deep into the building’s history, I’ll try to hit the high points of the history, and for more details, you can go to the Kylemore Abbey website here.
Back in the late 1800′s, an English surgeon named Mitchell Henry and his wife, Margaret, were married. They came to Connemara on their honeymoon and were enchanted by the area’s wonderful hunting and fishing. They vowed to one day return and build a home in such a beautiful place. When Henry’s father died, Henry received a large inheritance and decided to give up medicine for business and politics. He and Margaret bought property in Connemara (some 13,000 acres in land) around the old Kylemore hunting lodge. The property included mountains, a lake and boglands. Margaret and Henry started to build a 70 room home – what is the main portion of the Abbey today, in a Victorian Style Castle. They built the castle in the shadow of Druchruach Mountain and hugging the shores of Lough Pollacappul, to maximize the view. By 1871, the castle and the walled garden were completed. In 1874, while on holiday in Egypt, Margaret died, leaving behind her broken hearted husband and 9 children. Mitchell sent her body back to Kylemore and in the coming years, built a mausoleum in the style of an old gothic church along the side of of Lough Pollacappul to commemorate their love. For 40 years, Mitchell and his family encouraged locals to take up tenancy on his property – and during the time of the Irish Potato famine he is known to have provided work, food and schooling for those that he shared the land with.
In 1903, English King Edward VII came to Connemara to visit and toured the property and grounds. Shortly thereafter, Kylemore Abbey was sold to the Duke & Dutchess of Manchester, who bought the home and its grounds in 1909. Sadly, in 1914, The Dutchess of Manchester’s father, Eugene Zimmerman passed away – and because he was financing the home – the property was lost to the bankers.
The property remained mostly empty (caretakers were watching over it) until the 1920′s, when the Benedictine Nuns of Ireland purchased the land and property. They established a convent, guest house, series of gardens, and a Girls School (the school closed in the 1990′s). Today, the Benedictine Nuns still hold the property, making their money off of the location as a tourist attraction and selling their wares locally while doing good works in the local community.
While I didn’t have time (a 2 hour detour does this to ya!) to see inside the house or the Gothic cathedral, I did make it to the gardens, which I’ll post pictures of tomorrow – but for now, a preview of some of the flowers.
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February 12th, 2012 by Rose
Yesterday, I started telling you about the trip from Galway to Kylemore Abbey and how I got detoured nearly 2 hours. You can see the post here.
By the time I made it to the James Joyce craft and gift shop, I was ready for a break. I’d been battling down very narrow, winding roads, and past several sheep and cars on roads which proved to be a bit stressful since they weren’t on a map and nothing was labelled. The craft shop is on the N59 road, and after not having seen any place to stop, this looked like a nice place – not only because of the complex of small shops – but also because it had a couple of eye catching monuments that made me want to stop. Pulling over, however, I found that the monuments were rife with Irish humor.
This is a sculpture of the Connemara Giant. It’s huge, and made out of granite. It sits directly in front of a sort of art deco shield type monument, which one would expect would have names or commemorate something important. Upon closer inspection, the sign under the Giant says:
The giant was erected for no apparent reason. It cracked me up. As I maneuvered myself around to the second monument that sits just behind the Giant, I was again greeted with a but of humor that even PT Barnum would have appreciated.
Yep, on this site in 1897, Nothing Happened.
After getting a drink and a couple munchies, springing for a couple postcards (mailed off to the family), and even a piece of beautiful green Connemara jewelry, I headed off again, hoping to make Kylemore Abbey in a short time. The roads the rest of the way to Connemara weren’t bad at all – despite seeing more and more sheep along the road…
More from the beautiful Kylemore Abbey tomorrow – including the story of the love that it was built for.
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February 11th, 2012 by Rose
Back in July 2011, I went to the west coast of Ireland to do some site seeing. I stayed in a place called Salthill, just north of Galway (see previous post here). Where I was staying, it rained, and the weather wouldn’t co-operate. As a result, I decided that I was going to drive up through the beautiful Connemara and to Kylemore Abbey (more on that later).
The thing with driving in Ireland is that it’s not particularly difficult to physically drive on the opposite side of the car (it’s a Right hand – British – drive country) but it is different. You have to learn to look over your left shoulder when backing up, you have to learn to shift with your Left hand (instead of your Right) and you have to relearn your spacial location for where you are in relation to the car – and just where/how it fits on the road – so you can do things like parallel park. For me, every time I get behind the wheel I have to remind myself to drive on the British side of the road (old habits die hard) – and that the round-abouts go clockwise.
The above not-with-standing, the logistics of driving in Ireland is a unique challenge all its own. What do I mean by this? Well, keep in mind that the USA is generally a young country. What this means is that we built our roads and our businesses and our homes at the same time. As a result, the roads tend to be a bit wider (built for cars), a bit straighter, and there’s usually not a requirement to go some hour out of your way to come back an hour when there’s a detour involved. You can just cut up a couple blocks and there’s a paralleling road to get past the construction site. In most places in the US (unless you’re in a very rural place) a GPS is a luxury – it simply supplements the easy to read, high contrast reflective road signs that are posted at nearly every intersection (or every few miles on a long road) – so actually finding your way about is fairly easy.
In Ireland, though, the places were built, and the roads sprung up for foot traffic, horses, carriages and finally cars. Here, road signs, once you get off of the autobahns, are practically non-existent. Where there are roadsigns, they’re not really easy to read (light blue background with white text). They don’t say which direction the road is going (as in N/S or E/W) – only the next town – or sometimes multiple towns pointed lefty/righty/lefty/righty/straight ahead/ back behind you/ another 3 to the right/2 to the left / eat at Bob’s / shop at Fred’s discount … – piled up one on top of each other randomly on a post starting some 6-8 foot high and going to maybe knee height. As a car driver, this monumental pile of signs is nearly impossible for you to read all of in the few seconds you’re trying to approach and drive past it (while trying to drive, pay attention to traffic, and enjoy having some local yahoo behind you crawling up your bumper). Also, once out of the city, the road signs become overgrown, faded, damaged, and often only posted at a T junction so the stopped traffic (not the traffic paralleling the sign) can see it. Because of this challenge, a GPS is a practical necessity for a car – and sometimes even the GPS doesn’t know where the crap you are. (recalculating… recalculating… recalculating..)
Ok so where am I going with this post? Well, the trip to Connemara / Kylemore Abbey. When I left Salthill, I spiraled my way out of town and hit the N59 which should take me straight to Kylemore Abbey, driving through the rural areas of Connemara. Connemara is one of the last places that they speak Irish (Galic) as their main dialect (English is secondary) and has mountains and moors, and is one of the most beautiful landscapes on the west coast. I was looking forward to the drive on the main two lane road over the next hour or so. What I didn’t know, however, is that there was road construction on the N59, and that the result would be a detour down single lane roads that were barely as wide as the car – and so overgrown that at times the branches were scraping the sides of my little Fiat Punto. Above you can see the route I was supposed to take – 1 hour and 10 minutes. Below, you can see the route that took a little over 3 hours.. and for which the GPS was almost completely useless because I was driving on roads that simply weren’t on the map!:
The laughable thing about this is that while it was beautiful, it was also nerve racking. The roads were so narrow and hilly that you couldn’t go very fast, nor could you see if there was oncoming traffic in many instances. I mentioned the roads were narrow – and I’m not kidding. When you had to pass someone, you had to pull into someone’s driveway – and wait for the other person to pass. And – in some cases, you had to reverse back to the next “closest” driveway to allow this to happen.
At some points there were houses, but mostly, it felt like you were driving in the back country – complete with rush hour sheep blocking the road. Oh – and for the record – no matter if you honk or not, if the first sheep isn’t moving – the rest aren’t either.
By the time I made it to the very rural James Joyce gift shop in Connemara (below) I was ready to get out of the car and take a break.
More to come…
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