January

It is a new year and I am happy to report that the awful grey and rain of December seems to have given way to loads of sun! We are still getting rain, but at least it is not all day long. The mornings are glorious and I sit with my coffee in the living room and listen to the birds' serenade. Life is good.

I generally get up, take my prescription (remember when I reported that it was $355 in the states for a month and it is only €29 here? Something I failed to notice at the time makes my meds here even more amazing. In the states, the charge was for 30 days; here the charge is for 56 days, almost two months, which actually brings the monthly cost closer to €15. I am so happy with the medical costs here.

I turn on the heat; I make my coffee - I am buying an Italian brand called LaVazza, it is very good - and check the weather. This morning I could see it was a beautiful, sunny morning and the app on my phone showed 6ºC with sunny skies all day with a good chance of rain overnight. The Yahoo weather app on my iPad showed 42ºF, which is equivalent to 6ºC, but showed rain mixed with snow. What??? I have some photos for you which might explain the misinformation.

These are the Wicklow Mountains, which are only about 65 miles from here. Usually when I take photos from the bridge, the mountains are just visible and usually misty and dark. The snow really makes a difference.

Depending on the day, I usually take a shower after my coffee because by then the bathroom is nice and warm. But today I just had to get outdoors. I put on my sleeveless thermal undershirt and a waffle weave long sleeved shirt with a pair of jeans and then just needed by mid-weight hooded jacket. I wore my fingerless gloves instead of regular gloves so that taking pictures would be easier. 

Hopefully, you are not yet totally bored with these photos from around Wexford. I thought I should head away from the water for a change of pace, but the pull of the sea was just too strong.

Can you see the beads of dew on the lines?

I think I have to fill the bird feeder today!

You can see my parking spot (17) as well as part of the Abbey.

This is such a typical European chimney.

This is the view up the hill from my place.

More of those chimneys.

I love the juxtaposition of the ruin and the tropical looking tree.

Wexford has a St. Vincent's as well as several other charity shops.

The train/bus station

The name of the station in Gaeilge (ge:l'g'ә) Irish

Road signs across from the station.

I really don't see any rain or snow showers.

But I do see lovely clouds

I had a very nice day on Friday. I took the bus to Dublin (two and a half hours). I am not a big fan of riding a bus, but I left at 9:30 in the morning and the scenery was lovely and the towns we stopped in were very picturesque. I went to the National Museum where I met two new friends Shevaun Doherty and Róisín Curé (on my iPad it is easy to get the fadas over the vowels in her name, but not so obvious on the MacBook Air. Found it - it is Option e and then type the letter you want under the fada) We spent hours in the cafe getting to know each other a bit - they shared a couple of their sketchbooks - and then wandered around to look, take pix and do a bit of sketching. In Ireland  there is no charge to visit museums - imagine! Here are a few photos from that lovely day. The building is so fantastic, the elements rival the exhibits.

The two women (mna) I met are both very accomplished artists. Their sketchbooks were fabulous. I wish I had asked to take photos of some of their work. I put the Irish word for women in parentheses because I love it. When I talk to the girls on FaceTime we frequently get into singing mna, mna, doo doo doo doo du, - you know.

Here are a couple of their sketches:

Róisín's Museum sketch with watercolor

 (Róisín, Shevaun, The Tara Brooch, and myself)

Shevaun's museum sketch with watercolor.

And here are my two sketches. I should have brought watercolor, but didn't. I may add a bit of color later to see how I like it.

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You can see the disparity in our skill levels. Maybe if I get back to sketching every day, I will see improvement in mine. I really got a creative charge from spending time with these two and hope we can manage to meet up again. Would love to go to Galway in the Spring and spend some time walking that beautiful town again - and of course would love to meet up with Róisín again. Maybe Shevaun would like to go with me.

Spent some time with Catríona on Wednesday - we visited for a bit and I had a lovely lunch with her of tuna and spelt pasta with tomatoes. Then we walked the dogs at the race track and met up with David Ward to buy organic veggies. It is really good to have her back from her Christmas trip to her family in Sligo.

Sarah and John got back from their vacation in Sicily and it is great to have them around again. We had lunch together at the Wren's Nest on Friday.

Well, I see it is after 1 pm and I am still in my walking clothes, need a shower and have not eaten yet. I made some lamb stew yesterday which may become my brunch, or I could still stir fry some courgette (zucchini) with onion and egg with a toasted bagel that I was planning on for breakfast. At any rate, it is time for me to get on with my day.

Hope you are having a great day wherever you are....

Slán