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Published: June 23rd 2009
Deerhound!
I finally got to see what a Deerhound looks like. The AMD folks will appreciate this one...Rainbow Garden Centre
Kilmlihil, Ireland (near Ennis)
Very Early Monday, June 22, 2009
I think I might be the story behind a new saying in this area of Ireland (see the title of this post). You see, even though I really don't act much at all like someone from Texas, people around here definitely have an idea of what a Texan is. And today I got to live up to one of those stereotypes. This weekend is, as you may know, the summer solstice. And people who live with 7 hours of daylight during some parts of the year really like to celebrate the longest day of the year. This resulted in two parties thrown this weekend, and both were quite good bashes.
Yesterday was the party of the Gardeners. I'm not really sure what Bill's name is, but his partner Chrys has the last name of Gardener and that is also their occupation. They are a couple who emigrated over from America a couple of years back after WWOOFing for Hilary & Chris, my hosts. Chrys managed to finagle Irish citizenship out of the fact that her grandparents were born here, so jolly good for them. Anyway, it
Cock of the Walk!
OK, king of the compost heap was a very nice BBQ that we took some homemade bread & cheese to and enjoyed a little music session at. Chrys & Bill are vegetarians, and so they had loads of tasty tofu & aubergines to throw on the grill. Plus they both play instruments, so we had a little folk music session right there in the living room of their thatched roof cottage. Very nice, but we had to head home fairly early to put the chickens up and whatnot. The party raged on for hours after we left.
This morning, Hilary & I were picked up by Collette, a lovely British woman who was throwing a Solstice BBQ that Hilary wanted to co-host. I volunteered to go help setup and cook, as the alternative was a queen rearing course with Chris and, to be honest with you, I will leave the beekeeping to people who actually like bees. After chopping up a few trees for the firewood - and believe me I'm getting handy with an axe - we made up some salads for the guests. Fellow NC State Alumnus Kim showed up around noon, but we already had things well in hand. Around 2:00, guests
Picnic
Here's where we had the BBQ. Very nice place started arriving, each bringing a bottle of something and a covered dish. The potluck idea was well understood by the English and American expats who atteneded, but not really by a lot of the Irish folks. But no matter, it was great fun. I managed the grill for the night, as it gave me a great way to meet folks who were arriving. It's an old trick of mine if you want to get social at a BBQ, because everyone talks to the guy who is controlling the food. Well, folks here had never really heard of some of my ideas (such as putting cheese on the burger to melt it when it's still on the grill, or grilling sliced onions for toppings), and they went over well. I was also very good at segregating out the veggie foods onto a secondary grill versus onto the main meat-top grill, which impressed the few vegetarians in the crowd. I even managed to get compliments on grilling prawn kebabs, even though I don't cook seafood due to the allergy. It was a rousing success, and by the end folks were hugging me and bringing me drinks and whatnot. Great times. Collette offered to let me stay with her family if I were ever in Co. Clare. There was even another music session, during which I took my turn playing the washtub bass. Folks may not know this, but Appalachian mountain music is just Irish music played at a steeper angle.
Lessons learned:
The older ladies here think I'll make someone a wonderful husband. Seems to be a pretty universal consensus, I've heard the same from folks back home
When offered someone's homemade wine, accept it. The black currant wine I had tonight was outstanding
Everyone lets their hair down every now and again. Don't take life too seriously or you might miss out on the fun
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Sara
non-member comment
Glad you are getting on alright. I was beginning to worry a bit that I hadn't heard from you. -Sara