Grateful Heart and Helping Hands

It is as lovely as I had hoped! I am in love with this lovely Emerald Isle. We have seen lots of ocean views, castles, forts and cathedrals. There are pubs aplenty, music everywhere and quiet and unassuming folk. We are enjoying stopping when we like, eating when we wish and shopping, but not always buying. We have done a few things we had hoped to do, though--like buying Aran sweaters! A lovely shop lady took this photo of us in Glengariff. The place names are also interesting. We are having fun trying to pronounce them as if we understood the Irish form. Each sign is in Irish first, then English.  We have seen coastline more rugged than we even imagined! Though some are just quiet coves here and there, more often we are looking at the wild southwest coast. A wind storm was reported off the Cliffs of Moher, gusting over 80 km/h. Thank goodness I am firmly planted! I just wanted to post a quick bit of our trip--from Dublin to Listowel where I sit in an Internet Cafe. We hav...

For me, there is not much of a last minute happening. I plan well, make lists, do things ahead so I am not doing it last minute. I am not a procrastinator--in fact, I hate the feeling that it brings! I know some love the pressure of last minute preparations, but I would worry that I forgot or overlooked an important detail. Then I would be all concerned that it was a detail that would make me lose sleep- like forgetting my passport or my money! Did you ever have one of those awful dreams, those anxiety dreams? Where you went to school in a dress with no underpants, then went on the tall slide? Or missed the school bus even though you never took one? For years, I had dreams about missing ferries, after living in the Gulf Islands, where such a thing would result in missed meals and over-tired children and spoiled food. Thanks to preparing well, I am sleeping fairly well and remembering everything I need to. I have been preparing for this trip for months! My hunny has too--like I said y...

Two more sleeps. Well, who knows, perhaps there will be no sleep tomorrow night, I may be too excited!! But officially, 48 hours from now, we will have left Toronto on our last leg to Dublin. Can you believe it?? I can hardly! Today, we prepare. We clean, do more laundry, complete our packing. Yes, complete. My man has been packed for two weeks already. Me too, I call it pseudo-packed. You know, a practice run! We have Ibuprofen and thread, laundry soap, towels, rain-gear and an alarm clock. We have plug adaptors and guide books. We have our  Lonely Planet Guide to Ireland  ready, with all of our notes, hopes and dreams packed away. We have had some wonderful advice from traveling friends, those who have gone on before us to this fair isle. Some of the advice had to do with Guiness (of course) and music (of course) and places that are must-sees. We hope to find Gerry at Muckross house, he has a horse and cart. We may sleep in a castle, just to say we did. Did our feet in the ...

I found out this week that homemade mac and cheese is white people's food. Never really thought about it- but I guess it is one of those truly Canadian/American dishes. So, here is my recipe, the one I made for friends. This couple was visiting from Moncton NB, though he grew up here. He is Vietnamese and Cambodian and has never ever had homemade mac and cheese before today! I thought I would share my own recipe. I will add vegetables to this as well, broccoli or cauliflower are nice additions! It is a good vegetarian choice and so very creamy- Mac and Cheese with a twist! For 6-8 people Cook up 6 cups of pasta (whichever shape you wish). Drain it well.  Prepare: 1/2 c butter-melt over high and add 1/2 c flour, stir to a smooth paste.  Add 3 c milk, 1 c chicken stock, keep stirring until it is smooth and starts to thicken.  Add 250 g cream cheese, broken into pieces. Stir until smooth.  Add 1 Tb mustard, stirring. Add 2 c grated cheddar, 1 c. grated cheddar/m...

My heart is sad. I feel as if I am raining on the inside. Changes are tough to take, perhaps at times unbearable. So much to do, how do you pack 11 1/2 years into a box? Time, memories, relationships, knowing, all packed up. It just can't happen. We can take papers and reports, information and all we know, but we can't package it precisely, can't file it all on a hard drive to reconnect with another family. It just is not possible. So today, this is not about finding gratitude difficult at all. It is simply that there is unbearable sadness in my heart and I am raining on the inside.

Another weekend come and gone. It was a long weekend, but it was cold! More of the same cold. Not so fun, for sure. But what WAS fun was going to visit our baby-girl in Prince Rupert. In Rupert one expects cold and rain and we were not disappointed! But we got to visit, help our girl move and look at potential cars for her to buy. She has been working for just about a year now in her trade and it is time for her to have a reliable vehicle! We hope she finds one in her price range and style. There are so many sporty and fun ones! We took lots of pictures while we were away, thinking of our incredible landscape around our region. We have mountains and rivers, an abundance of wildlife and beauty! We stopped for pictures of creeks and waterfalls, mountains and misty skies. The river, though wide, was bordered by steep mountain slopes that pitched straight down in to the water on either side. Waterfalls to numerous to count made their way precariously downward in their attempt to join the...

I think in honour of this day, I will post in one of our national colours. I think I may be using this colour to warm myself a little as well--it is so cold! We appreciate that all of British Columbia is helping us acclimatize to the possible Irish weather. I really love our country! We were at a celebration this morning, here in our little town, where Canadians were taking part in the celebrations together, in equality, dancing, singing, parading and knowing that each one would be celebrated for who they were as individuals. We had a free pancake breakfast, sitting and chatting with friends and neighbours. The parade had a Bombardier on a float, firetrucks manned by volunteers, a Rodeo Queen and so much more. I know there were some who appreciated the candy being thrown the most! We listened to music, saw First Nations' dance groups and wandered around meeting other townsfolk like ourselves.  Contemplating what I like about this country, we heard our local Regional District repr...