Urgent Garden Update

We interrupt our previously scheduled Ireland Vacation stories to bring you this garden update:

Thirteen years ago we bought this house and moved an orange sapling from one side of the garden to the other. It never produced flower or fruit. Last year it made some fruit, and although mrguy instructed the tree guys not to cut that one branch, they cut it off and the fruit with it.

This year the tree started making flowers, and the flowers turned into fruit that grew and grew and grew to absurd sizes. There are two of these gigantoid fruits and I dragged some chicken wire around the tree to protect these first fruits from the deer. The rest of the fruit, who seem destined to ripen next year, are above deer height.

Today something happened. The eagle has landed, if by that you mean that one of the two gigantic citrus fruits was not on the tree this morning. It had fallen off of its dweeby home branch and was on the ground. I brought it in, took photographs and discovered that it is a grapefruit. It is also as sour as a Eureka lemon. Whoa. But it smells fantastic and its skin is luscious with oily perfume. I skinned it and threw the skin in some white sugar.

I really wanted an orange. Maybe we'll get one and put it in the alleged orange's original location.

We swear that this thing had a tag on it that said "orange".

Ireland 2026, Day 3

On Day 3 we went to Navan, which was one of the highlights of the trip. It's a bus ride away from Dublin.

Here we are downtown, wondering what to do next. 

I had looked up a few books in their library catalog before we went. The librarians pointed us to the local history books. I took lots of photos of various articles in the local history publication. This one helped explain how land ownership changed in the town over time. Being able to have specific information is amazing!

I asked for a specific book, and the librarians let us know that it was in the local history room. OMG. I was so excited to hear that this existed, and that there was a local history librarian, as well. Fabulous man. Generous with his time. Asked me if I had thought of writing something up about my family that would add to what people know about Navan. I was thrilled by this suggestion. It's kinda what I want to do with some of my time coming up.

Here's the book / paper I requested. Pretty obscure.

I got to touch actual board of governor's minute books. I've only seen the microfilm copies. The pages are slightly blue. Due to annoying technical problems I was not able to access my digital files, otherwise I could have asked for one of the specific books in which my great great grandfather appeared as a provisioner of grain and barrels.

We had a bowl of chowder in downtown Navan. It was super cool to see that there was a fishmonger and a few other types of businesses that would have existed in the 1860s when my family lived there. The waitress was so nice, and was among the first truly Irish people we spoke with on our trip.

We took a Lyft to our next destination, a Kilcarne cemetery. I wrote about that adventure earlier, here.

We got back to Dublin before dark.

From our hotel room I spied Oscar Wilde who was still apparently obsessed with me. I see you, Oscar Wilde!

We had dinner at J.L. O'Neil's pub. Excellent choice, since it was my O'Neil family we had been looking into in Navan. The pub was super crowded and we landed at the bar, but later got a table. My mussels were so delicious, and they were served with a scattering of what my mom would have called "pickleweed". She used to be a marsh docent back in the day. "Sea beans" is what they seem to call them now. They're a salty succulent plant that grows in marshes. And they are delicious. Excellent callback to childhood.

 Gratuitous photo of a cool storefront. So ends Day 3.

Oops! Ireland 2026, Day 1 Plus

In my notebook I wrote "What would your four words be," which was part of a conversation on the radio in the taxi. No idea. Here are a few photos I took in the cab. Already I was gobbling with my camera things that my mind didn't have time to process. And by camera, I mean phone.

Gorgeous red brick.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel and walked across the street to Merrion Square Park. We drank water, sat in the shade and fell in love with the Eurasian Magpie. It was black and white with a flashy green and teal tail. 

Mrguy, ever the guide, knew we were in close proximity to the National Gallery. We slogged over there and had some coffee. It was divine. The cafe sits under a skylight two stories above. This was one of the most delicious lattes I've ever had, and you could tell that the people nearby were related, somehow, to the museum. They just had that look. Made me wistful for aspects of my work that I will miss.

We went for the modern galleries. They had some compelling art, and I can't believe I didn't take any photos in that gallery except this photo of the door. I loved that these scrapes to the previous layer revealed that it was previously a complementary color. 

Notes from my journal indicate that I liked this painting of Katherina Knoblauch. And there was a painting that I described to myself as "Boy Eating Circus People, with Tiny Towns". The tiny towns part I get, because I love paintings with faraway tiny landscapes hovering in the background. I just asked AI to make me a medieval style painting that would have that title.

Then I complained. "That's an illustration. Make me a medieval style oil painting called 'Boy Eating Circus People, with Tiny Towns'". I do like it a little better, even though the jester is feeding the boy. 

Anyhoo -- I did take some photos in the older galleries. This painting was not called "I Pinch You".

And this is St. Augustine's cat. It was painted so tenderly. But I'm pretty sure St. Augustine didn't own a titty bucket, what with him being so pious and all.

Back at the hotel we slept through whatever time dinner would have been, but woke up to have a beer in the hotel bar which had no snacks. Mrguy had his first Guiness 0.0 (on tap). That stuff is delicious. I had something else.

So ends Day 1.

Ireland 2026, Day 2

The next morning we started out with a traditional Irish breakfast -- black pudding, grilled tomato, mushrooms, beans. And then on the side I had a scone basically as a delivery mechanism for delicious spreads, including honeycomb. The juices, recommended by our server, were a complete treat.

Then we went to the Epic Museum, a relatively short walk away. So far we'd only spoken with nice, but un-Irish people, but on our walk a random guy with a local accent greeted us with a shout of "Welcome to Ireland!!" The Epic celebrates the Irish who have emigrated elsewhere, the lives of the Irish who stayed, investigates the stereotypes, and a lot of other stuff which I felt exhausted by at the end. Definitely worth seeing. The items below are a brick made by an Irish convict sent to Australia, and the most famous of Irish designer Orla Kiely's fabric patterns.

We had dinner at Kennedy's Pub and Restaurant. I was fascinated by this mosaic of Brendan Behan, an Irish poet and playwright who I know nothing about (yet).

We arrived early, and it became really busy by the time we left but you would not know from my photos. Great view from my seat:

It has always been my tradition to draw a smiley face in other people's Guinness foam. Today was no exception. 

I had an O'Hara in honor of a dear friend:

And the first of many delicious veggie burgers on this trip:

Back at the hotel, this was the view. Off to the right, in the park, is a famous statue of Oscar Wilde that is perched on a boulder with a light shining on it. From my side of the bed he seemed to be peering at me day and night.

Ireland 2026, Day 1

I have mentioned before that we got many vaccinations two days before leaving for our trip to Ireland. I felt like dooky for days, including on our travel day. I wore a big old circle scarf for comfort, and so that I couldn't lose it on the plane. The sweating and shivering during the first leg of our trip were intense. One piece of happy news from that flight is that Air Canada's flight map still labels Lake Ontario as Lake Ontario. I wonder if American wordsmith Donald Trump will ground the airline until it changes that label.

We had a 4 hour layover in Montreal, two hours of which was spent in lines for various purposes. We stood in a line. Then we stood in another line that had to have one hundred people in it. The zig zag kinda line where you come face to face with the same people over and over as you turn a corner in the line. I was so cranky about seeing this one woman's very loud shirt. Yep. Angry about a shirt. We later stood in another line (maybe our third?), which was very slow. There were only two people inspecting the people in this line. , with people who were obviously there for reasons. One guy had a giant lute in a case. One woman had a billion pieces of luggage. There were lots of people with cats and dogs. And us. Two old people with minimal luggage.

Prior to our trip I had done my research and was VERY excited to learn that they have poutine in the United lounge. By the time we got there I did not care. I just wanted to sit. I ate chilaquiles and a latte.

We went kinda fancy style, but we were in separate pods and I could tell that mrguy wasn't happy with something. I wanted to help but we were separated by a window. This happened:

I watched Conan O'Brien's travel show, which is super cringe. And a Brett Goldstein standup. And a Singaporean drama called "A Good Child", which was super compelling -- about a drag  performer with a disapproving family and a mom with dementia. I love to watch the International lineup on long flights.

We took a Lyft from the airport to central Dublin. We'd arrived at rush hour, so it took a long time for us to get to the hotel. It was the first of many car trips in which we listened to 80s music. It's everywhere.