Ireland - Baltimore, rainy day

Well we knew it would happen eventually. The weather forecast said 70% chance of rain (we hadn't asked the cows) and we awoke to a dull grey sky and drizzle. During coffee and breakfast it went from drizzle to rain to mist to torrential. A day for staying inside with a book. We have those, and lots of videos and a craft that I bought from home and paints.

When it was just drizzling we went for a walk up the road and then down an L road to the left, towards the water. In a short while we came to a tidal area.

The hedgerows were full of these spider web hammocks full of rain droplets.

Plenty of the regular kinds of spider webs too (I vowed to close my window when I got back to the cottage)

Although damp it was quite warm, about 20. Really too warm for the rain coats and splash pants we were wearing.

This is looking back at the causeway that the road had crossed. At the far end

there was a humped back bridge that the tidal waters flowed through. On the inland side we saw large fish swirling and breaking the surface with an occasional flash of silver.

This is the little cottage we will be living in for the next 6 days while we explore this section.

We worked on the wool applique kits that I had got from Brit before I left. Nice and small, very packable. But when our stomachs started to rumble we decided to get out of the house again.

We drove into Skibbereen (the nearest town), this is a very colourful hotel that I am sure will look much better in sunlight.

It was a Sunday afternoon and every restaurant was serving roasts. We finally chose the Paragon Restaurant and Bar, down a little alley off the main street. This is my half portion of roast turkey with potato and ham stuffing. A full portion was mammoth.  I could have had mashed potatoes and chips but chose seasonal vegetables (they were all fresh, even the peas, not frozen and definitely not mushy) They really like their starches here. The man at the table next to me ordered chicken curry and it came with rice, mashed potatoes and chips.

Nicola had the chicken Caesar. Yes that is an Irish Coffee.

We had been told by a guy on the boat out to Skellig Michael that we needed to be in a pub at 3pm on Sunday and here we were. At 3 all the TVs (there were quite a few) were turned onto the same channel and we were watching the Gaelic Football Finals.

A guy at our end of the bar hung up a Dublin flag. A guy at the other end yelled down "There'll be none of that here". Then laughter, hope it stays that way. Dublin was playing Tyrone (its in Northern Ireland). We watched for a while but we felt we should give up our prime seats to fans and left. Dublin won!

In Gaelic Football you can carry the ball but only for 4 strides then you have to kick it to someone else, kick it to yourself or bounce it. Looks like you can score it into a goal or through the cross bars. We didn't get the nuances, obviously, but it looked like a fast and exciting game.