On Hiatus Until Thesis is Finished!

I want to write a quick apology to everyone who has been so kind to follow my blog and found it lacking recently. I have been doing my Master's course here in Ireland and for some reason thought I would have time to also keep up on a blog. I'll pause here while you finish laughing.

While I have not been able to post blogs, fear not! For I have still been taking pictures and boy do I have a lot to share with you all. Just hang in there and I promise to post again, just as soon as I finish my dissertation. Until then, you can find me nestled in the corner of my library's post-grad room buried in Irish texts and criticism.

Thank you all for your views and check back in August!


Wish me luck! Sláinte!!



Let me attempt to distract you with a few recent pictures of a barley field...

You can see Miss Coco making her debut in the top image and then again in the one below. She is always up for a walk through the fields, even if she can't really see where she is going...

Exploring Wicklow and Enfield

I know I have not posted in awhile, but once school picked up, I had my nose in a book for weeks straight. I have survived my finals (three, 4,500 word essays) with my sanity barely intact, although that might still be up for question. As a fellow classmate said, "When it takes six times as long to write a couple of essays as it did for God to create the universe, something has gone dreadfully wrong in the world." I know more than I ever thought I would about Joyce, Yeasts, and Freud ... no, he's not an Irish author, but believe me when I say, that man is everywhere (or at least his theory is everywhere). I also believe I have an ailment called book wrist. It is caused from holding too many books for hours on end and makes your wrist hurt. My mother suggests I wrap my wrists to help ... I asked if she had anymore ideas on how I can look more "nerdy". Maybe I should wear a sweat band and goggles, and stretch in the library before reading. Don't want to pull a muscle turning pages! Don't get me wrong, I love reading, but when it starts to hurt you ... there's problem. However, I now get two weeks off before the second semester starts in February. I am planning on enjoying it by knitting, reading for FUN, trying a few new recipes and anything else I want to since I don't have class. 

I am a bit behind in my photos so this blog will be all about catching up, finally! Before Christmas, I went on a few hikes around the Wicklow mountains as well as exploring around Enfield, the town I am living in. So sit back and enjoy the view! 

One of the hikes I went on was to Ballinastoe. We had to hike through a bit of the forest before coming out into the open. The view was amazing all the way up. However, once at the top, the fog rolled in and, unfortunately, I couldn't get any photos. 

I have to give credit to my Google+ account for editing this photo for me. I usually ignore their editing job, but this one I loved!

You can see the fog has rolled in, but we still made it to the top! 

This is the last hike we went on in 2014. While searching for the trail head we drove by this gorgeous house out in the country. I, of course, asked David to pull over for a picture. To be fair to him, he's getting more used to these requests...

It rained almost the entire time on this hike and we were soaked, but it still had amazing views and reminded me a lot of the Pacific Northwest in Washington State. 

It looks like the Pacific Northwest ... until you stumble across some ruin. We don't have these in Washington....

And finally, my walk along the canal in Enfield. Couldn't have asked for a better day and got to meet a few horse friends along the way. 

Couldn't resist this shot I got from my window. Great view of a full rainbow in between the rain. 

I also want to thank Ireland Family History for posting a few of my photos and mentioning my blog on their Facebook page. Returning the love, if you haven't already, please check out their page and give it a "like". https://www.facebook.com/IrelandFamilyHistory

I am already planning my next blog which is all about my Irish Christams. I realize my last few blogs have been very photo heavy and not so text heavy... I will try to talk more about my experience living in Ireland next time! So stay tuned.... 

Southern Ireland Tour Part 2

So much for writing during my break. That week went way too fast! I now have two weeks left of class and desperately trying to make sure I have solid essay topics ready to be written. While being surrounded by piles of books, I decided I needed a break and it was time to do another post! 

The rest of the southern Ireland tour is here in all it's glory. So buckle up because there's a lot to get through and tons of photos.

On our second day we traveled to Dingle. Along the way we stopped at a nice beach, which is something you don't expect to say in Ireland...

We stopped for lunch in the small town of Dingle. Dingle is best known for a spunky Dolphin, Fungie, who hangs out in Dingle Bay. It was a very cute little town and I really enjoyed spending time here.

You can see they take their fishing pretty seriously, being by a bay and all....

Fungie the dolphin! No, I sadly did not get to see him but you could, of course, buy tons of souvenirs that had dolphins on them.

We stopped in Killarney, in Country Kerry and visited the Killarney National Park. When we arrived, we found they were working on the front part of the park so it took us a while to find an open entrance. But it was worth the work. I would love to visit the park again and spend more time exploring this beautiful area. 

Moving along the Ring of Kerry....

Here is the fertility stone that our tour guide so kindly stopped at so all of us young female college students could flock to it. Which, as you can see, we all did. Tradition says if you touch it you will be able to get pregnant. The saying, "wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole" comes to mind....

Instead, we passed the fertility rock and climbed a hill that had a great view of the water and surrounding mountains.

 On our final day, we visited the Cliffs of Moher. Famously known as the Cliffs of Insanity from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride.  I would like to say that my camera had died at this point in the trip and these photos were all taken on my iPhone. Pretty happy with the quality. Definitely glad I purchased this phone before I left even if others were unsure about its worth ... cough cough looking at you mom... ;)

 '

Our final stop was the along the Burren in County Clare. The rock formations in the Burren are very unique and amazing. Some of the hills reminded of the plateau in eastern Washington. It's just a tad bit greener here than on the east side.

I hoped you enjoyed the photos. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to put them up. School is quite consuming but I am having a wonderful time here and can't believe how fast these months are flying by. My next post will be more catching up on a few hikes I went on. Maybe sometime I will actually be caught up on photos and posts... hahahaha

Happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends from home!!