Busy June

My baby

From the dearth of blog posts in June, you may have guessed that I had a very busy month. I (sort of) moved into the house, spent time in Switzerland and then visited the USA: Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, and New York. I came back the previous Monday and then left last Friday for Achill Island on the West coast of Ireland. I went there to visit, it is a beautiful place, and to run in a 1/2 marathon race.

Keel beach

I had hoped to come in under two hours in the half marathon. I managed to do it in five additional minutes. The course had some hills and it is difficult to find hills in Dublin without heading into the Wicklow mountains. This was a test race for the Dublin (full) marathon I want to do at the end of October. So I'm not quite at the necessary speeds in my training yet, and I only tappered for a week for this race. It was a fun race in a neat place and I'm happy with the result (although it could have been better ;-)

Strange flowers. I wonder if leprechaun paint these patterns on them.

I stayed two nights in a guest house on the island because I wanted to take some pictures. Saturday after the race was more or less dry, but far from what I would call sunny. Sunday was constant drizzle. That's better than what Dublin and the East coast of Ireland got that weekend: Three weeks worth of rain in one day! I didn't get very many pictures because of that.

There is a preserved area on the island that is littered with ruins of old houses that were abandoned during the potato famine. Now they are inhabited by sheep and archaeologists who are trying to piece together how the people lived back then.

They do think they own the place.

There is a road, called the Atlantic drive, to the West end of the island. It's nice, steep, narrow, and curvy. Perfect for a little bit of fast driving. There are no fences or guard rails, which adds to the challenge, but the bigger problem are the sheep in the middle of the road. They think they own that part of the island too!

Sheep everywhere!

At the Western most part of the island, at the end of the Atlantic drive, are steep cliffs. You have to hike up the hill to see them. I didn't do that that since the rain would have prevented me from seeing anything or taking pictures.

Now back to my busy work life, finish moving into the house, and get ready for vacation at the end of the month. It is not a castle, as afrodri suspects. So, no moat maintenance. However, even though I wasn't here for most of June, the grass is now about knee high in my yard. To the left and right, it is much shorter. I guess they mow it. I need a sheep! On Achill island, even in remote areas, the grass looks manicured (except for the sheep droppings) and neatly cut (bitten off) to about a 1/4 inch off ground.

An Irish sheep stack.