July... oops not sure of the date... or the day... oh my!

Well here I am at the train station in Dublin. We leave today to meet up with the tour for the cycling part of our trip. Here is a sampling of the things I would say I'm grateful and priveldged to have experienced....

First of all you need to know - the food in Dublin as amazing (except for the full Irish breakfast - stay away from that!!). So far we have not had one bad meal - at all. Our first lunch at the Jameson Distillery was wonderful; excellent; first dinner at Hedigan's, lovely Michael teaching us about how the used to serve whisky straight from the barrel over 50 years ago, and even better, that night, an authentic session! Eight musicians, sitting around two tables just playing - banjo, mandolin, two piccolos, a fiddle, two drum skin things, and an eigth guy doing I don't remember what...

The next day we found a fantastic little hide away restaurant - a small, organic friendly, funky little place - we went there for lunch on both days. Delish.... Night number two found us in the shi shi part of downtown Dublin, we had Asian, was fantastic.

And last night, well so ok .. you knew it was going to have to happen ... last night we did the pub thing (and God help me.. it starts early!)... first downtown in Temple Bar ... lots of musicians, lots of pints (eek) ...meeting new people, from Finland, from Texas, one from the Gatineau!! We older women upset that the young and beautiful Jacynthe from Gatineau got picked up by the equally beautiful guitar player!!! Ah.. our misspent youth ... 

And finally last night - we went to the Gravedigger's Pub... holy cow.. its the real old thing for real.. shellaced plaster walls and ceilings, locals only... we were for sure the only tourists! Was great...

And today we're off to Galway.

That's it for now... train whistle is a blowin'!

July 19+ .. for Andrea....

Sometimes, when life throws us the curve balls it inevitably will, our compass points get knocked off a bit. We get so wrapped up in our dramas, don't come up for air enough, maybe get lazy, complacent... maybe I've done all that.

I have a dear, dear friend. I have known her longer than any other friend... something crazy like since we were four, five or six... I forget which. Our stories are so intertwined it's eerie sometimes. We share a culture, we share the bane of alcoholism in our families, we both had three kids, a failed first marriage, a divorce. We have been there for each other, lent an ear, cried and laughed with each other. Grown up together. We have had periods of our lives where we have been in and out of touch - and while that may have been ok in the past, it certainly is no longer.

Sometimes, we take our friends for granted. We think they are there, living their lives, happily, busily, without us. Sometimes we each think the other so busy, we think ourselves so busy... Sometimes we don't recognize the impact our words might have ... like even in a Blog.

I promise to pay more attention to that. I promise to honour our friendship. It's funny how we both think the same, both in truth felt somewhat forgotten.... but that could not be further from the truth.

I love and cherish you, always.

July 19.... Adieu...

And I'm on vacation!!!!! What a blissful feeling that is no? And what a blessing that my last day was filled with warmth, insight, hard worker bees making me proud, love and care. I love my work. Now I feel my brain kind of melting, letting go, dissolving... on to new and exciting adventures! Yay me!

I'm plenty grateful. Seas are calm here at home, I aim to keep them that way. I'm packed, I'm excited, let's go!

See you when I see you....
xo

July 18 ..Fresh Air...

It's a balmy 26 today. We turned the AC off and threw open the windows. Lovely. It's nice feeling a breeze caress you. It's nice having a home that smells good. We've been tidying, taking care of the nest, each in our corner, but like a team anyway. I feel grateful for that.

Dinner will definitely be out on the deck tonight. That will be lovely too.

Sometimes there's lots of lovely. I just need to soften some to see it.

Tomorrow will probably be the last post for a few weeks. I promise, that while away, if I find an internet cafe I'll send a shout out. If not.. I promise to take notes of my moments of gratitude and share them upon my return.

Be well, and a warm heart to you.

July 17 .... sun, water and poo...

I had an awesome day. We went kayaking with new friends. The bad news is we went to Riviere du Nord. Little did we know that last year there had been a huge issue with sewage being released into the river and it is no longer safe to swim. Yak! We kayaked down it anyway. Didn't see anything but still - that people can treat the land the way they do is just terrible. The irony too of our newspaper today saying there is only one lake closed in all of Quebec (not this one) - when there is a huge sign on Lac Raymond saying it is closed (even though it's dated 2009). And even though the sign was up - lots of people were swimming!!! WTF?

Anyhow - after the kayak we were treated to an amazing picnic lunch our buddies brought. Yumm! Then they took us to a lake that his brother has a cottage on! And we did swim! And it was spectacular! Nothing like a good swim in a Laurentian lake I always say! Yes of course I ached for Winnetou. I'll be going there in August, bring my dad along, let him have a day there.

The countdown is on for Ireland that's for sure. We'll be wrapping up final details tomorrow - and off on Tuesday! Exciting stuff...

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As the tide ebbs and flows between Honey and I - I sometimes find it difficult to find the voice and heart that is authentic. While I'm thrilled with the things I did today - there is a stone in my heart - which makes it hard for me to feel grateful. I guess the stone in my heart - kind of parallels the marbles in my mouth I wrote about the other day - only it's not the words that are obscured .. but my feelings. So I end up feeling distant from what I am writing, sometimes feeling distant period. I soldier on.

Why am I sharing all this? Cause I need to be truthful.

July 16 ..... sunshine in my life...

Ok so seriously.... what more do I need to say? No matter how bad the evening, how contentious ... whatever... I come home and find this on my facebook page... I'm grateful. I can not help but coo and giggle .... what a wonderful remedy for what ails you. See if I can't post another one ..

You know what.. this may seem selfish... but I look at little Levi.. and I long for a time when things were simple.

What an absolute Joy this child is!

July 15.... praying...

After 85 days, BP has apparently managed to at least temporarily stop the flow of oil in to the Gulf of Mexico. I for one will say a prayer that this works. I got worried for a while that the world was forgetting this. It wasn't a front headline on CNN for a bit - oh no I thought, here is that complacency creep, apathy creep ... please, everyone, this oil rupture has to stop. Don't forget about it. Don't go about your day like it's not there. Don't put it in the back pages of the newspapers like the wars. It's here, now, it's real.

Say a prayer everyone.