Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

As a special treat this Saint Patrick's Day, I wanted to share photos of a trip to Ireland accompanying Daddy's Berea College Bluegrass Ensemble in 2004. This may not be the most recent trip to Ireland, which was in 2007 and I also have pictures of, but I loved this trip and its many pictures.

One of our very first stops was Kinsale, which we viewed over this large lake.

It was extremely windy here, blowing directly at us from the water.

Here we are looking downhill at this Irish street.

This is a closer look at one of Kinsale's harbors.

Another nice view from across the lake.

My family's hosts, John and Anna O'Keefe, lived out in the countryside outside of Cork, and their view out their kitchen window was the classic Irish landscape.

The bluegrass band met up with John and Anna's Irish band in pubs and homes for musical evenings during the first few days of the tour.

John is the banjo player in this group of Irish musicans.

We got to enjoy Irish dancing too. Anna is the dancer on the right, with John on the left side.

John took us to Barryscourt Castle, which is a restored Irish castle.

Sitting around the table in the Great Hall...

Emma and I posed outside the castle. Emma was close to six years old at that time.

John had also arranged a trip to go to Blarney Castle, home of the stone that is said to give elequent speech to everyone who hangs upside down from the castle's topmost tower and kisses the stone. I had visited Blarney Castle before when I accompanied the Berea Festival Dancers to Ireland in 1998, and fell in love with the place, even though I didn't have any desire to kiss the stone. I like my own way of writing. I still wanted to look at the stone but it was tough to go upstairs either up the spiral staircase or the great hall staircase, since neither had any railings. I made it up the sprial staircase as far as the murder hole before we turned around and headed back down. Daddy went back up and kissed the Blarney Stone. However, I don't think Mommy kissed the stone, being pregnant with Emma at the time. It would have been kind of tough for her to hang upside down many feet high in the air. I enjoyed peeking into the cavelike dungeons during that trip with the help of someone else's flashlight.

On this trip, the band members Megan and Amber accompanied us, though Deborah, Jonas, and Ryan voted to look at a big boat instead, having already been to Blarney Castle. I loved walking through the long path through the trees and grassy areas, with the castle eventually coming into view. John took this picture of the rest of us posed in front of the castle, which was quite similar to me taking part of Festival Dancer group pictures in this same spot. This time, I was carrying a bag that held a bear with an Irish dancer dress that I had bought in Kinsale. I adored my Irish bear, and from the time I bought her, she peeked out of my bag, enjoying the same sights that I saw.

Here is a close-up view of Blarney Castle, walking around to the back entrance.

When we entered the castle, we discovered that this time, there were railings on the stairs! We crossed the great hall to its staircase and headed up it. We could see a fireplace on the second story, where there is now open air. It was interesting to imagine what Blarney Castle was like in its earlier days, before it became empty ruins.

I went up a smaller sprial staircase and then up some very steep stairs. The castle was still challenging enough to fulfill my sense of adventure. Here I am emerging from those stairs about to enter an open courtyard. We were just below the top of the tower where I could see people lined up to kiss the Blarney Stone. The sprial staircase that I had earlier gone up to visit the murder hole was in the corner of the courtyard, continuing on to the towertop. It too now had railings.

After looking around the courtyard, Mommy and Daddy insisted it was time to go back down. We entered the main spiral staircase, which was thankfully easier now that it had a railing. I enjoyed peering into the murder hole again, reminiscent of my earlier experience at Blarney Castle. This time, we had time to explore the gardens around the castle, something I had also really wanted to do. It was so beautiful there, and I wanted to see more.

John showed us this circular wall, and I enjoyed boosting myself to sit on it, with my feet dangling in the air. I couldn't help reminding myself of Humpty Dumpty. I hoped I wouldn't have a great fall. Even though we were nearbly a castle, there wouldn't have been any of the king's horses or the king's men to try to save me. I wasn't really worried however, just mostly enjoying myself. I knew to be careful.

After the Blarney Castle visit, we gathered together at a home for a big evening of music. Here I am sitting next to Deborah Payne, holding on to my Irish bear while enjoying myself. I often made my bear dance to the music.

On the way to visit the Cliffs of Moher, we stopped at this fairy fort, where Irish fairies were said to have resided.

We arrived at the famous Cliffs of Moher bordering the Atlantic Ocean, and the band members enjoyed lying on the rocks to get a good view.

My family walked along the cliffs where we found this small castle perched alongside it. Since I have a big love for castles, I posed in front of this one while Mommy took my picture.

I had this close-up picture taken of me with the Cliffs of Moher in the background.

A nice band picture with them relaxed and enjoying themselves...

Things got a bit wild here. Daddy was just pretending to fall off the side of the cliff, with the band members taking part of the dramatics. There was in fact a lower ledge that kept Daddy safe.

We went to an Irish horse farm, where the farmer let the band ride horses. I was rather nervous to be up on a horse, so I was going to try to follow them on my feet instead.

After hurrying to keep up with the horses, they were still too fast for me, so the farmer's wife led me back to the horse stables to rest. I noticed a grey horse looking out of its stall, and I felt like it looked rather bored and lonely. I felt the horse could use a friend, so I came up to the horse. To my surprise, the horse started licking me all over my face with its huge tounge, as if thanking me for coming over! I had never been kissed by a horse before! Suddenly, the horse snatched my glasses right off my face and dropped them into its stall. My glasses had been stolen by a horse! Partly amused and partly panicked, I ran to the farmhouse where the farmer’s wife was despite my blurry vision, and told her what happened. She just gave me a red crate to sit on, and told me to wait for the others to return. Part of the time I was laughing about the horse stealing my glasses, and part of the time, I was in despair, longing to have my glasses back. In one of my desparate moods, I looked back to the stall door and I noticed a gap between it and the ground below. I came up with the idea that I could reach under the stall door and possibly grab my glasses. I went down onto the dirty shavings, reached under the door, and found my glasses! When I pulled them out, I saw that they were very bent up with horse teeth marks on them, but at least I had rescued them and they were back in my hands. I managed to straighten out my glasses and put them back on my face, hoping that I wouldn't get in trouble for what just happened. Thankfully when the others came back and I told them what happened, they were amused and not upset at me. I have forgiven that horse for what he had done, and amuse myself by imagining him wearing my glasses. Here is a group picture after this experience, with my horse friend unfortunatly hidden from view, though a young boy is seen greeting the horse. I am sitting on the same red crate, with the stall door behind me. You can see the gap where I rescued my glasses.

We stayed overnight at this youth hostel with vines covering its sides. We enjoyed being outdoors before a concert that evening at a big cathedral in a nearby city.

The front lawn was a nice place to practice music.

I was making my bear dance beside me in the grass.

We also went to Killarney National Park, which is Ireland's first national park. We walked along a wooded trail that went alongside the lake until we reached a place where we could walk along the rocks that bordered the shoreline. I loved being there and looking around.

The Bluegrass Ensemble chose a spot on a log to pose for a picture.

Emma and I then joined them. Unfortunatly, that log didn't prove to be a good choice. We discovered a colony of tiny bugs who were angry at us for invading their log and flew around us, giving very painful bites. They were so small that we couldn't see them, but we could certainly feel them attacking us.

Even after getting up from the log, the bug bites continued. We could hardly take time to enjoy the view of the lake as we struggled to get away from the invisible predators who were angerily gnashing at us. My hands and face kept getting attacked, with Mommy and me being behind everyone else, trying to get up a difficult ledge that led to the trail. It was quite an experience, running to get away from attackers I couldn't even see.

We drove to an upper section of Killarney National Park, where we could get out of the cars and enjoy these views of the beautiful Irish countryside without any animals attacking us.

We eventually reached Lismore Castle where the castle grounds are available for the public to tour, though the inside is off limits. The band members decided to walk into town instead, leaving my family to walk around Lismore Castle by ourselves. I was loving it here. It was another great castle to visit, with beatutiful gardens.

We walked in between a great aisle of giant trees.

We eventually crossed into the upper gardens, which were more organized with planted trees and shrubbery.

Among the last places we visited was Ballymaloe House Hotel. It was a very large and fancy house where the Bluegrass Ensemble was going to give a performance. We were going to be treated for dinner afterwards. Emma and I are seen in the sunroom awaiting the performance.

A view out the windows...

The band played in the corner of the living room, which was filled up with people watching.

We returned to Cork, Ireland, and had some last minute fun with John and Anna O'Keefe and friends before heading home. Just as we were driving to the airport, this rainbow appeared in the sky. This was a special Irish farewell.

Celebrating Another Birthday

My 27th birthday was February 28, and the next day, on the very anniversary of me getting Pippin, I had another birthday party at my house. This time, Pippin mostly avoided people by staying outside, but we had another new addition to the family. Our new puppy Rusty came over to my party, and he was eager to greet people. I had asked for the usual pumpkin cake with chocolate frosting, and here Mommy is shown presenting it to me, with my best friend Rebecca Wheat along the many watching. The cake was good, though we had to make sure that Rusty didn't get any.



After the cake was eaten, our friend Fred Park, who is a professional photographer as well as a dance caller, insisted on taking a series of group pictures of everyone. Such photos give a good example of how many people were at my party. This photo that he sent me shows up smaller than my photos, but you can click on it to get a better look. Emma is holding Rusty, with Sage right behind me glancing over towards him.

I went from being surrounded by people to being surrounded by presents.

Among the first presents I got was Edgar Prado's book My Guy Barbaro. I had wanted this book ever since I had heard it was coming out this past April, and was very happy to see it become mine. My cousin Adelie is seen peering at me from beside the couch.

While I was opening presents, Rusty was still greeting people. This is a cute picture I took of Rebecca holding Rusty, with the two of them looking at each other.

They turned to look at me at the same time.

Rebecca borrowed my camera again, and just as I was looking at this outfit that her mother Debbie gave me, Rusty jumped up on the couch, and he wanted to greet me right then!

These are a couple of cat toys I got. They dangle from a stick, and I knew that Pippin loved to go after toys like these.

Rebecca took this picture of Rusty at my feet, with him apparently interested in the string in front of him.

Rusty came up to Rebecca and gave her a funny look.

Hazel was showing me how Sage had decorated the card and envelope they had given me. My next door neighbors Tina and Jason's one-year-old baby Iris is shown visible by my left arm. They had just moved in last spring after my old neighbors John and Amy moved away.

Sage also did this big drawing especially for me. Hazel pointed out what certain squiggles represented, such as flowers. Sage had been really eager to draw this and give it to me.

Hazel gave me this book that featured female writers writing about their feline companions. That applied to me pretty well.

Another book that Hazel gave me, called If Your Cat Could Talk, was a guidebook explaining many facts about cats and how to take care of them. It is filled with cat photos.

Adding to the cat stuff, Rebecca gave me a cat magnet that looked a lot like Pippin!

This bag contained another present that Rebecca and her mom gave me. I could see a blue blanket tightly wrapped up, which turned out to be very hard to pull out. I grabbed the blanket with one hand and the bag with the other, and proceeded to pull as hard as I could with a grin on my face.

After some tough efforts, the blanket finally shot out from the bag.

Yet another present from Rebecca was these colored pencils, waiting for me to do artwork with them.

Before the party, Fred Park told me that he had written a whole dance named after me, and showed me this paper very quick. Now, it was officially time to look at the handwritten moves of a brand new contra dance called "Rachel" (Fred hadn't known that my name has an unique spelling.)

Now it was Mommy's turn to look at the dance.

This dance offically made its debut at my house, with people lining up outdoors on my deck. I never had a dance held at my house before, much less a contra named after me.

Rebecca and I moved to the window together, where we had a better view of the dancers. I took a few dance pictures.

Hazel was doing a interesting demostrative pose. My professor Paul Smithson was Hazel's dance partner.

Everyone decided it was too cold outside to keep dancing on my deck, so the dance was moved into my living room. Even though my house isn't as spacious as my family's house, which was built for contra dancing, there was still room for one small line. Rebecca took my camera upstairs to take pictures. Fred is in the middle of the picture across from my aunt Nancy Ann who was holding Adelie. He was calling as they danced.

Fred was explaining a move in the photo below.

Rebecca came downstairs and took this good picture of Mommy, Daddy and Hazel as part of a tight circle.

From where I was sitting by the sliding door, I had a good view of Emma, Rusty, and Sage all watching the dancing from upstairs. I didn't have my camera yet, so I was glad that Rebecca took this picture.

Rebecca came over to me to take this picture from my perspective.

Rebecca finally stood in front of the two lines for another great snapshot. Because there weren't any musical instruments brought to the party, Fred had the dancers sing out loud the tune of "Jump at the Sun" once they had mastered the dance.

Rebecca handed me back my camera and had to bid goodbye to me. I turned to the brand new bookshelves that Daddy had built just shortly before my birthday. The shelves are a nice example of my decorating job, with small books and items filling up some of the empty spaces.

Sage had his nice pose as she looked at me from the top of the stairs.

The dancing was now over, with the remaining guests lingering around and talking. Sage, Adelie, Emma, and our cousin Camille were all observing the action from upstairs at this moment, though they did a lot of running around in my loft space. Sage and Adelie especially loved chasing each other back and forth. The photos I tried to take of them running around turned out to be a blur.

Rusty got on my couch and took another cute pose, looking around.

He joined Adelie going up the stairs, side by side.

At the top of the stairs, he met up with Sage, and they peered down together.

Later on, Camille took Rusty, and they sat together in my net swing that Daddy had removed at the beginning of my party. Now there there was just family remaining, the swing was put back up, and Camille took Rusty for his first swing ride. Adelie became very interested.

As I waited for Pippin to come back indoors, I took this solo picture of Rusty sitting in my living room chair, with the evening light growing and the party people gone. Pippin's massive pillow had been set behind the chair, so the chair could be used as a people chair. The chair was a good setting for Rusty at this time.

Pippin still hadn't returned when the rest of the family went to the other house to fix a lasagna dinner. I was left on my own to wait for him. He had earlier approached the sliding doors twice during the party, but quickly ran away again when he saw how many people there were. It was quite dark when Pippin finally came into my house, but I made sure I spent some time with him before rushing off to the other house. I think Pippin was glad for the few minutes alone with me. He lay on top of the card table that was set up for my party, giving me opportunity to take this picture. The flowers in the foreground were a present to me. Pippin and I had a peaceful ending to a big party honoring my 27th birthday.