Ireland Part 2...

All jewellery charity shopped. Blue earrings bought in Co. Sligo charity shop for 99 cents

Hello again. Thank you for the lovely welcome back comments; I really appreciated them. It's such a fabulous supportive community blogland. Mostly, anyway....

I can't say it hasn't been strange since I came back. I did very little for nearly eight weeks and now I'm back to rushing around but first let me tell you a little more about my time in Ireland.

I wasn't aware OH had taken this photo outside the church at the funeral of my cousin.  Here I'm checking with my cousin Gillian who is reading which bit at the service. Behind me is cousin Irma and of course, cousin Doirin in black and white. Everything I'm wearing is charity shopped and the kimono is the first one I ever bought. I'm wearing a black shirt underneath it which I bought in a charity shop in Donegal for 2 euros and the black and white trousers are 1 of 8 pairs that I had. I left this pair in Ireland.

 Whilst out walking in Mountcharles, Co. Donegal, I spied one of these:

Do you know what is?
It's a robot lawnmower. I saw it moving from a distance and found it a little bit scary but it was doing a great job mowing neat, even strips of lawn, then turning around doing another one.....

When my daughter came out to stay we spent a couple of days in Belfast. We stayed overnight and did some sightseeing on both days. The second day we did an open top bus tour and one of the most interesting things we saw were the murals on the 'peace' walls dividing the Protestant areas from the Catholic areas. I took many more photos but my phone ran out of memory and in the effort to free up some space many were accidentally deleted. These are all I have.

Daughter in front of a Peace Wall

I hung out with my cousins; Gillian, Doirin and Irma in Irma's new house. The red striped top was charity shopped in Donegal for 3.00 euros.

I went to a summer festival in Sligo with Martina and saw Paddy Casey;

And Mundy

Of course it rained but we were prepared with folding chairs and umbrellas... Martina danced her socks off - she did, honestly!

When OH came out we went to visit Lissadell House in Co. Sligo. We first visited it 19 years ago. It was the home of the Gore-Booth's; of whom Constance Gore Booth, better known as Countess Markievitz, was one of the prominent and the only female leader of the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin.

This is the only photo I had left on my phone. Lissadell Bay seen from the Alpine Garden of Lissadell House.

In the walled garden  of Lissadell House, there were several signs asking us not to pick the fruit and vegetables.  I posed for a photo where I was pretending to pick a pear. As I reached up, a drone suddenly appeared and hovered above until it was sure I was only pretending! 21st century security....

We also took this ferry from Burtonport to Aranmore Island, population 400!

You can see from the photos that it was misty, drizzly day. We didn't see the island at its best but it was a beautiful, peaceful place. We'll definitely be paying a return visit and will hope for better weather!

I didn't get much crocheting done on holiday. I just wasn't in the mood very often. I've crocheted the equivalent of two rows of my latest blanket so there's only seven rows or 63 squares left! I'll be getting back in to it now I'm  getting back into my usual routine.

When I got back from Ireland, I had the grandsons for two days as they didn't return to school until Wednesday. On Tuesday we went to Woburn Safari Park. Some of my photos didn't get saved because of the memory problem so a giraffe and some lorikeets is all you're getting...

Everything I'm wearing is charity shopped including my African print bag.

I don't know why youngest grandson is pulling such a weird face...

Lorikeets drinking nectar....

We saw lions, tigers, bears, camels, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, eland and other deer, spider monkeys, lemurs, capybaras, sea lions, wallabies, emus and water buffalo. Middle grandson did a high ropes course called 'The Giraffe Climb'.  We had a lovely day.

On Wednesday, OH and I went to Leighton Buzzard for a much needed rummage. Leighton Buzzard which is in Bedfordshire was home to Mary Norton' author of 'The Borrowers,' one of my favourite children's books of all times.

This is now a school.

We had never been  to Leighton Buzzard before and there were 7 charity shops including one for Breast Cancer. - that was a first for me.  I bought  a pair of trousers for 2.00 and a tea cup for 49p! We stopped in Ampthill on the way home where in Barnardos they had a 49p bin for men and women's clothes; getting rid of summer stock, I suppose. I bought quite a few bits -  not all at 49p!

These leggings were one of the 49p bin buys. Everything else charity shopped; the turquoise cardigan is an old faithful wardrobe staple. Pink shoes charity shopped in Donegal.

There are some Irish shortbread biscuits and jam under the hall table for my friend Ann...

The navy top by Wallis was another 49p bin buy! The kimono was also bought in Barnardo's for 2.99. Navy trousers from Primarni about three years ago. Shoes as before.

All jewellery charity shopped.

I bought this necklace in Donegal for 2.00 euros.

I also went to visit my son at the weekend and wore this:

All jewellery charity shopped.

I bought this coat by M&S for 7.00 in the Cat's Protection League; either earlier this year or late last year. Either way the weather was not right for it, so since I've come back I'm wearing it as much as possible. Black sandals charity shopped locally just before I went to Ireland.

Green trousers, Next; patterned top, Next; lace shirt unknown label; all charity shopped.

Yellow scarf charity shopped.

Finally, I ended my first week back at home with a 9.5 mile walk with my friend from the food bank.

I've been enjoying the warm, pleasant and sometimes sunny weather  since I came back from Ireland and it was so good to wear my summer clothes and sandals. I wore sandals only on maybe three occasions in Ireland because it just wasn't sandals weather. But there is a definite autumnal feeling in the air now The evenings have drawn in, the trees are changing colour and it may be time to start checking out what summer clothing needs to be swapped over...

Until next time, cheers!