BITTERSWEET

Sunshine! Finally we've entered a stretch of calm, cloudless days and warm temperatures and every morning the beach beckons. I've found it hard to resist...yesterday my sister Doreen (who is here until mid July) and I spent most of the day there and it was glorious. There was little wind and the sun felt blazing hot. But today I feel the need to lock in here at home, wash and hang out sheets, make seaweed bread, thin the spinach and cilantro in my tiny container garden. And take every opportunity to sit outside on the front bench (Doreen and I have been eating our breakfast out there most mornings), bask in the sun and listen for the sound of the corn crake, a rather rare bird that inhabits the island. Part of me really misses the solitude of winter here. There were hardly any visitors and the village seemed so quiet. It is bittersweet for me that tourist season has hit the island. It is still in the beginning stages, but we've had a few days when all the B&B's were full. Almost 45 walkers just disembarked the ferry and mowers and construction noises fill the background. It feels alive and vital now and everyone is drawn outside. 

Early March brought a snowstorm the likes of which hadn't been seen on the island in over three decades. It was exciting to wake up that morning and see my yard covered in snow with it still coming down pretty heavily. I waited until the next day to walk the loop and I was glad I did as some of the drifts on the northwest side of the island were up to my thighs. I followed the tracks of Eamon's quad where he had been up earlier to check on his sheep. It was so beautiful and changed the island into a icy wonderland.  

The lake was still partially iced over the day after the storm.

A short walk around the village while it was still snowing was so picturesque!

St. Patrick's Day saw a big celebration complete with a parade from the Harbour up to the Club. The two school kids headed up the parade with a banner and all manner of floats followed. There was a big meal in the Club and the craic (the Gaelic word for great fun) went on well into the evening.

House guests have been sporadic up till now. My youngest daughter Lily came in late March for two weeks. I met her at the airport in Dublin and we traveled directly to Belfast for three days to play tourist. We walked along the River Lagan to the Titanic Museum and spent a day on a Game of Thrones tour. I've never seen the show, but she's a big fan and I was surprised what an entertaining day it was in spite of being wickedly cold and blustery. Our tour guide was an actor on the show (he is a body double for one of the main characters and also an extra) so he was full of interesting tidbits about the production as we stopped at multiple spots where the show was filmed. We walked a trail to a 66 foot long rope bridge suspended 98 feet above jagged rocks in a churning ocean.

The carved door to the pub where ate lunch. It even had a Game of Thrones room with a throne! 

Belfast is clean and easy to get around although I found it expensive as the dollar is worth less against the pound than the euro. We made it back to the island on Easter morning and Lily and I had a great week-with my 60th birthday on Tuesday (there was a lovely and lively surprise party at Mary Catherine's with wonderful food and friends) and lots of island walks. 

My birthday cake made by my sweet neighbor and the island nurse, Maggie.

Lily's visit ended too soon and I took the train to Dublin to see her off. When I returned to the island, lambing was in full swing. It made walks all the sweeter to watch the babies running and playing in the fields. 

*(My computer crashed here, so I am coming back to this post a few weeks later.)*

I had a month before my friend of 35 years, Peggy, arrived. She'd sent me emails from Texas with a list of things she thought we could do...looking at her two weeks here as a kind of retreat. I didn't respond because I didn't feel I could explain what island life was really like. She just had to experience it. We talked late into the nights with steaming cups of tea and roaring fires. We took walks around the loop and to the cliffs. On a beautiful Mother's Day (American Mother's Day which is a different day that Ireland's Mother's Day) we walked the far east side of the island, a three hour hike where we watched waves crashing into the rocky shore and visited the great sinkhole, a sight which fascinates me no matter how many times I go there. It's maybe 40 feet across and you can't see the bottom. It was fenced years ago to keep sheep from falling in. I've heard some fantastical stories about it, the most recent being from Mary Jo who said it goes all the way down to the sea. It's one of my favorite walks on the island and the best place for an afternoon of contemplation as it is so quiet and secluded. 

The Great Sinkhole

After Peggy's first week here, I brought up the email with all the plans. She just nodded and said "I had no idea..." At the beginning of Peggy's second week here, my sister Doreen arrived and I had three ten hour work days ahead of me helping out in the Club so Doreen and Peggy took walks and hung out getting to know each other. They are so alike and so different both. Their philosophy on life is almost identical, their energy levels are exactly opposite, but they got on famously. We all traveled together to Tullamore for an overnight stay before Peggy headed to Dublin on the morning train to catch her flight back to Austin and Doreen and I headed back to Westport and the ferry to the island.

 Last Saturday was the 25 Year Anniversary of the Club opening. There was a big celebration with over 100 people showing up to the Club for a day of food and fun. There was live music from area musicians during the day (of which a few were Islanders) and some a cappella Irish ballads sung and even a recitation of a poem by my neighbor Jack. It was lovely to see everyone dressed in their finest enjoying the best the island has to offer.

So now it's just Doreen and I for a few weeks until my oldest daughter Sage and her husband and two kids get here. I am anxious to squeeze my grandbabies and show them the wonder that is Inishturk. They'll only be on the island for five days and I feel like I have two weeks worth of things I want to show them, so I may have to temper my enthusiasm and let them just relax and enjoy the time off. Less than a week after Sage and her family leave, Natalie, my oldest grand daughter will once again spend the summer here. There is nothing better than being with the grandkids. They shine a light on the true joys in life. Through their eyes, I get to see things anew.

I've been thinking a lot about my life here and have come to realize that these people, this place, brings out the best in me. I have had moments here that I hold up as some of the happiest times of my life. I feel accepted and appreciated and I remain eager and grateful to be a part of this community. I recognize this feeling from my work cooking for Mr. Parker, my beloved boss who passed away in the summer of 2016. He had a faith in me that made me feel invincible in some ways, and I worked hard to become worthy of that faith. It is different here because these folks are not my employers, but people I choose to live among. Having people believe in me makes me want to be a better person and, living here, I am given many opportunities to practice being that person. I'm deriving great joy in that practice. So it is bittersweet (again, that word) to think about not being here. I wish my family was just a short ferry ride away on the mainland instead of a long plane trip across the ocean and then halfway more across the expanse of America. 

So for now, I have an island summer ahead of me, full of children and beach times, long walks and sunshine, good friends and laughter. We never know what lies ahead, so it seems a worthwhile endeavor to strive to be happy, to enjoy every moment the best we can. Really, what more could we ask for?

WINTER IN PARADISE?

Inishturk is a winter paradise if you like long stretches of days reading by the fire while the sideways rain lashes at the windows! 

It seems the ferry has been cancelled more often than it's been running these past few months due to rough seas. Temps have held steady in the 40's mostly, dipping into the mid 30's a time or two, but the wind! It is ferocious at times, working hard to knock you off your feet if you're fighting against it. Hail/sleet hitches a ride on many of the storms that move past the island and as it moves over the mountain to the west, it works its way across the harbour leaving small piles that look like snowdrifts. I've been loving it! My morning ritual is to get up a bit before sunrise, make a cup of coffee and drink it while sitting at my front window watching the sun rise over the ocean. Bliss.

Hailstorm aftermath on my front deck

I haven't posted anything since right before Thanksgiving when I was preparing to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the Islanders. What a fun endeavor that was! Although I've cooked Thanksgiving dinner in Texas for 60-90 people for the last 14 years, this year felt so different. Because it wasn't a "job" per se, but simply a labor of love, I felt so much less stress (although those 14 years at Cypress Springs Ranch were full of more love than I could have wished for...). I thought maybe 30 people would show up, but we ended up serving more than 45. So many of the islanders volunteered to help in the kitchen and they set beautiful tables with white tablecloths and candles. If you're on Facebook, you can see a few pics from the evening-just search for Inishturk Island. About a dozen folks stayed after the meal and subsequent clean-up to sing Irish ballads and toast each other again and again. I smiled so much my cheeks hurt.

The ferry by the light of the November full moon

Folks here go all out for Christmas. Strings of lights brighten the houses and there's a live Christmas tree decorated on the hill above the harbour. Sitting in my living room, I had a perfect view of it every night, the blinking lights bobbing in the wind. Every visit to a neighbors house meant having a drink-most often a hot whiskey. I'd never heard of it before coming here and it's pretty good...pour a few fingers of whiskey in a glass, add a teaspoon of sugar (I'm partial to brown sugar) and stir to dissolve the sugar. Fill the glass with boiling water. Yum.

I didn't have a tree or decorations and was worried I'd feel sad or lonely, but it was a jam packed month, with lots of socializing. Towards the middle of December I started feeling like I was living in a fishbowl. In Texas, my home is in the woods with few neighbors. Here in Inishturk, I'm in the "City Center" as Mary Jo calls it. In the course of a couple days I was on the receiving end of conversations like, "I see you started your fire early today..." and "Pete saw you walk down to the beach and you didn't stop to visit him when you passed his house." and "You haven't gone out much lately, have you?" I decided I'd go into the mainland for a few days, finish Christmas errands and have some privacy. I booked a room for 2 nights, which increased to 3 when the weather turned and it was "get off the island early or don't go at all." In Westport I shopped and mailed packages and went to the movies and relaxed. My first morning back on the island, I woke before dawn, dressed really warm and took off on the loop walk. As I walked up the hill I saw there was a light on at Brid & Joe's and wondered who was up. As I passed Mary Catherine's, I noticed the kitchen light was on and assumed Bill was starting his day. Looking back down the hill at the houses in the harbour I took note of any activity and then suddenly realized I was doing the very thing that annoyed me so. Imagine having your existence limited (for the most part) to less than a square mile-this area on the east side of the island. It's not a small amount of effort to leave the island, so your immediate surroundings are the center of the Universe and you notice most everything. Distractions are few and life becomes an exercise in observation. I had a complete mind change during that walk, ruminating on what it means to be part of this community and I have to tell you, the good far outweighs the minor annoyances. 

The last moonrise of 2017 over Caher Island

So the holidays came and went, Christmas and New Years' and then some down time recuperating from too much sugar and alcohol and rich food. I read a lot and wrote a lot (but obviously not here) and baked a lot. The flours here are so different from what I've used in the States. There is no such thing as bleached flour here- the white flour is a gorgeous buff color with bits of bran. The whole wheat flour, called Wholemeal flour, is coarse and grainy with nubbins of wheat kernels throughout. It makes wonderfully hearty bread. 

A batch of seaweed bread dough before the first rise

Vegetables in Ireland are inexpensive and of good quality. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and other cole crops are the best I've ever had. I've been making Gomasio to use on the sprouts and have made extra to give away. When my kids were young, it was a staple in our house to sprinkle over brown rice. Two ingredients and about 10 minutes time and well worth the effort. Here's how to make it: Pour about 1/2 cup of raw sesame seeds into a skillet. Turn the heat to medium high and wait a minute or two until the sesame seeds begin to jump. As they pop, shake the skillet, really move them around. You'll notice the color of them change to a light brown. When they seem consistently browned and you can smell a toasty smell, take them off the heat. Add 1-2 teaspoons salt and immediately pour into the bowl of a food processor (or into a tall narrow vessel and using a wand blender) and whizzz away until you have a brown powder that smells like bacon. So good on rice or baked potatoes or most any veg. Keeps for quite a while in a covered container in the fridge. 

February 1st was St. Brigid's Day which is considered the first day of Spring. St. Brigid is one of the Patron Saints of Ireland along with St. Patrick and St. Columba. A group of about a dozen of us met at the school and with the two students enrolled this year, we made St. Brigid's Crosses from rushes gathered on the island. 

I made a cross this morning from rushes I collected on my walk yesterday

I scoffed at February 1st being the first day of Spring and then yesterday awoke to the most glorious Spring day! Greeted with a cloudless blue sky and barely a breeze, I got a load of laundry hung out on the line and took off for a walk. I sprawled out on a rock slab above the lake and enjoyed the sun beaming down. I took pictures of mosses and the ocean and the brilliant blue sky. I gathered rushes to make more crosses and noticed the honeysuckle was leafing out on the west side of the island. It was really spectacular to have that little preview of Spring although today it is grey, rainy and windy again and my fire has been roaring since mid morning. 

The north side of the island. On the very top of that mountain are the remains of a Napoleonic signal tower.

 Tale of the Tongs and the lake. I like this spot because you can see the Atlantic ocean on both the north and south sides of the island from here.

A myriad of mosses growing on a rock

These planting hills are nicknamed lazy beds. They're plentiful on the island and are where potatoes and maize were grown in times past. In Texas we situate our beds horizontally to catch the rain-here the beds are made vertically to shed the rain.

A wild, but friendly horse that roams the west side of the island

So here's to Spring as it is right around the corner!