Thanksgiving in Ireland

Thanksgiving in Ireland is going to be a bit different.  Since it is an American holiday my husband will not have traditional Thursday and Friday off of work.  In fact today is the day of and he is at work right now.  We have decided to move our celebration to Saturday instead which seems to be the norm in America for those that do work on the Holiday.
I thought for this post I would try to go over a few things.  I have had several people ask me a few questions about the holiday and so I thought I might go over a few things.

Question 1- Do the Irish observe Thanksgiving and are they aware of it?  For some it seems obvious that they would not celebrate but some have never really put thought into it.  No, they do not observe it since it is all about America, Pilgrims, Native Americans, the Mayflower and such.  They do however know about the holiday.  Every Irish person I have spoke with on the topic has known about it. 

Question 2- Can you get a Turkey in Ireland?  Yes, it turns out it is an extremely popular food for Christmas.  We have been told that the Irish really look forward to their Christmas turkey.  We have been seeing many bins full of turkeys since early November.

Question 3- Does Ireland have other Thanksgiving type foods available?  Yes and no.  I went the other night with list in hand to find all that I needed for our celebration day.  When shopping I could not find any canned pumpkin, canned yams, or marshmallow cream.  Once we had trouble finding these items we went in search of help.  The person we asked for help gave us a very strange look when we said canned pumpkin.  They do not carry those or yams.  They have to be specially ordered.  That was such a strange concept to my mind.  What is even stranger, to me, is that the Irish do not eat pumpkin pie or candied yams.   (I have so much to learn)  They do however eat cranberry sauce, turkey, ham, stuffing, some type of vegetable and, of course, potatoes.  (there is many other items they traditionally eat but I will get back to those on a future post)

Our plan for food will be
Turkey, cranberry, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, some appetizers, cheesecake, cherry pie and thanks to our wonderful pastor and his wife we will get to make a pumpkin pie!  While visiting with them in their home, they being Americans, had some canned pumpkin.  They very graciously offered us a can.  I can't express to you just how much I appreciated that.  I wanted to attack them with a hug and a kiss but instead very discreetly took the can and held onto it with a smile on my face.  (our God is such a merciful and gracious God.  Even my want for pumpkin pie matters to Him)

So, other than missing some of our family and friends we are looking forward to having a wonderful celebration.

Burning Peat

With the weather getting much cooler and the damp feeling in the air, we decided to start up the fireplace. 
Here in Ireland the thing to burn is not wood but instead peat.  It turned out to be a beautiful thing and we loved the smell (which wasn't much) as well as the warmth.  One thing that was quite different was that there was no crackle sound.  I did miss that sound.  It took us a little while to learn how to burn it but before we knew it we had it figured out.  At first we burned them the way you do wood when you stack them up into a pyramid shape and then discovered that was not necessary.  If you lay the peat blocks flat with a little space in between each one they burn quite well. 

What is peat?  It is an accumulation of partially decayed vegitation.  Yes that's right, it's dirt.  (with some other things in the mix) 

While looking online for some information I found this web page with information about Ireland's Peat Bogs. 

Click here for an informational video. 

The Wonderful Barn

Every weekend on our way to church we get a small distant glimpse of the Wonderful Barn. 

Many years ago I was watching a TV show about interesting man-made structures.  The Wonderful Barn was among them.  I remember thinking, "Wow I would really like to see that one day."  It never occurred to me that we would actually get the opportunity to do so.  Once we decided to try to get to it we didn't really know how we would do so.  After a little bit of driving around we found it!  And to our delight we were actually able to walk right up to it.  There is a wonderful walking trail going directly to it. 

 

We had to park along side a road and then walk through the some trees.

 

 

 

 

Our first view coming up to it.

 

 

Some Gardens we passed along the way.

 

 

We also passed this old fence.

 

 Tatar-Tot was super excited to come around the corner and see this. 

 

 

The information I have found on this barn is that it was made in 1743.  It was built by a widow by the name of Catherine Connolly.   It is believed to of been built in order to provide employment for the poor since it was built in the years immediately following the famine.  It's use was to store grain. 

The intent was to keep the grain from the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles who would come down from the Wicklow hills to steal and forage for food.

It is seven stories and has 94 steps on the exterior of it. 

In addition to the Barn there was two smaller structures which were used as dovecotes. 

Dovecotes are a structure intended to house pigeons and doves.  My understanding is that those birds were used for food.

 

Below is the home that was attached to the barn.  I sure wish we could have went inside and looked around.

 

 

I will never forget this barn.  The property it sits on is serene and the barn itself is quite whimsical.  The story of Alice in Wonderland kept coming to mind as I looked at the triangular shaped holes and cylindrical shape.   

 

 

 

Below is one of the Dovecotes.

                                               

 

 

 

During our walk we saw several people walking with their dogs.  Tatar-Tot even tried chasing some down.  We did call out to her and tell her to leave them be. 

 

 

I Think We Are Finally Official

I thought after receiving the green card we would be done with making things official. We still needed to go register which meant we had to go to the Immigration office and wait many many hours. It made me think of the Social Security office in America.
When we got there we had to get in line to get a number and then wait many hours until called. Not a lot of fun when you have the whole family including our little Tatar-Tot. She handled it very well and we are very proud of her and her patience. After getting called (one at a time) we each had to show proof of who we are, sign a paper, pay money and then go stand and wait to be called again. After being called we then went into another room where they finger-printed us. Then we went and waited once again. We waited at least another hour before we were given our Residence Card.  I am so glad that is done.  We don't have to do that for another year. 
One of the best things that happened while there is when Tatar-Tot made friends with a little girl (same age as her) from Bangladesh.  While waiting they sang, danced and ate snacks together.  I am so glad that our children have had the opportunity to get to know so many people from so many different countries.  What a blessing!

Youghal (pronounced Yawl)

We went to Youghal a couple of months ago but the pictures never made it to the blog.  I want to share as much as I can so here is the gist of it.
Our trip to Youghal was fun and short.  On our way back from visiting Blarney we decided to take a detour over to Youghal and see a small part of the Atlantic. 
One of my favorite things about Ireland is the many small villages.  They are full of friendly people, and old world beauty. 
Our first arrival there was to the local Petrel Station to get some soft-serve ice cream cones.  If I haven't mentioned it yet, Ireland sales soft serve at almost every "gas" station and it is delicious.
With ice cream in hand we then drove to the town of Youghal.  Our first site was the typical Irish town with beautiful little colorful homes alongside shops and people walking along the streets. 

Below is some sites we saw while arriving into Youghal

 

The coast line was beautiful and we really enjoyed wandering about.  Tatar-Tot had a blast looking at all the colorful rocks.  She is our little rock hound and so it was a real treat for her.  She also had a few moments of squishing her little hands into the wet sand and then trying to put wet sand on us.  She just giggled and giggled.

 

 

                                                                                 

 

 

 

                                                                           Seaweed

 

Babby and Tatar-Tot had fun looking for seashells which are very easy to find here.

 

 

 

Spending some quality, sibling time together.  Although they do fight on occasion they are best friends.

 

 

 And the last of our pictures from this day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tatar-Tot enjoying the view.

 

 

 

 

  Some pictures on the drive home

 

 

A Summer Walk

These are pictures I took while taking a walk near our home this summer.  The difference now is that there isn't as many flowers and some of the trees have lost their leaves or changed color.  I have been amazed to see that the grass is still green.  I don't have very many new pictures yet, since it is quite cold out.