My springtime travels: coastal Spain and northern England

Members of my family and others I know will every once in a while create a ‘photo dump’ on social media – downloading sometimes dozens of photos from a certain timeframe or event. Well, today, I am creating a ‘travel dump,’ and will tell you about some of the fascinating places I’ve visited recently in northern England and coastal Spain. Beware! At 4,000 words, this is not a blog for the faint of heart! Coastal Spain I’ve travelled enough now to know what appeals to me, and I find I am not really attracted to large European cities. Not that…Continue Reading

A good grandparently decade

My mother was 74 when my only child Bridget was born. She was 49 when she first became a grandmother, quite affronted by the prospect of another generation when she still had kids at home and felt far too young, thank you very much. Some 25 years later when I gave birth to the last of her 13 grandchildren, she told me she finally felt like she’d aged into the monicker. The 70s, she said, seemed like a good grandparently decade. I’ve had reason to think of those words often, and take perhaps unreasonable heart at their hopeful prophetic nature,…Continue Reading

Musings of a first-time voter

Next Friday, March 8, I will be voting for the first time in Ireland, an honor and a privilege — and quite honestly beyond exciting. I have been waiting for this day since I received my Irish citizenship papers in 2018, thanks entirely to Ireland-born grandfather Thomas John McDermott. And certainly, I have been itching to be inside a voting booth since I arrived in Ireland in April, 2020. Among the many differences between the American and Irish voting systems, elections for local and national seats occur every 5 years instead of every 2 or 4, so I’ve been waiting…Continue Reading

She finds the dignity and worth in all cats

A Fur Person must be adopted by catly humans, tactful, delicate, respectful, indulgent; these are fairly rare, though not as rare as might be supposed. May Sarton, ‘The Fur Person’ “Hello, my darlings,” Rhona Lucas says in that silly singsong voice we all adopt when speaking with animals. “How are you?” Her darlings come from hither and thither when they hear her, some standoffish ones just taking a look, others ready for a stroke behind the ear, occasionally a snuggle, always drawn (let’s be fair here) to the promise of food. Cats and kittens, of all ages, many abilities, various…Continue Reading

In the company of King Arthur, Tolkien and Poldark

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to. Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings The inestimable Bilbo Baggins knew a thing or two about stepping onto the road. Despite protestations to the contrary, he decided as a middle-aged hobbit to take off with a bunch of dwarves he never met and a wizard he hadn’t seen since childhood. Along the way, he tricked a dragon, out-riddled a creature, confounded an Eleven king (not easily accomplished), hobnobbed…Continue Reading

I dig my newest venture!

We looked for all the world like turtles, hunched over close to the ground. In our hands were tiny, sharp trowels, which we scraped, scraped, scraped carefully over rocky ground. Every once in a while, someone would straighten up, hand outstretched, eyes bent on something in the palm. “What did you find?” a person nearby inevitably called, and perhaps others would join in. Heads would lift up. Thus was the rhythm of the days at an archaeological dig in the heart of the Burren here in County Clare in early May. A “community excavation” coordinated by the local land trust,…Continue Reading

Merhba, welcome, to Malta

“Bil-qatra I-gatra timtela l-garra,” a Maltese proverb tells us. “Drop by drop, the pot fills up.” And so it was when I visited Malta. Each day, a new experience, new knowledge, new awe until by the end of my time there, I felt quite full – still realizing there remains ample room in the pot for further drops. I guess a sign of any good holiday is the notion that you’d like to return, and that’s certainly true for me. I find I have a certain perspective when I travel. I am more interested in learning about culture and history,…Continue Reading

The importance of blood family, an Irish tale

This is a tale of resilience, of a 66-year-old man who has endured the heart-wrenching sorrow of loss recently and knows what it is to live with uncertainty, yet one who loved and was loved in return and now is ready to open his heart to more of love’s potential. It is also a tale of persistence, of a woman who by all yardsticks lived a difficult and hardscrabble life, working menial jobs in and around 20th century Dublin, who had to know hers was not a fit life for a child.  It’s a tale worth telling, and it’s my…Continue Reading

A word of thanks

I will buy the turkey early this week, presuming, all things being equal, that the Irish grocery stores will stock them. Turkey graces Christmas tables here, you see. This Thursday is just another day in Ireland. I will make the mashed potatoes from good Irish spuds, the stuffing, too. I was lucky enough to score some cranberries, too, no mean feat. And on Thanksgiving Day, my friends will bring the vegetable dishes and desserts to round out the feast. We will be three Irishwomen, two Americans and one Brit, breaking bread together as we celebrate this most American of repasts.…Continue Reading

Baby, you can drive my car.

This is a long, long, long and winding tale of a government, a virus and me. As with all stories, plot twists abound, driven by pathos, frustration and, ultimately, redemption. Our heroine tries to bear up under it all, sometimes with grace and sometimes lacking grace entirely, occasionally coerced into screaming like a banshee, and then trying desperately to center and calm the mind. Let me tell you, desperation is not a fit state for a calm mind! How she cursed those gurus who know ways of contentment. She would find herself trying to be reasonable and rational: surely this…Continue Reading