A New Arrival - picture heavy

Hi everyone,

I have so much to share and I'm not sure what I should share first.

I know, I will go in order of events.

Firstly, I finished my second crochet cardigan for my grandaughter...my first grandaughter, who at this time was not yet born (bit of a clue there hey?)

On Tuesday I was in pieces because my baby was going into be induced on the Wednesday. My 26 year old baby that is, for her to have her own baby.   It was a beautiful sunny day so hubby took me for a drive to Galway to distract me.

Along the new road from Ballinagare to Westport, are some amazing wicker animals.  We were only on the road for a few minutes so I photographed one but I'll try to get the others to show you another day. They include reindeer, a pig, a hare, a deer, a cow and some others.  This is the newest one, a horse and groom.

In typical Irish style, there is no information about who made these which is  a shame because I would have liked one for the garden...a hare of course!

We came across this as well.  You have to keep your eyes open when you drive around Ireland, because there are all sorts of wonderful things to see which are unmarked and not on any map.  How cute is this?

Galway itself was as gorgeous as ever.

 

So that sorted Tuesday out.

Wednesday my daughter went in to be induced, and I tried to be calm and not worry..and failed miserably.  Nothing happened on Wednesday though, so it was going to all tried again on the Thursday.  I was up all night worrying that my daughter was in pain and suffering but in reality she was fine.

My hubby decided to take me out (again) to try and distract me (again).  We went to Tulsk, just down the road from where we live.  I'm so lucky because where we live, we are surrounded by burrens, myths and legends and it all centres around Rathcroghan.

I've put the link so you can see and find out more about where I live, and the amazing stories that are the myths and legends.

It's hard to get a decent piccie of the many burial tombs there are here.  History had not been kind to these treasures.  Animals graze on them, road go through them...don't get me started.  The past was not respected here until recently.

Basically, I live next to the largest  and oldest unexcavated royal complex in Europe...and that is plain amazing! There are better arial pictures on the website on the link.

We then nipped across the road to visit Tulsk Abbey.  Again, Ireland is littered with ruins like this which are only just being recognised as Tourist attractions.

The plus side is there are never any queues!

 We then followed the trail to Ogulla Well: one of St Patrick's (many) holy wells where he is thought to have baptised to daughters of the land owners, after which they ascended to Heaven.  I'm not sure if that means they died or something else...I didn't like to ask.

All sorts of personal items have been left at the Statue of St Patrick and the well, included (for some reason) single socks.  I felt a bit sorry for the place because it is run down. The little church has huge cracks in the walls, is dirty and very, very neglected.  It should be one of our treasures but of course, that would mean someone with some common sense would shout out and tidy it up and add it to the tourist trail/holy trail.

There were letters to St. Patrick. This one was particulary poignant.  It is someone asking for prayers for their brothers who were both in prison.  Very sad.

We got home to hear that our daughter had been in labour for 9 hours and had finally been offered an epidural.  Another night spent without sleep and then at 5.30 am, Friday Morning, we got the call.  Our grandaughter Elyssia Shaveen had made her arrival.  My daughter had a tough time of it and had to have emergency treatment after the birth because she haemorraghed, but they got it sorted out quickly.

So please meet my latest stitching distraction. Alyssia.

Wow, a long post.  I hope  you managed to get to the end of it ok.

Have a great week everyone xx