A diverse and lovely day

It looked like it was going to be rainy all day, so I thought a visit to Sligo Town, rather than an “outdoor” venue, was in order.  I hadn’t managed it before, as the traffic and parking seemed rather intimidating, but now I’m a bit more seasoned as a drive in Ireland, so I ventured forth.

A delicious lunch, thanks to a gift card from our HomeExchange partners, brought me spelt toast with nut butter at the local vegan cafe, Sweet Beats.  Perfect.

A walk around the pedestrian area had me admiring the nice old buildings as well as re-imagined shops and stores.

This sign caught my eye. Clever, even if not really true!  I’ve not seen that version before.

It still wasn’t raining so I headed out to Carromore, another megalithic gravesite nearby.  And amazingly, I bumbled into a tour, with an amazingly knowledgeable and gifted guide (he was truly an expert interpreter) that totally brought the site and the history to life.

The central gravesite is oriented so that its capstone illuminates the light at the solstice in spring and fall.  It’s perfectly oriented towards the Calleich de Vera (Witch of Winter) ridge where the sun comes up.  Amazing.   Here’s a link to the story.

Hard to imagine how special it would be to see this.  Just to learn about it — well, I was in awe of these long ago people who created this place.

Back to modern times, however, I was bemused to see these titles in a local bookstore.

Veg in One Bed and Grow All You Can Eat in 3 Square Feet — well, that’s a bit of a miracle, if you can do it.  You can grow a lot in a small space, but 3 square feet (or the bed of the other title) — I’m skeptical!

And definitely, polytunnels (or small greenhouses) are needed in this Northern European climate if you want to grow warm season vegetables (for sure), but really, growing anything, as one of our HomeExchange partners friend explained - for year-round gardening, because of wind and rain, polytunnels make it possible.