Yikes! I'm still a day behind! Here's how my Sunday went... :)
And by the way, I think I prefer the look of having pictures interspersed with explanations (what I had earlier). At least right now. I might change my mind though!
After Nan and I had a nice lie-in at the hotel, we ate a bit of breakfast and then headed back to the festival. We just breezed through with enough time to say hi to Rory (Darina's brother) and Tracie (an instructor at Ballymaloe) before they gave a cooking demo. I also managed to snag a gluten free buckwheat crêpe with Nutella and roasted hazelnuts. YUM!!! :D:D I haven't had Nutella in so long!
Just as we were almost through the festival, we found a conker championship! We don't have this in the US, but apparently in the UK and Ireland this sport is popular on the playground. You dry out chestnuts (or conkers), then bang yours against your opponents and alternate taking hits until someone's cracks. Whoever has the strongest conker is the champion for the day I guess :). Sounds like fun!
And by the way, I think I prefer the look of having pictures interspersed with explanations (what I had earlier). At least right now. I might change my mind though!
After Nan and I had a nice lie-in at the hotel, we ate a bit of breakfast and then headed back to the festival. We just breezed through with enough time to say hi to Rory (Darina's brother) and Tracie (an instructor at Ballymaloe) before they gave a cooking demo. I also managed to snag a gluten free buckwheat crêpe with Nutella and roasted hazelnuts. YUM!!! :D:D I haven't had Nutella in so long!
Just as we were almost through the festival, we found a conker championship! We don't have this in the US, but apparently in the UK and Ireland this sport is popular on the playground. You dry out chestnuts (or conkers), then bang yours against your opponents and alternate taking hits until someone's cracks. Whoever has the strongest conker is the champion for the day I guess :). Sounds like fun!
We walked along a trail by the Nore river to see what we'd find after the festival. I was feeling incredibly adventuresome and wanted to walk all the way to another town called "Bennetsbridge" I think (it was only 12 km away!!), but Nan had more sense and felt like we should stay closer to Kilkenny. I guess sometimes my curious spirit can get the better of me when I really need to take things easy. Plus it was raining. Here are some of the sights we saw while we were walking!
There was a lovely footbridge underneath a bypass that shielded us from the sporadic rain. It reminds me of home :). I wonder what the foliage is like in Richmond! I bet it's beautiful!!
We saw a FOX!! So cool!! I've never had one look me straight in the eye before. Until today, I'd always been slightly skittish of foxes (or at least the idea of having one nearby), but really they're much more scared of us! This thing bolted as soon as it saw us!
Miniature PONIES!!! Who would have thought!? Their living situation looked pretty awful though, which made me really sad. Nan and I fed them some of the apples we brought from Ballymaloe. There was one that was super mean to the other ones and wanted to hog the apples!! We made sure to distract him/her so we could get a few morsels to the other ones. Geez, it just did not feel like a happy place! There was trash and muck everywhere! My heart goes out to those ponies!
I found some plants that had seed pods similar to a kind of plant that grows near my house. When you touch the pod, it EXPLODES!! The explosion always startles me! I wanted to get an action shot to show you all. The pod curls up and looks like brilliantly green ribbons.
This is a quote that someone painted onto the wall we walked next to.
"The struggle makes you stronger, the changes make you wiser and happiness has a way of taking its own sweet time."
It's an interesting thought! I reckon you can't really force happiness, can you? Is it possible to become stronger without a struggle of some sorts? Can you become wise without change?
"The struggle makes you stronger, the changes make you wiser and happiness has a way of taking its own sweet time."
It's an interesting thought! I reckon you can't really force happiness, can you? Is it possible to become stronger without a struggle of some sorts? Can you become wise without change?
When we had almost returned to the city from our excursion, the Kilkenny castle popped through the trees. The scenery was so beautiful! It felt like we were walking straight into a picture!
Last but not least, as I was peeking over the wall guarding us from the river, some nasturtiums stretched their leaves towards me. I was going to munch on a flower, but I thought the better of it, given the my immune system has been weak lately. I really do love nasturtium flowers though!! They're so tasty!! :)
And so now it's time for Ballymaloe again. A super sweet taxi driver named Michael who owns a B&B down the road came and picked us up to take us home.
What a great experience! I'm so glad we decided to stay the night. We were able to get a better sense of the area - I don't think a couple hours would have been sufficient if we hadn't!
I hope everyone's had a lovely weekend! Halloween's coming up!!! :D
Love,
Livvy
And so now it's time for Ballymaloe again. A super sweet taxi driver named Michael who owns a B&B down the road came and picked us up to take us home.
What a great experience! I'm so glad we decided to stay the night. We were able to get a better sense of the area - I don't think a couple hours would have been sufficient if we hadn't!
I hope everyone's had a lovely weekend! Halloween's coming up!!! :D
Love,
Livvy