Since finishing the last installment of our trip to Ireland and the UK, I've been thinking that there were some things I left out. There were pictures I didn't show you and tales I didn't tell. So now, for the first time anywhere in print, here are the leftovers.
As you may remember, on our first day in Killarney we rode around in a horse buggy, called a jaunty car, with Delilah our horse and Mike our driver. On the way to Ross Castle Mike showed us the ruined castle on the left. This, he said, is a leprechaun castle.
I quickly scanned around for yellow moons, orange stars and green clovers, while he explained to us (picture of the boys in the band to the right) that the small holes in the wall are where the leprechauns climb and rest their weary bones for the night. While I didn't see Lucky anywhere, I could have sworn I hear a tiny voice say, "They're always after me lucky charms!"
On that same day, as we drove around the Ring of Kerry, we stopped and watched some dogs do their thing with the sheep. Um, ok. Anyway, these dogs were so impressive that they inspired Jacob to tell me for the rest of the trip (and even since we've been back) that he wants to be a sheep herder. He wants to have dogs just like those in the picture to the left. I can't say that I blame him, though. They were REALLY impressive dogs.
I've included a video I took of one of them doing his stuff which you can see by clicking just below. It's not the greatest video in the world, but it does give you a quick understanding of what we were watching. It was amazing.
Just as a courtesy so you can tell what in the heck is going on in the video, the dog in question ran up the hill (a big hill) and herded those sheep from right to left to right to left, changing direction whenever the shepherd blew his little whistle. Each movement was controlled by a different type of sound, but the dog knew exactly what each one meant. In fact, each dog was trained with different sounds, so when the shepherd blew a certain sound, only the dog he wanted to control would react. Like I said, very, very impressive. Wish I could get my own no-account dog to do some of that stuff. She has a hard enough time with "Sit!"
If you've read ANY of my entries herein, you'll note that we spent A LOT of time on the bus. I mean, the majority of our time was either in the bed or on the bus. It's funny, though. The activity of one bled over into the activity of the other. What do I mean? Well, there was a lot of the activity in the picture at the right going on in both bed and bus. In other words, we slept a lot on this trip, whether lying prostrate or leaning our head against a window as the scenery whizzed by.
As you can see from that picture of Jacob above, he was perfectly content to rest his head against the window and let his teeth chatter uncontrollably with the passing of each pothole. Others, like the one on the left, were not quite as anxious to do that. They just did the old man, saggy neck thang. I must admit, I've been guilty of this, even when I'm in the comfort of my own house.
Then there were the select few in our company who absolutely HAD to get a couple extra winks, as going to bed after midnight and then getting up before the roosters crowed was starting to make all of us a lot older than we really are. And we looked like it, too. Those people, the daring ones, bought Batman masks and used those neck pillow things to make seem like home. An example, the Dancing Queen, on the right.
I think that's where I'll leave it for today. I don't want to bore you too much. I know my writing is almost unreadable, so I'll save the rest for another day. Besides, all this talk of sleeping is making me bleary-eyed.
1 comment:
You didn't happen to see my mother-in-law jumping in and out of that wee castle did you? She's a wee leprechaun as you may or may not know.
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