The Auld Lammas Fair

We went by bus to Ballycastle yesterday for the Auld lammas Fair.
It was a lovely day with just one shower when the waterproof jackets had to go on.
There was a big crowd as you can see in the photo.
These American Indians from Equador are always there selling their CDs of pan pipe music and jewellery. Sometimes they play for the crowd too although we didn't hear them play on this occasion.
There are always plenty of horses on offer. The sellers sometimes ride them to show them off to potential buyers. Many of them would be travelling people.
Of course there is the obligatory dulse and yellow man on sale too. This sign amused me. Note the use of the punctuation! Of course dad had to buy some "yella'man". It works wonders for your fillings!
This is my favourite shot of the day which shows Ballycastle beach. It looks secluded but behind me the noise is deafening - BBC radio broadcasting, line-dancers, street preachers, funfair, etc. etc.

Tall Ships Belfast

We are just back from a trip to Belfast today to see the Tall Ships. The festival runs through from today to Sunday. The weather was just perfect and we enjoyed the day. The last time we saw tall ships was with you and Jen up in Portland.


There were two of these blow-up people one at each end of the bridge.
This man reminded me of some of the strange people we saw in Edinburgh around festival time.
We went on to this ship called the Sagres. It is a Portuguese ship and is the largest one there.
It is 88.9 metres long and weighs 1950 tonnes.

The beard!

Well, here is the beard. We will have to do some trimming now and get it into shape for the "Twelfth" tomorrow! What do you think?

Scottish Highlands

We returned from our trip to the Scottish highlands last night. It was a lovely trip although the weather was not always the best. We travelled over on the Stena Line HSS ferry early on Monday and then met Dodds coach at Stranraer. We stopped off at Ayr and Perth on the journey up to our hotel at Carrbridge, near Inverness. Parts of the village were used in the filming of the "Monarch of the Glen " TV series. This interesting bridge was just across the river from the hotel.
We visited Drumnadrochit where there is a Lough Ness Centre and outside, the inevitable "monster" - albeit a plastic one! How disappointing when I expected to see the real thing!
On Wednesday we had a lovely trip on the Jacobite steam train from Inverness to Mallaig. It was a round trip of 84 miles. One particularly good part was going over the Glenfiddich viaduct.
Mallaig is a small fishing village looking out to the Hebrides.





Not far from Ben Nevis we visited the famous Commando Memorial in memory of the members of that elite regiment who died during World War 2.

Good growth

My garden is doing really well now. Keeping the rabbits at bay is the biggest struggle. They are very fond of the cauliflower plants and also the strawberries. Luckily they don't seem to like the broad beans or the potatoes. We have been using the lettuce and green onion tops already.
In this dry weather I try to give them plenty of water.

Summer at last!

We have had a few days of warm sunny weather now and it is supposed to last until midweek.
Yesterday was the pipe band contest in Enniskillen. It has been held at the Broadmeadow instead of Celtic Park for three years now. The move was mainly because of the weather making the field very soggy. I was there yesterday doing my usual job of helping with the sandwich making at the Killadeas Pipe Band catering stall.



Niall has been doing some boating too. Yesterday he went up to Enniskillen and then to Devenish where he met up with others for a barbeque. Today he went out with Paul, Chris, Maria and Lynsie and had another barbeque at Tully Castle. Hope this lasts a while!
Barry's engagement has taken place and we were over at the celebration party last night. He proposed at the top of Cole's Monument!

Belleek Flower Festival

Yesterday was a bank holiday here.
Our church choir was invited to sing choral evensong at a closing service after the flower festival being held at Belleek Parish Church. A new chancel has been built on and a most beautiful window added to celebrate the history of the pottery.
Being just on the border the people here have had difficult times so this event was very much a community effort and could raise as much as £20,000.Here you can see the window depicting many images representing the work of the pottery in Belleek. The original wall had no window in it but now it is bright and colourful with two additional small windows, one to left and right of the chancel.A commemorative basket was made by the pottery to mark this event. It is a traditional Belleek woven basket and in the base there is a picture of the new church window in porcelain. This costs £115 and for each basket sold, the church will benefit by £50. Apparently quite a few of these have been ordered by Belleek collectors in U.S.A.
By the way, it's still raining here. Can't put the umbrella or the winter woollies away yet!