Christmas has come

 

 

You are looking at the Christmas gift my husband and I gave each other this year.  It is a new wood burning stove manufactured by Blaze King, a catalytic  stove that only needs loading about once daily; one that heats our entire house for almost 24 hours on one load of wood!  This Princess model was delivered last Friday and has been burning ever since.  There is nothing as cozy as wood heat and for us is very economical since we own almost ten acres of woods in Oregon.  We have a heat pump to supplement our stove but we have completely turned off the heat pump since Friday with our house temperature staying between 68 F and 73 F degrees.  Nice!  This stove was also a real marriage saver.  We replaced our old wood burning stove which had the noisiest fan you could imagine with this stove.  I was constantly turning the fan on our old stove down because of the noise and my husband was constantly turning it up because he was cold.  This gem of a stove is quiet even with the fan running and very warm.  Now we are both happy and we had a very cozy Christmas.  The top of the stove can actually function as a cook top, so we never have to be concerned about loosing power for either heating or cooking.

 

 

 Most of our immediate family live scattered across the country from coast to coast.  Most holidays we spend a lot of time on the phone wishing everyone Happy Thanksgiving or Merry Christmas.  The post office gets a good business from us as we mails cards and packages across the country and even across the Atlantic.  This year we invited our near by neighbors to share our meal since they had no special plans for the day.  We cooked ham, sweet potato casserole, corn, garlic mashed potatoes,  cranberry relish, creamed chard and  rhubarb cobbler.  What a nice afternoon with our stomachs full, warmed by the fire and cheered by each other's company.

 

 



I had promised you that I would continue my tale of our trip to Ireland.  My cousin, John, owns several fishing cottages which he rents out year round.  He gave us the cottage about a quarter of a mile down the country road from his house for the week.  This charming cottage has two bedrooms, a full bath, a living room with cable TV, a wood/peat burning fireplace and a full kitchen with a washer and dryer .  If you are interested in an authentic Irish vacation, John's contact number is above on the cottage sign.  John lives along the river Shannon about three miles out of the town of Carrick-on-Shannon.  The town is reachable from Dublin airport by a two hour bus trip or from the Shannon airport by bus as well.  We chose to stay overnight in Dublin to adjust to the time change and took the commuter train from Dublin to Carrick-on-Shannon.

 

 Our first afternoon in Carrick-on-Shannon our cousins took us to the family cemetery in Agrium.  The church was built by the Franciscans in the 12th century.  This past year as part of the Irish "Gathering" a new tombstone was placed on the family grave with the names of all of our Conlon ancestors buried in this plot.  It was so awe inspiring to see the family name going all the way back to 1735 and knowing that I have a connection to this lovely land.

What would a visit to Ireland be without a visit to an Irish pub and some wonderful Guinness.  Both my cousins John and his sister Breda are very musical.  They played and sang Sunday night at a local pub, Cryan's.  Breda sings Celtic music professionally touring the country with her singing group for various events.  My sister Cynthia had our pictures taken the following day in front of the pub.  Carrick-on-Shannon has lots of pubs and is sort of known for being a weekend party spot.  There are river tours that run from Dublin and Sligo to Carrick and a number of condos that are rented out for weekend getaways.

 



 

 

The highlight of both my brother-in-law's and my husband's week was being asked by my cousin, John to help him haul one of his prize bulls out of a drainage ditch.  The cow got stuck when he saw an attractive young female in the next field and attempted to get to her.  Men will be men, no matter what their species.  With help from a backhoe and some ropes the bull was freed and my husband and brother-in-law became official "Irish Cowboys". 

 

 A visit to another pub on Wednesday night to listen to our cousins' music got me involved in learning some official Irish jigs.  I was asked to volunteer to learn the steps with the dance master before the whole pub was up and dancing with us.  It was great fun and I worked off some of the Guinness I was drinking that night.

 

 On Thursday we took a day trip down the west coast of Ireland.  My cousins rented a small bus and we went looking for my brother-in-law's ancestorial family in Milltown Malbay, the Nashville of Ireland.  We found the Talty pub and a relative who was writing the family history of Matt's mother's family.  On our way back home we stopped at the lovely and famous Cliffs of Moher.

 

 Saturday, my cousins decided to hold a family reunion of all of the related Conlons at the home where my great grandfather was raised before he immigrated to the United States.  My cousin John, pictured above on the left of the door, completely rebuilt this old farm house from merely stone walls.  The thatched roof had fallen in and the house lied in ruins.  The house sits on a piece of land that has the shores of the Shannon River as part of the lot.  The view is breathtaking and I think that it must have been very hard for my ancestors to leave this land.  John's work is magnificent both inside and out and his restoration does great justice to the site.  Again we sang, ate and drank to our family, those who are with us and those gone before us.



Husband John, Cousin Breda, John Conlon, brother-in-law Matt, Anne Conlon & sister Cynthia

On Sunday we bid farewell to our Irish family as we boarded the bus to Dublin airport from downtown Carrick-on-Shannon and onto the second leg of our journey to Scotland.  I believe that we left part of our hearts behind.

A friend of mine, Jackie Weatherspoon, who worked for the UN on various peace keeping missions told me that the first time she had the opportunity to visit South Africa and put her feet on African soil she immediately felt her connection.  I know what she means.  My heart feels very happy when I am on Irish soil and it feels even happier to know my connection.  Thank you so much my Irish family!