Rain, rain go away, and it did!

We woke after a night of no internet so I apologize for the blog format, but working on the phone has been miserable.  Breakfasr was nice though the croissant was , well we aren’t in France, are we?  Eggs sunny side up, ha, croissant, and cafe au lait.  There were tomatoes, stewed mushrooms and the ubiquitous beans, which I passed on.  It was a rather a rushed affair as the tour guide had nit shared the schedule with us (which raised the ire of Claire) and we did not know our departure time. We shared our displeasure with him, but his customer service skills seem to be a bit lacking. 

The first stop was Weymouth  Victorian train station while Stephen “sorted” for us.  It’s beautiful though the bathrooms were supposed to be special and they were not.

We then too’ the ferry Toto Bute.  It is a grey blustery day , but after waking up to a torrent it has been a dry day.

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We went to a beach and had a quick look, there were supposed to be standing stones on the way to and from the beach according to “Stephen” but I never laid eyes on them, grrrr,  he’s not batting 100 today.

We then went to Mount Stewart House and it was lovely.  The name Stewart harkens back to the word steward which was the person closest, the server to the King. However, the house was not built by any Stewart I had heard of before.

What would it be like to have your own church?

I LOVED this bedroom!  I could sleep there!

The bathroom definitely got my approval!

We moseyed around the gardens. One before lunch (which was a small part of Claires ham and cheese toastie, and a cup of honey roasted parsnip soup) and one after.

Claire was particularly (me too but not as MUCH as Claire) struck by these lovely purple hydrangea.

Ferry back to  mainland via a ferry from Rosshire

And low and behold here were the Victorian bathrooms

Dinner at a local pub beef pie with mashed and honey roasted carrots.

Here we’ens come

•  This “American”adventure has been a corker. Our flight was delayed 4 times in Indy and then again after a 30 min walk from gate A___to gate F24.  I have been beaten to death by everyone walking by and don’t even mention the flight attendants. Definitely less space here too.  The flight from Philly was actually a comfortable amount of space and this one feels like I am jammed into a straight jacket.  

I carefully packed so I could get to the items I wanted and some entitled woman jammed her bag into the overhead pushing mine so far back that without total evacuation of the compartment I could not access it.  Triumphantly I remembered that I at least had one of my medication packets in my purse and between delivery of a cup of lukewarm (honestly I don’t have temperature issues) tea and someone expectantly sticking a garbage collector under my nose I didn’t  have time to take them.  Now to get through immigration and onto the bus.

It took forever to get our bags after a fairly efficient immigration.  We quickly found the CIE guy, John, who led us to a coffee shop to wait. He waits he’d be back about 9:30-10.  WHICH has come and gone.  

I ordered a coffee at the Black Sheep Coffee shop, banana carmel and let me just tell you! 

 Better than…….?  And so we wait.  We have met a lovely couple from Philly who is wondering with us where is John???

The start it not so auspicious,  we got let out WITH our bags to schlep than about a block through construction to a place that looks absolutely nothing like the website.  We are not impressed.

Later a trip around the city getting out at Glasgow Cathedral and the necropolis behind it.  

 

Lister did his germ busting research here and this is him. 

It was a bit of a trip up to the top but the view was lovely.  

Inside was lovely too, though we never found St. Mungo’s tomb, we did find a memorial to nurses!

This house is reputed to be the oldest house in Glasgow

Back at the ranch we had dinner of chicken terrine, chicken with some pretty yummy au gratin potatoes, green beans and blaggis.

  I wanted to try haggis and maybe this was diving in the deep end, but it was really pretty good.  Though I have a feeling that all haggis is not created equal.  For desert sticky toffee pudding!  Bath and bed!

St Mungo the patron saint of Glasgow Cathederal had 4 miracles and this is a ditty to help remember them.

Here is the bird that never flew

Here is the tree that never grew

Here is the bell that never rang

Here is the fish that never swam[9]

There are light poles with decorative fish on them referring to:  The Fish: refers to the story about Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde who was suspected of infidelity by her husband. King Riderch demanded to see her ring, which he claimed she had given to her lover. In reality the King had thrown it into the River Clyde. Faced with execution she appealed for help to Mungo, who ordered a messenger to catch a fish in the river. On opening the fish, the ring was miraculously found inside, which allowed the Queen to clear her name.

The story our guide gave us was not the same, also not as miraculous.

Time Trip

Our ride to New Harmony was Sweet, a mere 2.5ish hours rather than 4.5 ish!  I 69, even though it felt that there were years of strife about it, is a nice ride in comparison to what was. 

 Our B & B for the night is lovely, it reminds me of the Victorian across the street from where I grew up,  though a big grander.  I love all the wood, the odd shaped rooms, the tall windows and the crazy Victorian wallpaper.  

We got up this morning for breakfast and oops our electronics did not reconcile to the local time, so we were up an hour early.  The caretaker, Clarissa, had coffee ready though so we visited and waited for breakfast.  Which consisted of an egg soufflé, (utterly sinful) tater tots, a piece of sausage for me,  an apple muffin and OJ.

  After breakfast we drove around town and just looked and looked as I tried to remember from when Kathy, the kids and I came here almost 40 years ago.  We spied the restaurant for which we have dinner reservations, and Jodi scoped out where the concert is tonight.  (it is darned close!)

  I finally got hungry, but wanted something light.  I spied Main Cafe, suggested it, Jodi agreed.

  Unfortunately we did not agree on the same thing ( unbeknownst to us) and Jodi let me lead.  The look on Jodi’s face says it all!   They did not have soup, they did not have a cinnamon role, so I went with Pain Perdu (my spelling as I was trying to make silk out of a sows ear =  French Toast.  Pain Perdu simply means lost bread and the French used their old bread for what we call French Toast. Delish however you spell it) Let’s just say this place is a regular greasy spoon and NOT a do over.  The place Jodi thought she agreed to, when I saw it, made me wish Jodi was not so agreeable!

Regardless we went and walked around the Roofless Church.  It is lovely and I think it would be very fun to attend a worship there, when it is warmer.    

Then we  walked the labyrinth, I asked Jodi did she want the long way or the quick and dirty way,  I messed up and thought that there were two entrances.  Regardless after the "short way", we did the real one.  It is misty and 50 degrees so cool but not terrible, surely not as cold as it cold have been when I made plans.  We came back to the  A C Thomas house to rest before our big evening!  

We showed up to the Red Geranium at exactly 5 PM ( according to my phone, I forgot the time issues!!) and they seated us without missing a beat. I had steak  with a yummy sauce, broccoli (not the advertised Brussel sprouts) and a baked potato.   And of course a glass of wine.  Jodi had a baked potatoes.  It was good  They still had Christmas stuff up for a Valentine’s Day meal which was a bit odd.  We cane back to the room and shortly walked to the venue for the concert and we arrived so early  and they would not let us in the building for 20 minutes.  So we stood in the cool/cold and waited.   The concert was good as usual and Jodi got a  “You can do this hard thing” tee. She was pretty excited about that . 

 Off to breakfasts alone as she is sleeping in, after yesterday I don’t blame her!

A day for my almost but not quite kids. ( AKA CHildren of the Heart)

Yesterday was pretty chill, we ent to the kids place to for breakfast, Nancy and Stephanie cooked.  Then we came back and lazed around, I painted and we gabbed.  

The kids came back over here about 2:30 pooled, gabbed, and grazed until we went to the beach for sunset. 

 Dean had Kathy in two containers, one for each kid.  They were not real sure about it, the legality of it, and I think also the doing of it.  I don’t think it was as joyous for them as it was for me.  And it was, it felt like I was putting her everywhere, in the ocean, in the sand, in the air; not saying good bye but au revoir. Hopefully they had some healing, closure and a bit of peace.  

Regardless we got some amazing family pics.  

We had agreed to eat fair food for dinner, I had cocoanut shrimp and it was good but by then it was so dark that I had a mouthful or tow of shell, icky phew!.  

This morning we got up to the bad news that the elevator is not working and to get there great views we were NOT on the second floor.  After breakfast of left overs Dean and I walked down to the sand castles again.

They are still working on them!  This last one is a total revision!  It was this:  

before.  I went to the grocery for ingredients for dinner and then hoofed it up the 4 flights of stairs with my groceries in a back pak!  Oh MY!