It's  August.  Holy Cow!  Suddenly I am past the first three months.  I have seen a great deal, gone on tours of ornate gardens and my own Donaghadee, walking tours of cities and a gin distillery, sat and enjoyed the Irish Sea at my doorstep, talked with and learned from neighbours, tried chips with pepper sauce (yes!) - and felt the incredible privilege of great quantities of unstructured time with few responsibilities.

Some of you know my dear friend Sister Rosenda Brady.  A Sister of St. Joseph, she was sent to Barry's Bay as administrator for  the new hospital in 1968 and then the senior residence Valley Manor.  Keen-witted and loving  (65 years of devotion tends to bring that out in a person), she is also a brilliant story teller with a gift for sounding like anybody, musical, funny and generous.  She is also Irish.  Both her parents came from Ireland in 1915.  Rosenda loves to say his birthplace: "Kilrooska, Belcoo, County Fermanagh".  Belcoo in the English version of the original Irish Béal Cú, "mouth of the narrow"  where a shallow stream connects Upper and Lower Loch MacNean  (the bridge picture- which is also the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland)

Here I am,  living the life in Donaghadee.  It's been a bit more than two months now, and I am just as happy and grateful for this sojourn as the day I arrived.  Donaghadee continues to charm, experiences are rich and people are warm.

June was a busy month! I know,  in the last post I said I wanted to talk about history some more.  Another time. For now I'd like to share some of what I have seen and experienced since June 9th (yeah, it's been busy...)

This is me thinking...Everything here leads to another thought.  I live on the Ards peninsula. This area has inhabitants going back to the Stone Age, and there are still signs of groups during the Bronze Age.  St. Patrick landed on this peninsula in 433 (legend says here in Donaghadee, coming across from Portpatrick) and that special blend of Irish spirituality and Christianity began - a repository of wisdom that eventually returned the Christian faith to places in Europe.

June 2.  Most of my pictures this week are over on the Places page from my trip to Portaferry on Tuesday.  Thursday though,  my kind neighbours Alice and Allen took me with family and friends for dinner at Grace Neill's here in Donaghadee,  the oldest pub in Ireland (1609).  Have I mentioned how I am the luckiest person in the world to have landed in this particular home?    I had the fish of the day of course, and mushy peas  (I was introduced to those last summer on our family trip!)   

May 26.  It's not the big things that strike you when you are in a different country.  It's things like getting confused by the washer and dryer

No, Donaghadee is not a Castle.  It does however feature The Moat - built in the 1800's supposedly to store gunpowder while they built the lighthouse and harbour  though that is disputed.

Welcome to 52 East Street, Donaghadee.