August 4, 2009

  • Very slow indeed!

    I ended up working for just one hour last week - not good! This week will be better but last week reminded me that I cannot sit on my laurels and that I need to keep thinking of ways to get the profile of the business high in the minds of people.

    I had a lovely weekend though. It was Belfast Pride weekend and we had a full house with a friend of mine and a friend of Patrick's here. It was nice to see some of the cultural things that were going on around the week of Pride but I was less bothered about the 'party in the square' afterwards - I remembered that last year it seemed to be mostly straight people using the day as an opportunity to see some free music and drink in public. I have no issue with any of that really; I just didn't need to see it. Still it was a decent enough day.

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    Mount Stewart's back door - really!!

    Sunday we went to a National Trust property that my friend wanted to see. I joined the NT a few years back but let my membership drop as it was rather expensive and not being a driver made it hard to get to the houses and gardens. We went to Mount Stewart which was a property by the side of Strangford Lough and it was so beautiful. The house was very special, sadly we couldn't take pictures inside but it was very interesting journey through 400 years of one families history. The gardens were magnificent and went on for acres. We had a really nice day out and I found myself signing up again - this time for joint membership! I guess we will do our best to get our money worth from the member card (free entry into all NT sites and properties) but the way to think of it really is as a donation towards a charity which does so much to preserve the ancient for the future.

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    A dovecote with a summer house below in one of the gardens

    Monday was my friends last day here and we went to Cultra a place not far from Belfast to go to the Ulster Open Air Museum and the Transport museum. We could have spent a day in just one of the museums but did our best to see as much as possible of both in one. I think what I enjoyed most was seeing the old trains and especially the carriages attached to the engines, seeing how people in the past travelled was fascinating but also intensely romantic. The Open Air Museum was like nothing I have seen before. They have created a village by bringing together a variety of houses, shops, churches etc from all over Northern Ireland and in addition to that they have set down farms, forges, schools and halls in the fields around the village and you are free to wander into and out of them.

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    Interior of a house in the open air museum

    So despite having a slow week work-wise it's been a very busy few days in others. If you ever get the chance to see this beautiful part of the world then you should try and see some of these places.  

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    Basket weavers cottage

Comments (4)

  • I would just love a tour like that. How wonderful! You must be back to busy this week! Hope all is great over there in your world. You always make me smile. Thank you for being such a kind and interesting xanga-neighbor!!

  • @queenie - right back at you! :)

  • Very nice photos you have there! Here in Washington, by the coast only, we have those same sort of palm tree relatives as in the first photo, and we also have some regular California Fan Palms, the Washingtonia filisomething. I had two, but killed one with kindness, and the littler one is still thriving in the yard. I believe we have a very similar climate to you, or ours is actually closer to the South of England? I am in Aberdeen, Washington.

  • @SeanHarrington - Well all I know is that we have a ot of rain here! We are close to the sea and surrounded by mountains and all things considered we are just a tiny rock with the Atlantic ocean banging on our door. :)

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