Hore Abbey sits at the foot of the Rock of Cashel in Tipperary. I have several pictures of the abbey that I like very much, but this is one of my favorites: a couple of teens–maybe tourists, maybe locals, who knows!–for whom sitting down amongst the ruins with a good book or two was the best way to pass a grey afternoon. I can’t help, looking at this picture, half imagining that they are Will Stanton and Jane Drew.
I thought I’d said, but maybe I didn’t! I closed out the Arthur Guinness Projects popularity vote contest with 2976 votes. The leader had just under 4500, and I’m pretty clearly in the top 10%. I think I might have been #6 overall. So now we wait. :) The judges will be announcing their decisions sometime in September, but I don’t know when exactly. Someone hypothesized it would be the 26th, which is the Guinness-invented holiday Arthur’s Day, and having had that hypothesis suggested to me, it’s OBVIOUSLY what *I*…
And this is the Ladies’ View, which yesterday’s castle overlooks. The ladies are the 7 lakes of Killarney, or something like that, which are (nominally) all visible from this vantage. Regardless of how many are visible, it’s a knockout view. :)
I don’t think I’ve posted this one before. This is Ladies’ View Castle, which is just up the road from yesterday’s picture, Torc Waterfalls. This is one of many places I wish could be restored! In other news, my god I am exhausted. I just sobbed my way through 2000 new words at the end of SHAMAN RISES, and I think it may be almost done now. Almost. Some more polishing to do, a bit of fixer-upper stuff here and there, and then…done. I hope. #exhausted
So Mom made a batch of peach jam a few weeks ago, and to our interest, it turned out exactly as the peach jam I’d made years ago did: super, super stiff, almost crystallized. She thought it needed a couple more peaches, and since I love peach jam with an unholy passion and peaches are available right now, I got some and yesterday made a batch with two more peaches than Mom had used. It’s unbelievably pretty and very tasty, but still surprisingly stiff. Not as stiff as Mom’s or…