the latest

Hello all,

I am trying to navigate this Italian style keyboard and there appears to be no apostrophe that I can find, so there just might be no contractions in this email! I will keep looking though...

To pick up the thread of my last email, I spent the month of June wwoofing in County Cork, the largest and most southern county in Ireland. After such a fantastic time in Donegal, I wondered how Cork was going to possibly measure up...but it did. After the energy and chaos of Green Hill Farms, I was delighted to land in the lovely, peaceful, serene home of Tim and Sandra, who have some property outside a town called Bantry, at the edge of West Cork. Their house is perhaps the coolest thing I have ever seen, designed and built by Tim, who used to do a lot of building and woodworking before becoming a beekeeper. I cannot really describe it, so have a look at the photos!

I had a lovely time at their house and their small "kitchen garden" as I have come to learn they are called. I spent lots of time weeding the potatoes and onions and carrots, while trying to avoid being stung by the bees in the neighbouring field. I was mostly successful at this, except for my last day when I was stung three times. Apparently bee venom is good for arthritis, as there is a very low incidence of arthritis in beekeepers, who get stung all the time. I also got to use a scythe for the first time and felt very Victorian -- or something -- as I was swinging it around, hacking down the offending weeds. Very empowering instrument!

Sandra is a wonderful cook, and regularly made cheese from the sheep she milked twice a day. Lunch consisted of her homemade bread, cheese, various chutneys and spreads, and some leaf from the garden. I had my afternoons off, and spent them either lying under the tree in the shade, or cycling into town to wander around, check email, or pick up a bottle of wine. There was a heatwave in Ireland the first week of June, and everyone was quite shocked by it -- sunscreen was sold out everywhere! I have quite a good tan -- I mean, tan for me, not tan for a regular person. I have lots of colour I guess, and lots of freckles.

The first weekend I was there, Robin came down with a rental car and we drove around the Beara Peninsula -- Bantry is right on the edge of it. It was a fantastic drive -- totally mind-blowing scenery. We stopped in a town called Castletownbere for a pint at MacCarthys Bar (sorry, no possessives either) because it is on the cover of a well-known travel book I read last year by a guy named Pete MacCarthy who travels around Cork stopping at every bar with his name. We met a couple of blokes there who were headed to Allihies, which is where we were staying that night, and they told us there was a trad music festival on there, which we felt was a lovely piece of dumb luck...stumbling into a festival like that! We arrived in Allihies and spent a great evening moving back and forth between the two pubs in town, listening to the music and meeting about a hundred of our new friends closest friends. Allihies is one of the most charming towns I have ever seen in Ireland, which I think says a lot. Lovely little shops and houses, painted bright colours, overlooking a lovely sandy
beach, and the typical green patchwork hills.

The following weekend I was moving to a different farm, so Robin and I went to Cork city and spent the weekend with my old flatmate Amy, who I used to live with in the house in Ballsbridge. She lost her job and relocated to Cork, where her parents live, and is working there now. Her parents were so lovely, and we felt like we were at a B&B -- her mom totally spoiled us! Amy drove us all over Cork, and we visited the villages of Kinsale and Clonakilty, and then went to Blarney castle, because, you know, you have to... I had a couple of spare days so I went down to a wildlife park called Fota Island, which was so magical, but kind of weird too. The animals were from all over the world, and I never thought I would see my first live giraffe in Ireland. Or zebra. Or kangaroo. But I loved it, and felt like a little kid, and grinned stupidly all afternoon.

My last farm in Ireland was in a community called Cool Mountain, which has a really interesting history. To sum it up quickly though, because I know I get long winded (no need to harp on it, Luke!), it is entirely settled by "blow-ins" which is a term for any non-Irish person who has settled in Ireland -- mostly English. They moved over in the 70s and have built homes and had kids, but they are very much seen as outsiders in the area. Their kids have British accents and they seem to socialize mostly with each other. Cool Mountain has a bit of a reputation for drug use and drinking, and maybe that was true at one point, but now it just seems like a gathering of people who want to live in a more green, environmental, sustainable way. Everyone has gardens, grows their own vegetables, has built their own houses. In a way it is kind of a modern-day hippie commune.

I stayed with Vicky, who has lived there for 18 years, with her two sons. She and I got along famously and had lots of great talks. She has amazing stories of her life in England, and on Cool Mountain -- she lived in a caravan for years, and only got electricity in the year 2000! She built her own house, with the help of others, but I think that is pretty impressive. I think it was really cool how different all my wwoofing experiences have been -- and they were all completely positive.

For my last weekend in Ireland, I went on a little retreat with some expat friends. Robin, Kerry (who I went to Budapest with), Amy (who I used to work with -- a different Amy than who we stayed with in Cork city), and I went to a little island off the south coast of Cork called Cape Clear. We were supposed to stay overnight there on Friday, but due to complications with the rental car and trying to navigate the one-way streets of Cork, we missed the last ferry and just went for the following day instead. But it was fabulous -- gorgeous little island with great walks and a pub where we spent the better part of the afternoon -- though we did walk to the lake and the lighthouse, so we earned those pints!! It was a great way to finish off my wwoofing adventure, and we had a fantastic time. I feel very blessed to have these great friends in my life.

So now I am in Italy. I arrived in Pisa at night, and walked directly into the square where the leaning tower is. It looked so ghostly and kind of unreal. I guess I have never thought of it as being real -- just a sort of plasticy image that we have all seen reproduced a billion times. But I have to say, it is pretty cool. There is not much to do in Pisa though, outside of this lovely square with the tower,
the cathedral, and the other monuments. I have been being mostly lazy, not running around to all the sights, as there are not that many, so have been lying on the grass in the shade with my books, journal, and yes, the odd gelato:) It is very HOT!

Anyway, I am now off to the airport to meet my friend Lynn who is arriving this afternoon -- whoo hoo! We are going to bounce around Tuscany for the next week, perhaps doing a bit of wine tasting...you never know. Then I will be off to the farm. I guess I never did find that apostrophe...next time maybe:)

Till next time,
Ciao!