We’re way behind… Lets catch up.

As March rolled around in the Republic of Ireland I picked a firm date and booked a flight home. Late April would see me jetting back to the land down under but until then there was progress to be made in the Secret Garden and a few parts of Ireland I still wanted to explore. Also another life goal to tick off …

Life Goal: Celebrate St Patricks Day in Ireland

This was a great lesson in not building things up in your mind and having huge expectations for. I thought long and hard about what to say here but the truth is the St Patricks Day Parade in Cork was one dullest most lacklustre parades I’ve ever seen and Parade would be a verrry generous description. Fellow travellers reported the same for Dublin, covering the 2 largest cities of fair Ireland. My Instagram and youtube showed celebrations in other cities around the world looking infinitely more lively and fun. The crowd here – not overly large to start with mostly dissipated well before it finished.  The kids groups, the Immigrant population and the Arts people were the most colourful and happy of the day so big props and thanks to them.  The day was not a loss though. We got away from the farm for a bit, got to catch up and have some fun with my host and tried out a great eatery in Cork. Plus I got to tick off that particular life goal.

[Big thumbs up on both of the above guys – Try them if you get the chance]

March was frustrating for all the wet weather that slowed down progress in the Secret Garden.  Knowing I was running out of time lent an urgency to the work when we could get work done and in the end, although I would like to have achieved more I was still pleased with the progress we did make. There were things I still wanted to see do and visit in Ireland before leaving but also stuff I still wanted to accomplish at the farm. The result being that as April got closer I kept pushing out my leave date from the farm hoping to get those last couple of things finished but still leave myself 2-3 weeks to travel to other parts.

[One of the before and afters – reclaiming the stairs and rock wall]

I  was also finding that having an end date to travelling and knowing I would get to see my people again soon was making me impatient to do that. I wanted to get on those planes. I got fidgety and frustrated with the whole scenario.  I was not on the move seeing and doing the things I wanted to finish off in Ireland. Neither was I achieving finishing things at the farm and time seemed to be standing still.

Found this little guy under all the weeds and debris so I made him the official garden Mascot

As March came to an end most of what I had planned for the rest of the Republic of Ireland wasn’t going to be possible as it turned out. I didn’t know that yet at this stage but what I did know was that a bus strike was on that had shut down most of Ireland making it difficult at best but for many places …impossible… to get to if you didn’t have a car. I don’t think anyone could have guessed how long that would drag out for.

Next stop… April

E x