My Top 10 Irish Dishes: 2023
My Top 10 Irish Dishes: 2023 Maybe we are still recovering, but 2023 was a curiously quiet year, Gone is the over-the-top culinary exuberance of the pre-COVID era. The tasting …
Happy Halloween!
We’re off to the Untied States for at autumn tour. First on the list is a visit to the Washington DC area to meet my first grandchild! I’ll be making …
Happy Michaelmas 2023! Have an Apple!
You have to grow tomatoes and peppers in a “polytunnel” here in Ireland. It’s too cold and windy outside. July was so cold, my homegrown tomatoes were still pretty green …
2022: Some Summer!
The high point of the summer of 2022 was a trip to Scotland to watch the practice rounds of the British Open at St Andrews. We travelled by car ferry …
Fourth of July: Burning Down the House
It took a while for me to understand the irony of booking a room in the Rostrevor Inn in County Down, Northern Ireland for the 4th of July. It’s a …
Ireland in Lockdown…Again
Ireland is on lockdown again, this time for 6 weeks until early December. The schools are open, but there was no “trick or treating” this year. Sacrificing Halloween to save …
Life As We Know It: Covid Pandemic
Tourism is the dominant industry in the Burren region of Western Ireland. Now the Burren has gone eerily quiet. No bright green “Paddy Wagon” tour busses whizzing along the narrow …
The Summer’s Gone, it’s Fall in Ireland
The days are getting shorter and the temperature rarely breaks 60°F these days. But it was quite a summer. Our 4th of July BBQ was a blow-out. Kelly’s Houston book …
Eire-Mex: Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican army’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It is a minor holiday in Mexico, dwarfed in importance by Mexican …
In a Bar with Irish Spring at Hand
Irish Winter is the best season for sitting in pubs and complaining about the weather (while eating oysters and drinking Guinness). I can hold my own at this sport. At …