hello beautiful people!! this isn’t a typical piece. its more for documentation, a sort of travel blog stream of writing. thank you for being here, new or vintage. you know i love you so.
We’ve made it across the pond and life suddenly becomes slower, more intentional, quieter. So much quieter. We’re in the countryside of Ireland in a horsie farm cottage outside of the village of Oughterand. The Connemara region, known for its rugged and wild landscapes, marble, beaches and ponies.
Five of those ponies are our neighbors for now. Here are Izzy and newly emerged Strawberry Moon babe. She has no name yet, but Micah Sol is working on that with the babe herself.
I run around this home, this cottage, honoring the luxury that is the richest life. Deep kitchen sink, open area to prepare and cook food for my loves, a bath tub with foam and bubbles, a washer and tumble dryer, the coziest beds with linen sheets and cotton duvets, green all around, wide open rolling fields and ponies next door. Beings to meditate with, to pet, to stand and listen to my endless anxieties and worries.
We landed in Dublin and took a few hours at an airport hotel to rest, walked outside and called a taxi to take us into town. We arrived to the Pembroke Townhouse, a lovely hotel with spectacular service and the sweetest rooms. The bathtub was heaven after a short long haul flight. Svetlana, the manager, was so kind to M Sol upon her arrival and made her hot chocolate every morning while we were there.
Dublin is a big city, but not massive. Very walkable and we found our way down to dinner at a food park, a homage to our Austin days where food trucks are a mainstay. There were a few choices and we chose delicious south Indian street paneer and potato dosa that were out of this world.
We returned home to broken sleep that started at 9 pm ended at midnight then again to about 7 am. When Micah woke up she said “I dreamt about cheesy crispy pizza”. I told her it was likely to come true as there were lots of pizza places in this town.
She went up for her chocolate croissant and hot chocolate. Chocolate and cacao are family nutrients good for waking or for sleep and the currency we exchange on most days, especially traveling ones. A new friend told me about renting bikes and riding through Phoenix Park. So that’s what we did. We plugged the park in, hopped onto a double decker bus that moves through the streets like a snake in a maze and ended up right next to Phoenix Park Bikes. I walked in and said “what are the chances you have three bikes for us in the middle of the afternoon on this spectacularly sunny day?” and they did. I snapped a photo of the map and we took the route they recommended, ‘along the left and towards the Farmhouse’.
On the way there we saw fallow deer and beautiful trees. We stopped for water breaks and pet the local dogs. We ended up on a tag-a-long bike and Micah pedaled hard to support her papa on the biggest ride of her life.
We road to a castle, but didn’t quite make it to the actual building because what was all around was way more exciting. A maze and cafe, a cadre of trees that we could live inside and play all day and a new friend, Edie. So we did as we do, gathered some food, laid in the grass, talked about all the blessings and created a space where some of the highest vibrating souls on the planet came and hung with us.
We had another 30 minutes left on our rentals when we decided to go see some more animals. When we arrived this little tiny girl was neighing at the top of her lungs. The horses that were way far away in the pasture, came running towards her, like she a long lost friend they hadn’t seen in ages. It was the coolest example of kids lack of separation. She knew how to communicate and they responded. This is at the end of her call, you can hear her next to M Sol’s voice and her commentary on the horses backside. HA!
We returned the bikes and headed off for home on a bus. As we walked I decided to take another route and we ended up in front of the Guinness factory. Micah becomes enchanted by the idea of a beer factory!! “Please can we go see how beer is made?” I realize this is much more about the curiosity in the process and less about the actual product, as we’re not big drinkers. Her passion is convincing so we go to the storehouse and stand in line just in time for the guy to tell us they’re all sold out for the day. M Sol is disappointed and on our walk down, insists on getting a photo of mom and dad in front of the Guinness sign but doesn’t quite get the beer name, but these two brands are on point!
We find a distillery down the road, but they don’t allow children to tour, so this is as close as we get to her factory fascination. With alcohol being such a massive part of our society, it would make more sense to me to educate the littles about this beverage rather than exclude them. But I don’t make the rules.
So we stay outside while J tries a taste and as we’re walking away we spot a cherry tree. I’m not one to pass up treasures from mama Earth, so I take a couple and give one to Micah. We pretend we’re mice eating little apples when the door guy comes out and tells us we’re not allowed to eat the cherries and that’s why there are tons of them on the ground because they’re not sure they’re good or bad. I tell him they’re good and tasty! But he’s not amused. So we sit on the curb and wait for a few more minutes while daddy returns not wanting to have an experience at a bar without his family in a country that usually welcomes littles and babies into most spaces.
We make our return on a double decker to a playground called The Giant’s Garden, based on Oscar Wilde’s short story The Selfish Giant. It’s beautiful and something out of a fairy tale. And they have actual sound tools, hand drums and steel pan drums. We’re starving but can’t seem to pull away from this paradise.
We finally do and walk briskly to the pizza place we had spotted the day before. We walk in and everyone is in black and white striped shirts, I realize I too am wearing one. We sit down and she immediately tells the server “I want cheesy, crispy pizza”. And that happens to be what Milanos specialize in, a larger, thinner, crispier pizza. So there you go, dreams come true. It was delectable, as was everything else they served.
We return home after a full day and prepare for our departure out of Dublin, the big city, for a car and driving on the opposite side of the road, the country side and the Wild Atlantic Way.
Our First UK Road Trip
The happy side. My next piece will uncover the demons of this adventure. Stay tuned.
The next day we wake and prepare our stuff for the move. It takes us more time than it should (based on my urgent, rushed american time mind) to get our rental car and when we finally do, its too small for us and our stuff. I tell Justin that the very foundation of this adventure is comfort and he agrees. He goes in and they give him an Audi, a ‘normal’ sized sedan, where we could spread out and have lots of room. One where I could also sit in the front seat instead of the golf clubs. Looking back he says may have been a poor choice because the sizes of some of the roads we’ve driven, a smaller car may have felt safer, but here we are, listening to U2, driving 111 and me holding on for dear life.
We arrive to our first stop for the next two nights, a town called Rathcabbin, a tiny village outside of Birr. If you go on the map its Hidden Heart Haven and its truly heaven. You get three hours of hot tub time on your first night and you can book treatments, facials, energy work, cold plunge, sauna as well. Sarah and Barry are the coolest, kindest folks on the planet and have provided everything you would need at their space. We arrived close to six, so didn’t have time to heat our hot tub, so they allowed Micah and I to use theirs while J went to play golf at night. Which doesn’t actually come until 11 here.
Bee, their beagle, came to greet Micah by barking to get her outside. It was like a new neighbor coming to knock on the door to ask to play. They were immediately besties and played together our entire time there.
We also had a lesson in herbology.
Recently, I was with a group of medicine women and one of them spoke to a remedy she used to perform on her patients with arthritis. She would slap a bundle of stinging nettle leaves on the painful joint and over a couple treatments, the arthritic joint would heal. I thought this to be crazy in my mind, but somehow made sense to my body.
The science is similar to the science of bee sting therapy. The release of formic acid by the nettle, the same acid produced by ants, causes a painful itchy rash outside. Then within the body, it works as counterirritant therapy. Essentially you’re revitalizing the blood flow to the area of concern through irritating it in another way.
So Micah was throwing the ball to Bee and at one point it went into the area by a some nettle. Micah stuck her hand in and came out complaining of a splinter. She looked and couldn’t find anything, but said it burned like something was there. I asked the host and sure enough, that’s how we learned about stinging nettle.
Now you know. And now we know too!
We spent the whole day at Tearaway Farm, making friends, playing inside, playing outside, feeding goats and ostriches, going down rainbow slides, eating fish and chips. It was a day of heaven on earth. And when our time was done, I asked if we could pay for more and they said, ‘oh no, just play as long as you’d like’.
Once we felt complete, we drove into Birr and found the most abundant organic food store. We wanted to buy everything, but we didn’t. We then went down the way and started for our next destination: Oughterand, where this all began and the ponies.
This is where I sit now, filling in from new places, watching the sun turn into clouds turn into sideways mist. It’s ever changing here, much like life. And when you’re feeling sunny inside, somehow, it becomes sunny outside.
That’s it for now. It feels like a lot. It’s been a full two weeks now in Ireland, no wonder our bodies are in healing mode. The slow that I began with is settling in again and grateful to be in this colorful new town for another week.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. I love you.