Sheep!

Last day in January and the days are getting longer!!  We get an extra 4 minutes of sunlight per day.  At that rate, in one month, we will have two extra hours of sunlight per day - woohoo!! Spring comes early here (so I am told) and here the summer solstice will give us 17 hours of daylight!  Gotta love that!


Currently, we have  been getting sheep in the back garden instead of cows.  Chloe much prefers this because, when she bounds out there barking, they really RUN!   They certainly are less intimidating than the cows...

Zach has been swimming at the leisure center in the mornings when I am walking the dogs so that has been good.  I have started volunteering at the Thrift Shop for St. Vincent De Paul on thursday mornings (10:30 to 2:00) and that has been fun.  I get to meet more people, hear lots of witty banter, and it's all good craic!

Terminology Update:

CRAIC - This is pronounced "Crack" and it means fun.  So sometimes they say things like, "it's all good craic" or "just do it for the craic" and it of course strikes me very funny, but I will freely admit that it's fun to say!

PORRIDGE - Obviously, it means what it says, however, I was used to saying oatmeal, and have since started saying porridge instead.

SACHET - This is probably pronounced "sa-chette" (I have noted that lots of pronunciations are different here, like vitamin is pronounced with a short i for the first syllable) and it means packet. The sachet is the little bag the porridge comes in.  Anything that has several small bags of the item will say that it contains X number of sachets. 

Can't think of any more at the moment.  

So we are now gearing up for February and Spring and guests and such - woohoo!  Planning to make Mom's traditional Valentine Cookies but am unable to find Red Hots.  I have been to all three main stores here and asked around to no avail.  I went online and they can't ship them here.  I will have to check with Aldi and if that doesn't work, may have to give up....

Longford Falcons U-18 Women's Basketball Team

This is Haley's basketball team.  The Coach is Mick Murphy.  He played college ball on scholarship for West Virgina!  They are a great team and the coach is terrific!  

At the Airport

We flew home from Lanzarote - much sooner than anyone really wanted to leave - and it was cold in Dublin.  Connor said we were all pansies as it wasn't nearly as cold as the midwest...  So, we had another week with Connor and it was great.  He walked the dogs with me, ran errands with me, and we chilled at home together too!  We shopped in Longford and cooked meals that Connor requested for dinner and had a lovely week.

Again, all too soon, it was time to take him to the airport.  WAH!!!

We saw him off and back at home we were all in a funk for missing him.  I still haven't washed his bedding because the pillows smell like Connor!   We got word from Connor and Kayla that he arrived safely and he was back in the bitter cold with another week off before school started up again.

Eventually, I managed to get Christmas decorations packed away, got back onto my workout routine, and of course, continued walking the pups daily.  Haley was back into the school routine and life slowly took shape again here in Ireland.  Will see Connor again in the summer, though Steve will get to see him in March when he has to take a trip home for work.

Zach's Tattoo

While in Playa Blanca Zach decided to get a tattoo.  The saying on it is "cada loco con su tema" which is directly translated as something like, "each crazy (person) has his own theme" and the saying meaning something like, everyone dances to their own drummer or everyone lives in his own reality.  It was Zach's idea to put it with the compass which I think is cool - essentially every person has to find their own path - right?!

I learned two new Spanish words - De Nada (informal for you're welcome) and Lo Siento (Sorry).  The second one I learned to say after some poor sap had to lift my humongous suitcase to or from the car...

Last Lunch in Playa Blanca

Beautiful night in Playa Blanca

Final Stop - The Winery!

The vines are grown in these "bowls" on the side of the volcanoes.  We were there when they were done producing.  In the spring and summer it is, of course, greener and they have all the grapes growing at that time.  Still, it seems like it would be a lot of work to have a vineyard here! 

Malvasia is one of the grape varieties here.

Finished the wine tasting! 

Pictures from the bus ride through the park.

I am sure Steve got better pictures.  There are also some fabulous pictures online that are worth seeing.  It's such an interesting place to visit.  Throughout the island, they use the red and black lava rocks for landscaping and it is absolutely beautiful.  The low whitewashed buildings keep it looking  clean and lovely and help to keep one focused on the natural terrain.  I am in awe of the raw beauty of Lanzarote!

Restaurant at the top of the volcano!

There is a restaurant at the top of the volcano, called El Diablo.  They grill the food using the heat of the volcano itself.  It seems so surreal!

The pit for the grill is very deep.

The top can be very windy!  You can see Steve's shirt blowing in the breeze of the open window.

And my hair...

I believe here they said to point at the devil....

Timanfaya National Park

As we drove into the park and around some of the volcanoes, it looked like a Mars landscape.  With such little rainfall, the vegetation has still not recovered from the last eruptions.  Before getting off the bus, they cautioned us not to try to walk off on our own, or to walk on areas not designated as paths.

At the top of one of the volcanoes, they had three experiments for us.

The first experiment was to stand and they would hand you some lava pebbles.  They seemed like such innocuous little red and black pebbles, but they were very hot!  If you tossed them back and forth a bit, you could wait for them to cool and keep them.  Connor kept his.  I did not.

The second experiment was placing straw into an open pit.  The pit is just shallow hole dug into the ground at the top.  There is nothing lit - it just looks like a hole in the ground, but the straw catches fire because of the heat of the volcano.

The final experiment is pouring water into a hole in the volcano.  The resulting geyser doesn't result in big rain drops as it mostly all steams away, though you do feel a small spray from the water.

Second Stop: A Green Lake in a Crater!

There are many pictures online that have a much better view of the green lake of El Golfo and really show the beautiful contrast of the red hill, the black base with speckles of green olivine, and the ocean lapping in from the side of the crater that has fallen away and eroded.  Steve has better pictures as well I am sure. 

Olivine is the gem also known as peridot - and Haley's August birthstone!  It is found only in volcanic areas often inside the black lava stones. 

It was quite a hill to the bottom.  Many people, including Steve with his poor knees, stayed up top.