So much light!

 Cheers, everyone!

I'm not certain of the proper greeting today for residents of the US. It's Juneteenth and the inaugural observance of this federal holiday celebrating the emancipation of African American slaves. I'm looking forward to seeing posts from my Facebook family and news reports of how the day was commemorated. 

Here in Ireland, we are having a glorious start to summer. The sky lightens around 4 am and does not get fully dark until nearly 11 pm. For sun lovers like me, this is heaven. Here's a photo of our back yard that I took at 9 am today. 

It looked the same at 6 am!

Thomas is struggling with this. He needs a cold, dark, silent room to sleep comfortably.  He's been wearing a heavy-duty eye mask to block out the light. It's been partially effective but there is just so much light that he hasn't been resting well. 

Velvet Jane views it as her personal responsibility to announce that morning has broken. I think she may have been a rooster in a previous life. As soon as she sees the first rays of light, she begins vocalising with her entire range of cat noises. She is a very loud cat who loves the sound of her voice. She's learned that standing in the entry area of the house amplifies her sounds. This is mildly amusing in the afternoon. At 4:30 am, not so much. She and Thomas have had some serious conversations about this, to no avail. Here's where her mornings start. 

Yesterday we hung blackout curtains in our bedroom. They were already hung in all the bedrooms when we arrived but we removed them for painting. Our bedroom is now fully painted and the furniture is in so up went the new curtains yesterday. Thomas finally got a good night's sleep! He's still sleeping, although I suspect that the recent arrival of the painters will change that soon. 

This is the difference blackout curtains make. I took the photos after the sun had moved over the house and the room is still much darker! Too bad darkness does not hide clutter. 

We continue our nomadic migrations from room to room as the house undergoes painting. The upper level is finished, except for my pink project room. The ground level is moving along. Today, the second coat will go on the walls of the entry and the sitting room will get its first coat. Then, we will move things from the kitchen/dining/sunroom area to...I'm not sure where...so the main living area can be done. We are very much looking forward to settling in - arranging furniture, hanging pictures, shopping for household accessories. (I'm probably looking forward to the shopping more than Thomas.) 

To all the dads who follow my blog, my warmest wishes for a Happy Fathers Day on Sunday! 

Sláinte!

What I Do And Don't Miss About America

Cheers, everyone! 

It's been 40 days since we arrived in Ireland! We have been on a wild ride of learning how to live in this beautiful and mysterious country. Each morning, I look out at the mountains, hear the cows moo and the birds singing, and I'm astonished that we live here. Thomas teases me that this has become my new mantra: we live here!

We've experienced one seasonal change. Summer arrived last week. The pounding rains of April and May transformed to warm, sunny days that begin around 4:00 am and end around midnight. Very long days with lots of sunlight! I woke up at 5:30 am today and almost took a photo of our back yard to show how light it is that early. Once I'm asleep, burglars could come into our room and steal the bed from underneath me - I wouldn't notice. Thomas is the opposite. Even out here in the country, he needs a cold, dark room to sleep. He still gets up for second sleep almost nightly. We're adapting differently. 

While every day is a gift here, not everything is all rainbows and shamrocks. There are some aspects of Irish life that completely affirm our decision to move here and others that are...less fun. 

What I Miss About America

The DMV - I am not kidding. The #1 thing I need right now is a surly clerk at the DMV who acts as if he or she is doing me a favour and gives me a driver's license. The process of obtaining an Irish driving license involves a written test, a vision test, and a road test. If I pass all three, I will be given a Learner's Permit. I must hold this for two years before I can apply for a "full license". During my Learner's Permit phase, I may not drive without a fully licensed driver accompanying me. I'm sitting for my written test on August 9. Ouch. Fifty years of driving with a mostly clean record and I'm back to being 16. Our cars are sitting in the garage, undriven except for an occasional trip around the house. 

Hot dogs with pickle relish - these are two foods that I have not found anywhere here. Anything that is Irish and ends in "relish" is to be strictly avoided. I would love an Oscar Meyer all-beef dog with relish. Yum. 

Food delivery - this is not an Ireland thing. They have loads of food delivery services. But we live in the country. There is one Chinese restaurant that delivers and their food suuuuuuuucks. Plus, their driver called me to ask for directions. It was ridiculous. DoorDash, we hardly knew ye. 

Knowing where everything is and who to call for what - our Irish angels, Hugh and Eileen, have been consistently generous with their time and assistance. Our neighbours have stopped by to say welcome and to offer any assistance we might need. It's really been gratifying. Today, one or our bathroom sinks started to drip from the hose. I am completely clueless about whom to call AND it's a bank holiday weekend. In America, holidays mean longer store hours and lots of sales. Here, it means nobody is working - and I mean nobody. Even our painter is taking tomorrow off. 

What I Don't Miss About America

The helicopters - living in the DC area, there were helicopters swooping overhead morning, noon, and night. Crime choppers, Pentagon brass, other DC helo-worthy folks. It was obnoxious.

Lawn mowers and leaf blowers - it seemed as though every person in our neighborhood association knew when we headed to the deck with a glass of wine and grabbed their leaf blowers. Here, our neighbour across the road mowed his lawn today and we were surprised by how quickly he finished it. Our lawn guy, Mac, appears during the week when the weather is good, does his work, and is gone. The rest of our surroundings are mostly fields. Blissful silence!

Militarised police - we needed to register our presence with the local Garda (police) station. We stopped in the Shinrone office and spoke with an official there. She welcomed us to Ireland, talked about where we are living, and asked us to come back when we have an invitation from the State (part of our visa process). A lovely woman who bore no arms and gave us lots of reassurance and numbers to call in case we need help. 

Every customer care person I have ever spoken with - sometimes I felt like I was in a jousting match with any company's "Customer Care" team. Two weeks ago, we bought a chair from Ikea, returned it because it was defective, had another delivered, it was also defective, and we called Ikea. They apologised for our trouble, picked up the offending package at our convenience, and gave us a €15 gift card for our trouble. THAT is customer service. I'm going to apply those €15 to something for my project room. 

We moved here seeking a peaceful and quiet existence. We found it! We bought a house without ever seeing it because Hugh and Eileen told us it was perfect for us. When we arrived, bleary eyed and jet lagged, we were amazed by what we own. It is much more than we expected in so many ways. We still walk around the yard, each trip ending with my saying, "We live here!". 

Sláinte!

Painting!

Cheers, everyone!

We are still unpacking - just enough to decide what needs to be retained and what will go to the local charities. Our Virginia house was packed and shipped before we settled on its
sale. This resulted in us moving linens for a bed that we left behind for the new owners. American and Irish bed sizes are different, so we're sorting through queen-sized linens for donations. 

We had no idea how many wine glasses we own. It became a joke as the movers brought in box after box labelled "Wine Glasses". We filled almost a wall of cabinets before I asked the team to just set aside the rest. Eventually the glasses will live in the sitting room after shelving is installed. And then we can truly organise the kitchen instead of randomly stacking things in drawers and hoping we remember where we put them. 

Our unpacking was also limited to what can be quickly shoved into a pile in the middle of each room. The painter arrived this week so we need to be able to quickly flip rooms from "in use" to "available". We're excited about this change. Once it's complete, we can finally exhale and start the process of actually settling in to where we will live and what we will live with. Our artwork and photos are presently packed away; we're anxious to unwrap them and see where they belong in our new home. 

Yesterday, the painters finished the two bedrooms that are currently guest bedrooms. We plan to remove the wall between them to create a master suite. Here's a photo of them that gives an idea what the combined room will look like. Next up are the bathrooms and sitting room. 

When we bought our home, the entire interior was the palest of yellow. This is not my favorite color and does not coordinate with any of the furniture we moved over. We are using some of the colors from our Virginia house and some based on those colors. 

The painter was pretty skeptical when he saw the colors we chose. Today, he and his assistant declared that the colors are perfect. The blue changes with the light throughout the day. The lead painter said, "It will look warm in winter and cool in summer!". Success! I doubt he will be so enthusiastic about my pink project room. :-) In the meantime, he's promised to paint "anything that does not move". 

Sláinte!