I recently had a good whine on Facebook about three 'endings' that have just happened in my life. The last of a group of friends in my neighborhood has moved out. About five of us used to hang out and get into the fun kind of trouble, particularly at the July 4th holiday and the annual Robin Hood Festival here in Sherwood.  And then my baby grand ( Read more... )

Almost six months have sped by and I find myself back in Northern Ireland again. It was actually quite a pleasant journey over, this time. Even though I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 AM on the day of departure, I managed to get enough sleep the night before so I wasn't as brain dead as I might have been. It took me years to trust the ( Read more... )

Hard to believe I'm back in Northern Ireland again! Time has this pesky habit of sneaking away from me. Last time I looked, it was the end of January ... and here we are, already in May.

As always, I have tales to tell about my journey over here. It didn't start very auspicially when United decided to cancel the direct flight from Portland to Newark ( Read more... )

Back in Northern Ireland again. How does time zoom by so quickly?

This time I traveled a different route with United Airlines...from Portland to Chicago, and from there to Dublin. It was about half the price of flying into Belfast, and I am heartily sick of the interminable 6-8 hour layovers on my usual route through New York.

Very much in its favor ( Read more... )

A week back in Oregon and my suitcase still lies on my bedroom floor. Clothes spill from its gaping maw, and I have to climb over it all en route to the bathroom or closet. I haven't been able to bring myself to unpack until today, and then discovered something odd. I brought back a few gifts, only to find that the St. Bridget’s Cross made of ( Read more... )

Yesterday I woke up at 6am with the sun streaming through my bedroom window, and couldn't get back to sleep. The morning beckoned; too gorgeous out there to stay in bed. I’ve been wanting to drive south of the border to visit Newgrange in County Meath for some time. Here was the perfect excuse: I’m compiling an anthology of lesser known Irish myths ( Read more... )

I'm back from Croatia almost a week. Hard to believe that yesterday a week ago I spent the morning searching for a place other than the hotel pool to swim, and found a tiny isolated cove with no one but shoals of fish to share the Adriatic with. What a glorious experience, having the sea to myself like that!

By comparison, it was drizzly and gray in ( Read more... )

I am once again scrambling to catch up with things, including this blog. And once again have a good excuse as to why I’m behind! All last week I was in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. I will write a separate blog about the trip, including some photos. For now I’m just checking in. You know me, if I waited to write a longer entry, it might never ( Read more... )

With all the recent posting on Facebook about the TSA, I remembered an extremely odd encounter I'd had with one of them in Chicago, January 2004. I unearthed this from my blog from back then ( Read more... )