Moving On....2024: Our Irish Cottage

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Our Irish Cottage

IRELAND...A RICH, ARTISTIC PERFORMANCE - PART II

Beautiful Yellow Cottage In Adare, Ireland

Many of us pine away for a simpler life with an intense longing for a time from the past that could make us feel safe and calm once again. Dlaura Cottage, located just north of Galway City, did just that! With sheep and cows as our neighbors and a cozy, peat fire to keep us warm....this petite, thatched cottage provided us with a glimpse into the past, before The Great Famine, when walking the grassy path into town and back was a day's adventure.

Between now and St. Patrick's Day, March 17, my initial three stories of 'MOVING ON.....2013' will be spotlighted. Most Bloggers realize that as time goes by, our archived stories need to be dusted-off a little bit and reintroduced as our 'Humble Beginnings.'

I see Ireland as a rich, artistic performance, alive with nuance, as in, forty shades of green! Please enjoy Part II of this 'retro' series entitled, Our Irish Cottage, dated October 31, 2013.

Third in a series........

Gateway to Connemara

A Series of Short Stories

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

We recently arrived at Shannon Airport to collect our rental car and make our way to Galway City for the night and going back to Orlando was the furthest thing from our minds.....

A View From The Lane

How does one approach something that has only been a dream up until now? My husband has the tendency to calmly seize the moment allowing it to wash over him like light summer rain requiring no umbrella as he absorbs each little detail completely and then neatly tucks it away for future reference. I, on the other hand, as our children will attest to, approach life's offerings with a more unsubtle attitude.....much like a thunderstorm with my head up among the massive, gray cumulonimbus clouds personally heaving giant lightening rods down upon the trembling earth below while laughing uncontrollably from the shear excitement of it all. Consequently, the Pragmatist and the Dreamer sharing a meaningful life for over forty years together despite the mixed bag of atmospheric conditions.

The desire to one day stay in a true Irish cottage had been one of ours for so long now I can't really stamp a date on it. I do know that the small thatched cottage located in Adare, County Limerick, we visited on our initial visit to Ireland in August of 1990, has always held a place in our hearts. Our daughters, aged 14 and 11 at the time, accompanied us on that trip and I can still envision them as they seemed to meld among the tall, shiny flower pots dripping with a profusion of blooms of every color imaginable that generously decorated the stone paths of the petite structure. Yes, my Canon AE-1 was a huge factor in helping to create and collect these amazing family memories. And, even though I would be lost without my lightweight, highly intelligent Canon EOS today....my AE-1 was a very worthy predecessor and now looks down on me from an upper shelf in my home office as I work.

Two years ago we had originally planned this current trip with Galway City and parts north in mind and had actually booked a week long stay in our traditional cottage back then. We fell in love with its location in Oughterard, known as the Gateway to Connemara, as well as its close proximity to Galway City, Lough Corrib and 'The Wild Western Way' which we planned to walk a small portion of this visit. Unfortunately, due to circumstances way beyond our control, we had to cancel that stay at Cottage No. 255, Dlaura Cottage, for a week in September, 2011, but somehow could never quite forget about it. Having booked it through Matthew Boyd and his competent team at Shamrock Cottages, the same group we'd booked our house through in Adrigole, County Cork, back in 2006, I highly recommend them if you desire self-catering accommodations in Ireland. I promise you, I do not profit in any way from this recommendation except for leading you in the right direction.

Finally, we were to meet Mrs. Christina O'Malley of P Joe's, Clifden Road, Clareville, Oughterard, County Galway.....proud owner and caretaker of Dlaura Cottage!! That's right there with the illogical sounding yet appropriate directions to Craggy Island B&B we would receive later in the week.

Dutch Door Entryway

Christina O'Malley resembled the proverbial aging elementary teacher with her permed and graying coif, appealing country manner and style, all topped with a generous broad smile which was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae. She made us feel welcomed and instantly right at home. Having met her at P Joe's, the name of her home located directly on the N59, she asked us to follow her in our separate vehicle as we mini-caravanned our way down a grassy lane for over a mile and then made a drastic right-hand turn down an even narrower lane actually passing one home under construction and another farmhouse high up on a hill. Eventually, we approached an opened gate and, chugging up a small hill, we were introduced to our Home-Away-From-Home for a week, Dlaura Cottage.

The Internet pictures could never capture the true essence of this amazing spot we would be calling home. My jaw dropped as she turned the key in the lock of the Dutch door, painted bright green against the stark white of the cottage's exterior, with dense, water-marked glass panes decorating the erratic mullioned rectangles of its top half. Walking inside, our sense of smell was sharpened by the lingering aroma of previously burned peat in the air and she drew our attention to the small, black stove centrally located in the tiny living area....our main source of heat. Later, she showed us how to light and maintain a fire which we ultimately allowed to burn itself out because of the intensity of the heat.

Mrs. O'Malley was so proud to hand us a cut-glass plate of homemade scones and raspberry jam as a housewarming gift and we savored them with freshly pressed coffee each morning for breakfast.

The Grand Tour lasted only a short while, but we had so many questions for Mrs. O'Malley that she remained talking with us for quite some time and we learned the homestead, including stone house, barn, wall and several out-buildings, had been built around 1830. The families who called the cottage home throughout the years were mainly very poor farmers barely making ends meet. She told us she had acquired the cottage via her husband's grandparents who raised their four sons there and she, eventually, married Patrick, a son by their youngest boy, Joseph.

A 'Dry Stacked' Stone Barn Wall Still Standing

She explained that she has many returning customers to Dlaura Cottage and we definitely could see why. She walked us outside to show us the modern meter hanging on the side of the cottage which we were to use to calculate our energy consumption for the week and leave payment on the table before departing the following Saturday. Wishing us a wonderful week and offering her services anytime needed.....she was heading down the lane and still waving good-bye from the open window of her silver Nissan.

What followed next was akin to a major animal feeding frenzy.....there is no better way to explain it! Unsheathing my camera from its case, the first of many, many pictures of this magical spot was taken. The lighting was good and the scenery spectacular that afternoon with several cows grazing on the grassy slope behind us, large fluffy, white sheep roaming the pastures in front, all the while I was intoxicated by the heavy, earthy aroma of our peat fire chugging grayish smoke from the white chimney above. Nothing was safe from my camera lens and several of the cows just stared at me, juicy grasses drooling from their mouths, in complete wonderment as if I were a Banshee wailing, not for an impending death, but rather for the beauty and purity of life.

A Bovine Friend Looking On

Finally, I came up for air and went inside to find my husband and unpack. Did I really just loose all constraints of time for over forty-five amazing minutes? Yes! The sheer joy of my experience still enveloped me as I looked into the tiny kitchen to see a strange look on my husband's face only to find out that he had just removed from the kitchen one very large, hairy spider, as well as several smaller versions confidently scurrying around the other rooms. We had always concluded that Saint Patrick, having rid the Island of its snake population, did absolutely no favors for the arachnophobia inclined people he left behind.

During our visit to Adrigole, County Cork, in 2006, I did gain 'Banshee Status' after walking into a rather large spider web while entering the garden early one morning armed with a full mug of steaming coffee in one hand. My husband, in total shock behind me, witnessed a scene that probably scarred him for the rest of his life..... Because, five seconds later, I was holding an absolutely empty mug and always hoped that I had fried the spider with its hot contents as I danced wildly about the garden. Someone once wrote that after walking through a spider's web, they felt like they had just completed a weeks' worth of cardio. I can attest to that!!

Our Cute Kitchen

Having concluded that he was on spider control for the week, I began capturing interior shots prior to unpacking, eventually exhausting what little natural light that was left. We gingerly unpacked and made ourselves right at home because that's exactly how this small cottage made us feel.

Soon, with hunger pangs guiding us along, we set out on a new adventure by locking-up and heading down our narrow lane at dusk, closing the gate behind us. Leaving our cottage behind for several hours, we were off to discover the shops and people of Oughterard. And, even though we were unaware of it at the time, we were setting out to make The Boat Inn, the popular eatery and hang-out for the locals, our harbor after daily adventures and main source of nightly entertainment.....