Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

Grangecon is a tiny village with very few houses and plenty of wide open fields. There is a wonderful cafe called the 'Grangecon Kitchen' which serves the best breakfasts and cakes. Grangecon also has a local pub/tapas bar that opens two evenings a week but unfortunately, it was closed on the days we wanted to go. The people are very friendly and being a small town, everybody knows everybody else. On Saturday mornings, a stall selling organic dried goods sets up on the main street. One particular Saturday I was walking the dog past the stall when the woman behind the stall said "Hi Paul! How's Tilly going?" I had never met her and walked over, obviously looking perplexed. She then said "Before Michelle left for Croatia,, she told me you and Max were looking after Tilly. I spotted you last week walking by and sent Michelle photos showing Tilly enjoying her walk". Oh dear, I thought, one must keep his nose clean here. I then went on to explain our pet-sitt...

Grangecon was a 1.5 hour trip south from Lucan. It was advertised as Baltinglass however it is a small hamlet a further 10 minute drive up the road. We met up with the family who gave us a very warm welcome. After an hour of property and pet rundown, they left for their holiday in Croatia. And here we have  Tilly, Felix, and Rodney. And a resident of the skirting boards who we never got to meet. We arrived close to the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. This photo was taken at 10.30pm. I'm cute and I've got a great smile! Tilly was Paul's dog. Wherever he was, so was she. Michelle explained that Tilly was always daddy's girl with the family, too. Grangecon had a fabulous cafe (only one).  We went a couple of times to enjoy their fare. They also made exceptional cakes, which we bought to take home when we couldn't get in. Busy place!

Back to Lucan for 4 days. Having been here before, we knew what to expect and made the most of it. Taking Archie for a walk was no easy task as he is a strong boy and where he wants to go, I follow whether I want to or not. Max found a dog park nearby and daily visits there was the perfect activity.  We could take Archie off the lead and let him socialise with other dogs and also giving us the opportunity to talk to locals. The nightly ritual. Ten ton shedding furball. This is Charlie, who we were lucky to see twice a day before he disappeared as a streak.  And Fenway, who was much more sociable. (Max: Fenway and Archie liked to sleep on my bed with me.) I love this shot!. Archie is second from the left.  Golden Retriever mash up.  Archie posing outside a 16th-century ruin a few kilometres away. We also had a coffee with a young couple Sinead and Connor (easy to remember!) that we met on our previous visit here. They had every excuse not to meet up as it was cold and...

A couple of hours drive has brought us to Cullenstown on the southeastern coast of Ireland. 'Tootsie', or Mrs Toots, is the house nobility. Apart from waking us up in the middle of the night to go out, she is easy to look after as, well, she sleeps all day.    Cullenstown is right on the coast and is comprised of about 30 dwellings. There is no infrastructure, so all shopping and cafes are a few kilometres away. We could actually walk it distance-wise but the roads are so narrow we'd be constantly looking out for traffic and farm vehicles from both directions. We've walked the local beach a few times as the weather has been kind. We even had a day over 20 degrees!  The dwelling is part of a barn conversion split into about 8 units. Some garden beds in the courtyard would be nice. We're in the back left-hand corner. This is our unit. One of the houses down the street has its own medieval ruin. The Shell Cottage is right on the beach. (Who would have thought!) It is c...

 The traffic was kind to us and 4 hours later, we arrived at Lucan, in the western outskirts of Dublin. It's not the prettiest of towns but we took this sit to minimise our accommodation costs while we sort out my passport and visa. The home owners are a lovely young South African couple taking some time off to visit Dingle, where we were a few days ago. Archie, their golden retriever, a lap dog, is larger than life and very sweet.  He likes to sit on you on the sofa and he's 35-40 kilos or more, a hefty lad. We noticed how few people we saw on our dog walks compared to the number of dwellings. The shopping centre was huge and also looked deserted, however, hundreds more 'cookie cutter' houses lined up looking identical and sterile are under construction, making us think the population will be increased in the near future. Here is the view from the bedroom looking into the backyard. It appears more like an army barracks than a housing estate. What we also noticed was th...