108 - Grangecon and Surrounds - Ireland - And another change of plans

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-sitting adventures and how we run a blog and post pictures of the animals. I showed her one of the pics of Tilly that I sent to Michelle and she said. "Yeah, I've seen that one. Michelle sent it to me." I went home and checked if my nose was clean...

 

One of the cottages

The town has an abundant supply of underground water. This pump is on the main street and still active. Tilly dragged me over to it and drank the water from a puddle under the outlet. The water was beautiful to drink.

The Grangecon Kitchen seating area is under this what is called a 'Tentipi"

The ruins of Baltinglass Abbey which was founded in the 12th century. As in many structures in Ireland and the UK, they are added onto in more recent times. The tower in this case was added on in the 16th century.

This mausoleum is privately owned and even within the church itself, local laws still allow villagers to be buried there.

Grangecon isn't far from our previous gig with Sammy and Chickpea. We caught up with Niamh and the kids, Anna and Ultan. It was great to see them again.

Niamh is an alternative soul and it was wonderful to have discussions on the topics we had in common.  Those very lovely typical Irish faces...

And like typical Irish, they love their traditional music and the kids are encouraged to play.

I accompanied Anna playing a traditional tune.

Niamh plays the accordion.

We were to stay in Ireland for a while longer however, plans had to be changed. 

Cars in the UK require a yearly MOT check (roadworthy certificate) and ours was due in late July. I didn't think it was to be a problem as we thought we could go to Northern Ireland (UK) and get it done there.  A 6-month waiting period, however, meant the earliest I could get it done was in November! For some reason, in Northern Ireland, MOT checks can only be done by government agencies.  In England there is only a two-week wait as the MOT checks can be done by private garages.

So we had to decline the offer of a sit we were in the middle of booking in Northern Ireland and took a ferry back to the UK mainland.

We started looking for sits in the UK and found over 2500 available for the times we needed! Summertime is when the locals travel, hence the availability.  Max got some great sits virtually back to back that will take us up to early October.

Off we go again!