This was originally sent out in the eQuilter newsletter on June 9:
Greetings from Ireland!
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My week has gone by very quickly, after an unscheduled overnight stop in Boston, and a whirlwind start to our group tour and the Irish Quilt Festival.
Have you ever heard of Aran Island sweaters? Well, I was there on the island all day yesterday! It was windy and cloudy, which is typical weather I imagine, but despite the weather it was a fascinating journey to a lifestyle of another time. The whole island is partitioned off by rock walls that are stacked by hand and fit together like a puzzle. They don't use concrete because the wind must be able to blow through the rocks….otherwise it would just blow the walls over!
Each of the walled-in segments of land has a different purpose. One farmer explained that he had 3 plots in different places on the island: one for his cows, one to grow potatoes, and the third was used as an alternate because they can only grow potatoes in one place for 2 years in a row. All of the soil on the island is manmade, because the island is basically one big rock. They haul up seaweed and sand, mix it together and make their own soil within the walled plots. Quite fascinating to see the soil built up over years of this practice. I'll be posting photos of the walls and the island later this week.'
I am aware that the economy is bad here, so hopefully the festival will be a welcome input of funds to the local economies where we visit. Today is the 2nd day of the quilt festival but my first day there, so I'll take photos and post those later this week as well. Most of the photos I'll post when I get back, since I can do higher quality photo editing on my big desktop computer back home. (I have my laptop on this trip – can't get the colors exactly right on a laptop.)
You may remember that in April I spent a week with teacher/author/artist Pam Holland in Australia. She is here too, and last night we went to the Wicked Thimble Pub and heard an Irish folk band perform. Tonight we are going to a medieval castle for more music and local food. I am staying in a hotel on Galway Bay, and every morning and evening I see people out in the cold water swimming along the shore… and I mean really SWIMMING… like they are training for a triathlon! Off in the distance on the other side of the bay is the Burren which we'll visit on another day of our tour next week.
Sunday afternoon my tour group (40 people) and I will be off on the rest of our journey around the island. I haven't been in my room much since I got here – so I'm planning to share more with you in a few days: watch for my midweek Creative Nudge newsletter!
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