Happy Friday! I am back! This post will be all about my fabulous trip to Ireland, and I’ll share some photos that don’t begin to do the beautiful landscape justice.
The combination of the Writer’s Conference and tours were a perfect balance. We had a couple of days that were all-day conference and a couple that were all-day touring. The weather was AMAZING! It never got above 68 degrees on any given day. The only drawback was the rain. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here we go!
This is the ruins of an abbey built in the 1500s that we visited on the first day.
Our next touring day took us to the standing stones, then to the largest lake in Western Ireland, Laugh Corrib, where I picked up some rocks to bring back home.
The next part of the tour took us to the village of Cong, where The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen Ohara, was filmed. We also visited an ancient Abbey while there. I loved the Monk’s fish house!
This sign on the wall of the pub where we had lunch in Cong made me laugh. Gotta love the Irish sense of humor!
From there, we hiked through what our tour guide called a fairy forest. It was the most magical place I’ve ever experienced. The trees are all covered with moss, as if they are dressed for a special occasion. And the moss is soft to the touch. I was surprised to see ferns growing in the forest, but they were all over. Then there were some mysterious caves and one with a grisly tale to tell. The ruler of this land had a penchant for young girls and often took them to an isolated cave where he would rape them. The story goes that one day, he forced a young girl to go with him, but she asked that he at least respect her modesty and turn around while she undressed. When he did, she pushed him, and he fell to his death in the depths of the cave.
The day we visited the holy well, it was pouring rain and cold. But I did tie Rick’s beadwork to the tree and left an offering.
I’m going to stop there for now and will share more later. There is way too much for one post. I loved meeting all the authors who attended the conference, and new friendships were forged. This photo also included our infamous bus driver, Billy.
Our instructors, Heather Webb, and Eliza Knight were fabulous and so knowledgeable. I came away with some ideas I’ll be implementing over the next few months, starting with creating new book covers for my first books and re-marketing them. They are ten years old, and things have changed since they were first published.
Thanks for riding along with me for this first segment. There is so much more to come!
