Coastal Road Northern Ireland #5

Meet the hubbie :) Between the two of us we took a ton of photos.

Coastal Road Northern Ireland #4

Coastal Road Northern Ireland #3

Coastal Road Northern Ireland #2

Coastal road Northern Ireland

On the coastal road to the Giants Causeway.

So close yet so far

We were in Ireland and in Galway during the International Quilt Festival 2012. Did I get to it ....... NO :(  We saw the signs and banners, passed the college location, and took a fabulous bus tour to Kylemore Abbey instead. Some ladies on the tour had been to the festival. They liked the quilts on display but were not too happy with the organizing of travel and accommodations for the event. Hopefully some of the kinks will get sorted out for next time.
In all the stop offs we made around Ireland there was not much quilting to see BUT some of the cathedrals had some amazing ceramic floors, altars and other items that could easily have inspired existing quilt patterns and designs :) There was also plenty of other textiles to see which I enjoyed greatly.

One banner in St. Nicholas' Church in Galway caught my eye.

as did some random dancing as we walked around :) Seriously they showed up as a little parade (3 pipers, 2 dancers and a highland costumed guy carrying the Scottish flag), set up, did their dance and cameras and then moved along to another part of the street and did the same thing. We followed them for a wee while.

We took tons of photographs and I will share them over time and at each of my blogs. What impressed me the most - the scenery (obviously), the stained glass windows and ceramics, the wildlife, the historical ambiance intermingled with modern, and the seemingly random sculptures along the roadways, roundabouts and other places.
I was sorely tempted to buy one of the many ruined buildings we saw along the way but managed to resist the temptation. Maybe they will just have to show up in some of my art work (if I ever get back to it).
I also noticed a theme with the many cottages that we saw which I will share in another posting.

The London Hippodrome

Now there's an interesting looking building. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so I asked my daughters to take a few shots for me. The building dates from 1900 and was originally used for a circus and variety performances. It then became a music-hall and variety theater. In 1958 the inside was demolished and turned into a cabaret restaurant. It is currently undergoing more renovation.

"Hello down there, why not come up and join us !!!"

We also passed  Ripley's on our mammoth walkabout. A visit inside will have to wait for another jaunt across the "big puddle". Piccadily Circus has changed somewhat since the days my mother worked there at Drummonds Bank, and unfortunately looks even more "signage tacky" since I lived in London.

I feel like I've been busy the past few weeks with a lot of traveling - college visits for daughter #3, volunteer work, a visit to Ohio to do some house painting for my mother-in-law, shopping trips to help daughter #1 get ready for her mission in California, woodwork project in our house, and a bunch of other stuff locally. We are currently dogs/house sitting.
It's been way too hot and humid for me to sew much, (though I have been helping my daughter with hers,)  so I've been doing a lot of productive genealogy research related to my great-uncle and one of my cousins. (That internet travel has taken me to New Jersey, Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, England, Scotland and India !)
School starts back up at the end of this week for my two youngest. Summer break has felt really short this year. Daughter #2 is flying in for a short visit in a couple of weeks and hopefully we will get together when hubby and I are doing an overnight layover in Utah in September.