I Think This Will Be Fun

 The way we ended up where we are was kind of weird and I will be doing a series of posts telling that story soon. Having ended up in this area known as Gweedore (the 'w' is silent or sometimes sort of swallowed and barely there), we have discovered that it is different in some fundamental ways to the other towns and villages we've lived in. Both of us are pretty excited about various possibilities. First of all, we love having new places to wander around in and there are plenty of lanes to meander down--we turned onto one this afternoon as we went in search of the library. We found it, after turning back at one point then asking someone for directions. Had we walked on just a bit further, we would have seen the 'Leabharlann' sign. This is an Irish word I recognise! I had better learn to recognise many more of them, because this is a Gaeltacht area where Irish is regularly used. Dungloe was also a Gaeltacht area and there were more Irish signs than the other places in which we've lived, but we never heard anyone speaking Irish and the signs had English translations. Not so here! People speak Irish all the time and the signs are in Irish, so this is a great opportunity to learn. I am more interested in being able to read and write and I can understand the meaning of some words I see, but pronunciation is tricky, so hearing the language spoken is helpful. I'm coming up short on some words, though. For example, this is the 'big' grocery store in a neighbouring townland (it is nowhere near as big as grocery stores in the US, but it's big for here). It's about a mile away from us.

I know siopa (shop), but can't find the meaning of mhici--my dictionaries don't have it listed, even without the 'h' which is sometimes inserted in various words. I'll have to ask someone. In Engliah, this is known as Gallagher's Food Store.

There's another, smaller shop just beyond this. It's a nice walk along the coast and there are footpaths all the way, which is great.

Closer to home, we have a wee shop in the miniscule village at this end. It's not a bad little place and very convenient. As we were going back and forth, we would sometimes walk the 4 or 5 minutes there after we got back from moving stuff to pick up eggs and milk instead of walking a mile to the other stores and back. I wouldn't try to do a weekly shop there, but to just dash out and pick up a few things, it's cool. And everyone who works there has been so nice and friendly! It's a pretty interesting little store with groceries, hula hoops, small fishing nets, coffee, baked goods, sandwiches, ice cream, cold drinks, and more, all in a little space.

As we make our way there, this is what we see.

We live just to the right of this. The beach is a short walk down a lane that's a few steps from our door.

The other day it was sunny and warm enough that I closed the curtains to keep the sun out. I liked the shadow on the curtain.

So we begin our explorations in our new area. Now that we're done going back and forth all the time, we can settle in and get to know the place. There are a lot of possibilities, it seems. I expect I'll learn a lot. This is gonna be fun!

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