naurwen

I thought I would post this link again - because they've updated their webpage and all. :)
You may remember... last year when we went to Ireland we did spend an afternoon working with hawks, an owl and watching falconry. :D

http://www.newgrangefalconry.com/

We didn't get to see their eagle as they had only just gotten it! :) But he got mentioned. My, Odin is quite the name for this beautiful bird! :D

You get to work in a small group - as small as you like really because it's private lessons you get and that's wonderful, because it's all peaceful, no stressing about anything, and you get to ask things and purely enjoy it.

So if you're ever in Ireland and feel like doing this... you have an address now. :D

And awwwwww:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29268339@N08/2727812923/

That's their flickr page by the way. :D

And here goes my first offical entry... and some mainly fun photos:

We had a good journey, good flight, everything went really well. Got our car super-fast, almost didn't find it as now you have to pick up the rental cars in a parking building near the airport and let's just say it's kind of hidden. We had a silver Nissan Micra which worked a treat - and we spotted this type of car over and over again all over Ireland. Must be a favourite? It looks smaller on the outside, but actually a lot fits in. Our luggage certainly did. :)

We drove to the first house we had rented... and got SO LOST!
You really need a navigator there. Once you know your way you're just fine, but searching the house for the first time... no chance.
The lady who owns it knew we were on the way and called me to ask if we were nearby and I was like yeah, in the village you told me NOT to go to. LOL. We really ended up there. So she came by car to pick us up. I guess she found it just as hilarious. :D
Some tea was awaiting us... and a really large but cosy and lovely house. I'd take that one anytime! Plus big spacious gardens and all *on your own*. No neighbours directly nearby yet you're not really far away from the next village (...) or main road. Handy!

In the morning, Sunday, we discovered we had a couple of cats to adopt.
The lady had warned us there were cats, wild-ish ones that her husband actually fed and looked after a bit. Figured out there were 3 fluffy white cats, one without a tail, one big-ish one and then a slender one. All of them too shy to be touched but nosy enough to peer into the kitchen, especially since there was a small bowl for them by the kitchen door anyway.
So... Nurdhegilwen's familiar with adopting-cats-for-a-week-in-Ireland - we did just that. LOL.
Some while later I discovered 2 kitten in the shed behind the house - one white and one - BLACK!!! :D SO cute. Unfortunately I've no photos of them as they were well hidden and the slender cat which I soon called *mum* was always guarding them, but I saw them play a couple of times. AW!
The big cat seemed to be the guardian of the house as he mostly slept by the kitchen door and usually was the first one to visit us as soon as someone started strolling around the house in the morning. >^.^<

Here go pics:

1st week - 1st house: My Bed I had to take a photo of it because it just looked rather nice... :) AND it was super-comfy! :D *misses it*	*our* Cats How many do you spot? :D
Close up Meow They were too shy to be touched, but still adorable and one of them which I think was a male kept on guarding our house. :)	Narnia in the Garden? Well... you never know, right? :D
Our Car, our Bear, our Tiger... LOL, the bear's mum's (yes, it's a teddybear dressed up as a gingerbread-man LOL), the tiger's mine. They were posing during the whole holiday. Here they're showing off our lovely (rented) silver (no, not a Volvo, sorry) Nissan Micra. :D	Boots! We had to buy some definitely-waterproof boots for the falconry lesson, so here they are... :) In the end we had to leave them in Ireland. They were really heavy and also big, no space in our luggage... but they should have a good home by now - we gave them to the lady who owns the 2nd house we rented and she found them lovely. :)
THE Restaurant of Navan You love Indian Food? You are in Ireland? Preferably near Navan? You'd like to visit a drool-icious restaurant? Here it is!!! *waves @ Nicole!!!*	Synchro Swans You won't believe when I say that I actually WAITED for them to do something else than scratch their tums for ages... both at the same time... in the end I gave up and took THIS photo instead. :)
Mini-Birdie Who spots the Robin? :D	Natural Beauty This one was really unusual - I've definitely not seen any such flower before.

Sunday was a tiny drama-day as Ed discovered one of the car's tires was losing air. I called the lady asking if she knew where we best could get that fixed and well, she came over along with her son who grabbed the tire and went off in search for *someone to fix it on a Sunday*. Bless them for their help!!!
In the meanwhile we were told to *go somewhere and enjoy the day* so we went to the next town to do some food shopping and also to visit a small local market that sold yummy homemade jams, scones, cheese, veggies and... small packs of scrabooking crafty things. They were thrown in between the scones. LOL.
So it was a bit of a lazy shopping Sunday *only* but way ok for us as all three of us were really tired after tough times at work and then travel-Saturday...

Arrived back at the house and got our tire back immediately, fixed by whoever for 7 Euro only. Woooooooooooh! :D
Lucky!!!

Well, and my next entries will be more adventurous, I promise. ;)

Um, can anyone tell me why LJ leaves such a huge empty space between my texts BEFORE the pics? In EVERY post??? :(