House of Love

In honor of today, enjoy this HAPPY DANCE!

Frustrated

I'm so happy to be caught up with our trip to the British Isles, now I have all of April to catch up on- ugh! I'm so frustrated with Blogger though because all of my posts are being published in a funky format, extra line spacing, or the words are bunched up on the sides of the pictures- not at all how I format them when I'm writing them, but alas after they are published they have a mind of their own. I've tried editing them several times to make them look like I want them too, but Blogger is having none of it. Is anyone else having this problem?

Day 10- A Dozen Doors

Sunday was our last day in Dublin, so we got up super early to take a photo walk and capture some of the brightly painted doors in the city.

We also saw orange, bright blue, and light blue. Of course, there were neutrals too- black, white, brown, many gorgeous doors.

This was the grandaddy of all doors though- super fancy!

I wanted to add some of our other favorite doors from our trip:

From the King's School in Canterbury.

St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury.

This little house in Canterbury has painted moldings and flowers above the door and windows on all 3 levels.

The grandaddy of carved doors in the gate to the Canterbury Cathedral.

A gate at Malahide Castle. When it's all closed up, there's a little door in the door (look on the right).

Also on the grounds of Malahide Castle, but doesn't it look like it could lead you to Middle Earth? I'm sure we saw some hobbits sneak by. I'm so grateful we were able to visit England and Ireland again. I hope we get back there again before another 11 years pass!

Day 9- Malahide

Saturday was our only day to play, so we about wore our legs off running from place to place. We spent the morning in Dublin seeing all that we could, then we took the train out to Malahide to spend the afternoon and explore a little there too.


We took a nice little trek through the woods,


to visit Malahide Castle.

Of course, we toured the inside too. From 1185-1975 this Castle was the residence of the Talbot family. After spending her life here, Rose was the last member of the family to inherit the Castle, who in turn had to sell it to the Irish State to pay the taxes. So sad! Lucky for her, she had another home in Australia to move to.

On the grounds there are ruins from a church,

and a cemetary too!

There was this handsome mister also. There were 2 ladies with him, but they were trying to get into the closed gift shops- so funny!

These cute little houses reminded us of the beach, so we had to venture to the seaside.

We loved seeing all the signs in Irish Gaelic too. Doesn't "Leithreas" in its fancy caligraphy look so much prettier than "Toilets"? Ireland, I want to see more of you!

Day 8- Daffodil Day

On Friday, Len worked at the Canadian Embassy all day while I relaxed at the hotel for much of the day. I went to the mall to get a smoothie for lunch and I also bought a daffodil pin in honor of the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Day. When Len came back that evening, he too was wearing a daffodil pin he bought at lunch time- great minds think alike! We were going to eat dinner at the Arlington Hotel and watch Celtic Rhythm perform their fancy footwork to Irish music. However, I was really sick with pregnancy, so we just had a quiet night in. Here are some of the lovely flowers we saw in Ireland and England.


We seriously saw thousands of cheerful daffodils all over both islands. They're one of my faves!

The trees were heavy with lovely apple and cherry blossoms too.

Cute little circular rosebuds.

Magnolia trees all in bloom getting ready to open.

These were like little pom poms.

This prickly bush had these crazy swirly flowers that were so cool.

Little fireworks.

From far away I thought these were red berries covering this wall. On closer inspection I learned that they were darling little flowers.

A boat full of bright blooms.

Our hotel had royal purple orchids all over the lobby, gorgeous white orchids in our bedroom, and these tiny little blossoms in our bathroom. I don't know their name, but they were cute little stars. I just love flowers!

Day 7- St. Patrick's Legacy

On Thursday, Len spent the morning at the European Parliament Office, had lunch at the Department of Enterprise, and in the afternoon visited the Law Offices of Byrne Wallace. In the evening, we went souvenir shopping on Grafton Street and at Stephen's Green Mall. I'd rather tell you a little about St. Patrick in this post though.

Patrick was a Christian missionary to Ireland in the 5th Century. He is credited with ridding Ireland of snakes. However, this has also been interpreted as ridding Ireland of "the serpent" or pagan religions and introducing Christianity to the people. He used the shamrock (3-leaved clover) to illustrate the Godhead consisting of 3 personages: Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.



We enjoyed visiting the beautiful Cathedral named after him.

We took a little stroll a few blocks up and visited the Christ Church Cathedral as well. Notice the covered bridge connecting the Cathedral to the building that hosts Dublinia- a tribute to the Viking ancestors of Ireland.

I loved its Rooster weather vane.

The beautiful daffodils, tulips, and hyacinth in bloom along with the tiny white blossoms all over the bushes.

I took photos of at least a dozen different Celtic crosses throughout the city. This one belongs to St. Ann's church (where Bram Stoker married Oscar Wilde's former girlfriend). I like the seagull perched on top.

Day 6- Dublin Delights

On Wednesday morning we said goodbye to London and flew over to Dublin. We ate lunch together, then Len went to the Canadian Embassy to work in the afternoon, while I settled into our hotel room and relaxed. That evening we went out to dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel with the Canadian Ambassador, Loyola Hearn, his wife Maureen, and Leonard's Irish counter-part Jackie Ellis. We didn't get to do much sightseeing until Saturday, so I'm going to post our Ireland trip how I want to, instead of chronologically- ha ha!

Who says Leprechauns are little? This guys was taller than us both!

We did find his gold money tree too, score!

Dublin has charming little details, like these adorable shamrock streetlamps.

We had to visit the tart with the cart- the famous Molly Malone.

We also saw the quare in the square. Hey, I'm not judging Oscar Wilde, that's just his statue's nickname. My favorite quote by him, "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

We're probably the only people to visit Dublin and not tour the Guinness factory, but really why would we- we're Mormon! I love how Ireland's symbol is the harp though.

The River Liffey winding through the city.

The Clarence Hotel on the River Liffey. I wish we were staying here, since Bono owns it, and we're like big U2 fans, but nope we stayed nearer the heart of the city.

The top of Grafton Street with its swanky shops. I loved all the fresh flowers for sale everyday, and the amazing street performers at night. Who knew the electric violin could sound SO amazing!!

The bottom of Grafton Street in the early morning, before anything was open. Notice the store on the right, Brown Thomas. It is the ritziest store in Dublin and is owned by a Canadian. During the day there's a doorman wearing a top hat and tails, love it!

Stephen's Green Shopping Center at the end of Grafton Street, which was also right next door to our hotel.

Across the street from our hotel is Stephen's Green, which this arch is an entrance to.

And here's our hotel, the purple-themed Fitz William.

We loved our charming room with its 2 window seats,

and its HUGE bathtub. I spent almost 3 hours in there one day reading a book, heaven!