Big town adventures
A nice morning, breakfast of Weetabix (bigger version of Shredded Wheat cereal) and eggs with Michael and Catherine, also a one word answer from Tola in school uniform. He makes and eats his own dinner separately so I may not see much more of the 16 year old.
And then drama! as I saw 2 sheep in Michael and Catherine's patio where they shouldn't be. So I went out to open the gate for them but they ran in the other direction. Not as smart (or trusting) as dogs, I guess (and opening the gate wouldn't have helped as there was another heavier gate before they could climb the hill to the field). A bit later I heard shouting and saw more sheep running in terror and then one fell or jumped down the 4 ft embankment into the patio and Marie's husband John was shouting at the dogs. The sheep lay there panting and she seemed hurt. He said she wasn't. I didn't like him when I met him 3 years ago at the mass for Marie & Catherine's mother and he came up and said something nasty about Americans as his first greeting to me. Marie came up to help out and 10 minutes later it seemed settled but one of the dogs had been too aggressive and henceforth will not be a sheep herding dog. Also, two sheep were lost.
As Marie drove me to town (Ballycastle), we saw the two lost sheep outside the barbed wire fence on the narrow road. She stopped the car and was gone 10 minutes, putting them back in the fenced area. She said at least they didn't make it to the paved road where cars go 40 or 50 mph.
It all just makes me feel sorry for animals! (And soon I am going to have a nice burger for lunch, hypocrite that I am)
In Ballycastle, Marie dropped me off at the seafront and I walked on the beach. It was beautiful! I talked briefly to a woman whose Golden Retriever was eating seaweed. She said she couldn't take all the seaweed off the beach so what could she do? There ARE things called leashes...I just said seaweed is probably good for dogs.
In town I met some people from a Rick Steve's tour including 6 from Seattle. They were on their way to Belfast and had stopped in Ballycastle for lunch. The Irish guide stopped in front of me where I was sitting on a bench. He was giving out gourmet Irish chocolates to his tour members but he didn't offer me one. I teased him about it a bit later.
I wandered around the small town. The Ballycastle Museum was closed, unfortunately. I was due to meet Catherine at Tola's school. He has a "formal" on Friday at a hotel and so we went to Coleraine, a town with a big pedestrian center (Catherine said it was mostly Protestant so to watch what I said) a half hour's drive away, to find a suit to rent for him. He looked handsome but he wouldn't let me take his photo. It cost £120 but included patent leather shoes. The man helping us was nice and he himself said something negative about Trump after I said a lot of Canadians were no longer coming to America to shop.
Then Catherine drove the scenic way home along the coastline. On the way we saw a cow on the side of the 2 lane road, another lost animal. Drive slowly, folks!
Lastly, I went into a church just looking for peace and quiet after the noisy tour bus and I liked the stained glass:
Catherine made dinner for the 3 of us while Tola had his chicken goujons (nuggets), a very spicy chicken curry.
Comments
Post a Comment