PUZZLING
So just when do the do their yardwork?  In Ireland, I mean.  Along with Scotland and England for that matter.

When we used to travel overseas, I wondered where the people were. No one seemed at home.  All the ball fields were vacant, just like in the US, but they had more soccer fields, naturally. (Yet when I returned and was walking through an airport in Chicago, I believe, all I could see on the tvs was soccer and skateboarding--give me my country back!)  But this trip made me wonder how do their lawns and gardens look so immaculate when no one ever works outside.

As I posted yesterday, we were all over Northern Ireland and Ireland on buses and when I could keep my lids from falling, my eyes never witnessed anyone working on their yards.  That's not quite true: I saw one mowing by hand his yard and another mowing on a rider.  That was it.

My wife suggested they must do that work at 8:00 or 9:00 PM when there is still plenty of Summer daylight left.  But I think by that time, they've headed to the pubs.

With over 200 days of rain per year and over 100 inches of rain, Ireland et.al., surely require a ton of lawn maintenance, but when they do it still puzzles me.  And I never saw weed one in any of the gardens.

BACK
After a much needed break from infernal AZ heat, I have returned to my blog.  So where have I been?  I'll start slowly and try to build suspense.

We sat on the runway for 3 hours and 1 minute before our international departure.  Of course, we missed our connecting flight.  So why the picture of the bus?  Well, we were part bus/ part cruise.

Erin go Braugh.  I never heard it or read it one time, but that's where we spent most of our time--the Emerald Isle.  Or maybe I should say Emerald Isles.  Until this journey, I had no idea that Ireland and Northern Ireland were separate countries.

The other sojourners were my wife and our two oldest grandkids, ages 13 and 10.  Other places we visited were Guernsey Island, England, France, and Scotland.  They were all good.  Maybe our favorite and my second biggest surprise was Liverpool, England.  I had no idea it was so large.

A beautiful city of 500,000.  For some reason, I'd pictured it as a small town.  And of course we did The Beatles tour.  Going to Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields were really special to one who grew up with the Fab 4, though I never called them that till now.  To go into The Cavern where they got their start and to visit the Beatle Story Museum were pretty cool.

Eating lunch in the Eiffel Tower was memorable as well as another visit to the Blarney Stone, eating as much Irish stew as I could, and hitting the underground hospital and museum in occupied Guernsey were also very good.

Can I forget St. Andrews Old Course in Scotland where golf originated?  If you know me at all, you know that answer.  Castles galore, the Giant Causeway, well there were lots  of peak moments and sleep moments on the buses that took us from Cork to Killarney and Belfast.  From South Hampton to London, and other places.

But the best of all was just getting to hang with Amelia and Grant 24/7 for 17 days.  Now that's what I call entertainment.