Return to Ireland - Irish Artist Michael Hanrahan

This morning Fred and I walked to ennnistymon again. I hadn't planned on taking any more pictures but apparently I couldn't stop myself.

Anyway you won't see those pictures today because when I get back to Canada I'll get Maureen to make me one of her lovely videos with the pictures (right Moe?).

We were going to the bus stop to go back to Lahinch after our scone and coffee at Ginger Lou's, when we bumped into Michael Hanrahan.

We had met Michael when we are here three years ago. He is a lovely Irish artist and my daughter's had bought one of his prints of a beautiful painting he had done of Lahinch.

Today we went into his gallery in Ennistymon and he showed is what he is currently working on. See below. It is a lovely work of something similar he painted before (that was sold), to commemorate the Queen's visit to Ireland in 2011.

"Michael was the only artist accredited to paint the historical occasion of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's State visit to Ireland in May 2011. This was the first visit of a British Monarch to Ireland since independence in 1922. One of Hanrahan's paintings commemorating the visit is now in the Royal collection."

This is Michael's second painting to go to Buckingham Palace.

Return to Ireland - scenic walk between Lahinch and Ennistymon

Today Fred and I went to Ennistymon again. He didn't come last time when I went with Maureen and Jimmy. We walked using the back roads instead of the highway this time Such a beautiful walk. We were high over the area, as you can see from the pictures.

The walk took us over an hour and this can be a problem for me, as I always need a bathroom break. So at one point we came across a really old abandoned house. I went down the lane to it and was going to go for a pee near it (then take a picture of the house) when I saw a car parked and I did a quick u-turn. Fred said well go along the road anyway and I'll be on lookout. So I did. (Sorry God for putting my toilet paper in the bushes but I didn't know what else to do with it.)

I saw a lot more fairy trees (will blog about this later) and I have done my research now and am sure now about which trees they are.

We had coffee and scones at Ginger Lou's (where the scones are LARGE, we split one and brought the other one home with us) in Ennistymon, then walked behind where the falls are. We discovered a salmon run there, that was built to allow the salmon to swim upstream to spawn.

We then went back for lunch at Ginger Lou's. The food was excellent. In fact we have been very happy with pretty much all our food choices in Ireland. And the coffee is always lovely. One thing we learned about the coffee is that they always make it to order, they grind each cup as well. Everywhere. I love that. I drink decaf and usually that means I get a cup of coffee that's cold and tastes burnt. Not in Ireland. It is ALWAYS hot and good. And if I order tea, it is always BOILING hot. Often in Canada you get tepid dishwater for tea. Yeck. The Irish know their tea and coffee. Along with their fences which I didn't blog about this time because I did on our last trip in 2013.

Narrow road we were on between Lahinch and Ennistymon. When a car passed us we had to stand on the non-existent shoulder.

Falls and Man made salmon run

Close up of man made salmon run

We actually found some big trees in Ennistymon at the Falls Hotel. Thought they didn't exist in Ireland. They were some kind of fir tree maybe cedar.

Also went here with Maureen and Jimmy