Land of the leprechauns

Greetings on one of our rare rain-free days.

In Ireland, if you're asked if you're happy, you say, "Aye". If you're very happy, you say, "Aye, surely".

Evidently, the stories about Leprechauns are partially true. There was a tribe in SW Ireland who were quite vertically challenged, but were known for being good warriors. I guess you compensate where you can.

And in Scotland the Picts were the original warrior race - they went into battle naked except for their purple body paint. That would be enough to scare anybody, including Mel Gibson. The Picts destroyed the Roman 9th Legion in battle but their bodies were never found. Anthropologists have determined that the purple Picts had cannabalistic tendencies. I'm not too sure exactly which shade of purple they were, but on those cold winter days, I'm assuming there was more than a tiny touch of blue.

And talking of tribes, the Scots, Irish and Jews all have this kinship pattern in common. For example, Richards come from the ferocious O' Deaton clan from Budapest, and I, of course, am one of the Newfoundland O'Hora's.

Today we visited the gorgeous Ring of Kerry, which is the furthest southern (actually sw) point of Ireland. Beautiful. And while Ireland is loverly, like a patchwork quilt with 40 shades of green, our hearts still belong in Scotland.

On past visits to Britain, we've been shaken up while trying to cross the streets. We look left, see no traffic, and walk...only to be startled by the screeching brakes of the line of cars speeding towards us from the right. Something we've appreciated in the larger towns all over Britain and Ireland: at intersections, they often have "look left" or "look right" written on the sidewalk...probably to save their bumpers from stupid tourists.

Before we came to Ireland, we'd pictured the towns as collections of quaint thatch cottages peopled by simple farm folk. Hah! They now live in lovely newish houses, and every town has a few 600 year old buildings housing trendy cafes with a choice 10 types of coffee to sip with your croissant or fancy brioche.

Some little-known animal facts that Dylan has taught us along the way: 1. If you see sheep walking on the road impeding traffic, if everyone on the bus shouts, "Mint Sauce", they'll get off immediately. 2. If you count 7 horses in one day, you'll meet the person of your dreams and get married. If you count 14 white horses, you'll be pregnant by Christmas. If you count 24 of them, you'll get divorced. There are lots of white horses around here, so it seems as if you can live an entire life in one day.

Since we're further south now, a few more wildflowers have appeared to make me jealous. There are now fields of wild yellow irises in addition to the deep pink rhododendrons and the bluebells that line the roads, but the most incredible sight are the hedges of fuschia that grow 4-5 feet tall. When I think of how much it costs at home for one hanging basket of them, and how they die with the first frost, I start thinking about how nice it would be to live in a climate where these things grow as weeds, and where some gardens even have a palm tree or two. And we Canadians make jokes about British weather!

Back to reality, though. Houses in this area cost around E 1m (Cdn $ 1.5m), and even those caught in the market decline still cost E 300K.

And it cost a cool E 24 , or $36 to have our laundry done today.

Tomorrow we go and kiss the Blarney Stone. The Paddy' s whisky made us do it.

Are we having a good time? Aye. Are we glad we've done this trip? Aye, surely.