Revisiting the trip

Okay, so I've finally got the pictures uploaded so I can show you the stuff that I took...and Jess took a few on my camera, too. I'm not nearly the photographer Jess is, so I didn't even do anything at the rugby pitch in the way of field action. I did, however, take a couple of shots on the field to show the rapidly changing weather and light wreaking havoc on everything. I hated the Irish weather. It was like Seattle on Prozac. Cold and wet one minute, warm the next, then windy and cold and overcast the next. You need Xanax just to control your weather anxiety.



When we arrived at the pitch, it was overcast, but barely warm enough not to need a jacket.



The clouds cleared a bit. It heated up.



And 15 minutes later, the clouds came in and the rain began...and it was cold.



And it stayed cold...from Saturday through Sunday. Sunday, in fact, was colder.



These shirts and sweats were for sale, at the most outrageous prices. The shirt on the left was €45 - about $71US. And the green one next to it, which I really liked, was €60 - almost $95US. And the sweat hoodie was €80. I couldn't believe it.



Leaving the games on Sunday, we had enough time to drive down to Enniskerry, to Powerscourt Gardens. It's a mansion that has a beautiful set of gardens and grounds to walk. It was the high point of the entire trip. This was the view of the back of the house...



...and this was the view of the front.



The view out the back door onto the terrace was splendid.



The steps down to the garden paths were interesting and artistic. Very much form over function...they weren't easy to walk!



The pond was lovely. The silver winged stallions were gorgeous.



The fountain, which was a kneeling Adonis holding something over his head...we couldn't really tell what.



There were water lilies in the pond among the grasses.



They were so gorgeous close-up that they almost looked unreal.

Okay, that's it for tonight. More later, and believe me, it will be worth the visit back!