Rain was threatened today but never came where we were. It was chilly and overcast but not uncomfortable. We visited Russborough House first. I don’t remember the exact history but somewhere along the way someone made a lot of money in diamonds. Now they have tours of the house to help pay the bills. Not the same people of course. Around the turn of the 20th century the residents were living quite well. Let’s just say it’s good to be rich.
After leaving Russborough we wound through hilly County Wicklow until we got to the village where we were to take the garden tour. First we had lunch. We’ve gotten lunch on all these tours and the food in each case has been delicious and plentiful. We have to work at digesting it so we can be ready for dinner. We got to see some monuments to the victims of “The Famine” driving out of Dublin but we’re in no way suffering a famine ourselves. The Mount Usher garden we toured was developed by a man named Robinson, I believe, and his sons. He pioneered an approach to gardening that eschewed the formal English garden in favor of trees from all over the world planted in natural settings. The cool and damp climate of Ireland makes it easy to grow the trees and our guide pointed out several “champion” trees, that is trees recognized as the best specimens in the world. As an old tree-lover from the dusty plains, I was filled with envy at the variety and size of trees and the ease with which it appeared they grew them.
Yesterday we toured another garden, this one smaller, the creation of a single man and his wife. It was a very nice personal garden, more on the formal style. Later we visited another fallen glory. This manor house was still occupied by descendants of the family that built it. They’ve turned it into a hotel. Grandpa does most of the gardening and was out on his John Deere mower mowing the croquet grounds when we were there. Joyce and I particularly liked Ballyvalane, which is what the manor is called. The proprietor mentioned trout and salmon fishing in the rivers around and Joyce and I think we might like to come back and spend a week sometime.
Day before yesterday we were at sea as we sailed from Spain to Ireland. The Bay of Biscay was not kind to us. I was OK at breakfast but we skipped lunch and I just ate part of a banana as I headed out to listen to a former ambassador to god knows where talk about the way the world is. I didn’t get far before realizing I had a problem and barely had time to get back to our cabin and grab a barf bag before that banana came galloping back the way it came. We slept most of the afternoon and gingerly tried our luck at dinner. By morning we were pulling into the calms waters around Ireland and were grateful for it.