I wasn't sure what to expect when I looked out the window this morning. The build up to a coming nasty weather event has been quite amazing. Imagine - expecting temperatures below 0C with up to 4 cm of snow! I have a toque, mitts and a warm jacket but no boots. I do own a pair of heavy duty wellies but they are at the farm at Coolross. True, England has been experiencing some nasty amounts of snow, resulting in traffic tie ups and accidents. I think they're taking the brunt of the Siberian inflow of cold air, colliding with a warmer air mass coming north from, well, wherever it's coming from.
The buildup to armageddon continues but so far it's been all talk here. There were bright skies when I peered out the window. As far as weather goes I suppose I wasted the morning. As far as research goes, I made some progress on the McGrath line. Now awaiting confirmation to the extent possible, from my McGrath DNA connection that I found the right people.
This afternoon I drove to Carlow for my 2 pm appointment with the genealogist at the library. Turns out she has access to all the same databases that I have myself. The difference was in the speed of her internet connection, compared to mine as a library member. We were seeking more information on my Walsh and McDonald lines.
To back up a little, driving to Carlow town is a no brainer. Just follow Hwy N80 all the way, negotiating the right exits on the roundabouts as you go. They are well marked and my Autoaddress app was chattering away nicely telling me which way to go. Once in the town, life becomes somewhat more complex. The streets are narrow, are mostly two way, and allow parking on both sides of the street, leaving the traffic to find a way to fit vehicles going in opposite directions, into less than needed space.
I had neglected to ask about parking for library patrons. There is none as it turned out. After only a couple of wrong turns, despite the directions, it's not that straightforward, I found myself on the street in front of the library. I turned up the side street - mercifully a one-way - and drove 20 feet past the entrance to a parking lot. Drat. OK, up to the corner, make a left turn and go around the block. Hah! There are no regular blocks.
When I got to what I thought was "around the block" more or less, I found I had just passed yet another parking lot. Just as well this time as I hadn't the foggiest notion how to get to the library on foot from there. On I went, up, down and around corners. Finally I came to the public parking lot smack in the middle of town. What a relief - this was the very starting point for my previous failed attempts to get out of town. Ah well, I parked the car, pushed my coins into the "pay and display" machine, took the printed receipt and put it on the dashboard.
A friendly, well bundled up, citizen gave me the directions needed. Turns out I wasn't far from the library and I had two hours paid parking time. The walk to the library was pretty quick and I was a bit early. What I needed to login to the library wifi was my Bunclody library card. It was back in the cottage. However, the librarian found it online, found it had expired so she renewed it, asked for my pin code (mercifully the same one as at home) and I got connected - more or less. Actually, it was less. The connection was there but it just didn't work very fast.
Once that was sorted out I met with the genealogist. Not a single new record was found but we did discuss the fact that the women whose marriages I was looking for, might have lived in bordering parishes where the marriages would have taken place. Most of those parishes do have records in the right time frame, and only some of them have strategically timed gaps in those records. We only got as far as talking about it. I've now spent a good part of the evening straining my eyes while browsing the online non-indexed images. There are a LOT of surrounding parishes. So far no luck, but once my vision returns I'll have another go.
We also looked at a few printed resources but they are general in nature. They do make interesting background for the social history of the life and times of Irish citizens. The genealogist said she would continue to look through records and books in her spare time to see if she comes upon a little nugget of information for me and will email her findings.
Time was quickly expiring on my parking so I hustled back to the lot. I chose Moss Cottage as my destination on the GPS, pointed the car into traffic and hoped. Now, I don't know if I just never saw them on any of my many previous visits to Carlow, but there are some very clear signs pointing the way to the N80. Success! I experienced no problems at all finding my way to the route home.
As I drove I passed a sign reminding me that February is snowdrop month at Altamont Gardens. It was now bright and sunny. Altamont is on the route home. Definitely should stop and take some pictures of the dainty white flowers. As I drove on through the sunshine I noticed clouds ahead. Dark clouds. Snow clouds. Ah well, they were far ahead.
Nope! They were not far ahead. I went from brilliant sunshine to cloudy with snowflakes, to pounding snow pellets that were almost causing whiteout conditions. I thought I was on the I81 going through Pennsylvania where weather changes in a second. So much for the snowdrops. It was whirling snow flakes that were my concern.
Almost as soon as I'd adjusted to the conditions, the snow stopped. Views over the hills were quite lovely with squares of white fields among the green. I guess the colour of white vs green was determined by the type of vegetation. There was no place to safely pull over to take photos so I drove on home. By the time I got back to Moss Cottage there was a bit of snow on the ground. There's been a wee bit more since but some has melted or evaporated.
Weather reports this evening sound like a warning of the second coming. As long as the power stays on I'll be quite snug here. I can't help but think it is much ado about very little. Tomorrow I'll find out and so will you.
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