Weather warning

Today I did not set foot outside. There was a little bit of snow and there were snow 'showers' on and off all day. Accumulation was only a centimeter or two. It did look pretty. 

this was the scene this morning and it looked pretty much the same all day

and then this evening there was a burst of snow activity, since stopped

I did have the tv on for much of the day and the big news is the awful weather coming tomorrow afternoon and overnight. Still no plans to venture outdoors. I have a warm winter jacket, a toque and mittens. However, my running shoes just won't cut it for wandering about. Today Brian brought over a pair of removable grippers that I can put over my shoes, but they won't keep my feet warm. It is to go below freezing tonight and not get exactly warm tomorrow. 

I was thinking this would be no big deal, however, watching what England has been experiencing makes me start to take it more seriously. This is the latest - red indicates my comments:

WEATHER FORECAST UPDATE
(ESSENTIAL TRAVEL ONLY NEXT 72HRS)
TONIGHT WED 28TH FEB
The coldest night in a number of years. Average overnight temps of -3c to -10c possibly lower over snow covered areas. 
Further heavy fractured snow showers in many areas of Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Like all showers by nature accumulations will vary from place to place. Keep an eye on radar at met.ie orraintoday.co.uk
Accumulations of 2cm to 20cm in places added to your current accumulations.
Winds increasing overnight with strengthening gales, gusts of 50kmh to 80kmh expected. The Isle of Anglesey shadow will possibly reduce any snow accumulations in parts of Wicklow and Wexford overnight. (we can only hope)
Latest model output this evening reloads cold weather for next week. Details will follow at the weekend. 
THURSDAY 1ST MARCH(SEVERE) (in like a lion it seems)
We have been forecasting weather for over 7 years and this is probably the most extreme 48 hour period of weather we have forecast in terms of severity and the risk factor to the public. SAY WHAT?
Winds will increase to strong gale force tomorrow with gusts of 120kmh possible along exposed coasts as the snow storm makes landfall. Timing is not exact but we expect heavy snowfalls to occur from early to mid afternoon with white out conditions and blizzards risks increasing. WHERE AM I?
We urge all the public to cease driving by lunchtime or early afternoon. How about by yesterday? These blizzard conditions will last overnight into Friday morning with accumulations of 25cm to 50cm+ across the country. Worst effected areas will be Leinster and Munster. Lucky I'm in Leinster! Wait ... I'm in Leinster.
Temps ranging from -3c to 2c with a windchill factor during the day of -10c to -15c. White out conditions expected from late afternoon with zero visibility on ALL road networks. 
Power outages possible overnight into Friday.  NOOOOOOOO
FRIDAY 2ND MARCH
Further blizzard conditions will continue in areas of Leinster and Munster with moderate snowfalls elsewhere. At this stage upland rural villages in Leinster and Munster will be cut off as roads will be impassable at first light. Geez - is Bunclody an upland rural village?
SATURDAY 3RD MARCH
A slight increase in temps expected with a wintry mix in Munster and further snowfalls on Saturday evening and night in Leinster, Connacht and Ulster. The fun just doesn't end!
NOTE: This forecast and current warnings from Met Eireann are subject to change at short notice. See www.met.ie for ALL advisories. It better change - please and thank you.

Did you get all that? Tomorrow's blog post could be on the wild side after all. 

I think I will do a little bit of cooking in the morning in case the power goes out and cooked food isn't an option later in the day. I have lots of food, but it all needs cooking. Well, I do have brown bread, almond butter and some yoghurt. More importantly there is a nice unopened bottle of Malbec just waiting for me to set it free. 

Genealogy alert - you need read no farther.

With an email from the McGrath connection, including a family tree that goes back 4 generations, I did quite a bit of research to see how much farther back I could go. I managed one more generation and found a surname for "Margaret".

The goal was to find a common ancestor. Well, I fell short of that. The names are the same in my line and the one I was tracing. Then again, the list of first names used in the 19th century was very short. I'd give anything for a Darby or Bartholomew or even Susan, so I'd know I had the right people. 

The McGraths I was studying come from the same area, possibly the same townland(s) as my bunch. However, I was unable to make a connection. With no civil records earlier than 1864, and church records being hard to read and not going back far enough, the challenge remains. Their farthest ancestor named Michael, would be roughly the same age as my elusive William. Are they brothers? Cousins? Merely a coincidence? I'll keep plugging away but this might be my Rubik's cube, something I've never solved.

Sunny, cloudy, snowing and research

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.

Provisioning

The weather forecast, if it was what one would hear in Ottawa, seems rather benign for this time of year. In England, Scotland and Ireland, it's considered frightening. So, since there wasn't enough food in the fridge to last the week, I figured I'd better go shopping. That's what everyone else was doing.

Getting dressed for the outing I put on a long sleeved t-shirt, a blouse and a fleece jacket and out I went. I was quite warm enough thank you. After parking at Aldi, the first person I saw was wearing a full length fur coat! What will she wear when it does get cold?

Ah well - I'm here so it's provisioning time. My supply of veggies has been replenished and sufficient protein was also added to the basket along with a loaf of brown (soda) bread. I can't eat it fast enough to avoid it going mouldy but the fridge is tiny so the loaf has been stashed in the bread box.

As promised, here are some photos from the past few days.

With Margaret at the entrance to the 'not so dark' hedges at Maynooth University

Padraig Pearse's school and now museum in Dublin

At the K Club, as close as I'll get to teeing off

Marg and Michelle at Castletown

the Burnell sisters in the Courtyard at Carton House

after snooping through the halls and reception rooms at Carton House

At the entrance to the main passage tomb at Loughcrew Cairns - after a long climb

a smaller passage tomb at Loughcrew

a kissing gate at Loughcrew

start of the ascent or the final downward steps, actually both

near Loughcrew cairns - some restored thatched cottages, now a cafe and museum

Fore Abbey - in Westmeath

the Cloister at Fore Abbey

Margaret Stephens at Fore Abbey

Genealogy alert - you can stop reading now

Today after shopping I prepared for a visit from John McKenna who is a DNA cousin. Having exchanged a few emails we determined that our match must be on his and my maternal McGrath lines. We had a great visit and if the weather cooperates, I'll get a little tour of the McGrath pubs and other haunts in Kilkenny city next week. John has since this afternoon, been in touch with a few people who may have done enough research to connect all the pieces. Fingers crossed.

What is amazing and proves the smallness of our world, his uncle Dick was married to a woman I know in Ottawa. In fact, I've known her slightly for a very long time. She's another Margaret. I really must make an effort to find friends with a different name. Conversations are getting mixed up.

Tomorrow is forecast to be chilly, with some possible snow. I'm hoping that doesn't materialize as I'll be on the road to Carlow. Actually, it's not far away but is a most puzzling place to drive around. I've seen most of the streets but in every case, did not plan to see so many. I'll have to get an address for the library and be sure to leave extra early. I'm meeting a genealogist there at 2 pm for a free consultation, hopefully followed by a landslide of information on my Walsh and McDonald folks. Subsequently I hope to visit the townlands where they lived before emigrating.

Now it's pretty late so I'll call it a day. I will make a greater effort at literary proficiency tomorrow.

Not much further, no really, but it's all uphill ...

With a somewhat later start than Saturday, and well-fortified with an Irish breakfast and a cup of Turmeric Tea, Margaret #2 took us on the adventure-filled day that we'd been trying to fit in during my last couple of visits. Today was finally the day. It was bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. And, just like Ottawa in winter, that meant cold. No problem!

I might have known when Margaret suggested borrowing a pair of hiking boots, that the walk ahead would be somewhat of a challenge. Silly me, I just took her word for the fact that the ground might be a bit slippery. To be fair, she did say it was an uphill walk - on a slope. But I was also assured that the parking lot was half way up. Half way? Starting from where? Sea level? And it was a slippery slope.

At the top of the destination hill, were many Loughcrew cairns. There is one major one, probably the deluxe version of a 5000 year old crypt. I get to tick off another sight in Ireland's Ancient East! Now that I'm safely home I will possibly put three tick marks beside it in the book. However, there is a certain sense of accomplishment in conquering what, on first glance, made me start humming The Impossible Dream.

We stopped for coffee at a wee cafe just below the parking lot. It's in a small compound of three thatched cottages. The lattes were lovely. After watching a video about the cottages and cairns, in the damp cottage, I bought a DVD to watch when I get home - where it's warm.

From there we went to see the ruins of the church of St Oliver Plunkett. Should you wish to learn more about this former bishop of Armagh, check out: http://www.saintoliverplunkett.com/literature.html. The cemetery is very overgrown and in a bad state of disrepair - rather like the ruins of the church. The most recent burial was only a few decades ago and the earliest a few centuries ago.

Then it was on to Fore Abbey. Nope, no golfers around. This was another very old monastic site. We did a lot of walking here too and it was all flat! yay!! From the abbey grounds we walked a short distance to the Abbey Cafe. Well, the soup was tasty and hot, but it came with a slice of beige bread, straight out of a plastic bag. In all my trips to Ireland, this is the only time that soup was served without a slice of brown soda bread. Talk about disappointed ... Well actually the entire cafe was rather a disappointment. Our soup and Margaret's sandwich took forever to materialize. Eventually we had a nice chat with the lady running it, and she's from just around the corner from my cottage in Bunclody!

The abbey was built by, wait for it, St Fechin. The 'ch' has a 'ck' sound. My new favourite saint's name. This place is known for 7 wonders, but I have no idea what the first means. Anchorite is a stone; Water which will not boil; Monastery built on a bog; Mill without a mill race; Water which flows uphill; a tree which will not burn; and a stone lintel raised by St Fechin's prayers. 

We made no attempt to boil water (maybe that's what took so long for the soup), nor did we try to burn any trees. Some of the trees, planted on top of springs, have articles tied onto them as a way of asking for a wish to be granted. Does attaching a key chain mean you want a car or a house? Does attaching a bib mean you're hungry? Does attaching a teddy bear .... well, you get the idea. Some items are merely strips of cloth or plastic. It's quite unsightly actually but a tradition remains - with one of these trees somewhat less accessible now because it seems to be in a spot which is particularly sodden and one could get into a lot of difficulty. St Fechin is not around to do rescues on the spot.

Our travels were not yet over, as we drove to see the abbey at Multyfarnham. This one is quite magnificent and has been beautifully restored. There was a service in progress so we were able to visit only part of the interior.

From there it was time to head back - so we did. It was a short journey to the motorway which took us back to the Chester Beatty Inn in Ashford where we enjoyed a lovely dinner and a glass of wine. The food was so plentiful that I shall have the same dinner again tomorrow evening. The wine was not so generously poured so there was no doggy bag for that.

Back to Margaret's home we went for a cup of coffee to fortify me for the drive back to Bunclody. I know that route very well indeed and shall probably travel it more than once again before heading home.

The cottage is still chilly, as I turned off the heat when I left. Mary turned it back on before my return and my pajamas are now warming up on the radiator. Hopefully by morning, it will be warm and toasty once again. And so to bed. Photos to follow.

Walking did you say? How far?

Saturday started out cloudy as far as weather was concerned, but it did get much better.

No genealogy was even attempted over the weekend. Imagine, two full days of food, fun and friends was not interrupted by searching for records. It was glorious and for a non-genealogist probably easy to imagine.

A very early start on Saturday (06:30) was a bit of a challenge. The overnight bag was packed and loaded into the trunk of my trusty rented Ford Focus. The GPS was at hand if needed. House keys and some cash were stuffed into my handbag and after a bite of a granola bar, I was off to Craanford to meet Margaret #1.

Once Margaret was safely stowed in the passenger seat, I pointed the car in the direction of Gorey and off we went. Life is always an adventure with Marg, who never runs out of good ideas and instructions. Sometimes we pay attention to her and when we do, good things happen. Her original idea was that we would take the scenic route, and I'm usually all for that, but had we spurned the motorway we might still be en route to Maynooth.

So, we took the road more traveled, and got to Maynooth in good time. Finally breakfast! We stopped at her sister Michelle's place, parked our vehicle in Michelle's spot and turned ourselves over to her capable driving skills.

First stop was The Coffee Mill for a tasty brekkie and COFFEE!. From there we drove and then walked around the campus of Maynooth University - well, around some of it. It's a very old university with beautiful stone buildings and enough places to walk to keep you going for a month. We narrowed the possibilities and walked around the Church (no admission to outsiders), seminary (where we did sneak in for a wander through a couple of corridors), and the cemetery. The best part of the cemetery was the arched trees forming a wonderful canopy that would rival The Dark Hedges of Northern Ireland, leading up to it. There was even a sprinkling of snow drops (the flowers, not flakes) along the sides of the path. Apparently we will have an opportunity to enjoy (???) snow FLAKES later this week on more than one occasion.

From there it was off to Rathfarnham to visit the Padraig Pearse museum. Quite the teacher and patriot was he. The building is furnished, if not with original desks, beds (it was a boarding school), and other furniture, then replicas or similar items were used. The description of the uniforms for the boys of this school was interesting. One of the words to describe them was 'hygienic'. The boys wore brown kilts. Hygienic? Well maybe. Airy for sure.

Leaving behind the world of academia, we headed to the world of the rich and famous. The storied K club, where for a mere 379 Euro we could have played a round of golf. There were players on the course. Conditions were, in my humble opinion, a bit short of ideal - the temperature was 5C. My lower limit is 10C. It was also windy. With a green fee of 379 Euro, I would expect to be fed, wined, dined and have a score below par. So, we decided to just have coffee and a scone instead.  Oh yes, I did a wee bit of shopping in the pro shop. No, there were no bargains, but I met a vest I couldn't resist. With this week's forecast I might start wearing it right away.

My golfing dreams, well a photo op, satisfied, we headed out in another direction to Castletown. The grounds were open for walking and of course the cafe was open, but the building itself is closed until March 16. This was, and is, the largest estate home in Ireland. Built back in the day when no building could exceed Buckingham Palace in the number of windows, the owners were forced to brick up one window so that it had fewer than the Palace.

Not to be outdone by either of the preceding two stops of the day, we proceeded to Carton House - another golf resort which offers much more - a hotel, spa, training facility, reception rooms and a pro shop that was (mercifully) closed. Folks were playing golf there too. By this time it was quite sunny but still very chilly. From what I could gather online, you could play a round of golf there for just over 10% of the cost at the K club. We declined the availability of afternoon tea, and golf, and just ogled several of the reception rooms. It must have been a slow weekend - they were all vacant and available for exploring. Well, nobody stopped us anyway. One room had a wall of pipes for a pipe organ but there was no sign of an organ.

At this point we had walked miles and were a bit weary, so adjourned to Michelle's where we ordered Chinese take-out for supper. Then Margaret and I got back into the Ford and headed towards Ashford. There I left Marg in the capable hands of her son who was going to drive her home, and stay the night visiting his parents.

I drove a mile down the road to Rossanna Farm, the home of Margaret #2, where I'd spend the night. I got a warm welcome from Margaret and Eugene, a cup of herbal tea and simply could not resist a bite of dessert. And then to bed, where I slept soundly and woke up ready for another adventure.

I will add a post with photos later.

Thursday and Friday - a write-off?

Thursday was spent sneezing, blowing my nose and searching high and low (slowly) for some energy. Alas it was not to be found on the premises. I didn't even get to the Storytelling evening, partly out of consideration for the others who might attend and would not be too interested in sharing my cold. The other reason was that I went to bed early and slept for 10 hours. That was the right move.

Friday dawned and a couple of hours later I emerged from the cocoon of my duvet and rejoined the living, moving and not-sneezing part of the population.

A cup of coffee would have been just the thing to propel me into activity and productivity. Not so fast! The milk had gone off and curdled in my cup. Arrggghhh. Herbal tea just didn't cut it but it was hot.

The weather was not wonderful so aside from a brief shopping trip to Aldi, for milk, I can't point to any accomplishments. Well, aside from the milk I did add to the supplies for the chocolate decadence event planned for shortly after my return home. If you don't know about this event, my apologies but you'll never find out. If you do know about it, everything is on track.

Non-genealogists need not bother reading today

Today after I got up, I went to the computer to check email and got a message that set the tone and activities for the rest of the day. There was a message from the genealogist at Carlow library. She had replied to my query about assistance with local searches, with examples of the specific names I was looking for.

Surprise! it was Bernie from Back to our Past - the conference in Belfast. She works at the Carlow and Gorey genealogy centres. We had spoken at some length last weekend. I now have an appointment for a consultation next Tuesday and this is why...

Bernie sent me transcriptions from Dunleckney parish records with the baptisms of most of the Mcdonald offspring that I've been seeking. Some of the names were new to me (yay!) and others confirmed what I'd already found (yay again). Of course, since some of the offspring had baptism records and were not found in Canada two decades later, I still have to find what became of Bridget and John.

So far the parents marriages are elusive but they might be found in another parish where the wife lived before the marriage. So, what parish might that be? One is obvious as it is adjacent. The townlands are just a few miles apart. Some discoveries were made and possibly I now have the names  of one more generation back. At this point, in my excitement, I had to remind myself that matching names in nearby areas does not necessarily mean you've found the right family members. But, it's a start.

This information dealt with, after corroboration of some of it on ancestry.com, I let my fingers wander to open my Facebook page. Ta-da - a post on a genealogy page from someone with a surname matching an in-law family, who was from the same townland as my Byrnes. More correspondence was exchanged. I was able to share some records and point to others. Now we both have fingers and toes crossed for more progress.

Still waiting to hear again from my local DNA match.

This evening I decided I simply had to go out, so I went to a local drama group's production at a nearby school auditorium. The play was a Neil Simon farce, Rumours. It was well done and was a great way to spend the evening. I didn't see anyone there that I knew at all.

Tomorrow, if the rain don't fall and the crick don't rise, I'll do a bit of driving around. Actually, I will likely go only as far as Altamont Gardens and hope that the carpet of snowdrops of all varieties are still showing off. That was snow DROPS not flakes. Flowers not frost. The camera and my legs are in need of a workout.

In the evening the storytelling session starts at 7 pm in the local library. For reasons unknown to me, it was moved up in time from 8 to 7 pm and to a different location than usual. But it's bound to be just as entertaining as ever.