Crafts, Winds, Linens

Wednesday, 12/7/11

Back to order today!  Martin moved more furniture and Jen added more decorations. Things are coming together!  I helped Jo make ferry reservations for her and John Moxen for the holidays. They’re going to England and taking their car. We also made plans for a drive on Friday. Bebe finished up the Bible study on Philippians. We had a nice group for the craft class…three stayed from the Bible study and a mother/daughter/grandson trio joined us. The women made a necklace from ribbon thread and Daniel, the little boy, made a bracelet for his mum. They also made Christmas card holders from Pringle’s cans. I showed them how I will make luminaries to put outside when we have the Christmas dinners. They looked at the scarves I’ve been making. Now they have several ideas for their sales at their churches. Our 2-4 activity turned into 2-5:20! They all enjoyed tea and Yankee Quaker Cookies before they left. They took a copy of the recipe and even noted the changes to convert to metric.

Deirdre has gone home until Monday. She really has a part time job here but sometimes she spends more than her 24 hours due to the groups coming in.

Thursday

Howling winds awoke us! The trees were really in the “swaying” mode! It seemed to settle somewhat and Bebe and I were off to Castlewellan for Moms and Tots. Today was a party atmosphere, less toys out and more group activities. Even with the colder morning, there were still over 30 tots! The refreshments were a bit more festive. The children had CocoKrispie treats and sausages. The adults had Banoffee tarts, apple tarts, shortbread and Queen cakes with frosting. I helped serve and then ret up the sippy cups and plastic plates.

We left Castlewellan Presbyterian and drove up to Castlewellan castle. I’ll be joining the Presbyterians there for a Christmas dinner on Monday and wanted to be sure I knew exactly how to get there….much easier than I thought!  On the way to Castlewellan (town), we had driven through water across the road in several spots. On the way back to Murlough, the water had receded and there was a beautiful rainbow.

Murlough is quiet….only Joan in the office for a half day and Richard, Bebe and me the balance of the day. John and Jo stopped in for a few minutes. Bebe may be packing and I may just take a nap….

Later….

The nap was good! But the sitting room is not warm so I was bundled in a blanket and an afghan. Cynthia and Ewelina popped in for a few minutes. Bebe and I had a light supper and some tv and knitting. Very low key!

The weather report isn’t promising. There were 150 hour gale winds/hurricane strength over Scotland today with tens of thousands without electricity. Northern Ireland had its own difficulties with trees down and bridges closed. The wind is expected to peak at 90 mph over the north coast of Ireland tonight and tomorrow.  The weekend promises sleet and high winds.

Friday

John and Jo came promptly at 9 for our outing. They had also asked Bebe but she felt she needed to spend the time getting packed. We had talked about a drive to the North Coast but we regrouped and went instead to Banbridge to the Ferguson Linen Outlet store. What a lovely feast of fine linens. Sheets ($$$$$), table runners ($$), placemats and napkins ($$$), pillow covers ($$) and lots more. There were tea towels and hankies and lavender sachets and aprons and more. Jo and I really loved the shamrock table cover, lampshade and napkins but they were just too dear.  I found several items to purchase and had them totaled. AND my prepaid Visa debit card would not work. I knew the other debit cards and the credit cards were not “authorized for use” in Ireland but I got this prepaid card to avoid problems…. I managed to find enough pounds to pay my bill but now what about the weekend? Maybe the card will work at the ATM in Dundrum. Oh well,  I’ll deal with that later. That worked for Pollyanna (or was it Annie?), maybe it will work for me.

We stopped at Tesco’s (big grocery) for tea and Danish; then Jo did some shopping. We were back at Murlough by 1 and had lunch together. The order from Nesbit had arrived so I unpacked it. Bebe is almost packed for her return. We’ll spend Sat-Sun in Dublin doing some sightseeing and then I’ll drive back on Monday and she will fly to Chicago.