even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea

Here I am safely arrived back from across the sea. After flying into Dublin we drove across (west) to Everlawn, Bunnanaddan, County Sligo: the farm of Caroline's granny. Chez Wynne was home base. From there, the major trips were to Inishmore (14km-long island off Galway where the first language is Gaelic), London (where we saw a Premiership match between Fulham and Middlesbrough), Dublin (home to Sharon and Brent), as well as visited every leg and arm of Caroline's family.

Platitudes aside, I was most floored by Newgrange, a burial mound that predates Stonehenge and the pyramids at Giza. The art and structure were interesting, but the compelling part is that it's perfectly aligned to allow light into the tunnel only at the Winter Solstice; from December 19th through 23rd each year, in the morning, light will creep upward into the tunnel, but only on one day will it fill the burial chamber with light -- December 21st, for a total of about 17 minutes. People are allowed to be in the chamber on that morning each year, and I applied to be one of the 15 chosen (though last year 27000 people applied). Wish me luck.

I took over 300 photos and have uploaded a few dozen of them, accessible here in three "albums": Dublin, Newgrange, and a selection of the rest. I also kept a sketchbook and have scanned and uploaded the images here.

But here of course is my favourite (wide panoramic shot [jpg] -- 2485x440, though that's a quarter the size of the one on my computer).