We had another chance to stroll around the town of Westport today---this time with no off-and-on showers. That's the lovely tree-lined "Mall" in the photo below.
And the town is still full of flowers---hanging from bridges and the post office wall, along borders throughout the town, in giant pots on the sidewalk, and hanging from most of the street lights. They are likely to be named a "Tidy Town" by the Irish government once again and that will be due in large part to Bridie's efforts on the beautification committee.
And like the rest of the world, Westport also has its "marryin' " and "buryin'." We had to wait for the funeral being held at St. Mary's Catholic Church before making a visit after the funeral procession walked through town. (The funeral was for a young man in his 40's, working in the New York City Area, who had a heart attack from an enlarged heart that he knew nothing about until it was too late.) And the very old Church of Ireland, Anglican church you see in the photo above has a beautiful interior that Michael said we should see, but we walked in just as a wedding ceremony was going on and had to make a quick exit without any photos.
We did get to the weekly farmer's market and had a chance to droll over home-baked goods and preserves, along with home-made arts/craft/knitting/jewelry.
The location of the market was interesting too, since the tables were all set up around the boxing ring for the local youth boxing club. So, I suppose we could have burned off the calories from the sweets we bought by putting in some time on the heavy bags ;-).
Westport, and most towns in Ireland, have well-run meat markets (also called Victualers). We counted three just in the main part of the town, along with large meat departments in the two grocery stores. There is a lot of pride in locally raised meat and poultry that is traceable back to the farms where they are raised.
There is also much pride in the fresh fish and seafood throughout Ireland. There are fisheries to maintain freshwater trout and salmon populations and many fishing boats to bring in fresh seafood. Our breakfast menu at the hotel notes that fish are available for breakfast upon request. (What a shame that we prefer the food on land instead of in the water.)
We have also enjoyed the "fun food" we've seen along the way---starting with the "Funny Face Lollies" below...
And even the "Gingerbread Boys" have a lot of character with their chocolate hair and boots...
And we also found the "Happy Face" cupcakes we enjoyed last year, still as happy as ever...
But you might want to send the children out of the room at this time, because the famous "Billy Roll" (boloney) has been upgraded to the new and improved "Bob The Builder" Billy Roll. (Is nothing sacred anymore? It's the world turned upside down!)
With the trauma of the "Billy Roll" behind us, we stopped back at Patsy and Joe's to update them on what we had found at the Mayo Library regarding their townland.
We are getting bolder---even if no better--- with our driving and haven't even minded the winding, single-lane road to their place.
The directions to their place, by the way, is a poetic "...turn left at the furniture store and when you get to the sea turn right and stop just ahead at the green gate." The "sea" is Clew Bay and part of the Atlantic Ocean that was once the domain of Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen. In Gaelic, that's "Granuaile" (gran-you-whale).
And when we arrived, there was Joe hard at work on digging a whole plot of potatoes from his garden since the day was just right for digging and drying them.
We also got some good tips on growing potatoes, but I don't think we'll ever get as beautiful a patch as this.
But there were no photos of Patsy this time, because she was busy in the kitchen making us all tea and serving up the best "apple batter pie" we ever tasted. She was kind enough to give us the recipe too for this pie and the Sultana Bread we had earlier in the week. Both were old recipes handed down from her mother.
Oh, if only you could have tasted Patsy's "Apple Batter Pie" with the fresh whipping cream on top. We wish you weren't "...Left Behind In America."
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