Monday Miscellany

Taken by Ten on his frozen Sunday walk

I can’t recommend drinking cranberry juice right after brushing your teeth and gargling with a minty antiseptic mouthwash.  At minimum, this was a jarring experience and it will NOT be repeated.
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Newgrange, just north of Dublin, is a 5,200 year old passage tomb. It’s 1,000 years older than Stonehenge which, in turn, is older than the Giza pyramids in Egypt.

According to ancient mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danann ruled Ireland and were said to have built Newgrange as a burial place for their chief, Dagda Mór, and his three sons. (source)

Considering how wild I am about wandering ancient sites, you’d think I’d have visited the joint on one of my holidays in Ireland. Nope. They only permit guided tours and, oopsie, I’m deaf so would miss out on all the fab info the guide would impart. Mind you, the entry fee is just a hair over four bucks but…eh, I was miffed. Ya see, with the exception of Maeshowe I’ve been able to wander about sites on my own and at my own pace. (Maeshowe—it was off season and closed. I had to see the caretaker who, very kindly, unlocked the gate to let me crawl in. After that, I was happily on my own.)

What taking my own unguided tour means is that I get to stop, sit and daydream about what life might have been like way back when people lived (and died) there. Hard—life had to have been mostly about survival. Still, Twitter hadn’t been invented yet so that’s a big plus, right?

Why does Newgrange come up this morning? I was reading a bit about it online.

County Meath residents had known about Newgrange for centuries — and sometimes "borrowed" stone from the structure for their own homes … (source)

I feel an Irish ghost story/horror movie coming on.
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For no particular reason, here’s a ‘49 Mercury Monterey. Yur welcome.
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Yesterday was too damn cold and blustery to stroll along the seawall so Jen and I mall-walked. it was surprisingly not bad. At 8:30 AM there were few people in the place so it was ridiculously easy to maintain safe distance from other walkers.

The worst bit? The window displays in most of the shops. WHO wears this shit? There must be a huge market for ugly, absurdly tasteless togs.
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I’ve long thought about redoing the kitchen. It’s tiny and, between my mother giving me two sets of dishes (which have been in the family nearly as long as I’ve been alive), having personally made so many mugs, etc. and having a ton created by friends, I have too much stuff. Oh yeah, there’s also the couple dozen Victorian era teacups and saucers my grandmother collected. So much beautiful stuff with great sentimental value. 

Holly Sears

I don’t spend a lot of time in the food room—Ten does all the cooking. Why should I bother with the kitchen considering I hardly ever go in there now? Because I want to be able to see and appreciate all the great ceramic pieces that I have. Duh.

I know! I’ll build shallow, glass fronted display cabinets (like built-in bookcases) so I can actually view all my treasures AND free up kitchen space.

Sure...I can do that with all the wall space not occupied by paintings, tiles and bookshelves. Hmmph. More thought is obviously required here.

I think I should live in a combination museum-library. I guess I already do—it’s just small and not set up very well.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.