Ireland's mixture of old and new

     The island we today call Ireland has been inhabited for a very long time. It's fascinating to travel around seeing ancient ruins and even very old buildings still in use.

In the background you can see buildings (barns, shed, and houses) with thatched roofs, still in use from when they were built about the time of the great potato famine in the mid-1800's.

This house is obviously much newer! I took this picture of a random house when we were stopped at an intersection- or should I say junction? Anyway, all of the dwellings I saw looked very neat and tidy. Even in the cities the litter was considerably less than in most US cities. The whole country of Ireland just seemed very clean and well-cared-for to me.

Susanne and Louisa are standing in a peat bog. Multitudes of layers of decaying vegetable matter create a fascinating surface. It's not really swampy but spongy. If you stand about as far apart as they are and one jumps on the ground, the other can feel it. It's not quite like a trampoline but a similar feel. We were told that one week spent cutting peat (which is then laid out to dry) can provide one home enough fuel for a year!

At the other end of the "technology" spectrum, all over the island we saw groups of windmills like this to provide power for Ireland. I wonder if there are groups of people who protest that they're unsightly or damaging to birds???