(A pony and trap wouldn’t look out of place on this lane)

It will be my mother-in-law’s birthday on Wednesday so we went to Cork for a chat at the weekend. While we were there we also chatted with Denis’ aunt, Ita. Ita doesn’t usually tell us her birthday number and if she did I wouldn’t be allowed to share it here. She was telling us about when she was young, she lived on the farm next door to where Denis grew up and where my mother-in-law still lives. The family farm is gone now, the surrounding fields owned by different families.

(An old, old post box…. can you see the crown?)

It took us about three and a half hours to drive by car from Greystones to Cork. On the way we listened to a podcast about Mexicans in Alabama and stopped for an americano and a latte. On the way back we filled the car with petrol and stopped at a motorway services to bring the son his favourite….a subway.

When Ita was a child she went to the big town on a pony and trap. When she looked out the kitchen window she could see her Dad ploughing with one of the horses. She helped her mother make butter, she collected the eggs from the hens and when she looked up she could see her home had a tatched roof.

(Rocky road… also my favourite treat in Starbucks :])

On the way home we listened to another podcast about the “European monetary crisis”. Not something we would normally be attracted to but this was different. It was created for an American audience who may not be keeping up with the news from Europe. So it included some history and was very easy to understand. It’s possible I now understand the problem, I certainly understand what Bonds are.

The bottom line….. we may have to get a pony and trap, Mairead.