Tuesday, September 30, 2008

An Irish Vision


Ashford castle sits in the middle of practically nowhere against the little village of Cong. It is spectacularly beautiful and great to let the pressure of work to slowly ebb away as you relax.
It sits at the edge of a great lake and the waters are clear and clean. The grounds are magnificent with walking trails and hidden gardens to delight the eye.

There is a nice little 9-hole golf course in front that we played. We spent a lot of time exploring the grounds and did a little falconing. A truly exciting and interesting sport as they would land on your arm and then take off again. Here Denise and our friend Patti Penski cautiously admire the great falcons.


We shot skeet, which was a lot of fun as the shotgun we used was a perfectly balanced over-and-under-Browning that fit the eye perfectly and everyone got the hang of it very quickly and we managed to blast them pretty well. I think we got the limit. Sally Crocker did so well that she quickly became Annie Oakley with the big gun.




Some of our troop tried the Equestrian Center for fun. If you are from Mississippi, it means they went horse riding. Here is Denise admiring the horses while Karin Williamson is not quite so eager. They made you wear helmets and would not let you chase the foxes at all.
We also got to go on a lake tour which was fun. The Castle had several nice lounges and a fun bar called the Dungeon too. They also had Guinness! Will talk about Cong and the wonderful Irish people next.