This little bit of Yiddish probably expresses how we're both starting to feel as we start to wrap up our visit. We've pulled out the suitcases and are planning what to leave and what to take. We've built up quite a few personal items over the past few visits - a good frypan, measuring cups and spoons, pint glasses, wine glasses, a folding clothes dryer, a drip coffee maker, travel coffee mugs, a whipped cream whisk, and on and on. Just things that make our life here as we would like it to be. Year to year, we leave more clothes behind in storage - jackets, sweaters, socks, winter-weight shirts - and other items like hiking shoes, golf clubs and golf shoes, electric plug adaptors. Perhaps we're leaving a trail of crumbs, dropping anchor, leaving pieces of ourselves - in many and myriad ways, small assurances of our return - so the parting doesn't seem so complete.
Well, enough whinging. We've been here six weeks, we have one to go, time to enjoy what's left and to stop wallowing in what's to be.
Part of the reflection above has certainly been elicited by a walk around Westport yesterday, taking pictures and drinking in the essential character of this special town. Everywhere you look you see expressions of community pride - charming colorfully painted shops, impeccably clean streets, stunning arrays of flowers in window boxes and in public spaces. As I've previously reported, Westport has been recognized many times over the years as a
"TidyTown" - a country-wide rigorous competition that is awarded each year to towns. villages, and cities that endeavor to provide extraordinary physical environments. Additionally, a few years ago, Westport was selected by The Irish Times, the serious Irish newspaper, as the Best Place to Live in Ireland. As I said at the time, this was no "text your vote to xxxx" contest, but rather a rather extensive process in which townsfolk around the country wrote in to nominate their community, and finalists were subjected to visits by a phalanx of experts assessing all aspects of community life - outdoor environment including physical beauty and fitness opportunities, the presence and effectiveness of voluntary organizations which enrich community life (what we might call non-profits), diversity, restaurants, arts - the list goes on. A singular achievement.
And, certainly important in our equation, has been the extraordinary personal welcome we feel when we come back. From Padraic and Marion's lovely, thoughtful, and generous company, the warmth and friendliness of the Madden family - Darren, Maria,
Conor and Niamh, what great kids - the staff at the Clew Bay Hotel, especially Pawel, Mary, Karen, Anton, Peter, Ger, Marie - who are not staff, but friends, and the surprising number of acquaintances who remember us year to year and express their pleasure that we've returned once again. Candee and I have mostly been solitary at home in Florida as we've singlemindedly pursued what have felt like the exigencies of our life over the last many years - work to work to sleep to work - and it's surprising to find we spend more quality and meaningful social time here in seven weeks than we seem to ever allow ourselves at home. Our time here somehow feels like an affirmation of choices we've made. A great blessing to us, along with our girls and their families, to counterbalance the occasional misgivings and regrets that gather in any life.
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| On Bridge Street |
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| At the Octagon, the center of town |
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| The colorful Wyatt Hotel in the background |
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| Coeliac? Head to the Willow Cafe Tea Room. |
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| Need a souvenir? Go in Moran's |
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| At the top of Bridge Street |
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| Enjoying a fresh breeze |
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| In front of the Fabby "Lodge" |
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| The mist swallowing part of our backyard |
