Belleek Castle Clare Tower

 

Today I had a very busy day at work. I had to take a phone call that was half an hour late, so I had no idea when I'd be free to walk at lunch and didn't bother to try to hook up with Hardingfele. But an email arrived that said my Castle Clare ornament had been delivered, and when I got home, there were four packages. It was like Christmas! Three were for Travalon, but he tells me two are presents for me. Here is my Castle Clare ornament.

Here it is between Blarney Castle and Nenagh Castle, with Travalon's antique map of Ireland in the background and the nameless castle tower on the right. (Thought I had gotten it in the photo more.) The big tower is a vase, and the smaller ornaments are all bells.

Now I am done getting Belleek castles, at least for now. There isn't really room for any more, although today I got a notice that my $150 gift card for doing health stuff at work is on its way, so potentially I could buy more. Do I need more? There are other castle ornaments, but I don't like them as well.

Also, my Blog Monster at work has faded, especially the hot pink, which has vanished.

As a reminder, this is how it looked when I first created it:

Guess I shouldn't have hung it up where the sun can kind of shine on it.

This evening I went to Moldy Jam, and lately the group has been half the size it used to be. I wonder why? I brought the fiddle this time, and the woman who can really play the mandolin asked which instrument I liked better, but I couldn't really say. We had a new person who was way younger than even I am, a graduate student who plays the banjo, and she had it tuned in D so for the first half of the jam we played in D. Then she retuned it to G, so for the second half we played tunes in G or E minor. I was having a tough time with tunes I didn't know, since the other two fiddlers would play harmonies instead of the melody, so I couldn't follow what was going on. However, when it was a tune I knew, like "Pig Ankle Rag," then I found the harmonies to be a lot of fun. I love songs with a lot going on in them, like some hip hop tunes and Baroque choral music, so when there was a lot going on with chords and harmonies in the tunes I knew, it was an amazing sound. It was kind of fun with only nine people, but still, I hope the others show up again soon.

Famous Hat