West and South West of Ireland by Chauffeurdrive

The snow capped mountains of Killarney from the National Park. This Park is right in the heart of the town and a lovely place for a nice walk. I generally stay in a hotel right beside this park and enjoy a early morning walk before my breakfast.....or an evening stroll when the days get longer. Jealous?

No big news at the moment....just busy as usual. The weather here today was really nice....cool and fresh with nice periods of sunshine. More of the same is forecast for tomorrow.

There is a lot of unrest on this side of the world right now because of the horse meat scandal. Somehow or other, horse meat has been sold as beef and is being found in all kinds of processed food throughout Europe. It was our food testing that uncovered it first of all, so great credit to them. We found it in burgers which were processed here with additives imported from Europe.They have not found the culprits yet but it looks very much like being somewhere in Eastern Europe. If you are coming here do not worry, there is plenty of fresh Irish produced products, without having to eat any processed foods. Personally i never eat any such products as we have the finest meat here. Maybe it is a good thing as it will lead to much tighter controls in other countries now.

We are going to have a new Pope? It would be nice to believe that we will get one who will be able to explain things to us in a much more understandable way.As they say.....keep it simple.

 I am a lucky man when i can spend so much time in the country enjoying not only the beautiful scenery but all of the farm animals and wild life that is so freely available here. The donkeys are not as common now as they used to be as there is no need for them anymore. Not too long ago, every farm had its donkeys. There was always the donkey cart for going into town and the donkey was used for all kinds of small tasks. He was especially useful in the bogs when they were saving the peat, or turf as we call it. Horses would sink too easily in the soft ground but the donkey would be able to navigate freely. They were lovely animals and it is sad to think that they will never be seen in great numbers anymore.

There are still plenty of these guys though. Without them we would not have our lovely Aran Sweaters for you.

If you are planning on coming to Ireland this year, then drop me a line, if you need any help. I am busy, but i always try to lend a hand if possible. Of course you could make it very easy for yourself and just come to me, and let me do all the work.