219 / 365 I Hear You Knockin’

Dublin is famous for its colorful Georgian townhouse doors, painted in every color imaginable, including pink and purple. The two most popular explanations are:

1. Queen Victoria, while in mourning for the death of her husband Prince Albert, ordered all the doors of the entire British Empire to be painted black.  The Irish refused, and chose bright, brilliant colors in opposition.
 
2. The women of Dublin painted the doors different colors to make it easier for their drunken husbands to find their way home.

Truth or fiction, the stories are fun and the doors are beautiful.

218 / 365 Bridging the Distance

Yesterday we were in Marietta, Georgia… today we’re in Dublin, Ireland. WOW!  What a jump in cultures.  H‘s brother D and his family will meet us here tomorrow for a three-day hike through the Wicklow Mountains; in the meantime, H and I have been exploring the city.  This is the Ha’penny Bridge, a pedestrian walkway that spans the River Liffey.  Built in 1816, it was the first iron bridge built in Ireland and got its name from its original half-penny toll.

217 /365 One Step at a Time

Most people would call this an iPod Nano, but H and I call it the Step-O-Meter.  We use it to determine how far we’ve traveled, especially when we take our morning walks.  For this photo we tracked the distance to our refrigerator.

216 / 365 Stormy Weather

When H woke me in the pre-dawn darkness to tell me it was raining, I knew that we would likely have an excuse to avoid our regular morning walk.  I saw later that the rain gauge (a thoughtful gift from our nephew F) had trapped a couple of inches from the much-needed storm. 

215 / 365 Remnants of a Birthday

Life is back to normal at our house, but we have fond memories of the weekend’s celebrations.  Sadly, we both know that it’s almost time to pop the last balloons.

214 / 354 Home Repairs

I’m not much of a handywoman around the house, but I know who to call when something goes awry, because that’s what I do all day long at the church.  I am on a first-name basis with electricians, plumbers, computer technicians, air condition/heating crew, alarm system techs, elevator/boiler inspectors, and pest control professionals.  In short, if it has to do with facility maintenance, I’m your girl.  So when we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink this evening, I told H to move over honey, ’cause I’m in my element!

213 / 365 Calling Card

During our morning walk, H and I came upon this lone feather standing upright in a stack of sod squares.  I have no idea what kind of bird it came from, but it looks like it just fell from the sky, much like in the story of Chicken Little.  I would have loved being there to see it land.