Thursday Doors – Menorca Again

Welcome once again to Menorca. It’s been quite a while since my last post, which was a tribute to my lovely mother who passed away seven months ago. I haven’t been able to motivate myself to do much this past year but I feel like I’m getting back on track at last. Maybe it’s the dry, sunny weather we’ve been having after a long winter. At least it seemed long to me this time.

These photos of Ciutadella, Menorca were taken last summer and this post is a continuation of this one.

The port and it’s marinas are quite large with lovely boats of all shapes and sizes.

This is the side view of Ciutadella’s City Hall, which overlooks the port. The building was constructed on top of an old Arab citadel and dates back to the 19th century but some of the original structure has been preserved.

There is definitely no shortage of interesting doors in Ciutadella.

The beaches didn’t let us down either. Whether it was small sheltered coves . . . . . .

Or long stretches of white sand.

This house was in one of the smaller coves where we spent our last few hours on the island before heading off to the airport to return home. Thanks for coming along on this virtual trip to Menorca once again and if you’re interested in Thursday Doors of a different culture, have a look at what’s over on Dan’s blog this week.

My Lovely Mum

Here she is wearing a colourful hat that I bought for her in Menorca. It suited her personality, bright, friendly, full of fun and definitely colourful. My lovely Mum passed away in September this year just before turning 88. It was a few months ago but feels like it was yesterday. The last year of her life was spent in St. Oliver Plunketts’s nursing home in Dundalk and they looked after her so, so well. Mum loved being with people, the more the merrier. She greeted staff and fellow residents with a big smile and an even bigger hello.

On a warm day she loved to sit in her front garden and chat to neighbours passing by. Mum told us lots of stories from her childhood and would often point out some of the houses in Blackrock, naming who had lived there and if they were related to us or not. I’m so grateful to her for all the family history she passed down to us. It inspired a lot of my writing and gave me a sense of belonging to this beautiful seaside village, even though we left when I was a toddler. My parents returned to Blackrock after they had retired and loved being back again in their old familiar place, where they had courted, married and started a family.

From her vantage point in this chair Mum could see out onto the green through her sitting room window and watch Judge Judy on her tv. In cooler days the fire would be going, she loved her fire and on cold winter mornings would light it a 7 am, even though she had oil heating. It must have been such a big change for her to give up driving, knitting, crochet and weeding her garden – her age finally catching up with her. It was heartbreaking to watch such an active, sharp witted, fun loving person slowly decline in vitality but her spirit and cheerfulness remained strong.

They’re both gone now (Dad passed away six years ago) and I miss them terribly. I am so grateful for how much my parents did for me throughout my life and I have the most wonderful memories of them to cherish and hold onto. If any of you are grieving, time will help – or so everyone tells me. It doesn’t feel like that’s possible right now but it did help eventually when I lost my Dad. Someone said that grief is love with nowhere to go. That’s what it feels like for me at the moment.

Thanks for stopping by and I’m sorry this was such a sad post. I just wanted to share my lovely Mum with you.

Thursday Doors – Menorca

This Thursday Doors post features Menorca, an island off the Spanish mainland in the Mediterranean Sea. In all the years we lived in Spain we didn’t get to visit the Balearic Islands and this year that’s been remedied. The old windmill pictured above is one of many that can be found on the island as it can be quite windy there. We had a few lovely breezes during our stay that helped to keep us cool but no gales, thankfully.

We stayed in a beautiful villa with a heated pool and the weather, apart from one day of rain, was just perfect. Not too hot as it was early June. The island is the least busiest of the three, the other two being Mallorca and Ibiza, and tourism has not spoiled its authenticity. If you want to experience culture, history and unspoilt beaches you won’t be disappointed.

This is a lovely park surrounded by beautiful, well preserved old buildings in the city of Cuitadella, a short drive from our villa. It’s the former capitol of Menorca, on the west of the island. We spent a lot of time exploring the historic part of the city, Es Born, with its old churches fortresses and medieval streets.

Tourists in Ireland tend to comment on the narrow streets in the older towns, well Cuitadella beats some of those for sure. I think it’s the same all over Europe, built in a time before cars and buses. They add so much character to a place, don’t you think?

You can have a coffee with your neighbour without even leaving the house. It does mean a lot of shaded streets but that’s not a bad thing in a hot summer.

Thanks for coming along on this virtual tour of Menorca and if you’d like to see some interesting Thursday Doors from other parts of the world, have a look at Dan’s blog.

Thursday Doors – Natural History Museum London

As promised on my last Thursday Doors post, we’ll take a look inside the Natural History Museum in London. If you think the outside is ornate wait till you see the interior!

This is what greets you as you enter the main hall – Hintze Hall – an amazing ceiling of 162 hand decorated panels, botanical images of the earth’s abundant plantlife. All of them washed in a golden light. I know the huge skeleton of the Blue Whale is eye-catching but for me the architecture won hands down.

Even the side halls took my breath away, with their hand-painted ceilings and stained glass windows.

See how decorative the pillars are? I’m not sure if that person really did slide down the bannister as I didn’t even see them until I checked my photos later that evening. With so many skeletons to choose from it was difficult to pick a favourite and I certainly wouldn’t fit them all in this post. One that really stood out to me was the Dodo. I’ll leave a link at the end of the post if you’d like to find out more about this now extinct bird, that once lived on the island of Mauritius.*

Thanks for joining me at the Natural History Museum in London and if you fancy a virtual trip around the world, have a look at the links at the end of Dan’s Thursday Doors post.

History of the Dodo *

Thursday Doors – London

Earlier in the year I spent a weekend in London so of course I captured a few Thursday Doors while I was there.

The last time I was in Victoria Underground Station was in the late 1980s. Thankfully most of the older buidings are still there today.

You can find a tiny bit of France in London if you keep an eye out for it.

The Institut Français du Royaume-Uni represents and promotes French learning and culture in the United Kingdom. It’s situated in London’s South Kensington, opposite the Natural History Museum. Yes, I did venture into the museum. That deserves a post of its own so I’ll save those images for the next Thursday Doors.

A lot of the modern buildings are interesting but for me the older ones have the edge on them. Except maybe this next one.

It has a living wall. How cool is that? Would you like a closer look?

The Rubens at the Palace Hotel in Victoria has this amazing living wall. From its sixteen ton of soil grow 10,000 plants some of which are geranium, buttercup and even strawberry. It’s hoped this will help reduce flooding, which is partially caused by the lack of absorbant surface in this part of the city. The building’s 10,000 litre storage tanks channel the water through the walls to the plants.

I’m not good in crowded places so the bigger popular markets didn’t interest me. However, this one not too far from where I was staying was lovely. I bought some great handmade soap there and enjoyed its easy going atmosphere.

Thanks for coming along on this short virtual tour of just a small section of London and I promise to bring you around the Natural History Museum next time but if you head on over to Dan’s blog you’ll find lots of interesting Thursday Doors from around the globe.

Thursday Doors – Florence Court – Part 2

In part 2 of this Thursday Doors Florence Court tour we’ve gone through the narrow archway and ended up at the estate’s forge. I can only imagine how hot this place must have been for the blacksmith back in the day when we had long hot summers in Ireland. Did we ever have long hot summers here? I do remember one when I was a child but that was over half a century ago – we must be due another one.

Very close to the forge stands the cattle yard. The blacksmith didn’t have to go too far to brand them.

Opposite this yard stands a building with two large red doors. It reminds me of an old fire station but I think it was a stables or similar for holding animals as it’s so close to both the cattle yard and forge.

Speaking of fire . . .

In the early hours of March 22nd, 1955, a fire started on the first floor of the big house, next to Lady Enniskillen’s bedroom. Her husband was away at the time but she was there to raise the alarm. By 9.00 am, fire brigades almost had the blaze extinguished but dry weather conditions made it difficult to keep all the flames at bay and they eventually reached the roof of the building. By evening, a large part of the interior of the house was destroyed, leaving about two-thirds of it in ruins, damaged by fire and water. That dry spell was just a few years before I was born so that means we’ve probably had two long hot summers here in Ireland in the past hundred years. There goes my hopes for one in 2023, so.

I’m joking about the weather here. Although long, hot days are not a regular feature of Irish summers, when the sun shines we make the most of it, if we can, and really appreciate it. The temperate climate here suits me and the plus side is, we don’t have the extremes a lot of other countries do. Well, I don’t think I’ve ever said this before but let’s get away from all those red doors and have a look at some greenery.

These are some of the walls surrounding a four acre garden which contains vegetable plots , orchards, fruit trees, a rose garden and two ponds. As I was there in late winter there isn’t too much to see but I hope to return and catch it all in full bloom.

Yes, that’s another red door looking back at you. They’re everywhere! To the right you can see what used to be the head gardener’s residence. Rose Cottage was built in the 1840s but was derelict by the 1990s. Thankfully, it has been restored and is available as a holiday rental.

Let’s take a peek inside that walled garden, although I don’t expect to see too much at this time of year.

Rose Cottage is bigger than I expected. I would have been very happy to live there. What a great place to spend a weekend with all those lovely gardens on your doorstep.

No point exploring the various gardens at this time of year. I’ll leave that for another day. I hope you enjoyed part 2 of Florence Court, thanks for coming along and if you’d like to see a lovely international array of Thursday Doors, skip on over to Dan’s blog.

Thursday Doors – Florence Court – Part 1

I’ve been meaning to feature Florence Court House on Thurday Doors for a long time now but there is so much to see that I’ve divided it into two parts, so welcome to part 1. Above is a view of the back of this 18th century Georgian property which is set in a large estate and has the Benaughlin and Cuilcagh Mountains for a backdrop. It’s located about eight miles from the town of Enniskillen in county Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Carefully making my way around a giant squirrel, I carried on towards the servants entrance.

Before exploring the courtyard and its many interesting doors I popped into this wee secondhand bookshop that was probably one of the servants quarters back in the days when the estate was owned by the Earls of Enniskillen.

As soon as you go through the archway you find yourself surrounded by lots of red doors set in lovely old stone buildings.

Even when you look up you’ll see a red door. The colour really stands out against the stonework.

I spied another red door through this narrow arch and had to explore further but I’ll leave that until my next post. If you would like to see the front and interior of this grand old house The Irish Aesthete has a wonderful post about its history with some great photographs. Many thanks for joining me on part 1 of this tour of Florence Court and if you haven’t had your fill of red doors yet I’m sure Dan has one or two over on his Thursday Doors blog or try Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.

Thursday Doors – Bienvenido 2023

I thought I’d give you a nice Spanish welcome to my first Thursday Doors post of 2023 – bienvenido. However, as it turns out this is now my second post as I had forgotten to publish it. A friend alerted me to that fact when she couldn’t find it online, so thank you so much Judy for asking me about it.

As we drove around town I managed to snap a couple of pretty casitas. The next few photos were taken on a walkabout. No, we didn’t sample the food in the Grumpy Goat but it was tempting if we’d had the time.

Not many town properties have gardens but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a large collection of plants.

I certainly wouldn’t like the job of watering all those pots, the weather can be very hot and dry in this part of Spain.

Thanks so much for stopping by this first post of 2023. Hope to see you next time.

Thursday Doors – Dundalk Gaol

Welcome to my second Thursday Doors post of 2023 and this one is from Dundalk gaol or jail depending on what century you live in and the version of English you speak, lol.

The prison was built in 1853 at a cost of £23,000 and opened in January 1854. Men were incarcerated in the wing pictured above and women in a similar but seperate building. I featured it in the second book of my Irish Family Saga where one of the saddest scenes in the whole series took place. Most of the twenty five prisoners held there at any one time served less than two years. By the 1870s Australia was refusing to take in any more convicts from Ireland and overcrowding in gaols here became a major problem. An 1877 Royal Commission report recommended that more prisons be constructed and even suggested portable iron gaols.

I’m pretty sure this was the prison infirmery which now houses the County Louth Civil Defense headquarters. Would you like to have a peek inside the men’s section of the gaol?

If you think they look like bar stools on the right of the above image you’d be correct.

Yes, there is a bar in the gaol and it’s not an iron one. In 2008, Louth County Council presented the men’s wing of the gaol to Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Éireann to house the Oriel Cultural Centre. The facilities are now a fabulous addition to the local community, I’ll leave a link at the end of the post for you to have a look round yourself.*

This is where I sat to listen to a talk on cancer while having some coffee and biscuits but as I looked upwards the image of watery gruel and stale bread came to mind. I didn’t do a full tour this time, that’s for another day and while I’m at it I must check and see if any of my ancestors served time there. It’s quite possible as I found some of them in an old archive being fined a shilling or a sixpence at Petty Sessions for offences like:

Being in charge of a donkey on a public road while under the influence of alcohol.

Allowing an animal to graze on the roadside unaccompanied. (Must have been Constable Doolittle who got the name and address of its owner). We call this ‘grazing the long acre’ as many people didn’t have a field to keep their goat, cow or donkey in.

An argument with a neighbour over a front door. (My ancestor was the claiment in this one).

Being found drinking on the premises of a public house after closing time.

Thanks so much for viewing my post and Dundalk Gaol, there are lots more Thursday Doors over on Dan’s blog.

The Oriel Centre*

Thursday Doors – Sunny Spain

I thought I’d save this Thursday Doors post for wintertime here in the Northern hemisphere as it hails from sunny Spain. These photos are from a trip there in late September, while the weather was still hot. This first image is of the view from one of my favourite restaurants at La Zenia beach on the Meditereanean. We ate there at least once a week when we lived on the Orihuela Costa, where we had a beautiful sea view from our house. I really miss it in the wintertime but I’m glad to be living back in Ireland, in spite of a wetter climate. I’m a home bird at heart.

We stayed in Torre de la Horadada in a beautiful villa with its own pool just a short drive south of our old home and this marina was only a few minutes walk away. The beach below is where we swam in water that was a perfect temperature for hot weather.

Even the car park had a fabulous view and an old watchtower closeby.

The building was made up of a mixture of materials, as you can see from the image below.

As this is my last post for 2022 I would like to thank everyone who took the time to visit my blog throughout the year. If any of you are travelling over the holiday period I wish you a safe journey, especially in colder climates where the roads might be icy. I’ll be starting off in January 2023 with another Thursday Doors from sunny Spain but in the meantime, have a look at Dan’s lovely collection of doors, some are even edible.