Haymaking Festival

Well, today was the much awaited haymaking festival in Trim. I actually got to sleep in a little bit (until 9) but then I had to get up. I just hung around in my room for a while after I got ready which was a nice change, then I went downstairs and had breakfast. Mary and Mihal were gone to church and Megan soon joined me for breakfast and we sat there chatting for quite a while. We didn't know what time the festivities were to start but when returned to my room it appeared Elle texted me and said they were going to take the bus into town and to call when we arrived and we would meet up. So Megan and I decided that we would walk into Trim, it's only about a 1/2 hour walk, so off we went getting into town at about 1:00 p.m.

Upon arriving we met up with Elle, Kirsten, Emma and the two girls who just arrived today, Jessica from Montreal, and Sam from Seattle. There wasn't much to the festival, the usual booths and such but many of them seemed more like second hand merchandise and there weren't really any traditional crafts for sale like I thought there might be. So we walked around for a bit, they didn't have any of the music going in the morning/early afternoon. There were farm animals and contests for the farmers (kinda like the stock show) but not much else going on. To be honest, we were slightly disappointed. Around 3 o'clock we were all a little hungry so we decided to get some lunch. Megan's sister had told her that she definitely needed to try some Indian food while she was in Ireland, I don't know why... but there was an Indian Food restaurant near our site office. So, while I'm in Ireland I thought "why not!" So we had Indian Food for lunch and it was really quite good.

When we returned to the festival the band we saw last night was finally playing on stage. We listened to them for a while but most of us decided we wanted to head back, especially Jessica and Sam as they just wanted to rest a bit. They had all bought the return pass for the bus but I didn't want to pay for the bus so I decided to walk back the way I'd come. Megan and Emma decided to stay. It was a hot day's walk back but the Boyne River Walk is really lovely because it passes through ruins of a cathedral and a cemetery. I stopped at the "petrol" station and purchased an soft serve ice cream for the last leg of my 30 minute walk and arrived to a quiet house. It was a good thing I remembered to bring my key today as Mary and Mihal are probably in town enjoying the festivities.

Well, it wasn't as exciting as yesterday and my legs are tired from all the walking. Gotta get ready for another day of field work tomorrow, but most of it will be drawing our lovely stones, painstakingly slow!

xoxo