There is nothing quite a breath taking as looking out a darkened window to see snow crystals illuminated by moonlight. Yet that is the view that has been greeting us for the last several nights here at Kilmurry House. There is not a lot of snow here, not like Belfast, or even Dublin. But its enough to make the entire area look like an enchanted landscape, the sort of place you expect magic fog to rise out from. In fact, we do get frozen fog, last night under the full moon. Its mists made...

I've decided that all our cat's have a sixth sense. OK, so I already felt that way, but now I KNOW they do. You see, tomorrow we are supposed to have a visit from a family friend who is very allergic to cats. This guy is really allergic, not the type of mild allergy a lot of people have that can still cope with a cat hair or two. With the aid of an inhaler and very strong medication, he can just handle being in a cat infested house for a few days. Of course, the less exposure he has to c...

Well, all the MURP players have gone home and the house is quiet again. As expected, the locked up Elk Hounds were not always attended to in time to prevent accidents. This is because, for the moment, Mommy is not letting them outside. At least not until we practice it again a few more times with The Pack Leader, otherwise known as My husband: The Wolf. Anticipating what might happen during a busy weekend, I had gone to the local discount supermarket and purchased products which promis...

And today - Even more Fun with Animals! I got up this morning and let the dogs out to do their business when the promptly took off like a couple of medium sized cannons and headed for the hills. Or at least, the next field...It was a beautiful sunny day. If you ignored the cold, the sunshine almost looked like Spring had arrived. I guess the dogs thought so too, after all they are bred for Scandanavia, and its a lot colder in their in the Spring than it is here in Ireland. I stood thei...

First, I would like to than everyone who wrote me about Hagen's passing. I'll show some of them to The Wolf, when he is feeling better. As you can imagine, he is not at his best today. The house is very quiet and everyone is moving about in a sort of hushed manor. Life keeps moving, even when it seems like it is moving through molasses. This evening, a little girl came to look at The Lizard's huge, Irish Draft horse. The LIzard's knees just are not up to riding, and he would like to pas...

Greetings to everyone who has been following the Saga of Kilmurry House. I had intended this blog to be a catch up piece, one that entertained with snippets of life here over the last two weeks. The two crazy weeks while we prepared for and lived through our local SCA event. Our last house guests left this morning, and it seemed for a few minutes that life would go on as normal. Last night, The Wolf had taken his favorite cat, Hagen to the vet in a rush. But he seemed to be improving......

Well, just when life seemed to be settling down into one pattern here at Kilmurry house, a surprise e-mail has The Wolf scrambling about in a different direction. The jewelery business going more or less on schedule for a late Spring start up. The guys are busy designing, casting, cataloging and office finishing. Me doing paperwork and trying to keep some semblance of home cooked meals on the table. And in-between everyone working on our next SCA event, which is being thrown by our group ...

Its been a crazy month here at Kilmurry House, one reason there haven't been nearly as many blogs as usual. Hopefully that will change soon as most of the insanity is due to the new jewelery business the guys are starting. They have just asked me to play secretary for a few months. Something I am more than willing to do, provided a bathroom is placed in the outbuilding where the office is. Any women over 40 reading this list will understand why. House mate, who is business manager, coul...

Yes, we are still here, at Kilmurry House. Just frantically busy, or at least the guys are. Trying to get everything ready to their the castings for their first jewelery catalog has been a rather frantic experience. Especially when most of the equipment has been high jacked by customs and no one is quite sure what the bond is going to be to get them out of jail. Everything is closed until Monday, so we have had all weekend for tempers to grow shorter and nerves to get more frazzled. In t...

After taking a weeks vacation from blogging I'm back on-line with the news that last night Kilmurry House (and the rest of Ireland and most of the UK) had a very bad storm. Storms are normal this time of year, but 80 to 100 MPH winds are rarer. I gather parts of Wales had their worst weather in 40 years. As mentioned in previous web blogs, we've had similar weather here twice in the 1990's. At least this year the radio and TV stations stayed on top of things. As luck would have it, the...

Well, a good part of this week Disaster Cat spent trying to be as invisible as possible. This is partly true and partly a family joke. When our house-mate joined our family, he had already been running a role playing game with his high-school buddies for a number of years. This tradition has continued with the addition and subtraction of a few people. As the guys get married, move away, move back again etc. My husband joined this motley band about eight years ago, but back then they use...

Well, today was bit different than we expected for Boxing Day. Usually my husband and I don't pay attention to much and its the one day of the year he will eat "Banger and Mash" (Sausages and Mashed potatoes." This year, I had already decided to skip that particular tradition; we still had left over steak, and I'm not all that excited about Irish sausage flavorings either. Last night we had a lovely grilled steak and some mulled wine before bed. We thought we'd do something similar tonigh...

Last night (early this morning actually) I told my husband that is was snowing in Houston. He went over the the window and said, "Why not here, SNOW MAKE IT SNOW!" I guess someone heard him? I woke up this morning to a land covered in white and green. It had snowed early in the morning hours and left a dusting everywhere. Husband had already put the dogs back outside where they could play (they are arctic dogs, snow is fun, freezing rain inside their coats is not). I heard the barn ca...

Well, my poor husband, was forced by circumstances beyond his control to brave the local shops this morning. Not the ones in our quiet little village, there he would just have had to wait in line a bit and endure about a dozen folks making cheerful conversation. No, he needed to go to the bank, and that meant a trip into a nearby town. Which I gather was a complete zoo, with everyone trying to get all their shopping down before about 3 in the afternoon. Somehow, he managed to get all his ...

Well, today has been another fairly quiet day, although the howling winds are providing a nice haunted feeling. Which, I guess, is appropriate to a 200 year old house. At least with the boiler fixed, we have a nice warm house, though the temperature is starting to fall outside and a chill is starting to creep in under the old doors and windows. But its nothing like it was until last week, when we all felt like ice cubes. I'm keeping the turf ready though, because the way the winds are blo...