WHERE I LIVE NOW

So this is where I live now on the Ards peninsula Co. Donegal, not far from the village of Creeslough.  The friary looks out onto Sheephaven bay with a National Forest behind us on the hill.  Unfortunately with my disability I cannot go exploring as I once planned to do before my accident but that means I have more time to read or listen to stuff on the internet.  Our connection is poor (at times it would be quicker to communicate by smoke signals) but I am working on that.  The weather, it being Winter, is usually grey, wet and windy.  Add to that the nearby boom of the sea and it can be quite noisy here; I thought the countryside was supposed to be quiet.

My room would give me a view of Malin Head but for the trees planted by previous generations of friars.  Not that I can complain after all I spent the six months from June to December with a view of another friar's window and the roof above him.  I have far more room here and the use of another beside me for painting.  The downside is that this house is so big.  It was built as a student house a few years before they  moved the students to Dublin and numbers began to decline.  

So even for the more mobile friars this place is, at times, a chore. Any activity means a hike up and down stairs and along long corridors. I guess it counts as exercise. The locals, both those who work here and those who come to attend the Mass or get confession or just visit, are very welcoming. Time passes at a more sedate pace here. Such a change from UCC. There's more time to pray of course even with 'duty' everyday. It really only gets busy at the weekends, especially Sunday. I fill my time with sorting out my stuff, getting rid of rubbish and stuff I don't need or use anymore. I am also transferring my pigments from glas to plastic jars so as to shed weight; it was embarassing how much I had accumulated on top of what I had when I moved from Dublin to Cork. I filled a Hiace.

I must do a post on some books I am reading. But for the moment this is enough.