POTD: Easter Eggs

Chocolate eggs are as ubiquitous in Ireland at Easter as mince pies are at Christmas. Sharon and I both received Easter eggs today at work. I'm very happy about mine.

POTD: Limbs

Even though it snowed today, Spring will win out.

POTD: Midnight Oil

Sharon's burning it in preparation for our US tour.

Signs of Spring

We have a chance of snow in the forecast, but Dublin is definitely trying to burst out into Spring.

As mentioned before, we frequently visit St. Anne's park on Saturdays. Yesterday was a perfect day for a stroll to the Red Stables Market.

I thought all the produce was particularly lovely.

Bill found a handy spring onion pocket in his backpack.

And Bill harvested some of the wild garlic he's been keeping an eye on. [More about this later.]



And here's a pic of some lovely purple flowers on our St. Patrick's Day walk.

POTD: Beans

Bill shelling broad beans (aka fava beans) from the Red Stables market for a broad bean and asparagus risotto.

POTD: Stone Mason

A stone mason at work on a wall at St. Anne's Park.

POTD: Flan

We had the Sterlings over for dinner, and they brought dessert: Kaluha flan. Thanks, guys!

POTD: Worship Prep

I'm leading worship at church on Sunday. This is where I usually do my prep: on the living room floor.

POTD: Pastries

Pastries at La Boulangerie on Camden Street.

POTD: Salade Niçoise

One of our favorite salads, especially with Ortiz Bonito del Norte tuna. I make it with asparagus in deference to Sharon's dislike of green beans.

POTD: Mustard Seed

On Monday nights I go out with the Mustard Seed Team to take sandwiches and tea to the homeless on the streets. Here we are heading out to our first stop at Cedar House.

POTD: The Strand

Bill and I ran the kids out to the Strand for a quick visit this morning while Dave and Ramona were packing (and cleaning to make it look like they were never here--didn't know they were doing that!).

POTD: Photog

This photographer was spotted today on the streets of Dublin.

POTD: NCH

Picture of the National Concert Hall on my way home tonight. The hall installed multi-colored lights recently. It's still wearing green for St. Patrick's day.

POTD: Temple Bar

Good times in Temple Bar.

POTD: Guinness

Bill visited the off license today to pick up some stout for a Beef and Guinness pie, and any thirsty people that might show up. He felt like a Dub waiting outside the off license until it opened at 12:30.

Ireland Past

To celebrate the day the whole world is Irish, here are some images of Dublin and environs from the turn of the 20th Century, posted recently on Flickr by The Library of Congress.

Stephen's Green

O'Connell Street Bridge

Pheonix Park

Dalkey

Howth and Ireland's Eye

Also, Flickrers are posting fun Then & Now shots.

St. Patrick's Day on Google

I'm sometimes surprised that Google still creates special logos to commemorate various occasions. We thought today's was pretty cool.

POTD: County Cork

Today POTD features two guest photos from the Rices' trip to Cork.

Waiting the for train in Cobh.

Here Watson is communing with a statue called "Reflection."

POTD: Best Chips in Raheny

In addition to a tasty Singapore noodle and prawn toast, Raheny Chinese makes pretty amazing chips.

POTD: The Exchange

Today was the monthly celebration service where all three congregations in the Trinity Church Network meet together in the Gardiner Street location. Built as a church in 1839, this building housed the Dublin Labour Exchange (i.e., unemployment office) for many decades. Our church bought the building in 2006 and last year completed a major restoration project.

Irish dairy

One of the first things we noticed about the food here was the high quality of the dairy products. Apparently dairy farmers are struggling because prices have dropped so much. If there's something we should be willing to pay a bit more for it's high-quality milk, cheese and yogurt. They really are better here.

POTD: Seals

I'm taking a chance and posting the picture of the day a bit early, but really, how can you beat the Rices feeding the seals in Howth?

POTD: Cousin

My cousin Dave is in Dublin! The rest of the wildrices arrive tomorrow.

Update: Just found out Dave brought us Thin Mints. Awesome! They're in the freezer!

POTD: My Desk

My desk today circa 5:30.

POTD: Toast

We always look forward to toast after worship team practice. Sandra makes the best toast!

POTD: Fruit

Fruit and flower stands on Camden Street. Snapped on my way to grab lunch at Listons.

POTD: Indian Takeaway

I should have named our March picture feature "Food Picture of the Day." But we do things other than eat. Sometimes.

Dinner tonight: Indian takeaway with homemade onion bhadji.

Bill makes onion bhadji with gram flour, garam masala, black mustard seeds, butter and sliced onions.

POTD: Guitars

Bill and Martin warming up for worship this morning at church.

POTD: Burrito

Bill and I spent some time this evening in City Centre. We walked through Merrion Square looking for signs of Spring, ate burritos, had crepes at Lemon for dessert, and bought some goods at the market at Carluccio's.

Wait a sec, did I just say "ate burritos"? Indeed I did. As soon as Bill read about Pablo Picante we quickly made plans for a Saturday burrito run. We met some folks from California on the same pilgrimage and we all agreed, these burritos are the real deal. The Pablo Picante guy says he's already had so many Americans in the shop, he's now stocking Dr. Pepper and root beer. 

Bill had a barbacoa and I had steak, both with black beans. Both ordered "spicy." The restaurant is tiny with only three stools, but that wasn't a problem as we would have eaten these tortilla-hugged delights standing in a bucket of leeches. My nose was running when I was done, and my taste buds and tummy were happy. I believe there was a moment where we both considered ordering a second. Truly, this is great news for the tex-cali-mex lovers out there (in Dublin).

POTD: Roasted Chicken

I know you'll be shocked to see another food-themed POTD. Our dinner tonight: chicken roasted with lemon, olive oil, garlic and rosemary served with roasted onion, pepper, carrot and potato.

The chicken was from today's SimplySourced delivery. Bill has been happily ordering "meat boxes" from these guys for a few months and has nothing but praise for the quality and service. We also received a pork butt, sirloin steak, chump steak, 1lb mince, 1lb pork sausages, beef shin, breakfast gammon, and a small pack of pork ribs--all from smaller, local Irish producers. The pork is from free-range Saddleback pigs and the beef is Long Horn! That makes for a full, euro-sized "freezer of wonders."

POTD: Three for Thursday

According to the rules of POTD, there are no rules for POTD, so today I'm posting three photographs.

Conditions in Dublin were favorable for gorgeousness, so I took a walk along the canal at lunch. The swans were a-swimming and sleeping and preening. This crowd includes many adolescents who still have some grey feathers.

I grabbed lunch at my favorite falafel place, Rotana Cafe. This school desk was on the sidewalk outside the antique store next door.

Tonight Bill snapped this picture of the sun setting over the Liffey.

POTD: Signpost

A new signpost at the causeway to Bull Island. Note the lack of graffiti tags. That probably won't last long.

POTD: Potluck

On Tuesday nights we meet with a group from our church. Tonight we had a potluck.

In other news:

Dublin now has the least expensive hotel rooms of any Western European city. Prices fell 21% last year to €76 per night. And rooms at the Gunter B&B are even cheaper. So come on over!

Ireland is coming out of the coldest winter since 1963. That's before I was born! February was the third successive month with below-normal temperatures. We're ready to stop dipping below freezing every night.

Picture of the Day

Our regular readers will be excited that it's Picture of the Day Month here on AYII. (Yeah, we didn't really think about the acronym when we named the blog.) Each day in March we'll post a picture of a scene from the day. Hopefully you won't see twenty-seven pictures of Sharon and me sitting on our couch.

We start our series with a bit of gritty realism--some pictures of the recession.

My office is located in the "business park" section of the Omni Park Shopping Center in Santry. Several shops have closed in the past year: a laptop shop, an independent bookstore, a luggage shop, a kid's clothing store, two food stands (a total of four times) and the latest failure, Hughes and Hughes bookstore which closed over the weekend. The Omni now has no bookstore.

Check back tomorrow for the next installment.