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The Cliffs of Moher
In July and August 2005, I spent two weeks in Ireland. Most of it was with a tour group via a public radio station, before I stayed at a Dublin hostel for three days.
On the way to the Cliffs of Moher, we passed a faerie bush! Matthew pointed it out, explaining that a fairy bush (or faerie bush) is a tree that stands alone without any other trees in a field. This tree was tallish and slender and leaned dramatically from the center and sprouted a couple red flowers. (I drew lines indicating the slant — an idea for a sculpture would be to make a faerie pretending to be a faerie bush, based on that one.) [FYI, I did indeed make that sculpture after returning to the States.]
We just passed another castle ruin. It included less than a whole wall. It had an arrow slit, which is more than I can say for the one we saw a few minutes ago. We’ve seen many ruins and cathedral ruins. When there’s so little left of it, it strikes me as a wee bit sad… but on the other hand, there’s enough of it to recognize it as a medieval castle and to imagine how the castle looked when it was complete. (I know enough about medieval castles to do this, thanks to David Macaulay’s documentary series Castle. My mother recorded it on Beta in the…