So, what's the craic? Slim's been busy with PK enjoying some Irishness, some birdiness, and the Very Short List.
A few weekends ago, we went to a Trad fest in Cappoquin, a small town in western County Waterford, about an hour away. Trad is what Irish call traditional Irish music. A trad fest is just what it sounds like: a festival of trad. We went for the Saturday evening festivities and sat in on three sessions. The first was an early evening event in a tiny bar called Buttons. The bar is literally in the house of the landlord, the living room serving as the pub. We got there a little late and had to squeeze in for a seat. Three musicians were splayed across a couch: an accordion, a flute, and a keyboard with them. Some of the local ladies even jigged with a little impromptu step dancing, with much clearing of bums in chairs to make some space.
While there we made some new friends: an American musician from Tacoma (!), a British expat musician, and an Irish couple down from the mountains for the music. The British musician invited us to an unplanned session at a bar across the street, The Toby Jug. PK and I enjoyed our dinner to some really fine playing, in a largely Northern Irish style. I had a real Irish meal: the infamous mixed grill. Bacon, sausage, white and black pudding, mushrooms and chips. There may have been a few other kinds of meat that I don't remember just now...
The last session was further down the main street at a larger "Tiger Bar", Central Bar. A Tiger Bar is a pub that was built or remodeled during the past 15 years of the Celtic Tiger economic boom times. They tend to have lost some character and charm in the interest of comfort and, in some cases, hygiene. I tried another Irish tradition there, Guinness served room temperature from a bottle. I have to say, it didn't appeal nearly as much as the well poured creamy masterpiece we all know and love today. As this session started at a more musician friendly 9 or 10pm, it brought a rowdier, noisier crowd. Not our kind of craic. We finished up around midnight or so and turned to the longish drive home.
Last weekend saw us out in the Dungarvan area again, looking for some recently reported rare migrants: most notably sandwich terns and alpine swift. We batted .500 (tern yes, swift no), but we saw a lot of great stuff regardless. Our local birding hero, Birder Lad, and his mates recently pulled off a big day: 99 species in the county in 13 hours! We settled for 42 in about 6.
Finally, thanks to my good friend Jack of Jack and Noodles fame, I've been enjoying the daily missives from VeryShortList.com. It's a website that sends members links to fascinating discoveries on the web. I get an email a day telling me about amazing tidbits from the interwebs. Check it out.
Oh, and it snowed this morning! About an inch of the white stuff, that had been washed away by about 10. Ahh spring!
Slainte.
