The Emerald Isle with Friedel and Saskia

I flew in to Dublin on 3rd May and travelled on to Roscrea in County Tipperary to dance with Friedel and Saskia.  This was the first of three training sessions with them.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am so looking forward to dancing with them again next year. 

They were not stern and strict as I had been led to believe.   Friedel was gracious and kind and generous, with a good sense of humour, yet gave the impression she would not suffer fools gladly.  She is a lovely dancer. And it was a delight to watch her daughter Saskia dance, especially with some of the livelier dances. Just beautiful.

We started each day with basic ballet exercises, and also spent some time on numerology.  Then we danced for the rest of the day.  So about 6 hours each day were spent in the dance room, which left almost no spare time - but no complaints from me.  I was in heaven.

The circle dance centre for the weekend.

There were dancers from England and Ireland, as well as two women from Canada and a guy from France.    The Irish dancers who had complained that Roscrea was SO far (3 hour drive) from Dublin, were soon silenced.

I also found out that when Friedel & Saskia teach in Germany, they will teach in multiple languages.  So I don't have to speak German to dance with them over there.

Mount St Josephs Abbey at Roscrea. Founded in 1878 and still home to the Cistercian monks.  They get up at 3am and have their first prayers at 4am in the chapel.  They have many more prayers and chanting throughout the day.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

We didn't find out what these ancient stones were, in the of grounds of the abbey.  But they were fenced off, so were something of significance.     They sat atop a grassy mound.

Madonna statues in the grounds

The white building is the guest house at Mount St Josephs's Abbey, and this is the view from the lounge room window.                                                                                                                                 I have never drunk so much tea in my life,  The Irish must be world champion tea drinkers. Huge pots of it were served with every meal, and they like it so strong you could stand your spoon up in it.   I don't think they have heard of herb tea though.  Not a peppermint or lemon and ginger tea bag in sight.                                                                                  

 Waterfalls in the grounds.  And a Celtic cross on one of the graves.

                                                                                                                                                                 The trees are all in full leaf now and the copper beech provide a lovely colour contrast.

I only got to stay in Ireland for a few days as I was off to another circle dance event in England, immediately after this one.  But I hope I can spend more time exploring The Emerald Isle next year.