Sharon and Jaya's 2003 Trip to Ireland - Day 3

Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003 (Fiddle Lesson)

We were given a choice of egg-sausage scramble, eggs with bacon or a fruit yogurt plate. There was one other choice, the one I had―smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. Jaya had the eggs and bacon. There was orange juice, a pot of tea on the table, and a basket of white toast and Irish soda bread. I asked to use the phone. I called the B&B in Galway. She had missed my email, but took a booking for us at her friend's place there in town. Mary O'Connell helped me find the number for Sonja O'Brien, at The Boghill Centre. I called, on Easter Sunday it was, I was afraid she would say no, but she said to come on out between 4 and 5. We finished breakfast, and then headed north towards The Aillwee Caves. We drove past our turn―I only had the map of all Ireland―and had to double back. When we reached the caves, there was a Cadbury easter egg hunt going on in an adjoining area. We were given a map, charged €9 each and told to drive up the hill. On this road and in the fields every where we'd been, there were hedges with bright yellow flowers. I don't know what they are, but they are everywhere.

[ed. ― Further research after we got home revealed that these hedges with bright yellow flowers are called furze or gorse or whin. It is a perennial evergreen shrub belonging to the pea family. It forms a much branched, stunted shrub usually no taller than six feet high. The leaves are very small and in older plants they form into long needle-like thorns. It is found in rough pastures, heaths and rocky places, preferring a dry soil. The word furze is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name fyrs, and gorse from the Anglo Saxon gorst, which means "a waste" this being a reference to the open moorlands where it is often found.

See also these pages:

• Pesky Plants produce Persistence? At least their essences do!
• Furze Onn, All about the plant and its place in the culture.
• Gorse picture, "The best home-made wine I ever tasted was made from gorse flowers."

In New Zealand the gorse was introduced from England to make hedge rows. It is doing quite well there. The weta, an insect, has found a good habitat in the gorse because of the plants' protective spines. You my recognize the word weta from the Peter Jackson films Lord of the Rings recently shot in NZ; his effects company is named Weta Workshop. Incidently, to build Fangorn Forest seen in The Two Towers, modellers used four or five 70 year old gorse branches to form the tree trunks.]

Oh, I forgot. Before we headed away from Doolin, we stopped in the Music Store there. I bought a book & whistle for Jason and a ballad book for myself. Jaya bought several low-whistle CDs, a low-whistle book, and a bodhran instruction video (The Bodhrán Video, Steáfán Hannigan, €18).

Now back to the caves. They had a couple jumping castles for the kids, and an easter bunny and brown bear in costume. The bear is on the sign because the european brown bear once used this cave to hibernate. There are bones near the entrance that are thousands of years old. There are two bear pits, which were used for hibernation.

We shopped in the gift store first―bought post cards and I bought two small cook books―recipes for potatoes and recipes with Irish Stout. We went on the cave tour, which was interesting. The cave was made by a river cutting through limestone. Parts of it in the back still flood or are always underwater. We visited the dry part, but even so, there was a small waterfall, and another that was dry that day because it hasn't rained in a couple of weeks(!) but can be a raging waterfall when there has been more rain. This cave was not the spectacular showplace that Andrew and I saw in Utah on the Boy Scout trip to Yellowstone. However, we did not half to hike a mile and a half straight up to get to it either!

Aillewee Cave Photes

We finished the tour, and decided to have lunch down at the cheese shop―only they were just a shop―no lunches. We bought Thai crackers (made in England) and Burren Gold cheese, and some tomatoes in oil and spices and a Mars Bar. By this time it was 3:30, so we headed back south for my fiddle lesson. We ate cheese and crackers and tomatoes on the way. And shared the Mars Bar .

Finding The Boghill Centre was a challenge. All I knew was that it was on the road between Kilfenora and Lisdoonvarna. We saw a sign on this road pointing to a side road, which we took―but drove down quite a ways with no other (visable) signs. So we drove back and asked at a house. There was a small sign that we missed (covered by a tree limb) right near the house where we stopped. The woman said it was about a mile down that road. We found it―the sign in front of the centre was facing the other way―but Jaya saw it.

Fiddle Lesson

She said they were busy painting, and showed us into a room overlooking the back of the property. we were worried about bothering her on Easter Sunday, but she pointed out that the lads there for the bodhran workshop were out back, creating a druidic standing stone circle with large stones that had been unearthed nearby! (I Suppose)

She got her fiddle, and asked me to play a tune for her. I played Off to California. She played with me, and we went on to some other tunes.

She taught me about "figure eight" bowing, which is a way to make cross-string bowing more effortless―and hence―faster. she taught me about "jig" bowing, which is a DOWN up down UP down up DOWN up down UP down up pattern. We played Ciffs of Moher using that bowing pattern. And she taught me a noname reel. [This tune has been christened by us as The Boghill Reel. Jim Underwood and Jaya and I now play it at BASS.] She uses sheets with the music written out as letters―almost ABC code but not quite. She gave us copies of a couple tunes and also a reference to tunedb.org which has a lot of music available.

She strongly suggested I stay away from written music. she said I was a good player, but I was still the little girl in the orchestra playing every note. She suggested playing from the music into a tape recorder, and then learning from that (recording). She said its a lot harder to learn this way at first, but it really sticks with you. Also, when you learn enough tunes, it is possible to pick up new ones quickly, because so many phrases are repeated in more than one tune.

I asked her how long she had been playing. (She is quite good―makes it look effortless like the best players can.) She said she had played violin as a child, didn't play for 10 years, and has been playing fiddle now for 20 years.

We also went over rolls, and she gave me the exercise of doing a roll on each note of the G scale first postion, all the way up to an A, and then back down. She said Do that for 5 minutes every day.

She also told me I wasn't bending my elbow enough. she said I should play from my elbow, not my shoulder, to forget my upper arm existed. I think all these things will help my speed.

We played and talked and had a break in the middle for tea―about 2 hours total. I asked how much we owed her, and she said she usually charges €12.50 per hour―so €20 would do. We gave her €30. She gave us a handful of brochures for me to distribute. I will give them out at the sessions.

Back to Doolin

We found a table in a non-smoking room(!), right off the front door. There were servers coming to the tables―but not to take orders. I went out and found someone―it was quite crowded―and asked if the kitchen was still open―it was for another 15 minutes―and how did I place an order―at the bar. I saw some menus to which I managed to weave my way near, and grabbed and brought them back to Jaya. He wanted the fish and a Pepsi. I went to the bar and I had to stand behind the people seated there and kind of shout what I wanted to the barmaid. The man sitting down next to me interjected as I was ordering―"whiskey" and "3 pints of Guinness". I ordered Irish stew and club soda for myself and paid for it, €24. I took the drinks (very small glasses) back to the table. They brought our food sometime later―the tables are numbered and I had to give the number to the barmaid.

We ate and I wrote in this journal, and we waited for the music to begin. There was a group at an opposite table of young people all speaking Gaelic (I assume.) This is a Gàidhlig region, so I'm probaly right. It was interesting to listen to―but there was nothing familiar about it―so it was like that much gibberish.

O'Connor's Pub Session

Jaya said he overheard two guys behind us. One of them was wanting to move on, but the other said, no, he wanted to stay, This is the reason I came to Ireland. We stayed for 3 or 4 more tunes, and then we left.

We went back to Seascape, put our stuff in the room, and then Jaya took me outside in the COLD to do Chi Gong. I smelled like smoke, so that's probably why we went outside. But he took me through The Perfect One, and Eight Something or other [ed., Eight Internal Iron Palm].

We went inside and finished with another form. He said the first one is to release and center, the second is to build chi, and the last to release chi. Well I know that's wrong―but I'll get what it means eventually.

Then we went to sleep.

Continued on Day 4.

Sharon and Jaya's 2003 Trip to Ireland