Landmarks

We've now done the run from Silverwoods up to the Roscommon House and back so many times that it's an old familiar route to us now. We mentally divide it into quarters and tick them off - to the M6, the M6, Athlone to Roscommon, theh Rosco to the house; roughly half an hour each and 2 hours total on a good day. We also find ourselves mentally ticking off some of the landmarks which caught our eye on early runs and we now see them as old friends. Here are some examples.

1) The antiques and knick-knack shop in Ballymoe does a good line in plaster (or possibly fibre glass) figures of farm animals and human figures. For weeks they seemed to have the same 3 foot high pink piggy on the pavement outside when they felt like it but sometimes not and Mum and Dad used to play a silly betting game predicting whether it would be "Piggy in or Piggy out?" Lately it's got a bit more complicated as 'piggy' became a choice of 2 pig figures, then a calf as well, and now these two 'villagers'. It's more like high stakes roulette now!
2) Famous racing greyhound Mick the Miller has a statue at the roadside in the village where he was bred, Killeigh, County Offaly, also the home of "The Seven Blessed Wells of Killeigh".
3) "Purple Pub"; this striking paint job is on the Clay Pipe pub in Knockcroghery (hich seems to be pronounced "Na-croggery") in County Roscommon.
4) Almost 'home' when we see this old ruin of a church outside Castlerea and many jokes have been made about this being the next project. When we were hunting properties all those months ago, J-M used to joke that Mum would like "that one", pointing to some old ruin with no roof. "Lots of character", she'd say, or "Plenty of potential".
5) Just outside Roscommon town is this strikingly bizarre tree which makes us think of the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter.

There are many others, whih I may bring you in posts to come.
Deefs