You Are The Salt Of The Earth

"Faith without love creates fanatics, Faith with love creates peacemakers"

- Fr. Richard Flanagan

I went to church with my friend Loretta today. Mass is at 11:30 every sunday and it's at the church down the street. We met the paster, his name is Richard Flanagan. This particular sermon talked about being the "Salt of the Earth". Fr. Flanagan gave a very nice homily which included the quote above which I thought was so true and so often overlooked. The readings were a nice little reminder to be a good person and watch out for your fellow man, something I think we often forget to do when getting caught up in the busy rush of life. Anyways it was nice to go to church again and even nicer to do it in Ireland. We'll be trying to go every Sunday with a few of our other friends and I'm excited to get into a routine with it. It's very comforting and also a nice way to get to know the community which we don't have much interaction with during the day.

After church we walked through town a bit back and forth between one of the student houses in the town and Logue's. Loretta needed to check that her card worked so I stayed at Logue's and got a coffee and a delicious DELICIOUS scone while she checked that at the store across the street. I need to get my hands on some scone mix or an easy recipe because I've pretty much decided that I love scones slash I also love the hearty buttery cream the Irish like to spread on the scones. Again I find myself talking about food haha.

After all the roaming around she and I headed back to the house and ran into Kate who was on her way to the school. Soon along the road plans were changed though and Kate and I decided to take a walk since even though it was overcast it was actually a nice day out - something that is kind of a rare opportunity - so a walk was more appropriate than going to the college. After dropping off Loretta and grabbing my camera we headed out towards this abandoned stone building I noticed a few days back that is right past the school. I couldn't be happier that we chose to look there.

It was one of the most magical things I've seen since being here. It was off to the side of the road hidden back by some moss covered trees. After hopping the rock wall we went down the house and our mini adventure began. It was beautiful. The building's roof had collapsed leaving an open stone building covered in vines, moss, and branches. We explored it thoroughly before finding more littler stone buildings without roofs and then a bog like area COVERED in moss. It was so incredibly magical, I kept expecting a unicorn or fairy to come out from behind some tree. I decided I definitely want to go back and take some long exposure night photos of it. Also, Kate and I both decided it will be ten times more beautiful (if that's even possible) in the spring and summer when the leaves on the trees grow back and creates a canopy over this magical place. I can't wait.

Now I'm pretty much back at the house by myself since most people are at the school. I just made some delicious tortellini and I'm about to clean some of the kitchen because it's pretty darn messy right now. It's about my turn, I've been lazy for quite some time now.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start one of my portraits. I'll also get to talk to Martina about my Something as Nothing project. Yay art school in Ireland =)

**Photos from the little Moss Adventure!