Hodges-Figgis

This weekend we picked up some of the River Cottage Handbooks at the Hodges-Figgis book store.  The handbooks are based on the BBC television show with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  His tv program is about getting more in touch with the food we put on our table and home-farming.  Hugh began the series by moving into a gamekeeper's cottage at an estate in Dorset and tried his hand at being a "smallholder."  I had never heard of that term before the show, basically it means trying to put food on your plate by growing it yourself--or as much of it as you can--on a small plot of land.  Hugh quickly realises it's a lot harder than it looks, and yeah, you do have to buy some stuff at the store.  You can't do everything yourself.

Anyway, the thing I got out of the show was the desire to do a bit more gardening, and looking for food in my environment.  I am so keen on getting a fishing pole now and catching some pollock (a local fish.)

My other half and I have been making bread recently, and she's getting really good at it.  I'm interested in growing fruit trees like the Orleans Reinette apple they raved about on the show.  That's a French variety that was introduced in 1776!  We plan on collecting the entire series of River Cottage Handbooks.  They are written by experts in their field, who have appeared on the River Cottage show.

Hard Rock... Ow!

I tripped over a curb taking this picture.  I fell against a steel warehouse door and it made a tremendous bang noise.  You can see the Hard Rock Cafe security guard giving us a concerned look down the alley.  Argh.  I ripped one of my nice Ralph Lauren dress shirts too.  OH well.  It was just a scrape.  Perhaps the Gods are telling me that I need to avoid the Hard Rock Cafe in Temple Bar.  haha  Ok I can take a hint.

Costa Coffee by Trinity

This is the coffee shop on the corner of Nassau Street and Dawson Street, over by Trinity College.  If you look at the Google maps location it shows a clothing store called Farrell & Brown used to occupy this spot.  Anyway it's another reason to like Dawson Street.  The interior of this Costa is a cut above the other locations in town as far as cool buildings go.  Plus, its big.  They have an entire room downstairs and a living room on the first floor, off the dining area.  It's like 3 coffee shops in 1.

We like going to Costa because... well I'll just say it:  I hate Starbucks.  Apparently I'm not the only one.  People hate Starbucks so much that Starbucks has started opening stealth stores without the Starbucks logo.  You read that right; Starbucks is opening shops that do not have the word "Starbucks" anywhere in sight.

Costa is a nice alternative.  They have decent caffè latte and they serve fantastic lemon poppy seed muffins.  Mmmm.  The interiors are generally comfortable and always decorated with the same stock-image artwork depicting cobblestone streets in Italy.  They're going for the authentic-Italian angle, as opposed to the Seattle full-of-themselves angle.  Generally speaking corporate coffee is corporate coffee, and comparing Starbucks to Costa is much of a muchness.  However, attitude is everything.  Costa seems to simply be about selling you a cup of coffee; they're not so much in your face like Starbucks is, pushing their retail crap on you.  With their CEO's biography, corporate-compiled Jazz CDs and branded-breath-mints stacked up on the counter, it gets to be a bit much.  Costa isn't selling that magic kool-aid.  They're just selling coffee.

Statue of Daniel O'Connell

The figure of Daniel O'Connell watches over O'Connell street in the heart of Dublin.  O'Connell was a statesman in the early 19th century and fought for the rights of Catholics in British Government, (previously Parliament had been sectarian and Irish Catholics were not allowed to hold office.)  Basically, his efforts resulted in the Irish being able to represent themselves in government, where they had been excluded before.  His work also allowed British Jews the right to enter the British Parliament some time later.

This statue was installed in the early part of the 20th century after Irish independence.  The sculptor was John Henry Foley.  This is an example of public-friendly art.  Not only is it beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, the base of the statue is a series of steps which invites pedestrians to sit and contemplate O'Connell Street along with Daniel himself.  The statue is also bird-friendly, as you can see.  Luckily it rains a lot in Ireland.

Celtic Whiskey Shop

I like Dawson Street.  They have Café En Seine, the Hodges Figgis book shop and this little beauty, The Celtic Whiskey Shop.  This is where we get our Crabbie's Ginger Beer.  OH yes, they sell more than whiskey here.  Just perusing their shop window is like taking an around-the-world cruise of booze.  For your enjoyment:

Hee yar Matie!  Wind in the sails.  Now... bring me that horizon.

I don't think that seal is going to be balancing anything after 151 proof!

Now there's something you don't see in America every day...

He's whispering to her, "You're going to be arse over teacups in an hour."

The 80-degrees refers to your angle after drinking said beverage.

Natural History Museum II

The museum of natural history has some amazing examples of taxidermy, and many of these exhibits are over 100 years old.  They even had some of those sloths that are so cute looking.  I hear that some people keep them as pets?  I don't know why people would want sloths as pets when they could just as easily rent out their basement to some Grateful Dead fans.  The museum had platypus and armadillo too.  Now those are weird looking creatures.  God invented those when he invented shrooms, I'm thinking.

Oh, hey.  That's something you never see in natural history museums; preserved fungus.  How cool would it be to have a mushroom exhibit?  I guess they don't preserve well.  Or at least, whey you dehydrate them they don't look much like they did when they were picked.  Or the biologists keep eating the specimens.  :)

Natural History Museum I

Lions, tigers and bears and holy crap Tasmanian devils too!  Three cheers, no wait, four cheers for Ireland for having a free Natural History Museum.  Over by Merrion Square, right next to the Taoiseach's office, (that's the Irish Prime Minister,) there is a fantastic museum.  The first floor is a showcase of indigenous Irish wildlife and the second, third, and fourth floors are wildlife collections from all over the world.

However, they are missing the dodo but then again, aren't we all?