Whoa!…2500 posts as of today…Food photo…Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

Tom’s breakfast plate included scrambled eggs with red onion and cheese with thin slices of smoked salmon and tuna pate on the side. I had the same meal but a smaller portion, all befitting my way of eating.

“Fascinating Fact of the Day About Ireland”

“The Titanic was built in Belfast, Northern Island.”

 When recently I happened to notice the number of posts we’d uploaded since our first post on March 14, 2012 (click here to read the first post), I was stunned. It’s hard for us to believe we’ve actually done 2500 posts, including today, and how hard we’ve been striving to be consistent during this past almost seven years. We’ve made every effort to post each day, other than a few times due to travel days, illness, and power and WiFi outages.

In 2013, we began posting almost daily as indicated in our archives, showing how many posts we uploaded each month, including a total for each year. We’ve often mentioned how quickly time has flown, but it becomes all the more relevant when we see this 2500 number.

Is this comparable to 2500 chapters in a book? Not entirely, since our posts are shorter than one would find in a book. However, as posted, it’s a continuing story progressing similarly to a book.

Beautiful scenery on the way to the SmokeHouse located in The Pier, Ballyconneely, Co. Galway.

We’ve contemplated writing a book, particularly when we’ve been offered a few opportunities to do so over the years. However, as we’ve always stated, we didn’t do this blog to make money and become commercialized, going to book signings and even appearing on TV shows, none of which appeals to either of us.

We write this ongoing series for love, and we continue to do so for love; love of the world, its people, its wildlife, its places, and the many who so kindly visit us time and time again to see what’s transpiring in our daily lives.

At times our stories and photos are exciting and filled with world adventures. At other times, of which we are well aware, our posts are mundane and of little consequence.  

The SmokeHouse‘s interior was somewhat surprising when we expected glass counters contain rows of fish.  Everything is frozen for safety and lasting quality. More on this in yesterday’s post.

And yet, our readers continue to return for more, pass our web address on to others for their viewing and stand along with us in support of this highly vulnerable and revealing expose of our daily lives.  

At times, I equate it to the content of the TV show Seinfeld, when for us, it can feel like a “story about nothing.” Perhaps readers find some sense of comparison and comfort from the mundane aspects of our lives during those times when “nothing” is going on.

But, “nothing” may frequently be. Isn’t that what life is like for most of us, especially those who are retired? Some days, we’re busy and engaged in our daily activities. At other times, we find a certain level of contentment from doing very little; a load of laundry, making a meal, and watching a favorite TV show in the evening.

Visitor’s vehicles were parked around the SmokeHouse’s building on the pier.

Do those quiet days make us feel any less alive? For us, those days connect us to reality, provide us time to reflect, plan for the future and look inside ourselves for ways in which we can grow.

When I think back to our 15 months in Marloth Park, South Africa, it was the quiet times we recall the most, the wildlife coming to call, a day’s drive into Kruger National Park, an evening at Jabula with friends, not necessarily indicative of a busy, fast-paced life.

And here in quiet, remote Connemara, unable to drive on long road trips due to my legs, we’re perfectly content. As I write this now, Tom is taking a nap. I am sitting alone in the lounge, munching on a raw carrot. How much more simple can that be?
This horse was fed by passersby when she got as close as she could when we stopped for a photo.

And yet, in a mere 54 days, we’ll be in Amsterdam for two nights awaiting a cruise in the Baltic Sea, which will take us to Copenhagen and Skagen, Denmark; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden. 

Certainly, this type of trip isn’t mundane and laidback. Once the cruise ends, we’ll live in the countryside in England in four different locations, here again, hardly an everyday experience.

At this point, we’re contemplating staying shorter periods in most countries to expand our horizons vastly, but we’ll never tire of the quiet days, like today; a delicious dinner already prepped and ready; a glass of wine savored, along with a favorite cocktail for Tom, as we lounge in two stuffed comfy chairs overlooking Bertraghboy Bay in Connemara, Ireland.
For us, this is hardly mundane, but at times, in this unusual life we live, it may be routine and predictable.

Friends…thank you for sharing 2500 posts with us…thank you for staying with us during mundane and quiet times, and thank you for either writing, commenting, or quietly lurking in the background.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out! May this be a pleasing day for you, even if it’s quiet and relatively uneventful.

Photo from one year ago today, June 16, 2018:

And, here are the girls!  Not much is “girlish” about female rhinos! For more rhino photos, please click here.

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