GOOD FOOD GOOD FRIENDS GOOD TIMES

I bought this little wall hanging some years ago and hung it in Daisy Cottage in recent months because the words seem so appropriate to Daisy Cottage.  Many of our guests have celebrated a special day during their stay in Daisy Cottage.  This week the most gorgeous little 'tweenie' celebrated her 10th birthday there.  Her name is Sorcha (the Irish for Sarah) and she really is the most delightful girl with the most piercing blue eyes.  I hope her birthday party was all the fun she hoped it would be.

Earlier this month another guest was in Daisy Cottage with his family to celebrate his 50th birthday, earlier in the year a fabulous group of women came to Daisy Cottage to celebrate on of their groups 50th birthday and at the start of the year we had a family with a three lovely children, one of whom had their birthday party in Daisy Cottage.

The Church of St. Joseph and St. Conal, Bruckless

And just two weeks ago we ourselves had a celebration there ~ our youngest son's wedding.  He married his American fiance in the nearby Church of St. Joseph and St. Conal in Bruckless village.  We even used a photograph of the church and round tower there as a wedding invitation.  After the marriage ceremony, our son and his new wife's specially chosen 50 plus guests headed to the restaurant 22 Main Street, Killybegs while the wedding party and the photographers (me and husband!) headed to nearby Fintra Beach. 

The wedding party on Fintra Beach

The day was a scorcher and it allowed some great photographs on the sandy beach.  Being a hot day there were a few people about the beach and the arrival of a bride and her wedding party caused some interest with one man there asking to take a pic of my new daughter-in-law and her bridesmaid, our other daughter in law so that he could post it on his Facebook page.

Our two gorgeous daughters-in-law on Fintra Beach

The view from the road going down to Fintra Beach is stunning so we arranged for the wedding car to be photographed coming up the hill after the pics were taken.  The hill is very steep and trying to negotiate it in high heels is definitely not to be recommended!  I had to walk very carefully to get into position to take the photos, taking care not to go head over heels back down the hill.  But it was worth it.  Btw, a word of thanks here to the wedding car owner, Mr. Brian Neilan of Donegal Wedding Cars who did a sterling job and had great patience and professionalism.

The wedding car coming up Fintra Hill

After the photos were taken we all headed back to 22 Main Street to join the party and eat.  My husband had made a cd with all love songs to play during the meal and the bride and groom walked in to Beyonce's 'Crazy in Love' which was a great choice of music.

22 Main Street, Killybegs

Everything was run perfectly by Sonia, Hugh and their team and they too celebrated ~ this was their first ever wedding in 22 Main Street.  I hope that maybe the smaller, more intimate wedding will take off again and there could hardly be a better place for people to enjoy a wedding meal than in 22 Main Street ~ everything was perfect.  Even the speeches.  As the bride's father could not be there, my husband took over the main speaker spot and managed to keep his speech short!  The best man, our eldest son, gave a great speech about having to make a speech.  He said he had worked for ages trying to get the right speech and had made copious notes, eventually scrapping them all and writing two words ~ wing it.  And he did 'wing it' very successfully.  Our youngest son, the groom, made a very touching speech to his new bride and his words had the ladies in the audience going 'ahh'.  It was very sincere and touching and the bride ended up in tears listening to the lovely words he spoke.  (I think a few of us did actually). 

The pageboy and flower girl, and very best friends, Kane and Ella

Not to be outdone, our eldest grandson, the pageboy, asked to do a speech and he did very well indeed.  Our little grandniece decided that she wanted to throw her penny-halfpenny worth in too ~ she is only four.  Her speech had the place in gales of laughter because she forgot the bride's name so said something like 'and what is she called?' followed up by 'a big happy birthday to you!'.  She mixed up events but I suppose at 4 years of age every party is a birthday party.

After the meal we all went back to Daisy Cottage where a friend of our son set up his decks on the Great Outdoors Under Cover (our covered patio area) and guests danced the night away, with occasional visits to Macs Bar next door, until the new day started to dawn.  During the course of the party, somewhere around midnight my husband fired up the BBQ and many burgers were barbecued and dispensed to the hungry again guests.  Inside the house I'd put lots of sausages in the oven to cook only to return a while later to find that a hungry bunch of the boys had scoffed the lot!  Thank goodness we had the BBQ going!

Good food, good friends, good times in Daisy Cottage

The next day I was to cook breakfast for all our son's friends who had attended the wedding.  However, a very late night made that an impossibility ~ they were nursing hangovers.  So breakfast turned into a slap up meal of homemade burgers, chips and salad ~ washed down with a few chilled lagers of course, later in the day.  It was a very relaxed and great fun meal.  The boys kept us all entertained with stories of various escapades and lots of beans were spilled! 

I think that all these happy events in Daisy Cottage enrich the already great atmosphere the house has been blessed with.  Happiness brings happiness.  And long may happiness, good food, good friends and good times be a feature of Daisy Cottage.