The business on the far left, called Kingdom Fresh, is a produce store. Again, it is tiny inside. The man who owns it is very talkative and has given us some great ideas on things to do in the area. He always asks how the kids are doing, and is worried that we are not enjoying Dingle as much as we could because the weather has been bad. When I told him that the hardest thing for us has been the dark, late mornings (the sun does not come up until after 8 am) he said, “Oh, wait until late spring and summer! You’ll love it then! The sun stays up til half ten in the evening!” We are really looking forward to that.
Another interesting thing he told me, after finding out how many kids I am feeding, is that the Irish government gives money each month to families with children. They give the most for the first 2 children, and he said that is why many people stop at 2, but there is no upper limit. They give at least some money for every child. He quickly googled it and said for 8 children a family would get over 1000 Euro per month, or $1200! Makes you wonder where that money comes from, right? Probably the 23% Value Added Tax they charge!
At first we thought it was snowing, but it made too much noise to be snow. It was hail! It hailed on and off all afternoon and into the night, and made quite a racket on the sky lights upstairs. The temperature went down to the teens at night, and I had to reluctantly turn the radiators up a little. Since the heat goes off at night, the house was very cold this morning! You know it must be cold when I put on a sweater and wool socks! Tomorrow’s forecast looks better…sun and warmer temperatures, hurray!
Brogans Across the Pond 
Have you asked your nice produce man about your potato troubles? I’d be curious to know the answer.
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Good question! I did ask him about the potato varieties because there are so many, and I was not familiar with any of the names. I asked him which he would recommend, and he said Roosters, which is the one I had tried to cook, and a kind of baby potato. I did try again to make mashed potatoes on Sunday, and I kept a really close eye on them. Turns out, as soon as the water boils, they are done! The times I tried before, I boiled them for 15-20 minutes like I would at home, but never tested them with a fork. The third time was the charm, they were perfect! As for the baby potatoes, we had them boiled in their “jackets” as the produce man called them, with just a little butter and salt. Yum!
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thank goodness. 6 months without mashed potatoes is not to be imagined.
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Kelly and Colleen would die!
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Way to go, Kelly! Keep up the good work! 🙂
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Thanks for the great pictures. Nana Brogan waits for me to show her the whole weeks batch on Friday when I get back from work. Miss you. Pop pop & Nana Brogan
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