Emma’s visit

Emma arrived Wednesday night. I gave her a choice of restaurants and we ended up at Five Guys, burger and shake for her, veggie sandwich for me. We went to Botanic Garden and ate on a bench then I threw a Frisbee for Paddy for a little bit. He hadn't had his second walk because I was busy at work.

Emma's great at entertaining herself. She likes museums and history and so each day came downstairs with her itinerary. Brilliant. Day one she toured six stained glass windows around Belfast inspired by Game of Thrones. Then an exhibit on clothes from the Belle Epoque at the Ulster Museum. Day two she did a 10 mile walk from Bangor to Holywood, where I met her for dinner outside at the Dirty Duck. The coastal path is lovely and I think she enjoyed walking along the lough.

Saturday she wanted to see Mussendun Temple and House. So that's where we started. Looking at my photos, I realise I took the best photos on her phone, including one of her next to the temple. Here she is barely visible in the dovecot.

From there we went to Dunluce, which she really enjoyed. Paddy and I stayed in the car as I've seen Dunluce before but Emma spent a lot of time exploring the ruin with a map showing how each room was used.

I wanted to go next to Whitepark Bay beach however we were both hungry so I pressed on to Ballycastle, where we had lunch. It was too late in the day to take on the North Coast drive so we headed home on the motorway.

Sunday we talked our way into Mount Stewart, even though I hadn't pre-booked. While she toured the house, I bought plants, courtesy of a very generous gift certificate provided by my Casey cousins Candy and Joanne. Then we walked up to the Temple of the Winds (below) and explored a very clever children's play area nearby that was based on a book written by Lady Edith.

Emma just got a first at the University of Edinburgh, where she did a master of arts degree. Go Emma!! Her interest is in illustration of children's books so it was cool she got to see the Magic Ink play area based on Lady Edith's children's book. Mount Stewart is about to be shut down to allow filming of the School of Good and Evil. I tried to talk one of the production guys into hiring Emma, with no luck. Dungeons and Dragons is filming at Castle Ward--it's a great time to be in the film industry.

Sunday night I invited Christine and Andrew over for a cheeseboard, fruit cup and tea. Andrew is head of creative services at the BBC and he was full of praise for Emma's work. He encouraged her to talk to Edinburgh City Council to see if they would be interested in her illustrations of Edinburgh landmarks. It was great for her to receive high praise from a professional artist. Christine went to the university, so she compared notes on student life with Emma.

Monday Emma went into town and did a tour of the murals in the city. She bought some children's books at Waterstones and at Born and Bred (local artists). Then I took her to the airport and she was off. It was lovely to spend time with her. She has done two years at Edinburgh and this was only her second visit--COVID put paid to more frequent visits.

Her parents are meant to visit at the end of June, however their flights were canceled and they're awaiting news on travel restrictions. If they aren't able to come, I proposed to Emma that we visit the Lake District, home of Beatrix Potter. We'll have to squeeze it in between my trip to Wales and her flight back to the US at the end of July, but very doable for a four-day trip.

June 2-7