Perfection

For the most part I stayed away from my computer and my monkey today.

I had a massage at 9:15 in Bangor--pure heaven. I’ve been running 35 minutes per run without stretching, which is asking for trouble. The massage was like preventive medicine. On Tuesday, I bought five paintings in an online art auction (photos at some later date). The auction house is in Bangor, near where the massage was, so I figured I’d collect the paintings once I was all loosey goosey. Prob is the live auction is tonight so the building didn’t open until 2 pm. Fine with me, since I’ve decided to avoid the monkey all day. So I went to Donaghadee, pronounced donna-ga-dee. It’s a very old port town that predates Belfast. I had lunch at a garden centre that I really like, looked at plants for a while then walked around town. On this day I decided to use my phone instead of my digital camera. Which is why Donaghadee is upside down, with charming marina and lighthouse at the bottom of the photo. It displays correctly in my download file. Whatever.

The photo above was taken from the moat, a mini castle built in 1818 to house explosives used to build the harbour. This is the moat:

After a visit to a charming antique shop, I walked around a cemetery at the back of this church, which was built in 1696 (phone camera issues).

One of the gravestones said “died in a carriage accident” and one said “lost at sea.” This one had an anchor:

I kept thinking about how much love is expressed in cemeteries. So much grief and devotion and kindness.

A few blocks from the church is a pub that claims to be the oldest in Ireland. I’ve seen other pubs make the same claim so who knows:

Next I went to two paint stores and looked at reproduction vintage wallpapers for the foyer--something I’d given up on finding. I’d been looking in the chain hardware stores (like Home Depot)--wrong place. Then I went to collect my paintings at Bangor Auctions. I looked around at all the lovely things on offer and went back that night for the auction (after dealing with Mailchimp issues).
I made out like a bandit. Main purchase was a mahogany dining room table and six chairs for 65 pounds. Also a pair of Staffordshire lions, an Edwardian mantle clock made in Belfast, and a beautiful Victorian silver service, each for a pittance.
All in all, a perfect day. A massage, a flower-filled nursery, antiques, a thoughtful stroll around a cemetery, and a few perfect finds for my house.
8-25