More visitors! Elena's family

August 2008 (High season at Chez Bushy Park) was not yet over and the main guest quarters were still heavily booked. This time, the visitors took the form of Elena's parents, who had been sunning it up for weeks in the north of Spain and thought some milder weather might do them some good. They arrived one moderately sunny morning armed with many many packets of chorizo and jamon and a big jar of vegemite. Naturally, they were made very welcome.
The weather behaved itself most of the time, but like all our guests they too experienced the lovely summer rain, though only on 1 day.
Lucky for them they arrived during 'Heritage week' and Ivan couldn't resist taking us all to the 'Battle of the Boyne' site to see cavalry, musketry, pike and cannon demonstrations by costumed men and women from the local 'we love the battle of the Boyne' historical society. Some of our number went grudgingly (namely Elena), but we all had fun and most importantly Ivan was chuffed. Elena learnt that she should lighten up a little.
One evening we met up with some of Elena's parents' friends (also visiting Dublin) and decided to splash out on a lovely dinner in town... a restaurant called Eden, and perfectly delicious too.. mmm. We also went for a walk down the coast from Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary) to Dalkey (pronounced Dorky), a very cute little village with a tiny 'small boat harbours' - just big enough for a few little boats and a few fishermen. Finally, no visit from parents would be complete without some form of 'learning', so over a glass of red, John gave us all some drawing classes. The results suprised us all, completely oblivious to the sheer talent that lurked sleepily below the surface. A little exaggerated perhaps... but we were truly happlily amazed.
Here we are... in some sort of order: Walking by the Liffey, Fancy dress demonstrations at the Battle of the Boyne, relaxing after picking lots of wild blackberries, John drawing unsuspecting pub patrons, Tere and long term friends Miguel and Maite out for dinner, on the coast at Dun Laoghaire, at Dalkey small boat harbour, with Dalkey island in background, checking out the hot properties.












Artists' corner:
(L-R): Still life by Tere, Ivan (foolishly unsigned) & Elena.
Bottom: Very 'naive' style portrait of Ivan by Elena.