Living in a Western Movie!

This past week I got a taste of the old days that we usually see portrayed in the western movies. They have been filming a western in Granbury, and with dirt spread out to cover the tarmac roads it looks very authentic - the old buildings have not changed since the western days. In fact many of the buildings are made from the Limestone the original owner of our old mansion used to supply. His name was Daniel Cogdell and I am sure he would have been very at home on the set in town this week!

Of course it is not necessary to have a western movie set in Granbury for me to be reminded that I am living in Texas. Just seeing the Hood County Sheriff's car driving around the area is a reminder every day! At home a sheriff is someone you would only see in a "Cowboy movie". Our police are called "Garda Siochana" which means they keep the peace - siochain is the Irish word for peace. You would never see an Irish police officer or "Garda" in a cowboy hat! It is still a novelty for me to see the sheriff in his hat and boots.

My daughter Jenny came over on a visit from Ireland a few weeks ago and we had fun looking around the Cowboy Market Place here in Granbury. Cowboy boots, hats, spurs, and ropes were of real interest to her, and she couldn't resist buying an old cowboy rope for her husband who is in the horse business in Ireland.

Now I am buying a cowboy hats and boots for my grand children for Christmas!
My mother is coming over to visit in a couple of weeks time and I am looking forward to seeing her observations of life in Texas. I know it will seem amazing for her to see pickup trucks in the car park of Walmart with men in cowboy hats and boots strolling around the aisles of the supermarket!

Another common sight for Texans and still unusual and exotic for me are the
Cactus plants which grow wild at the side of the road. I can remember as a child seeing cactus plants in the Green houses at the Botanic Gardens, and i thought they were so exotic! Never thought they would be growing in my neighborhood someday.

What a great state this is!

My Texas Ireland Connection = Nancy Griffith

(Check out my Granbury Texas Historic Bed and Breakfast - www.theironhorseinn.com)


It is an amazing thing to me that so many of the places names in Texas were familiar to me, long before I ever came to live here to run the Iron horse Inn Bed and Breakfast in Granbury. The reason was the music of Nancy Griffith the Austin singer songwriter who I have loved for over 20 years now. I remember the first time I ever saw her on Irish TV in 1988 when she was doing her "Lone Star State of Mind" tour. I bought that album and played it over and over - I still love it today. I remember listening to it while I was expecting my youngest son back in 1989. When he was a baby and a toddler he loved to dance in my arms to this album - he used to want to "cuggle dance" when I played this album - he is now all grown up and living in Virginia!
So many of her lyrics come back to me now that I live in Texas in the "Lone Star State" that she sang so beautifully about. Her song "Gulf coast Highway" spoke about the Bluebonnet and that "this is the only place on earth Bluebonnets grow".


Anytime I find myself in Austin on Congress Avenue I remember her music and in particular her talking about her trips to the Woolworths store. She sings a wonderful song called "Love at the Five and Dime" which is a beautiful today as it ever was all these years ago.


Her poignant song "Trouble in the Fields" talks about her farming family's experience during the dustbowl years in West Texas when the "dust was as thick as snow" - the words of this song are so moving - driving through West Texas now the song always comes to my mind.

Here in Granbury we have one of the rare remaining drive in movies The Brazos Drive-In,
and our guests tell me about their nostalgia when they see it - Nancy also told me about that period of her growing up years in the song "Drive in movies and Dashboard Lights". Driving past it here brings Nancy's music back to mind for me every time.






Nancy was a huge success in Ireland and she recorded a few songs she wrote about my home country. I am reminded of the song "On Grafton Street" - this is a favorite street among Dublin people, especially at Christmas time when the shop windows were all filled with animated characters and the christmas lights were sparkling. In this song she reminisces about an old flame who "lives near Dallas now" - strange for me to live near Dallas now too!!

I have loved the Austin singer for many years and then I met and married my Austin man who brought me to live here in Texas, life is quite amazing really!!

I have all of her albums and I have been to many of her concerts in Dublin, and if you have not heard her music I would encourage you to listen to her - She is wonderful! Click on the links in this blog to hear a few of her songs.

The Real US v the exported images the rest of the world see

Check out my Historic Bed and Breakfast Website
www.theironhorseinn.com



One of the greatest and most pleasant surprises I had when I came to the US was just how pretty it is and how nice the neighbourhoods are. Unfortunately- the images that most people outside of the US see daily on the TV and Movie screens are of run down cityscapes and violence. I remember seeing nice neighborhoods in the movies and thinking that they were only where the extremely wealthy lived and were not typical of life over here. Well now that I am living here, I find that the common images portrayed in most of the TV shows and movies could not be further from the truth. I was really surprised by the attractive diversity of the homes people live in over here. Each neighborhood has hundreds of different style homes from small and simple to large and extravagant. I particularly love the older style wooden homes in most historic districts across the country.



In Ireland all of our modern housing estates have rows and rows of similar
houses ,with little diversity among them. I am so delighted to actually be able to live in one of the most beautiful historic homes in this part of Texas - the Iron Horse Inn Historic Bed and Breakfast, in Granbury.

OUR LOVELY OLD HISTORIC CRAFTSMAN STYLE MANSION IN GRANBURY TEXAS


Also the impression I had was that the American people were not a religious people. Again how wrong I was. I was immediately struck by the large number of different churches and denominations there are over here. Also, the rates of church attendance are much higher here. Particularly living in Texas, I am pleasantly surprised about how open people are about their faith - here at our bed and breakfast, we have many people who say grace before their breakfast, and while religion is seldom a topic of conversation, a matter of fact way of mentioning their faith is common here. I remember how private people were about
their faith in Ireland and how disillusioned they were in the church there.
The America I live in is far from the America I grew up seeing on the TV and in the movies!

Irish Foods and their American translations!

Take a look at my historic bed and breakfast website at
www.theironhorseinn.com

What are the things an Irish woman in Texas misses about home? Despite the fact that Irish food is not considered particularly exotic here in the US, (folks ask me regularly what is typical Irish food) I miss the items I can't get here. King Crisps - or in translated to US English -chips! I remember as a small child a real treat was for my dad to bring home a pack of king crisps from a pub - because back then they could only be bought in pubs. They are still delicious and my mouth waters thinking about them - especially cheese and onion flavor!




Another food item I miss is long ray and chips from the chipper - or in US English skate and fries from the fish and chip shop! Long Ray is a Dublin delicacy and is hard to get outside of Dublin - if you ask for it in most towns in Ireland you will be asked "Are you from Dublin". It is one of the first things I order when i go home on vacation .

Of course a good Irish fry is something most Irish folks miss when they come to the US. Sausage, rasher and black and white pudding is just the best food. A rasher for those who don't know is a piece of bacon similar to Canadian bacon, a sausage is similar to the US link sausage and black pudding is a blood sausage. Delicious. It would often be served with potato cakes and eggs. I serve potato cakes here at the bed and breakfast some mornings and they are very popular.

There is a great resource for finding some familiar foods not too far from here in Grapevine Texas, called the British Emporium. I can get a regular supply of Heinz baked beans , which are not at all like US baked beans.We used to have them on toast, most people I say that to here, think it is really weird!

Dublin Texas

Take a look at my historic bed and breakfast website at
www.theironhorseinn.com

As a an Irish woman from Dublin, living in Granbury Texas, I have been aware that not too far away is the city of Dublin Texas, the place where the Dublin Dr. Pepper is made. I have wanted to check this place out since I moved here, and finally got a chance to go a couple of weeks back. It is a small city, no comparison with my home city, which by the way is one of the most wonderful cities in the world!
We decided to visit the local historical museum to find out about the Irish people who founded the city, where they came from originally and when they got here. Imagine my surprise to find that it was not founded by anyone from Dublin at all! Apparently there was a hotel in the area called the Double L Inn, and when the town was incorporated they decided to call it after the hotel - the double l inn or Dublin! I have to admit I am little disappointed, I suppose I was hoping for some kind of a wonderful coincidence that would link me to the city through my past - no such thing happened!
Anyway, it is a pretty little town, with a lot of evidence of the importance of the Dr. Pepper manufacturing. The Dr. Pepper factory has its own museum, which is quite interesting to visit.

Well now, when our guests at The Iron Horse Inn Historic Bed and Breakfast ask me if I have ever been to the Dublin here in Texas, I can say - "yes I have actually!"

American Chores we don't have in Ireland

Take a look at my historic bed and breakfast website at
www.theironhorseinn.com

Living in the US has been an interesting adventure for me as an Irish woman. However there are a number of chores here that I didn't need to worry about in Ireland. For example watering the grass - in Ireland mother nature pretty much takes care of that one - it rains so often it is not necessary to water the lawns - that is why it is so green over there! However here in Texas, keeping the lawns in our lovely old bed and breakfast is a constant chore and there are so many types of sprinklers to do the job! Paul and I took a trip to our local Home Depot at the beginning of the summer and I was mesmerized by all of the gadgets there are to keep the garden watered! They spin, wave, rotate, squeeze and who knows what else - fascinating!
This is part of our 1 acre gardens that we are constantly watering here at the Iron Horse Inn


Another chore I didn't need to worry about in Ireland was controlling the air conditioning. We never get summers so hot that we need to air condition our homes in Ireland- although when I talk to folks from home they tell me they can't bear the heat waves when the temperature is in the 70's over there! I remember feeling exactly the same before i moved here, but now I can work out in the garden in 100 degrees and more! In this big old house we are constantly changing the temperature on the air conditioner to cut back on electricity when we don't have guests in certain parts of the house.
I have also discovered that air conditioners are temperamental creatures and regularly break down and need expensive first aid. Replacing these units costs a pretty penny too as we have discovered.

A constant chore in Ireland is to "turn off the immersion". Every home has a tank to heat water that we call "Immersion heaters" or "the immersion" These can be the bain of our existence! We would turn on the immersion heater to have a bath and the constant chant in most Irish homes from parents was "did you turn off the immersion!" We lived with a fear of the electricity bill from over use of the "immersion". There is a comedian in Ireland who tells a story about someone sitting on a packed bus who tells the person next to them "Oh no, I think I left the immersion on" and the entire bus empties of passengers as everyone hurries home to check if they turned off their own immersions!

First encounters with Texas "Critters"

Take a look at my historic bed and breakfast website at
www.theironhorseinn.com

I am an Irish woman living here in Texas for just over a year and loving it! In this journal I hope to talk about my daily experiences and observations as a non-Texan living here in Granbury.



My first observation, has been how wonderfully welcoming and friendly the people of Texas are. I had heard about their hospitality, but I can confirm that they are the warmest people to live and work among.

So how did an Irish woman find herself living in a small town in Texas anyway, and what do you do now that you are here? Well I married myself a Texan! Paul is from Abilene, but has lived all over the world and while he was living in Russia he came on vacation to Ireland and met me. So here I am happily living in Granbury Texas. We bought ourselves a beautiful 100 year old Craftsman Style house and we are running a bed and breakfast and Artistic Retreat Center here
Our historic bed and breakfast - The Iron Horse Inn in Granbury Texas.


I was only living here a few days when I came to realize just how different to living in Ireland things were going to be here - I had my first experience with "Critters"!

As a child growing up in Dublin I was often taken to the zoo, which was very near my old home. I was fascinated by the exotic and strange animals there. Vultures were one of those exotic creatures I remember seeing. Well now I can sit on my porch and see vultures in the fields
around the house!

Just a few nights ago, as I was locking up the house for the night I spotted a Possum just outside our back door - now that to an Irish woman is exotic! While out walking my dog I regularly come across armadillos, turtles and woodpeckers - all could be candidates for Dublin zoo!!