Sailor Monuments and Garden People

Last week I took a walk on a hot, humid summer evening through Riverside Park, heading south. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just to walk. It's been my experience lately that just taking an unplanned walk somewhere, whether it's Aran or NYC, can lead me to unexpected discoveries.

First I came across the garden at 91st Street, famous as the meeting place in the movie You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks finally lock lips.

Photo courtesy of the Garden People

It's truly a beautiful spot, and the flowers were in full bloom. I noticed some people moving about amongst the flowers behind the metal fence, gardening and weeding, who didn't look like NYC Parks employees. They were wearing their own clothes and straw hats. I approached one of them who had a clipboard, and it turns out that they are The Garden People, a group of volunteers who take care of this garden. I put down my name, and plan to go volunteer this weekend or next. I got the green thumb from my day gardening at Killeany Lodge, I suppose. And before I try to make some sort of window herb garden in my apartment, it will be great to learn from some more experienced gardeners how it's done.

I've had this parsley plant since Saturday. If I can keep it alive for two weeks, I think about adding some basil.

Poor little parsley plant in a barely sunny New York City apartment window

But I really am looking forward to working on a garden in New York, especially a garden as beautiful as the one on 91st Street. I can imagine that it would give me some sense of pride and accomplishment, knowing I helped to make my neighborhood a greener, prettier place. So I'll let you know how that goes.

The other discovery I made wasn't exactly a new one: I walked past the Soldiers and Sailors monument a few blocks down on 89th street. The monument commemorates those who fought for the Union during the Civil War. The monument is inscribed with the names of the enlisted who fought and died, and it's about 29 meters tall.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Riverside Park, New York City

Seeing this monument dedicated to soldiers and sailors immediately brought to my mind the monuments on Inishmore that line the roads in both Eochaill and Killeany. These were erected to commemorate sailors lost at sea, and are also inscribed with the names of the dead.

The scale and construction are certainly different, but the sentiments are similar. A stone structure, something that seems permanent and solid, to commemorate lives that have been lost.

The more I look, the more connections abound between Aran and New York. People are people, no matter where you live.

A Beautiful Day in the Garden

Killeany Lodge, Inis mor, Aran Islands

A few days ago I spent a beautiful afternoon at Killeany Lodge, a spiritual center and eco-friendly lodge on Inis mor with a huge organic garden. Last summer during my trip I met Helmut and Irmtraud, the German couple who owns the Lodge, and I was looking forward to seeing them again. I arrived at 9:30am on Tuesday for a yoga session that was as tough if not tougher than yoga classes I've attended in NYC at Om, and when I finished I had a huge smile on my face for having gotten through it, plus with all those endorphins running through me, I felt wonderful.

Garden, Killeany Lodge, Inis mor, Aran Islands

After yoga I splashed some water on my face and decided to help out around the Lodge before lunch. I began my work pulling arugula leaves from the garden off of the long stems, with a Japanese woman named Mako who was staying at the Lodge for two weeks and helping out in the garden. Mako told me that back home in Tokyo she has a salon and works with healing energies using different stones and crystals. She looked at my ring - a small faceted emerald - and after waving her fingers over it a few times told me it is a very powerful stone, good for seeing truth and clarity. I don't know much about crystals or energy from stones, but I liked the sound of that.

Irmtraud, a 70 year old woman who did yoga better than many of us in the room, showed me to the garden, and instructed me on how to pull out weeds effectively, and how to give the soil more air by raking my fingers through it. I weeded on my hands and knees for nearly two hours, and threw the weeds onto the compost heap. Gardening is hard work! Especially a garden this size. I have such great respect for Irmtraud for keeping it so beautiful and healthy. But it was extremely satisfying to look at the stalks of garlic, now free from overgrown weeks, standing proudly in their bed of soil. Irmtraud held up her hands - her fingernails encrusted in dirt - and said that her hands look this way because if they didn't, someone else's hands would.

Herb garden, Killeany Lodge, Inis mor, Aran Islands

Lunch mainly came from the garden: arugula salad, sauteed vegetables (I'm not sure what kind, they were bitter, and supposedly very good for the liver), salted mackerel in a tomato gravy with mushrooms, some noodles, and for dessert, the garden's first crop of strawberries of the season, and Mako made custard with eggs from the ducks in the yard. It was all delicious, and it was so special to me to eat food that I knew exactly where it came from - I had seen it on the ground, growing, just a few minutes before the meal. It made me wish I had a garden, and I feel motivated to try to make my own windowsill garden in my studio apartment. I'll have to look into it when I get home in July...

After we cleaned up, we had fresh peppermint tea, and the four of us women (me, Irmtraud, Mako, and a painter/writer named Nonie who lives on the island) talked about the island, the mysteries of the forts, and read some of our writing out loud. It was truly a beautiful day, spent with beautiful people. I'm happy to have found a small community of spiritual, mindful of people on this island. I'm sure there are others here, too, that I haven't met yet. Aran was always a spiritual place, a place of pilgrimage, where saints and seekers journeyed to - and I'm happy to see it continuing this trend, even if it looks different now than it did centuries ago.

Aran FOOD

Not so literary, but can I just say I'm really looking forward to the FOOD on this trip?

Lamb and potatoes at the Aran Fisherman

The Aran Islands probably weren't fun places to eat when Synge was there, of course. Here's what he wrote:

...during the day they simply drink a cup of tea and eat a piece of bread, or some potatoes, whenever they are hungry. For men who live in the open air they eat strangely little. Often when Michael has been out weeding potatoes for eight of nine hours without food, he comes in and eats a few slices of home-made bread, and then he is ready to go out with me and wander for hours about the island. They use no animal food except a little bacon and salt fish. The old woman says she would be very ill if she ate fresh meat.

I can't speak to the general daily food of the people who live on the islands. There was one grocery store on Inis Mor that seemed very well stocked, though the vegetables and fruits were somewhat lacking, and I was surprised not to find a fish counter at the store. I was told that most people have a friend who fishes who brings them their fresh catch of the day.

Last year I didn't have a kitchen so I ate out a lot, but this time I will have a kitchen while I'm on Inis Mor, so maybe I'll make friends with a fisherman and get some fresh fish to cook at the house.

While I'm on Inis meain I'll be staying at my fellow Aran Islands blogger Elisabeth Koopman's house. I hear she has her own vegetable garden, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it, and to eating fresh organic food there.

Last year on Inis Mor I HAD to try different foods at the restaurants. Yes, pricey, because mostly tourists eat at the restaurants. Hence why I'm glad to have a kitchen this time. But trying the seafood was a must. Here's what was good:

• Fish sandwich and chowder at the seafood restaurant across from the American Bar (I can't recall the name)
• Lamb stew at the Aran Fisherman
• Pizza at Bayview Restaurant
• Oysters at Joe Wattie's
• The coffee and hot chocolate at the internet cafe was very good

Last year I also indulged in Irish breakfast at the Dormer House

brown bread

Crab claws in butter sauce at the Aran Fisherman

And lunch one day with Helmut and Irmtraud at the Killeany Lodge, with vegetables from their organic garden.

Getting hungry now...