Friday, January 18, 2008
Belle Isle, Lisbellaw, Co. Fermanagh
The wind and rain are howling outside but I am snug in my courtyard cottage at Belle Isle, a country castle on an island near Enniskillen, full of my simple but delicious supper of salad, cold meats and cheese, fruit, and some eggs. I left Bangor at lunchtime, remembering to wave at Reed and Walt who were on the deck at home to see me off on the train to Belfast, where I got the bus for a 2 hr ride to Lisbellaw, where Fiona Plunket, the estate’s p.r. manager whose husband is the land agent, picked me up. Tomorrow I’ll participate in one of the cookery school’s day courses with chef Liz Moore. This would be a romantic destination for a couple but I am enjoying my solitude for this little bit of time, knowing that I’ll be back with the boys tomorrow night as usual.
The countryside is a crazy quilt of every shade of green, even in January, small pastures and fields of random shapes marked off by thick hedges and sometimes, rock walls. The countryside seems unspoilt to my American eyes – after leaving the environs of Belfast it was one bucolic farm scene after another, some grand country houses on hills overlooking their grassy grounds, some more modest gray clad boxes with slate roofs surrounded by stone or newer metal outbuildings, even a few whitewashed thatched cottages tucked away, slowly being overtaken by hedges and brambles. While in Bangor some of the houses facing the sea have been painted in cheerful pastel colors, the tradition in these parts looks to be gray or white buildings, either with the stone exposed or more usually, clad in concrete or plaster. Even the new houses are built in the shape and style of the old ones, so it’s hard to see where new development has happened, especially here where the creeping damp mossy greenness quickly takes the gloss off fresh stone.
