The Cows in the City! - A Dose of Encouragement

I know this sounded crazy to my husband who grew up on a dairy farm and who had often taken me out to the farm and then loved taking the children out to the farm when they came along.

But yes I was saying to him

I want to go and see the Cows in the city.

The city I was referring to was our hometown of Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, which is almost a 2 hour drive from the town of Banbridge, where we now live.

You see when we lived in Belgium I had just missed the cows in Brussels because they had come there shortly before us.  There was an odd cow here and there still in Brussels but I missed out on seeing all the cows that had been there.

Now you probably think I'm crazy because don't all cows look the same?

Well usually any one field of cows you might come across would have all the same breed of cow anyway.

But of course the cows I had wanted to go and see were not real live cows.

These cows were referred to as the painted cows.

During recent years different cities or countries have taken on this idea of having full size models of cows made and then painted by businesses, schools, organisations etc. as a form of advertising.

In Belgium apparently there had been many, many cows all over Brussels and perhaps in some other places too.

A few years ago Northern Ireland had the cows in a few places and one of the major places was in Londonderry.

Again there were cows painted by school children, businesses, charities and other organizations.

But there was one cow in particular that I really wanted to see in Londonderry.

The red one.

The one to commemorate Amelia Earhart (see info. on Amelia here)

Amelia was the first woman to fly the Atlantic and she landed in a field on the outskirts of Londonderry.  She is one of the claims to fame of my hometown and a small tourist attraction has been set up for any visitors who might be interested in learning more about this famous woman and her airplane and the special flight in which she succeeded in making history and showing that women could do some of the things that only seemed to be considered as things that men would do.


Google even celebrated Amelia Earhart's 115th Birthday with one of their Doodles.

Image from Google.com July 24, 2012

So I was thankful it did work out that within the time frame of the Cows being in Londonderry we were able to make a trip there to stay with my sister and her husband and I did have the opportunity to go to see the cows.

And we found the one in commemoration of Amelia,


the red one.

I thought this cow was very cleverly created because it was not just painted to depict Amelia as a famous and respected aviator but had also been shaped in a different way to the other cows.

To me this cow really stood out among the others.
Not just because of the expanse of red and because of the unique shape but also because of the simplicity in which the creator of it had portrayed the airplane and the woman who flew it.


It made me think of two things.

The cleverness of the creator and the respect to the person and their accomplishment.



We have the most clever creator of all.

We have the creator who made us so that every single little part of us works together to form a living being with an intellect and feelings.

How great is that?



We have the greatest creator of all.

We have the creator who respects us and all that we accomplish and has given us the ability to learn and create other things.

How wonderful to be part of such an intricate and planned creation.

How wonderful to be part of such an intricate and planned creation.

We have the best creator of all.

We have the original creator of all things.

I am thankful that God made us each unique and with abilities to do great things in all situations in life.

I am thankful that He respects us and cares about us so much we were not just a "toy" for Him.

I am thankful that we were created to have life and to love and to be loved by God.

We were created to have life and to love and to be loved by God.

I may have had my picture taken beside this clever cow creation but I (no matter how weak, sinful or small I am) am a more wonderful creation than this man-made one.


And so are you.

Walk This Way to Tayto Castle - Xtra Special Day

We can get soooooo excited when we are going to do something that we have always wanted to do.

That's the way we were just after Christmas in 2012.

We were nearly more excited about going to Tayto Castle than we were about our Christmas Dinners.

This was going to be one of our Xtra Special Days

If you are not Norn Irish then you may well be puzzling over where and what is Tayto Castle.

If you were born here in Northern Ireland or have come to live in this beautiful country then you will probably have heard of Tayto Castle in the small town of Tandragee.

But one thing is sure if you are in Northern Ireland and have not heard of Tayto Crisps then there is something badly wrong because they are the best crisps in the world.

Please note I have NOT been given a big box of Tayto Cheese & Onion or Smokey Bacon to make me write this - unfortunately.

Tayto Castle is the home of Tayto Crisps.

Yes they make the crisps in a Castle.

Only a Castle is good enough for the best crisps in the world.

When our three kids were young I kept saying that one summer we would organize a day trip to Tayto Castle to get the tour and see the crisps being made.

Yes I kept saying it but that didn't make it happen and the years went on with people telling us that you have to book months in advance if not a year in advance if you wanted to go during the school summer holidays.

So we never did make that trip when we were living almost 2 hours away but now we live only 30 mins away and yes we finally got to make that trip.

Only a Castle is good enough for the best crisps in the world.

The Tayto signpost points you to a door in a stone wall for your adventure to begin.

Our fun had already begun as Linda and I were giggling away while I was trying to take pictures.

There is an intercom but it was fun to knock as well.


Then when they released the door for us we were

ready to enter the grounds of Tayto Castle.


Inside there is a short walk up to the part of the Castle where we had to go for the tour

and we saw this lovely feature on the wall of the Castle.

As we got closer there was a part to walk through and of course we had to stop to get a picture of Mr Tayto and his crispy, crunchy crisps.

Inside and we were greeted with masses of crisp signs hanging from the ceiling.

See the yellow pack that's my favourite - Cheese & Onion.

Photo opportunity with Mr Tayto himself and he wasn't the only one who was laughing, we could hardly stand still for the picture we were all laughing so much at the thought of this grown up family (including the boys) getting their picture taken with Mr Tayto.

Everyone working there was so friendly and chatted to us while we sat and waited for the rest of the people on the tour to arrive.

All over the walls were letters from children saying what a great time they had had on the tour.

None of the tour could be photographed and there were rules and regulations about going around the factory which is understandable as safety and contamination has to be of the utmost importance, but no one minds rules for this type of thing.

We walked round and saw

• the potatoes,
• the slicing,
• the cooking,
• the flavouring
• the sorting
• and the packaging
• and also all the different types of crisps that they make

as well as "testing" out all the flavours.

Yes "testing" as in TASTING.

There is quite a lot of "testing" going on as the tour goes round.

We really enjoyed that part!!!

No handbags, phones, cameras, keys etc. can be taken with you on the tour because of the risk of contamination of the product so basically you take off your coats and empty your pockets and hand over your belongings before the tour starts.

Plus you have to put on an apron and hair nets just as the workers have to wear.

Here we are at the end of the tour when they have a very important moment.

The moment when you have to make the big decision as to what flavour of crisp you want because everyone gets bags of crisps to take home with them.

Now my favourite is Cheese & Onion but I chose Smokey Bacon for my free gift because I had already decided that on the way out we would be buying a big box of Cheese & Onion (they are cheaper to buy in the big box & since then we have rung up and ordered boxes whenever the kids are coming to stay for a while and then we just drive over and pick them up at the Castle).

All the way round in the tour various people were asking questions and the tour guides are very willing to answer and explain almost everything.


Everything except

"What is the secret of the great Tayto Taste?"

That has to remain a secret or Tayto Crisps would not be the greatest Crisps.

You may not learn the secret but the tour is well worth the money and the time.
You will find more info on Tayto HERE


In case you don't know, the pink packet is the Prawn Cocktail flavour crisps.

Remember back to the picture above with the hair nets?

In it we all had our free crisps.

3 of our family Fred, Jonathan & Linda had yellow Tayto Carrier Bags with their choice of crisps whereas Daniel & I had Tayto Multipacks.

Well 2 of the three with the yellow bags had prawn cocktail and salt & vinegar crisps (the two types represented in this picture above).

Can you guess who had the pink packets and who had the blue?


Well the tour was over and we had got our free gift and the last thing was the shop.
We stopped there and got our box of Cheese & Onion and also bought a few little gifts one of which was a yellow Tayto Mug.

Then it was on out to have a last look around outside before we hurried home to finish making our second Christmas Dinner because my sister and her family were coming to visit and it was the 27th December.

But before we got back in the car another picture had to be taken to encourage everyone to go visit Tayto Castle.

Ever the crazy, fun loving, younger sister; Linda had to pose while the boys walked away hoping no-one would know she was with them.


I think it was almost better to have done the tour now because of the fun and humour between us all at this stage in their lives than when they would have been so much younger.

I'm sure they would have been too young before to have enjoyed it as much as we did now.

St. Patrick's Day Parade in Northern Ireland - Xtra Special Day

Where is the most appropriate place to have a St. Patrick's Day Parade?

I bet your answer is Dublin because that's the capital city of Ireland.
Or perhaps you want to say New York because you have heard of the celebrations there.

I don't agree!!!!

Last year Fred & I went to the place which we believe is the most appropriate because it is the place St. Patrick is supposed to have landed nearby and also supposed to have been buried in.

The town of Downpatrick in County Down in Northern Ireland.

We had never been to any St. Patrick's Day Parade anywhere before so this was one of our Xtra Special Days


Having arrived there we got parked outside the town and followed the crowd of people until we got to a part of the town where others were already standing waiting.  We discovered this was the end of the parade route so decided to stay here also.

Soon along came the Street Performers to help to keep us entertained until the parade could make it's way through the town to our position.

Some of them threw sweets to the children

                              and one of them came right over to greet Fred.


Well because I already had the phone out to take pictures and we were getting a bit bored we resorted to one of the few selfies we have taken, some are mentioned previously in  Does My Nose Look Big in This?

Then along came the Parade.


No, correct that,  it was only the Pre-parade of Vintage Cars.

Not really a novelty around Northern Ireland as there are quite a few of these each year now.


Very shortly after that came the real thing.




The Parade

First of course we had St. Patrick and he was accompanied by two snakes.

Poor man had to walk the whole parade in his bare feet.

Then some Roman? soldiers.



Some other highlights of the parade were:

Colourful lady stilt walker.

Was this an Irish Wolfhound?

A Butterfly!


Never heard of a butterfly having anything to do with St. Patrick, but hey we like butterflies on this blog in fact  I Love Butterflies  and  I Was Going to Miss the Butterflies  and I have butterflies on mugs too 3 More Coffee Mugs  



then there was

A Pipe band.

A "Mash Direct" bus.
This is one of the good local food companies we have and I have to say their mashed turnip is great.

A DeLorean Car?

Yes a bit after the time of St. Patrick admittedly but Northern Ireland does have a link with DeLorean too.  You know a bit like our link with the Titanic.



What could you possibly have after a futuristic car?

Some Large headed characters.

A Christian Music Float.


We were delighted to see this - after all what are we celebrating St. Patrick for?


Not the shamrock,

           nor the snakes (or lack of them)

                        but for the Christianity he introduced to our island.




But then suddenly

2 Elvis impersonators??


No I know, we just could not see any connection here at all.
If you can think of one then please let me know.

And here come the Leprechauns - really?

This of course was clever and I hope not too heavy for the poor guy to carry along.

We also had two Mickey Mouse characters.

Okay we know they were there to amuse the children.

Another Pipe band.

And where else in the world would you get to see a POLICE TRACTOR  but in Northern Ireland?


Not even in the Republic of Ireland (Southern Ireland)  because it would be a Garda Tractor there.

A group of colourful children.

A Large Mushroom - presumably advertising the mushroom growing industry here.

Some more colourful children.

A Flower Giant.

A Blue stilt walker.

Another Pipe band.

A colourful dragon.

And no St. Patrick didn't slay the dragon - St. George the patron saint of England did that.

So a bit confused about the dragon but then realised he was followed by some dinosaurs and they didn't have anything to do with St. Patrick either so obviously we just enjoy colourful creatures.

Now we do have some folklore about a giant or two in Northern Ireland so to see a giant in this parade was not too unusual but riding a quad?

Although I must say I rather liked this guy.

Then we were coming near the end of the parade with another mini parade this time of Vintage Tractors  -  Fred quite enjoyed this bit as he was brought up on a farm and could remember some of them.

No I did not say my husband is vintage!

And some more very colourful people and children as the parade came to an end.


You could probably see from the pictures that it was a very cloudy, windy day and it was rather cold so Fred & I were all wrapped up in our heavy coats with gloves and scarves but regardless of the weather thousands of people came to Downpatrick to see the parade.


It was an afternoon out that was definitely not the usual for us and it was nice to walk back to the car with smiles on our faces even if they were getting red from the cold air.

Have you been to see a St. Patrick's Day Parade too?


Or are you planning to go see a St. Patrick's Day Parade in this year?


If so leave me a comment to say where you went or will be going, it will be interesting to see how many different places are covered.