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Irish Serenity


In 2017, my daughter and I were able to go on a trip to Ireland. It was special in many ways.

1 - My daughter turned 18 in the air on the flight to Ireland. Because at least then their legal drinking age was 18, I was able to buy my daughter her first legal drink... twice (because I got to do it again here in the States when she turned 21.)

2 - Due to moving back to Birmingham in the middle of my daughter's junior year in high school, we decided that home-schooling her would be better than changing schools for that amount of time. That meant she wouldn't graduate in the traditional sense - no walking across a stage, getting handed a diploma (or piece of paper as a place-holder for the diploma), and moving her tassel from one side to the other.

When I was blessed with the resources to do this trip, I planned to hold a surprise graduation in Londonderry, a city in Northern Ireland where we have distant relatives. We were able to have it on a rooftop in the middle of the city and I live-streamed it (badly) back home so that friends and family could be a part. 

3 - We were huge Game of Thrones fans and, as anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows, a lot of it was filmed in Ireland. I opted to rent a car and travel a route that included most of the Irish Game of Throne filming sites.

It was our last full day in Ireland. We needed to get back to Dublin for our flight home the next day so, after traveling seven days around the perimeter of Ireland's upper half, we made a path through the middle of the country to get back to the city where we started. 

While planning for the trip, I found an app that tracks where you go. I thought it would be a fun way to see the paths we took. After we go home and I looked back at it, I saw a bunch of tightly-woven, squiggly lines in several places. It took only a few seconds to understand.

You see, there is amazing scenery all throughout Ireland. The bright green that is associated with Ireland isn't just a saying. It's green here. When my daughter and I first saw Ireland in the tiny windows of our flight, the first thought I had was about was how green it was. 

There were numerous times that, on the way from one official Game of Thrones site to another, I would see something I wanted to shoot. However, more times than not, there was no where to park and get out of the car to take the photo.

I would maneuver my tiny red car using a 10- or 15-point turn (at least it felt like that) to get in just the right place for the photo I wanted.

This was one of those times. We were driving along and saw a lake on the left. Then we noticed the empty bench. I knew I just had to capture that scene, so I moved the car around until I was satisfied, making the squiggly lines on the app.

To me, this photo is incredibly inviting. I just want to go into the image and sit on that bench and look at the lake and the beautiful countryside. Unfortunately, I didn't get to, but maybe one day I'll go back and find that same bench in front of this beautiful lake and will get to experience in real life the Irish serenity I feel when I look at the image.

                                                            (Images by Tracy Riggs Frontz)

   



A selection of the images above are available to order as custom prints, fulfilled by a professional lab, at https://NovelPhotos.Instaproofs.com.

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