Photo: Tom Christopher

Getting together with some of our closest Sandisfield neighbors proved unexpectedly difficult this past summer. My wife Suzanne and I tried for months to clinch a date with Eva and Jean-Paul Blachere, but one party was always busy when the other was free. Ah, but persistence has paid off. IBy chance, both the Blacheres and the O'Connell-Christophers were planning to be in Ireland in mid-October. Over there, we managed to share a day's guided tour of the highlights of Connemara, including a brief stop at the The Field Bar in the tiny village of Leenane where we enjoyed the scent of peat turves burning in the fireplace, a traditional treat that is becoming rare as Ireland enforces restrictions on harvesting peat to protect its remaining bog habitat. We did not stay for a pint or a visit to the sheep and wool museum, two pleasures we have saved for some future reunion at the Field.