For a number of years, Padma and I have been hearing about a home on a hill in County Cork of southwestern Ireland. Despite numerous invitations from its owners, our friends John Peacock and Paula Bramel, we could never make the trip. But now we finally got a chance to visit our friends and learn of their adopted homeland.
Padma and I knew John when we were all living in Syria in the early 1990s. We met Paula when she and John travelled to Australia in 2013 and then in one of life’s coincidences Paula became a colleague of mine at the Crop Trust. John and Paula have lived in Asia and Africa throughout most of their professional careers, but they chose County Cork to be the location where they wanted to settle permanently.
Padma and I met my sister Jenni and brother-in-law Russ in Dublin and drove four and a half hours south to Windy Ridge. We were exhausted after driving through windy, single-lane country roads southwest of Cork but we were greeted with exceptional hospitality when we arrived. John and Paula gave us a tour of their property which they have been improving since they purchased it in 2015. They had planted more than 200 trees and had flower and vegetable gardens scattered throughout. Paula’s pride and joy is her poly tunnel where she grew much of the vegetables we ate while we visited.
We thought we’d visit the city of Cork and do the Ring of Kerry, which the guidebooks said were highlights. ‘Rubbish’, John said. The best of Ireland was in the Mizen and it was right outside their door. John gave us a tour of the Mizen Peninsula and drove us down to Ireland’s second most southerly point at Mizen Head. No one quarrelled with John … the Mizen was indeed spectacular. The next day John and Paula guided us up a windy road to Healy Pass and then to the Derreen Garden where the rhododendrons were in full bloom.
Windy Ridge and our home in Perth are on the opposite ends of the planet but now Padma and I feel much more connected with John and Paula after visiting their home and sharing their lifestyles firsthand.
