All Roads Lead to Swatragh - Aine's Cottage

While traveling in Ireland this summer, I kept an eye out for what I thought Aine's Cottage would look like. Obviously I could not find an exact match, but this one comes close to what I see in my mind as I write. Just thought I'd put this up to share. Thanks to Rita for sharing this with me. :)

All Roads Lead to Swatragh - Chapter 36

The weeks flew by with keeping busy at work and working on bookings for the cottage, there was little time left for much else. Each Monday morning Chloe would stop by catching Grace up on happenings at the cottage over the weekend and turning in money collected from guests. Grace, in turn, would give Chloe the allotted money for food for the next weekend. It was a small profit, but nonetheless, a profit.

A three weeks had passed and Grace prepared to drive up to the cottage that Friday morning. Sue had other obligations so she stayed behind. Grace actually enjoyed having Fridays off when she was still in Dublin, but looked forward to her drive up to Swatragh and the cottage. Chloe had shared that she would also enjoy having the weekend off after having worked the last three and not being able to spend as much time with Peter as she had hoped. The two of them were still going strong.

It was a rainy summer day, as happened often in Ireland, but Grace enjoyed the early morning drive out of the city. She planned to stop at least once at a farmer's market to pick up some additional groceries for dinners over the weekend. Grace continued to study Aine's recipes and found a few more that she wanted to try. She figured if she could simplify a few dinners, and standard foods, she could also offer a supper supplement to guests. But Chloe would have to be able to make these dinners. It would be a fixed menu each weekend rather than a menu of choice.

As she drove down the narrow road and spotted the cottage, she noticed Donovan outside his place across from the cottage. She waved as she pulled in, and headed over to say hello when she got out of the car.

“I see you've changed your mind about selling the cottage,” Donovan retorted, as she approached.

“Hello, and I see you are in good health too, Donovan,” Grace responded chuckling.

“So is this a temporary thing? Or just until you can sell? I want to be prepared this time,” Donovan was his usual terse self.

“Donovan, things seem to be sorting themselves out for me. For now, if all goes well, I'll be keeping the cottage open for guests on weekends. My friend will be here most of the time, and I'll be up once a month,” Grace explained.

“Just doesn't seem to have the same energy as when Aine was running it. Less of a home, more just a business,” Donovan responded.

“I guess that's something we'll have to work on. It's only been a month,” Grace understood exactly what Donovan meant. Aine made people feel like they were coming home when they stayed at the cottage. That comfort made them return again and again.

“Just nice to see you up here. Seems Peter is quite taken with your friend. He is practically living at the cottage. But he does take good care of it,” Donovan was once again being his old self.

“Good to hear he's earning his wage, even though it's not much,” Grace chuckled. She had noticed how beautiful the garden looked, and how well the plants and flowers were doing.

Grace bid her farewell to Donovan and grabbed the groceries from the car. Chloe came to the door as she approached.

“I'm so glad you are here. This is the first weekend where the place is going to be packed. It's going to take both of us to keep up with everything!” Chloe explained.

“But this is supposed to be your weekend off.”

“I'll still be here, and I'll help whenever I can. Let's get this unloaded and we can get organized. The rooms are all ready, so we're all set there. It's just making sure we have enough groceries. And, if it's okay, Peter and I will go out tonight. We've really haven't gone out for ages. Mostly he spends time here with me in the evening.” Grace could see that Chloe was happy to have some private time with Peter. “We're starting to feel like an old married couple, and I'm not quite ready for that yet!” Both Chloe and Grace laughed.

The girls organized and put away the groceries as they talked about the guest list for the weekend. The upstairs had a single room, a twin room and two double rooms, along with an unfinished dormer room, currently used for storage. The single room was where Peter stayed the night, and would be where Grace would stay for the weekend. Since Chloe had been coming up the other weekends, she had set up Aine's downstairs bedroom as her own, and Grace didn't want her to have to move for one weekend. Six guests were expected that weekend. Grace had handled this before with six of her friends visiting, but they also pitched in and helped with all the needs of the cottage. This weekend would be a challenge.

All Roads Lead to Swatragh - Chapter 35

The weekend finished on a great note and the girls headed back to Dublin for the workweek. Grace and Sue would work on marketing and booking Aine's Cottage for the next couple of weekends. Grace needed to make up a grocery list for Chloe and get her recipes that should be used. Breakfasts only at this point. That would make it easier for Chloe. Grace was not sure Chloe would have the long term commitment for this, and feared that if her relationship with Peter went sour, she would give it all up.

Sue helped Grace get the Internet site for the B&B going and contacted a few places to let them know about the cottage. Peter posted a flier about the B&B being open again at Rafter's Pub hoping that might also help. Brandan, the bartender, knew of the cottage and promised to pass on the information. Before mid-week had come and gone, to Grace's surprise, they had bookings every weekend for the next two months. While the cottage was not going to be full every weekend, they would have paying guests.

When Grace shared the information with her co-workers, she was surprised to know that many were interested in staying a weekend at the cottage themselves after hearing about it from Chloe and Sue, and others who had visited. It was less than an hour away from the Causeway Coastal Route and centrally located in Northern Ireland.

Grace now was faced with working on a budget for the cottage that would bring in sufficient money to supplement her cut in salary, upkeep for the cottage, and some pay for Peter. As organized as she was, this was not something she was used to doing and needed more help. Sue suggested she contact one of the people at the firm who worked in the finance department to see if they could help, and that Grace could “pay” them with a complimentary weekend.

Mitchell was the finance person Grace knew the best so she asked to meet with him one day at lunch. Grace explained the situation and Mitchell was glad to help. He told her he was not really interested in staying at the B&B, but would love to give the opportunity to his parents as a gift. Grace agreed and a budget was developed that would bare the test of time.

The week passed quickly and Grace passed all the necessary information on to Chloe for the upcoming weekend and crossed her fingers hoping that this would work out. It was difficult for her to turn over the running of the cottage to someone else after spending so much time there, but for now, this must be done. Over the weekend Grace tried to busy herself with other marketing details, research, and tweaking the website for the cottage. While she was working away, Grace realized how much she missed being out in the fresh air and countryside of Swatragh. It would be 3 more weeks before she was back again.

Grace's cell phone rang. It was a number she didn't recognize.

“Hello, this is Grace.” she answered tentatively.

“Hello, my name is Francis. I saw your advert for Aine's Cottage at Rafter's Pub,” the caller replied. “I got this number from the flier.”

“How can I help you?” Grace was please to see that the flier was noticed.

“My band, there are 3 of us, will be playing Rafter's Pub next month for a weekend and would be interested in staying at the cottage. It's too far for us to travel back home after the gig, and we'll be playing for two nights. We're not a noisy group, we play folk and trad, but come in late and sleep late. I hope that would work,” Francis explained to Grace.

After some additional conversation with Francis, Grace worked out the dates and rooms and made the reservations for Francis. This might be a weekend where Grace would make the trip to Swatragh to listen to their music, and give Chloe a break. While breakfast at the cottage is served from 8:30-10:00, standard for most B&Bs, Grace would be on hand to make a late breakfast/lunch for these guests.

Grace was very pleased with how things were moving along. She also noticed that taking care of details for the cottage was taking more and more of her personal time. She had already passed up two invitations with friends to go out.

Just for Location

Thought I would post of picture of the Swatragh Pub - Rafters - that is referred to in the story. Also found a cute speed sign as we entered the town. I'll be getting back to the story this next week, now that I've got lots of inspiration from being in Ireland!