One of my favorite memories of Ireland involved what I thought was an imaginary story of Algerian pirates kidnapping an Irish village. Apparently, in 1631 pirates stole the entire village of Baltimore, Ireland and then sailed back to North Africa with their ships full of new slaves. Only two people would ever return.
Kieran entertained me with this story while I was in Midleton, Ireland. The concept of a stolen village seemed implausible, but when I returned home and googled it – I found out it was true! In fact, I would later find references to the mass kidnapping in a couple of Irish history books I already possessed. I felt bad for laughing every time he tried to tell me the story.
Anyway, he promised to mail me the book, The Stolen Village, and a handwritten letter. I waited for what seemed an eternity, but tonight when I opened my mailbox – there it was! I absolutely LOVE mail that isn’t bills. It takes time and effort to write a real letter, and people just don’t do it anymore.
Jolene's Life in Focus 
Nice shot. It is lovely to get personal mail isn’t it? Interesting story but what a tragedy. I’ll have to do a little research on that myself.
Oh, it’s such an interesting story so far! It’s definitely worth checking out.
Very interesting story. Hope you tell us more about it.
It’s funny you should post this now. I’ve got a story I want to tell involving books and some other items. Can’t figure out the best way to illustrate it. Your photo has given me some ideas.
Great – I can’t wait to see what you come up with, Lisa!
What a wonderful surprise to find this in your mailbox today. I love the way you captured the picture. 🙂
Thanks! I was looking for a shot with a good DOF that would blur out most of the other details except my name. Would have loved to have gotten the book in there, but this seemed to work the best. 🙂