Kindle Edition
Download to your Nook (eBook)
Download from Apple iTunes (eBook)
Download from Smashwords (eBook)
Amazon
Amazon.com: A Wisdom of Owls
Amazon.com
Smashwords.com
Category:
Mainstream
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN-10: 1468044494
Type: Fiction
Pages: 280
Copyright: Dec 8, 2011
ISBN-13: 9781468044492
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
An Irish couple struggle to keep their Finger Lakes winery funded after the collapse of the Celtic Tiger back home. The gift of a barn owl box with a webcam brings unexpected connections and a wisdom to endure life's challenges.
Young Irish couple Fergal and Brídgeen Griffin didn't think that their cousin Colm O'Brien's wedding gift-managing a winery in New York's Finger Lakes for him-was charity. When the demise of the Celtic Tiger-Ireland's economic generator-threatens Colm's funding of Loughmare Winery, the Griffins realize suddenly how dependent their future is on his generosity. Colm sets a deadline for them to increase the winery's profit; it collides with the June wedding date of the Griffins' best friends, Maeve Kenny and Andy Krall. Unaware of the coming conflict, Maeve and Andy give the Griffins a barn owl box with a webcam to celebrate Loughmare's current successes. As they and the world tune in to watch an owl couple raise its brood, all realize there is much to be learned from a wisdom of owls.
Excerpt
Fergal and his wife Brídgeen had been running Loughmare Winery (as they renamed it) at a slight profit for four years now and this year—2007—had been hot and dry, a perfect growing season for the new vineyards of red vinifera and hybrid grapes. Their winemaker from Penn Yan, Will Reilly, was actually going to bottle some of the young crop to see what quality of wine it would produce.
While the Griffins were excited about that prospect, they were overjoyed that one of Will’s wines, the Late Harvest Niagara, had just taken a silver medal at a dessert wine competition. It was Loughmare’s first award, and to celebrate, they were hosting a party to thank all who had made this dream possible. Their good friends Maeve Kenny and Andy Krall (whose wedding was to be held at Loughmare next June—another first) would be coming up from Binghamton, and even his cousin Colm (flying in from County Clare for his annual visit) would be there for the celebration.
Brídgeen planned a menu featuring foods and produce from the rich agricultural bounty throughout the Finger Lakes. Fergal’s cousin Shane, the vineyards manager, and his wife Emily were in charge of arranging the entertainment for the event. (Shane was well connected with the traditional Irish music scene in Rochester.) There might be some céilí dancing, and with Colm there, the craic would be ninety! (In other words, it was guaranteed to be a brilliant time.)
Fergal wondered if it was too soon for such a celebration, thinking that they were barely keeping this winery afloat. Just as that thought passed, a ghostlike white-winged creature swooped silently over a fallow field up ahead, then turned directly toward him.
“What the feck is that?” he exclaimed as he spun around and watched it fly overhead and flutter onto the top of the faux turret of the winery. Was it an owl? He remembered his mother talking about the owl his father saw the night before he died. The Celts believed owls were guardians of the underworld. It had arrived to lead him to eternity, Gráinne told her sons. (Although she was steeped in Catholic devotion, she was prone to Celtic superstition.) Was this winged specter some sort of omen about the winery, or worse, himself? Fergal scratched the sudden twinge in his left shoulder and headed back to the farmhouse on the property where he lived with his family.
|
