Ireland day 1039. Friday 02 August 2024- Easy Day

Today’s summary	A relatively quiet day. Val had a short shift at the museum in the morning and I caught up on paperwork and shopping. A short walk round the demesne in the afternoon and more Olympics in the evening.
Today’s weather	Overcast all day with a light shower in the morning but still quite warm. Light southerly wind. Appx 20c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Demesne and SuperValu with Val

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

We had a fairly low key day today, with Val putting in a few hours at work and me doing yet more admin and some shopping. I am beginning to realise that admin is essentially an endless task and no matter how much you do, there is still a mountain left. The only solution is the rationing approach – ninety minutes a day is as much as I can stand.

Eventually I’d finished my chores and Val was back from work. We enjoyed a Tesco meal deal lunch and then reflected on the rest of the afternoon. In the end, we took the low-key option and decided just to go for a short walk round the demesne. We were both feeling wiped out today for no particular reason, so this was all we felt like doing.

It was an enjoyable leg-stretch in pleasant conditions. Not sunny like the previous few days, but still quite warm. The wild flower borders (see banner image at the top) were looking stunning. We dropped into SuperValu on the way back to pick up some of the groceries I’d forgotten in the morning, then settled down to an evening with the Olympics. I’m not a particular sports fan, but I have found it quite uplifting to watch, and we are both really enjoying it.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A new bat-box has appeared in the demesne	Old man’s Beard clematis (Clematis vit-alba) in flower alongside the sports ground. Once the flowers have set seed, the hedgerow will be covered in wispy grey threads all winter – just like an old man’s beard, in fact.

This microphone on the fence between the sports pitches and the Bridge Field car park was attached to a solar panel and a large box which was labelled “Irish Rail Railway Noise Monitoring”. I’m not sure why it is there or what it is expecting to hear, as it is quite some way from the railway line and nowhere near the station, where most of the noise comes from	Perhaps it was listening out for this? These diesels are pretty noisy (and smelly) after all



Larger than life in the demesne fields