Ireland day 1414. Tuesday 12 August 2025- Negative

Today’s summary	A warm and sunny day for once so sat on our balcony in the morning and did my Spanish homework. Tested negative for Covid (hurray). Delicious sliced pork and salad for lunch then a stroll round the Demesne in the sun in the afternoon. Home made Thai chicken in the evening, with a G&T to accompany it.
Today’s weather	Warm dry and sunny. Light easterly wind. Appx 21c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue 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): Sunny Demesne stroll

Commentary

Today was surprising in two main respects. The first was that when I tested myself for Covid this morning, I was negative. Only seven days after I had tested positive. Last time I had it, it took fifteen days for the red line to disappear so I was quite taken aback to discover that it had gone so quickly this time. Makes me wonder if I’d actually had Covid for quite a long time before I tested myself. Anyway, it was good news.

The second surprising aspect of today was the weather. It looked nice outside when we got up and to our delight it turned out actually to be warm enough to sit out on our balcony. For the first time in the four years that we have lived here. Albeit we soon had to put our fleeces on when the sun went behind a tree, but it was nice while it lasted. I used the opportunity to sit outside to do my Spanish homework, while Val did some sewing.

After a rather nice salad featuring home made moonblush tomatoes and pork that Val had bought in Dublin yesterday, we decided to make the most of the weather and go on a short walk.

It was nothing too stretching – just a relaxing stroll round the Demesne and then a quick trip into a Malahide to go to the shops. I needed to get some “nam pla” Thai fish sauce for tonight’s dinner, so a quick stop at SuperValu was called for.

For dinner, Val made a delicious Thai chicken meal and I did my rather lame best to help. Anyway I managed the washing up (!). We washed the Thai dinner down with gin and tonic, which felt tremendously decadent but a nice way to round off a summer’s day.

Some light TV afterwards concluded the days proceedings.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Oak gall recently vacated by the wasp larva which called it home – as evidenced by the neat hole it has drilled to get out.	This was the fruiting body of a Magnolia x wiesneri tree growing up by Avoca. The peculiar bumps made me wonder if it was also suffering from a gall infection, like the oak tree. But I can’t find any references to Magnolia galls online, so it might just be that the lumps are just the seeds growing within the fruiting body, in a slightly haphazard way

In the Avoca store at the Castle visitor centre. Very posh and also known (to us) as fifty poundland	Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!!



Here’s the warm weather proof – lunch on the balcony. The camera never lies