Ireland day 1555. Wednesday 31 December 2025- 2025 End

Today’s summary	Spent the morning on a video call with a friend in Bournemouth, UK, then finished making my chocolate glace orange slices. Had lunch of tuna salad and then did some tidying of the flat and worked on more admin. After all this, Val and I walked out over the hill to Portmarnock, had tea on the beach and a chat with a friend from Spanish, then returned to Malahide via the shops. Finished off the turkey for dinner and watched some TV before toasting in the New Year with a bottle of malbec.
Today’s weather	Dry cold and overcast. Light westerly wind. Appx 4c

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): Last walk of 2025

Commentary

2025 is rapidly drawing to a close. What a year it’s been! Looking back at my statistics, over the last 12 months I’ve walked 2,560.1km, climbed 39,146m, spent 523h 21m exercising and completed 313 activities. Almost all in Ireland but also of course a few in Norway, the Canary Islands, the UK, Canada and Japan. I’ve enjoyed (almost!) every step.

Turning to today. We were determined to fit in one more activity before December closed, but first there was some housekeeping to attend to. So as soon as we were up, Val went on a run and I got onto a video call with a friend in Bournemouth, UK. We spent well over an hour putting the world to rights and, just like yesterday’s call, it was enjoyable and worthwhile.

Once all that was finished, it was already well past noon so, in a bit of a re-run of yesterday we had a quick tuna salad for lunch with biscuits and coffee to finish off.

Next on the agenda was a spot of cooking – well not really cooking, just finishing off the candied orange slices I have been making and drying over the last couple of days. I decided they would be nice if they were coated with chocolate, so under the close supervision of Val I melted a bar of dark chocolate and poured it over the slices. They are in the fridge now, hopefully setting hard, ready to be tested later tonight.

After that, we did a bit of hoovering and general tidying of the flat. We also slotted in a bit of the unending and tedious work of planning for January. Eventually we were all finished although by then it was already 2:30pm and starting to look evening-ish outside.

A dose of fresh air beckoned so we togged up against the winter chill, and set out on our favourite hill-and-coast walk. Fitting in, of course, a cup of tea on the beach, purchased from Spar in Portmarnock, along the way. I also bumped into a fellow pupil from Spanish classes, so we spent a few moments comparing notes and hablando español.

There was a cold wind blowing and today, in a departure from the last few weeks, it was coming from the west. So we didn’t linger too long on the beach and our walk back to Malahide was into the teeth of the wind, making it feel pretty cold. Though a fleeting murmuration of starlings (photographed in the banner image at the top) graced the horizon over the estuary and lifted our eyes as we approached the town.

Once we had made it as far as the town, I went into SuperValu to buy some lettuce and tomatoes. Meanwhile Val, in a superior exercise of prioritisation, went to the off licence to get a bottle of Malbec to help ease us into 2026.

For dinner, we’re going to finish off the Christmas turkey with the SuperValu salad ingredients. Accompanied of course by the Malbec which is going down very well even as I write. Then we will catch up on some TV – I’m not quite sure exactly what just yet but definitely not Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. Then we will see off 2025 with the rest of the wine. Whether or not we survive until midnight or not is open to doubt. That’s the penalty of getting older I guess!

Well thank you 2025. It’s been a blast. And already 2026 is shaping up to be even more interesting!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


*Hardy Viburnum (probably Viburnum tinus) bringing a splash of brightness to Bawn Grove*	*Another hardy winter flowering Viburnum (this one is probably Viburnum* x bodnantense) in Seamount Road**

Hebe – another all year bloomer – a bit further up Seamount	..and finally – a trusty rose, still looking like summer in Seamount

Val surveying the scene before heading off to check out Paddy’s Hill	Chirpy-looking meadow pipit came to say hello as we were enjoying our tea on the beach at Portmarnock. Looks like a thrush but is the size of a sparrow

The end result of my labours! Chocolate coated candied orange slices. I can quite see, now, why they are so expensive to buy in Fallon & Byrne. The electricity alone, needed to dry them in the oven, must have cost us a fortune. If I make them again in the future, I will probably increase the concentration of the sugar solution, so they dry quicker and aren’t so sticky. I’ll also make twice as many, so the oven drying costs are spread over more pieces