Ireland day 0140. Tuesday 15 February 2022- Repairs

Ireland day 0140. Tuesday 15 February 2022- Repairs
Today’s summary Spent the morning on a run then doing various small DIY repairs then walk round demesne in afternoon and walk down to Portmarnock for Spanish class in the evening
Today’s weather Overcast and damp after heavy overnight rain.   More heavy rain in evening.   No sun, light breeze.   About 8C
Today’s overview location
(the red cross in a circle shows where Val and I are at the moment)
Close-up location
(Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected):
Demesne run faster
Commentary

Apart from the the first week or so, and a few days over Christmas, the weather for the majority of the four months that we’ve been in Ireland so far has been mostly dry, sunny and bright.   By all accounts, exceptionally so – and in particular it’s been much sunnier and much less rainy than normal.

But over the last week or so, I’ve been getting the impression that things are beginning to change.   As well as the rain that threatened to (but didn’t) ruin our hike on Sunday, the last couple of days have been very wet.   And today really followed that pattern.   It rained hard all night, so everywhere was soggy and grey outside, and didn’t really beckon us to venture very far.   I won’t irritate you all by telling you how many cups of tea we enjoyed before we got up – but eventually we did struggle into the real world and pulled together some breakfast.

By this point the rain had stopped so, being keen not to be seen to be slacking, I headed out and did the Demesne 5K run.   I surprised myself by improving on my pace a little, despite the muddy conditions underfoot.   I should also confess that after breakfast Val had decided that she was going to do some repairs to the washing machine.   This entailed removing the filter thing in the bottom to remove some gunk which was blocking the pump.  I should also further confess that my departure out of the flat was hastened when I noticed that the helpful hints and tips that I was offering from the side-lines seemed to be falling on stony ground and I suddenly realised that it might actually be better if I went and temporarily located myself somewhere else.

Anyway, about an hour later, the run was despatched and the washing machine was fixed, so domestic harmony was restored.    And of course by then it was time for lunch – and I did begin to wonder how I had ever managed to go to work with all these meals to prepare, eat and clean up after.   Then it was my turn to start the DIY repairs – this time it was to my glasses which had broken after I had put them in my pocket and sat on them while out on a walk.   Luckily they seemed to respond well to my administration of superglue, and their recovery was hastened with a hot air blast from Val’s hair dryer.

After all that excitement, there was just time for a quick walk in a brief dry interval – and we headed back into the castle grounds – mainly because it’s convenient and nice (and very quiet on a wet day like today).   And although it was damp and pretty cool today, every time we go, there seems to be just a bit more spring on display.   Daffodils and snowdrops are out everywhere now, and a few flowering shrubs are starting to pop into bloom.   There was even a magnificent peacock on display, though he seemed to be spending most of the afternoon skulking around by the coffee shop rather than doing anything spectacular.  Presumably in the hope of picking up discarded bits of millionaires shortbread and flapjack (wait a minute – that sounds like me!).

To finish off the day I walked down to Portmarnock for the next Spanish class – and I have to say I really didn’t want to set out into a dark and, by that stage, very wet night at 6pm for the 45 minute walk down to the college.   Still, once I was enshrouded in gore-tex it wasn’t too bad, and the class itself was actually very enjoyable.

So now I’m back.   Val is watching the winter Olympics in the hope of picking up hints and tips on her cross-country  skiing technique, and I’m going to have another go at tackling Ulysses.   A perfect end to a day that was, despite the unprepossessing start, both satisfying and enjoyable.

 

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

On the entranceway to the Malahide Castle Demesne – perfect for a 5k grassy run Its turning out to be a great year for miniature daffodils – and it’s still only mid February
Checking out the demesne running track for the next outing I think this is an early flowering variety of Callistemon (bottle-brush plant).   It was unusual in that there seemed to be an identical plant in the same pot, but with white flowers (in the foreground of the picture).   I actually wondered if it was a chimaeric plant – with red and white branches coming from the same main stem
Looking down to the greenhouses through one of the many wooded avenues in the castle gardens.   Another quiet day with nobody there except us Full-on spring at this cherry plant with bumblebee in attendance this afternoon
Most important job of the day – fix the glasses.   Its so annoying not being able to read stuff close up properly – and even more annoying when your glasses fall to bits.   Thank goodness for superglue.
Interactive map

(Elevations corrected at  GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )

Total distance: 5121 m
Max elevation: 30 m
Min elevation: 10 m
Total climbing: 83 m
Total descent: -82 m
Total time: 00:33:22
Download file: Demesne Run Speeding Up corrected.gpx

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