Ireland day 0255. Friday 10 June 2022- GardenHouse

Today’s summary	Val at work so spent the morning walking out to the local garden centre to see if I could get some plants for our balcony. But far too expensive so gave it a miss. In the afternoon, finished off some admin tasks then spoke to friends in the US and in the UK via Zoom
Today’s weather	Dry and bright in the morning with long sunny intervals. Thunderous downpours of torrential rain in the afternoon. Moderate southerly wind. About 16C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The green line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Garden House garden centre walk

Commentary

I must admit, in the past I have slightly despaired about people of a certain age who seem to spend their leisure hours shuttling between National Trust properties and Garden Centres. But it turned out that I , in effect, did exactly that today. OK, substitute “Malahide Castle” for “National Trust” but the rest is pretty accurate.

At least I did have a reasonable excuse today. While Val was out at work, I thought it might be nice to try and get some pot plants to brighten up our balcony now that the summer months have arrived. There’s quite a nice garden centre called, imaginatively “Garden House” at the far side of the castle demesne and I decided that it might be a good place to start my horticultural quest. Plus I thought the walk through the demesne to get there would be quite nice in its own right.

I had a look at my diary and at the weather forecast and for both reasons, I decided that it would be best to go first thing in the morning rather than to delay until the afternoon. So once Val was safely despatched to work, I quickly did the hoovering, tidied up a bit, and set off.

The demesne was looking good – already though, the vegetation is beginning to take on the darker green hues of summer, and the emerald of spring is beginning to fade. I think really May and June are by far my favourite months in the British Isles – filling the gap nicely after the grey months of winter and before the dried up tints of summer. There was lots going on in the grounds, too. The cricket pitch is being busily prepared for the start of the season – India are playing Ireland here in a “T20 International” here on 26 June – though I’m afraid I don’t know what “T20” means. And “The Killers” are playing here on the 14th and 15th, so a major stage and concert venue was being built right outside the castle.

Once I worked out how to get out of the castle grounds and into the garden centre, I quickly realised that my plan to buy decorative plants probably wasn’t going to be a viable option. Everything was ridiculously expensive, so although I enjoyed looking round, I decided to pass on actually buying anything. The café also looked tempting, but there was a massive queue and judging from the well turned out clientele, I thought it was likely to prove exorbitant too, so that got the miss, too. Instead, I thought I’d probably try and pick up something cheap and cheerful next time we are at a large Tesco. So I had a good look around then beat a hasty retreat before I started on a major spending spree.

Once back at the flat, after lunch, I had quite a lot of admin to catch up on (it’s endless!) and then I had a much more enjoyable couple of hours on Zoom calls to friends in the US and also back in the UK. These calls are always one of the highlights of my month, and I look forward to them as there’s such a lot to catch up on. I feel lucky to have got such a wide circle of friends with lots of different perspectives on life. The timing of the calls worked well, too, because as soon as I got back from the garden centre, the sun went in, the clouds gathered, and we had a thunderstormy deluge of rain (it’s the first thunderstorm since we came to ireland, actually and they are quite rare over here). So I felt quite smug sitting indoors chatting while it pelted down outside.

Anyway, Val’s just back from work now and as it’s just stopped raining, we are going to head out for a quick walk and then it’s my turn to make tea. It’s jacket potatoes with tuna sweetcorn salad tonight, and trust me it will be excellent. So on that note, I’ll sign off and let you get on with your evening. Hasta mañana, as they say.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Passing through the Malahide castle demesne this morning. Quite quiet today, even though the weather was decent. The vivid emerald of spring slowly edging into the more subdued greens of the summer, now	Preparations for the cricket season well underway. The temporary stands are almost completed, and the pitch itself is looking in tip top condition

Bird cherry (I think) growing amongst the trees alongside the path. Quite an attractive plant, but with a bit of an unpleasant smell	Here I am heading out into the untamed wilds of the castle demesne

Inside the Garden centre. Lots of lovely looking plants but eye-wateringly expensive so sadly I decided to say no. There are plenty of much cheaper plants outside the bigger branches of Tesco, so I might try there instead	The plant pots were vaguely affordable, but a bit useless if I didn’t have any plants to put in them

Stage being installed in the castle grounds. Ireland seems to be a popular destination for touring bands. This time it’s the Killers, who are visiting Malahide on 14 and 15 June. Sadly it’s sold out – though as our flat isn’t far from the stage, I imagine we will probably be able to enjoy it from our balcony free of charge. Twice.