Ireland day 0688. Thursday 17 August 2023- Preparations *

Ireland day 0688. Thursday 17 August 2023- Preparations

Today’s summary	Went on a short walk in the demesne first thing then had a video call with a friend in the UK. Spent the rest of the day shopping, cleaning, tidying and cooking, ready for guests over the weekend
Today’s weather	Dry bright and summery in the morning, cloudy by mid afternoon. Light south easterly wind. Appx 18C

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): Out and Back into the Demesne

Commentary

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

We are trying to be a bit more disciplined in our lives at the moment, which means eating fewer snacks, and getting up earlier. So this morning we had had our cups of tea, listened to our weekly podcast, got up and left the flat all before 9:30. I have no idea at all how I used to get up at 6:52 every morning, and be away by 7:40 every day, week in week out, rain or shine, summer or winter, for thirty years. Right now 9:30 once a week seems like a bit of an achievement to me.

Anyway, we were swiftly across the road and well on our way round the demesne, and admiring all the work going into constructing the International cricket pitch, when I remembered that I had a Teams (my favourite app again!!) video call with a friend back in the UK at 10:00. So I spun on my heels and dashed back to the flat, just making it with 1 minute to spare.

After an enjoyable catch-up, and when Val had returned from her more extended walk, we started reviewing plans for the forthcoming weekend, when we have two friends coming to stay. First thing, we decided we needed to do some shopping, so headed off to Tesco Clare Hall to do what is generally known as a Big Shop (i.e. expensive). Laden with goods, we returned to the flat, put our feet up and promptly fell asleep. Once awake again, I changed the bedding, hoovered the flat and tidied up, while Val rustled up some culinary masterpieces.

Now all that’s out of the way, just a bit more tidying up to do, and we shall be good to go. Looking forward to a busy weekend!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Bright sunshine ay 9:30 this morning made it feel like a “proper” summer day, for once	Here’s my favourite redwood, looking much healthier now after all the recent rain

On the perimeter loop, with very few people about at this relatively early hour	Val itching to get going!



peeking over the top of the surrounding screens, you can see the work that is going on to make the cricket ground ready for the up-coming Ireland v India internationals. It’s a huge amount of work, and then it all has to be taken down again in a couple of weeks time. And for the remaining 50 weeks of the year, the cricket pitch is hardly used at all.