Ireland day 0699. Monday 28 August 2023- Life Admin *

Ireland day 0699. Monday 28 August 2023- Life Admin

Today’s summary	Spent the first part of the morning attending to the series of life-admin tasks that had built up lately. Then went to the gym, came back, had lunch, cleaned the windows, and walked round the demesne
Today’s weather	Sunny first thing but clouded over later. No rain. Light westerly wind. Appx 18C

Today’s overview location (The grey mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Demesne and Texas Lane evening walk

Commentary

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

Over time, various life admin tasks build up and have to be dealt with. So the first part of the morning was spent sorting those out. But once they were safely out of the way, I moved on to more interesting matters, and pottered off to the gym for my usual exercise-and-swim routine, which normally takes about three hours from flat back to flat. Today was no exception, though the gym and pool were busier than normal – and that slowed things down a bit. I was a bit surprised that it was so busy, actually – the main holidays in Ireland finished today, and most of the children returned to school, so I might reasonably have expected everything to be quieter. It will have to remain one of life’s unsolved mysteries.

With the exercise routine for the day completed, I got a quick lunch then decided to tackle some more domestic chores – notably the windows which over the last few months were developing a decidedly opaque tint as a result of neglect and the accumulation of dirt. I don’t normally enjoy doing the windows as I usually seem to just end up smearing the dirt around and leaving them looking worse than they were before they received my ministrations. Anyway today I found that a quick spray of Cif kitchen shine, followed by a rinse with warm water using a long handled mop, and finished off with a quick polish using a squirt of Windolene, seemed to do the trick.

By this stage, it was already late afternoon, so I decided to go out for a quick walk round my usual Demesne route, with a short addition down Yellow Walls Road, Texas Lane and the Chalfont estate tacked on at the end. It was good to be out in the fresh air – admiring the abundant fungi proliferating in the damp weather, and listening to the raucous rooks roosting in the trees above. But I did notice that some of the trees were developing a decidedly yellowish tint – a sure sign, if ever there was one, that “Winter is coming”.

I rounded off the day with a half-price Tesco Chinese Curry – which was pretty horrible actually but it seemed successfully to keep the hunger pangs away. Perhaps my diet will be better tomorrow. Here’s hoping.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Today’s weather followed the pattern of the recent past – brilliant sun first thing (showing off Malahide’s flowerboxes to their best) and then cloudy later.	One of several splendid fungi living on trees – both living and dead – around the demesne.

Here’s another	Rooks buzzing around the treetops like flies – and making a racket in the process

On the corner of Yellow Walls Road is an Infants’ School. It looks neat and tidy and well managed. I have no idea if it’s really actually any good or not, but on first glance it creates a good impression	The fairy stump on Hanlon’s Lane is being relocated and a campaign is being mounted to save it! (or at least to find a suitable new home). The space is needed I think to build the cycle-way which will lead over the Broadmeadow Estuary. So I do support this development, even if a few fairies will be (hopefully temporarily) rendered homeless

When you look through these windows you see precisely nothing. Which is exactly as it should be, as I spent an hour this afternoon cleaning them.