Ireland day 0841. Wednesday 17 January 2024- Feet *

Ireland day 0841. Wednesday 17 January 2024- Feet

Today’s summary	Worked from home in the afternoon and used the opportunity of a free morning to go to the chiropodist to get my toenails tidied up. Val was off work so mid afternoon we took an hour out to walk round the demesne. The brilliant cold winter sunshine was too tempting to miss. Fish for dinner in the evening
Today’s weather	Cold clear dry and sunny all day. Almost no wind. Appx 2c

Today’s overview location (The grey 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): Hills of Howth walk

Commentary

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

One of the beauties of being a self-employed adviser is that you can choose when and where you work. So today I decided to take the morning off and work from home later, so I could get my feet looked at by a local chiropodist. I have a couple of tatty looking toenails that I wanted tidying up and I have to say she did a great job. Though, like most things in Ireland you have to pay, and at €60 for a 45 minute session, it wasn’t cheap.

Val was off work again today so as soon as we had finished lunch, I settled down to work and carried on through until about 4pm. By this stage the allure of the blue sky and cold clear sunshine outside had become irresistible. So I temporarily downed tools (well, I hibernated the computer) and Val and I went out for a short walk round the demesne.

It was beautiful, and today it seemed to be an ornithologist’s paradise with lots of interesting species seemingly taking refuge in its tranquil surroundings to do do a spot of foraging while the cold gripped their more normal feeding grounds. We spotted oystercatchers, fieldfares (which look like large thrushes), Brent geese and of course robins. Wonderful.

It was getting dark when we got back, so we had a cup of tea and then I did a couple more hours work before finally calling it a day just after seven. I actually made some progress, so it felt like quite a productive day all round. And by this stage, Val by this stage had made an excellent fish dinner, which felt very healthy and rounded off the day perfectly.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Yes it’s a waiting room. The same the world over. This one is the chiropodist’s	Hellebores in the Casino garden coming into bloom. Ireland seems to be especially good at growing them and they are always one of the first to come into flower in the middle of the winter

Well wrapped up!	There were lots of oystercatchers pecking away at the cricket pitch. Not sure if it’s good for the turf or not, but they were enchanting to look at

I love the way the path round the demesne winds its way through the woods. You could almost imagine you were in Bavaria (though to be honest I’ve never been so I don’t really know)	Castle just catching the dying rays of sunshine at about 4:30pm. It’s noticeably lighter in the evenings now compared to the depths of December. Especially on a brilliantly clear day like today.

Low angle sunshine filtering through the trees by the entrance to the demesne. Truly a beautiful evening