Ireland day 0937. Monday 22 April 2024- Phoning and Walking *

Ireland day 0937. Monday 22 April 2024- Phoning and Walking

Today’s summary	Spent the morning on a family call and some admin. Then after lunch I walked down the cost to Howth. Evening spent on more phone calls and some TV. Val back tomorrow.
Today’s weather	Overcast and grey, feeling quite cold. Moderate northerly wind. Appx 13c

Today’s overview location (The green 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): Quick walk to Howth

Commentary

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

Now that the days are getting longer and it’s much lighter in the mornings, I am tending to wake up quite early. So as I was wide awake by 6:30, I made myself a cup of tea and spent a relaxing hour or two in bed dealing with my emails, reading, and catching up on the news.

Once I was properly up and about, I had a video call with family back in the UK – it was good to catch on all their comings and goings, as we hadn’t spoken for a while. Then I had to deal with some paperwork and call another friend, which took until lunchtime.

At 6:30 when I first awoke and was full of enthusiasm, I’d had all sorts of grand plans to explore some of the hidden corners of the East Coast – or maybe to head into the Wicklow mountains to find a new mountain to climb. But my eagerness declined through the day, as the temperatures dropped and grey skies once again enveloped Malahide.

So once I’d finished the morning’s tasks and had lunch, I took the easier option and went for a walk on a well rehearsed route, straight from the flat. I headed through the demesne, then up over the hill and on to Portmarnock. From there I followed the coast – much more feasible this time as the tide was out – all the way to Howth. Although my weather app said it was 13c, it felt much colder than that with the heavy cloud and biting north wind.

Once at my destination, I treated myself to a by now obligatory cup of tea and a biscuit in the “Insomnia” café before getting the train and bus to Malahide.

Now I’m back, I’ve just enjoyed a half price pop-pop curry that I managed to pick up from Tesco, and had another call with a friend back in the UK. So it feels like it’s been a pretty full-on day, and I’m looking forward to putting my feet up in front of the TV. Val (who returns from the UK tomorrow) tells me there’s a “must see” documentary about Prince Harry on Netflix, so maybe I’ll watch that. On the other hand, perhaps not.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


*Cuckoo flowers (Cardamine pratensis) in a meadow below Paddy’s Hill*	Portuguese squill in a wild flower border in Portmarnock

Beautiful cowslips in the Strand Road park in Portmarnock	The mudflats on the horizon below Lambay looked to all the world like they were covered in snow. In reality, it was just the light glinting of the slicked sand

Parasailers on the Burrow beach. Exhilarating, but cold, I imagine	That tree still hasn’t fallen off!

Journey’s end! The café has just been refurbished and it feels OK but they have removed quite a lot of the tables so there’s a lot of wasted space