Ireland day 1018. Friday 12 July 2024- Tidying Up

Today’s summary	Spent the day in Malahide. First up did two loads of washing then spent well over two hours on a video call to a friend in the UK. Afterwards, went shopping, made lunch and dinner for tonight then did my usual hill and sea walk. Picked up Val from the airport in the evening
Today’s weather	Dry all day and some sun in the morning. Cloudy later. Light northerly wind. Appx 16c

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 Hill and Sea

Commentary

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

Even though I have been away much of the last three days, I still seemed, by this morning, to have turned the flat into a bit of a messy bachelor pad. With Val’s return imminent – she comes back this evening – I thought I better do something about it rather hastily.

So as soon as I had got up and had a couple of cups of tea, I put the washing on – two loads in short order, to deal with the wet and dirty walking gear, mainly – plus various assorted pairs of shirts and jeans that I had been accumulating in a corner of our bedroom. Then a quick whiz round with the hoover, and the flat was quickly looking a bit more habitable again.

Once the domestics were out of the way, I dialled in to a video call with one of my friends back in the UK, and we spent nearly two and a half hours putting the world to rights. There was so much to discuss that even by lunchtime we still had lots left to talk about, but other matters pressed (mainly lunch) so we had to finish up and save the rest for another day.

As soon as I’d finished my virtual face to face, I dashed into town to get something to eat for today, and ingredients for dinner with Val tonight. Once I was back, I quickly demolished lunch (I think I still have a calorie deficit from the last few days’ activities) and prepared a salad for this evening. Then, dining complete, I decided to go out and get some fresh air.

I just had time to slot in a quick canter round my usual “hill and sea” circuit in the remaining part of the afternoon. In fact I decided that I even had a few spare minutes so I popped into the shop on Portmarnock promenade and succumbed to the temptations of coffee and a doughnut, which I enjoyed on the beach (which for once was not chilled by a brisk northerly wind). I quickly completed my round and got back in time just to get the last load of washing out of the machine and hang it on the rack to dry, before heading off in the Yaris – out to the airport to collect Val.

It’s great to have Val back now, and I’m looking forward to catching up on all the news from London, and then perhaps to watching a couple more episodes from this month’s box-set. In this case, of course, it’s “The Wire” which we are both enjoying, after a bit of a slow start.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Toots out and about bringing cheer to everyone	There was a large crowd of crows (is that the right collective noun? I have a suspicion that actually it’s a “Murder” – but that sounds a bit grim) on the green by Bawn Grove. the seemed agitated about something and I couldn’t work out what it was until I spotted the black cat on the wall..

Ragwort – host to the cinnabar moth caterpillar, although today only a solitary bee. In fact this summer I have seen hardly any moths or butterflies at all. I hope this is only a temporary phenomenon	Scabious – also complete with bee (though probably not the same one)

Floriferous display welcoming us to Portmarnock. My friend the local Portmarnock historian tells me that this isn’t where the Portmarnock boundary actually is. But why let the facts get in the way of a good flowerbed?	There seems to be a bit of a seaweed problem this year – though it might be the result of the extended period of easterly winds we’ve just experienced

Sadly, when I got to Portmarnock, I couldn’t resist. Hey-ho. The diet can always start tomorrow.