Ireland day 1102. Friday 04 October 2024- Healing

Today’s summary	Spent a very low-key day in and around the flat, catching up on various admin tasks and generally giving our bodies (mine especially) a bit of a chance to heal after the various recent batterings. A short walk over the hill to the stormy beach at High Rock for a cup of tea later on. Very enjoyable
Today’s weather	Overcast and windy but mostly dry. Strong southerly wind. Appx 15c

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): Beach tea in a gale

Commentary

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

I think I must be more tired than I realise, because last night I spent most of the evening watching endless inoffensive but enjoyable programmes about cooking on Netflix, then went to bed at about 10:30 and promptly fell asleep for nine hours solid. So when we woke up this morning, I think we were both feeling considerably more energised than we had been yesterday. Val particularly so, because as soon as we’d had our statutory cups of tea, she whipped on her sports gear and went out to the demesne for a run.

I meanwhile, had a more sedate morning catching up on some more admin matters related to insurance and, unsurprisingly, tax. Lunch time came round soon enough, so we enjoyed a light snack of oatcakes with hummus and kimchee (surprisingly tasty) followed by coffee.

After a a pause for digestion, Val went out again to do some shopping and I continued with my Spanish homework. Eventually, we had got all the tareas out of the way and we felt that we should get out to have some fresh air before it was too dark to see where we were going. It was nothing too imaginative today – just our favourite saunter over the hill then down to the Spar shop on Portmarnock beach to collect a cup of tea.

It was too cold and windy to have our snack anywhere near Portmarnock, so we walked a short way north, round the coast towards Malahide, until we reached a point where the curve in the seawall afforded some shelter from the southerly wind. Even with the benefit of the windbreak, it was still quite cool so we didn’t spend too long over our tea and half-price biscuits before pulling ourselves together and finishing the off circuit to the flat.

Right now, Val is busy in the kitchen pulling together a delicious-smelling dhal curry. So I better sign off now and go and help – or else risk slumping in front of the TV again and not contributing properly to the running of our household.

We both thoroughly enjoyed today and have decided to continue this lower-pressure approach to life for a little while longer.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


One of my favourite sinuous tracks leading down the east side of the castle Demesne	On our well worn path from Castlefield Manor to The Bawn Grove – a vital link route in our regular perambulations

From the Jameson Orchard estate, looking east towards Ireland’s Eye (on the horizon, centre-left) and Howth head (horizon centre-right)	Val clambering down to Low Rock (note-no bathers, unsurprisingly) in search of somewhere out of the wind to enjoy our refreshments



Lambay just catching the last rays of the sun