Ireland day 1147. Monday 18 November 2024- Newbridge Rain

Today’s summary	In the morning, Val went on a run while I did my Spanish homework. Later, in the afternoon, we drove over to Newbridge for a short walk in the demesne. Evening in the flat while we had dinner (cooked by Val!) and watched a YouTube travel documentary on Germany. Rained all day
Today’s weather	Pretty much constant rain all day with no brighter intervals. Light easterly wind. Appx 7c

Today’s overview location (The green 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): Newbridge in the Rain

Commentary

It’s been relatively dry here for the past few weeks but today the weather suddenly woke up and remembered that this was Ireland, after all. So when opened the blinds this morning, the rain was pouring down – and really it hasn’t stopped all day.

Undeterred by the inclement conditions, Val was headed off on a run as soon as we’d fortified ourselves with tea and coffee, and I used the time to finish off the last parts of my Spanish homework. On that, by the way, there are only two more lessons left this term and I must say I’m looking forward to the Christmas break now. I’m finding that the homework is getting quite time consuming – largely because I am just so slow with my translations.

Once Val was back from her exertions, we had a sandwich lunch and then contemplated the afternoon. First off was some washing – there’s always washing if all else fails – but we decided that there had to be more productive and enlightening ways of spending a rainy afternoon than just managing laundry. So we took a spur of the minute decision to jump in the Trusty Yaris and to drive over to Newbridge for a quick look around.

When we got there, we discovered that the rain had put most visitors off so there were only ourselves and a couple of dog-walkers rattling around in the vast demesne. So we donned waterproofs and embarked on a quick walk round the perimeter path – which eventually we cut a bit short simply because the weather was so uninviting.

Safely back at the flat and drying out nicely, it was already getting dark so Val headed off to Kerrigans to get a rather nice chicken stir-fry for dinner. We’re about to enjoy it now, with a decent glass of rioja while we watch a YouTube travel documentary on Germany. I feel I could quite get used to rainy Mondays!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Val examining the ingenious bi-hinged self-closing wrought iron gate alongside Newbridge House	The demesne perimeter walk still only looking like mid-autumn. The colder, wetter weather at the moment will probably change that pretty quickly

*Birch tree adorned not with nests but with Witch’s Broom – caused by a fungal infection (possibly Taphrina betulina)*	Hardly anybody here today



Mr & Mrs Wet