Ireland day 1296. Wednesday 16 April 2025- Day Off

Today’s summary	A rainy day which worked out well for both of us. We wanted a day off exercise, and we had a lot of paperwork to deal with too. Eventually the rain eased and the paperwork was done so Val and I went on a short walk around the Demesne. Val made fish for dinner then we had a group videocall with the family later in the evening. Finished off with Netflix, as usual
Today’s weather	Overnight rain continued until mid afternoon, then it became cloudy but mostly dry. Moderate north westerly wind. Feeling quite cold at just 7c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue 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): Round the wet Demesne

Commentary

There is a special quality about rain in the Spring. It refreshes everything and seems to bring out a vibrancy of colour that you don’t get for the rest of the year. Even the plants on our balcony seem to be reinvigorated by the rain, in a way that watering from the tap doesn’t achieve.

So, after a long period of dry sunny weather, and the prospect of spring abundance, neither of us was too disappointed to see the rain teeming down outside when we got up this morning. In fact we had planned a day off major activities today – there’s always a risk of overtraining and in any case we needed to a clear day to deal with the latest mountain of paperwork that had appeared.

So we jointly set-to on the paperwork and kept at it until late afternoon. Although Val punctuated her day with a bit of shopping and I punctuated mine with a video call to a friend in the UK at 10 am, then with a quick trip to be barbers to get a haircut. We also managed to find time to enjoy some reheated noodles for lunch, too.

Eventually, once all the various tasks were resolved and the rain had stopped, we felt in need of some fresh air. So we allowed ourselves an hour outside to go on our usual circuit of the Demesne before moving into the evening’s activities. True to form, after a day of April showers, the parkland of the Demesne was looking beautiful in its mantle of iridescent green. A wonderful time of year.

On our return, Val pulled together a delicious meal of grilled hake in orange sauce with spinach and croquettes, then we dialled into a 3-way video call with the family. The technology actually worked, I am pleased (and somewhat amazed!) to say. Then finally, we rounded off the evening with our go-to Netflix drama before calling it a day. All in all, a lot of progress was made.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Not the gold of fallen Autumn leaves – but the gold of Spring wood chippings	Comfrey – popping up everywhere in the shady understorey





Look at that hairstyle! (the one on the left, I mean)