Ireland day 1304. Thursday 24 April 2025- Hills and Flowers

Today’s summary	Spent the morning cleaning and tidying the flat, and doing some more reading on CCUS. Bacon sandwiches for lunch then walked over the hill with Val to the coast for coffees. Lots of flowers en route. Dealt with more admin in the evening then finished off with G&T, fish pie, and “Mad Men”
Today’s weather	Dry with some light cloud bit plenty of sun. Moderate south easterly wind. Appx 12c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The red 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): Hill and Flowers with Val

Commentary

Well – first things first. Sometimes you don’t notice how dirt and grime builds up in your home until you come across a ball of fluff so big you almost trip over it. Sadly, that was the case in the flat this morning – nothing too awful quite yet, but it was clear that if we didn’t do something about it, our dwelling place would rapidly become embarrassingly unclean. So as soon as teas were finished, out came the hoover and dustpan, and the flat was spic and span again in no time. And just for good measure, we decided to change the bed linen (a job I hate) and wash it. Then once that was done, I spent a few more minutes researching CCUS while Val popped out to the supermarket to recycle our plastic bottles.

By about 12:30, after all this activity, we were feeling well and truly virtuous so treated ourselves to bacon sandwiches for lunch. Delicious! Then we polished off a couple of cups of coffee from my machine, and we were ready to tackle the world. Since the sun was shining, we broke out into the open and went on our favourite local easy walk. Through the Demesne, up over Paddy’s Hill, down to Portmarnock beach, and then back along the coast. It’s always a good, varied walk, and made especially so today by the abundant beautiful flowers along the route – brought out by the rain and then sun – and by the coffee and snacks on the beach midway.

Once we were back in the flat, there was some more admin to be attended to, which we followed up with yet more cups of tea (and water – as I am being told I need to stay more hydrated). But finally we succumbed to temptation and opted for something something stronger. So our fish pie dinner was enjoyed with the accompaniment of Arbutus G&Ts, then the evening was rounded off, perfectly, by – as ever – a couple of episodes of “Mad Men”. A nice easy day. May there be many more!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Solomon’s Seal and bluebells coming into flower round the back of the Casino model railway museum. They make an attractive combination, even if the bluebells are (I think) Spanish	Lots of these pink clematis are blooming in Malahide at the moment. They’re vivid

Good to see the opening hours getting longer and longer. I love the light evenings!	On the way out the Bawn Grove

Val heading up Paddy’s Hill..	..and trying to escape the persistent wind on the coast to Malahide

Yes – I think she likes butter!