Ireland day 1432. Saturday 30 August 2025- Erin

Today’s summary	A day spent mostly catching up on domestic tasks. Val did the cooking and washing, I did the cleaning and recycling. We both shared the shopping duties. The weather was stormy so that didn’t tempt us out except for a short walk in the Demesne later in the afternoon. Chicken in a Teriyaki style sauce with rice for dinner (another of Val’s delicious creations) then a James Bond film to round off the evening.
Today’s weather	Blustery wind with showers and occasional sun as the remnants of an Atlantic hurricane (Erin) reached Ireland. Very strong to gale force southerly wind. Appx 16c

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 Demesne after Storm Erin

Commentary

Neither of us had anything specific in our diaries today. No walks, no work, no language lessons. But it turned out to be anything but a quiet relaxing day. The flat had been getting grubby lately, so I decided to hoover everywhere (including under the bed – which proved to be logistically challenging as it was very heavy) while Val washed and changed the sheets.

Then Val started the first of several impressive cooking sessions which punctuated the day. While she was busy, I went off to the town to do some shopping and also to despatch another load of recycling into the bottle – gobbling machine. Then I got back and Val went off to do her shopping while I cleaned the hob and emptied the dishwasher.

After a light lunch, there was more cooking to be done so Val got in with that. My contribution was to do the clearing up afterwards. The dishwasher has been on at least three times today already, and in the brief moments when it wasn’t in full active rinsing mode, the washing machine was doing its thing and adding to the general cacophony.

Eventually though, everything was washed, cooked, cleaned or recycled, so we allowed ourselves a few moments to go over the road to the Demesne and fit in a short walk around the perimeter. It was cool and blowy out there, but quite refreshing now that the remnants of Hurricane Erin seem largely to have dissipated themselves.

On our return to the flat, we allowed ourselves a glass of wine and had slow-roast chicken with a Teriyaki sauce and rice (courtesy of Val’s cordon bleu skills) for dinner. Perfect, as usual! We rounded off a busy days proceedings with James Bond – always a reliable go-to for winding down!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Healthy lunch – I think!	Freedom at last!

Looking up to the Castle from the Back Road entrance (the castle is hidden behind the trees in the middle distance	Sunshine after the rain. Brilliant



The cricket stands are rapidly taking shape. A good thing, as the International start next week I think