Ireland day 1435. Tuesday 02 September 2025- Blackberries

Today’s summary	Spent the morning sitting in the sun on the balcony enjoying our late breakfast. Then Val collected some dry cleaning and I went to the supermarket. Afterwards, we walked over to the garden centre to buy some bird food. On the way back stopped in the Demesne and picked a kilo of blackberries. Returned to the flat and Val did some knitting while I had a video call to my friend in Houston. Later, we went out again to get some crab apples from Lime Tree Avenue to go with the blackberries. In the evening back at the flat, prepared and cooked the fruit and put it in the jelly bag to strain. Beef casserole for dinner.
Today’s weather	Mild and dry with plenty of sun, especially in the morning. Light southerly breeze. Appx 17c

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): Blackberry and Crab Apple Hunt

Commentary

Well that was a lovely day. No Spanish homework, no urgent emails to be dealt with, no walks to be recce’d. Only a VAT return to be filed (which only took a few minutes), a wardrobe to be repaired (the engineer came as promised at 10am and dealt with it efficiently) and a video call later in the afternoon (which I thoroughly enjoyed).

To kick off the day, as the sun was shining, we took our porridge and coffee out onto the balcony and enjoyed our late breakfasts while soaking up a few rays. Lovely. Then there was just time to blast through a couple of chores – Val needed to pick up some dry cleaning from the laundry and I wanted to go to the supermarket to get some milk.

Once reconvened in the flat, we decided to walk over to the garden centre to get some bird food. It’s about the only thing we can afford over there. It’s a land where barbecues cost €3500. Anyway we got some peanuts and beat a hasty retreat before we could spend any more money.

On the way back through the Demesne, we couldn’t resist the allure of the blackberries which were hanging in luxurious abundance from the hedgerows. It’s been an amazing year for fruit this year, and it seemed a pity to let this bounteous harvest go to waste. So we stopped and in the space of just half an hour, the two of us collected over a kilo of fruit between us.

I needed to get back to the flat after that as I had a video call with my friend in Houston at 3pm, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Though the call was briefly interrupted when he had a power cut at his end, and had to wait for his backup generator to kick in. Apparently it’s the second they have had there in just a few weeks. While I was chatting, Val was clicking away on her knitting needles, launching her latest project.

Next, it was time for a light lunch of salmon and tomatoes, which was delicious. Then once again we set out fruit collecting. This time we were on the hunt for crab-apples – you cook them with the blackberries to help the jelly you make from the juices set properly. Luckily I knew there was a suitable tree in Line Tree Avenue, so we headed over the hill to Portmarnock to collect the half kilo of these dainty fruit that we would need to complement the blackberries.

Finally, once again we hot-footed it back to the flat and immediately on our return we set about making blackberry jelly. The fruit was suitably prepared, loaded into our jam-pan, and after a brief period of cooking, until the fruit was soft, transferred to the jelly-bag to strain overnight. The process will be completed tomorrow morning but before that we might have to solve a jam jar crisis.

Anyway now, at last, it’s dinner time so the beers are poured and the beef casserole is heating on the hob. Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable and very productive day.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Our harvest – part 1	..and part 2

Crab apples in-situ. I had to eat one to make sure it wasn’t a cherry (it definitely wasn’t)	In the pot waiting to be turned into jelly tomorrow

Cricket stadium taking shape nicely. The lawnsmen were out in force, lovingly caressing the pitch into top form for next week’s internationals	It might look like an ordinary barbecue that you could pick up from the DIY store for about €50. But actually it’s built like a blast-furnace and costs a tidy €3499. Even if we were tempted, I doubt very much whether our balcony would take the weight

Stage two in process. Stage 3 tomorrow morning, once it’s finished straining.