Ireland day 1471. Wednesday 08 October 2025- Familiar Ground

Today’s summary	Back in Malahide and resuming the usual routine. In the morning I had a video call with a friend in Lancaster and in the afternoon another with a friend in Houston. Val did some handiwork in the meantime and we fitted in a short walk together in one of the gaps. Roast lamb for dinner, followed by some TV.
Today’s weather	Dry and bright with some sun. Light to moderate westerly wind. Appx 15c

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): Back in Malahide

Commentary

Although we’ve only been away for a fortnight, it feels like a lifetime! So it was nice to be back on familiar territory today, and to swing into the rhythm of day to day life in Ireland, as it had been before the comings and goings of the last few weeks.

Most of the day was spent in or around the flat in Malahide. Val devoted quite a lot of time to some handicrafts, and on a call with one of her friends in the UK. In the meantime, I had a 10am call with one of my friends, too – this one in Lancaster, UK. We had lots to talk about so an hour chatting seemed to go quickly. Then once we’d finished, I decided to tackle my unpacking – which didn’t take long as we hadn’t taken much stuff away with us. Another advantage of travelling light!

By the time we reached lunchtime, we found some eggs in the fridge, and some frozen bread in the freezer, so Val made us some poached eggs on toast, to keep us going. Afterwards, we went out together for a short stroll in the Demesne, to have a look around and see what had changed while we were away.

The simple answer is “not a lot”. The parklands were vivid green and everywhere looked well-watered. The first hits of autumn colour were hitting the trees, though there’s still a long way to go before the place starts to look wintry.

As soon as I was back at the flat, I dived straight into another video call – this time my monthly check-in with my friend in Houston, Texas. Quite a different type of a call to this morning’s but equally enjoyable. Once again, an hour passed in no time.

Afterwards, I did a bit of shopping while Val got on with her domestic activities. Then eventually it was time to think about dinner. We’re currently aiming for roast lamb, so I better stop now and see what assistance might be needed in the cookery department.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Tree in the Demesne showing advanced Autumn plumage	And of course the castle – timeless as always

Malahide Abbey, opposite the Avoca courtyard. It is said to have been un-roofed in 1649 in order to use the lead to make bullets	*Looking over the playing fields towards the cricket ground – with my favourite Sequoia* centre-right**



Sweet chestnuts fallen from a tree just outside our flat. Sadly they are only the scaly type of nuts, so no roasting over an open fire I’m afraid. Mind you we haven’t got an open fire we could roast them over anyway