Ireland day 1514. Thursday 20 November 2025- Calm Day

Today’s summary	Spent a quiet day in Malahide today. Finished rationalising my wardrobe in the morning then went on a short walk in the afternoon. Fish pie and salmon for dinner then watched another James Bond classic in the evening.
Today’s weather	Sunny cold and dry all day. Light north westerly breeze. Appx 5c

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): Short Marina stroll

Commentary

Today was uncharacteristically calm. The weather was calm for once – no rain, hardly any wind, and lots of sunshine. And we were calm too. We felt like having a slightly quieter day today, after a few quite active periods. Plus the fact that I pulled a muscle in my back this morning so was feeling a bit sore.

After our statutory tea and toast, my first task was to sort out the last part of my wardrobe. Val meanwhile had some family admin to deal with, so we beavered away in our own little bubbles for a couple of hours while we got everything done. I was quite pleased with my efforts, and managed to extract three large bag loads of clothes that I no longer wear, and which, later in the morning, I took either to Oxfam or to recycling.

For lunch, Val pulled together a delicious light snack of rollmop herrings (which we bought in Dublin on Tuesday), cauliflower soup, and tomatoes. Tasty and nutritious especially when combined with the packet of scampi fries which I slipped in under the food police radar.

Once we had tidied up after our meal, we had a quick coffee then went on a short walk round the Marina. To be honest that was all we felt like doing today. Sometimes you just have days like that. Everywhere was looking suddenly more wintry, after last week’s storms and the frosts of more recent days. Though alongside Hanlon’s Lane we did spot some periwinkles (Vinca difformis) valiantly defying the chill (you can see one of them in the featured image at the top of the blog)

By the time we got back, it was already early evening and it became fully dark soon after we got into the flat. So we just shut out the dark, cranked up the central heating, and switched on the TV. This evening we’re going to dig out a classic Sean Connery Bond film (they are free to stream on Amazon at the moment) and for dinner we plan to finish off the fish pie from yesterday, embellished with some extra grilled salmon.

So today was indeed calm, both weather wise and activity wise. Maybe tomorrow will bring more of the same. We shall have to just wait and see.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Lunch. Very healthy – or so I tell myself!	Not a swimming pool with icebergs, but rather the photovoltaic seat (which you can use to charge your phone) up by the railway bridge here in Malahide. It was covered in ice this morning – the remnants of last night’s frost – one of the first proper frosts we’ve had this autumn

The new housing development on Hanlon’s Lane seems to become more and more shoebox like every day. Not really to my taste, I’m afraid	Malahide Marina at low tide on a chilly afternoon in late November. I.e. today.

Townyard Lane. Our accountant, our GP and the back entrance to SuperValu are all situated in this unassuming back alley just to the east of the main town centre

Beech tree standing sentinel over the foot entrance to The Casino flats. Now that the autumn gales and frost have removed the leaves, you can see the delicate tracery of the branches – like giant lungs in the sky