Summer holiday - belated post

In June F and G left the Isle of Man where they had spent a fortnight in glorious weather  watching the TT races.  From there they flew to Dublin and joined B and G for a tour around Ireland.  In the next fortnight the four of us stayed in eleven different accommodations, travelled over two thousand miles (I think), and G took in excess of 2500 photographs, though not every shot was a masterpiece.
How do you choose what to post and now it is so long ago since they were taken.

Resident seagull at Trinity College, Dublin

The above seagull robbed G of his lunch as he was sitting at an outside table at the Trinity College cafe.  He just swooped in, snatched the food from G's hand and flew on.  We watched as the seagull performed the same tactic with several other customers.

No holiday is complete without ice-cream

F didn't really eat both of them - but I couldn't hold my ice-cream and take a photograph at the same time.

The Giant's Causeway

One of the most famous tourist attractions on the north coast of Northern Ireland, this is a world famous site of geological interest. We braved the drizzle and the wind to walk around this extensive area.

The Peace Bridge, Derry

Another day, another centre.  In Derry we visited the Guild Hall, spent time in the Tower Museum, walked around the city walls, a complete wall surrounding the whole of the city during the middle ages and we ended the day walking across the Peace Bridge into another part of the modern city.

We left the North coast and travelled inland before making our way towards the Wild Atlantic Way -  but the weather was wet and misty. We couldn't see the Cliffs of Moher because they were shrouded in fog.

Travelling to the south-west the weather brightened and we were able to see some of the coastal scenery.  We visited the island of Valentia, getting onto the island via the road bridge and travelling back to the mainland by ferry, for the experience and to save miles of travel by road.

View from the top of Geokaun mountain, Valentia.

Travelling  along the south coast we visited the city of Cork, a bustling place with plenty to catch your eye.

A street musician with his own musical invention a violin cum trumpet.

From Cork we went onto the historic city of Waterford, home of the Waterford Crystal factory.  We toured the factory watching the different stages in the production of the cut glass.  We browsed the shop,but didn't buy

It is difficult to choose from so many thousands of items on display.

The holiday was coming to an end and we headed along the east coast towards Dublin and Dublin Airport.  On the way we travelled through the Wicklow Mountains National Park, and spent a little time at Glendalough, an area of early Christian settlement. The scenery was so beautiful - it was easy to see why the area had been chosen by the missionaries as a place of tranquility.  We walked for a little while but the weather changed  and we headed back for the car and onto our final Hotel.

So much more could have been included; a 'Hooley night' where we dined and were entertained by Irish dancing and a folkgroup; travelling through an underground cavern by boat and on foot at the Geopark in Northern Ireland; relaxing in the rose gardens in the town of Tralee;  and so on.
There's so much more to see and we would like to travel there again.

Tonight I burned the sprouts

For the first time ever, as far as I can remember, I left the sprouts cooking on the hob and managed to simmer them until the water evaporated and the bottom of the saucepan burned black.

I had left the kitchen for what was intended to be a couple of minutes, but got engrossed in another task.  It wasn't 'til I could smell burning that I remembered the saucepan was still heating on the cooker. I grabbed the saucepan off the stove top and put it on a wooden breadboard.  The bright green of the sprouts was in stark contrast to the blackness surrounding them.

The smoke alarm then sounded so I switched it off.

The sprouts lifted off the bottom of the saucepan quite easily, leaving behind the layers that were burnt onto the base, and they tasted fine, surprisingly, so we were able to have them as part  of our evening meal.

I left the saucepan to soak in cold water - much hissing - and have floated off the worst of the debris.

It was then that I realised this was the saucepan that was a Christmas present from A and R the first time they visited us.  I shall work hard with the Brillo pads to return it to a better state.

The main problem now is how do I get rid of the smell of burning that seems to have wafted through the whole house.  I can't leave windows and doors open tonight, but tomorrow I shall try that method.

Busy, Busy.

Time flies and the mundane jobs seem to pile up - well housework and washing up can always wait till another day

On Thursday, it was the last lecture of the season and the AGM of the North Staffs Group of the Geological Association. A journey to Keele University, and an interesting lecture on the Middle Earth  - not the Centre as I had thought - but the middle layers.  It was informative and helpful to me for when I have to do a Geology exam later in the year.  The lecturer has a similar lecture on Youtube so I shall be looking up that one.

On Friday evening, F and I went to a student production of Alan Bennett's 'History Boys', at Keele University.  Because we are members of the Keele Concert Society we get emails about all sorts of events taking place there.  When we arrived there, we found that we were the only adults in the audience (a couple of lecturers came in later) and when the performance was fifteen minutes late in starting we began to wonder what we had let ourselves in for.  The performance was very well done and we were glad we had made the effort to see this performance. Perhaps it was part of the drama course to produce live theatre - hopefully, the actors earned good marks towards their degrees.

On Saturday F and I went over to Wales - the roof of the chalet has been refelted and we had to meet up with the roofer to see the completed work and settle the bill.  We now have a sound roof.  We decided to go for a pub meal and it coincided with the England-Wales Rugby match in the Six Nations competition, so we ate and watched.  England won! 
As we left the pub we noticed that the cinema, opposite the pub, was showing 'The Revenant'.  So we finished off the evening going to the pictures.  A brutal and gory film in parts, but not gratuitously so.  If you haven't seen this film, then we can recommend it. The 160 minutes went by very quickly and raised questions that are pertinent today.

On Sunday, we went to church in Tywyn for morning service.  Then we went on to the ice cream factory - an essential part of any visit to the chalet.  We went back to the chalet to do some housekeeping jobs and by the time we were ready to go back to the Midlands it was the middle of the evening, so we stopped for some food on the way home. 

We arrived home in the early hours of Monday morning - and all the mundane jobs were waiting for us for the week ahead.

Please excuse my grubby windows

The green woodpecker has visited our garden again, so I think he is local rather than passing through.

I happened to glance through my kitchen window and there he was, tucking into an apple.  I dashed to get my camera from another room and this time he stayed long enough for me to take a few pictures.

I didn't dare to open the kitchen door because the noise would have scared him away, so with help from F who pulled open a couple of slats in the venetian blind I was able to get the camera close to the window for the shots.

Trouble is, my windows are in need of a clean so the photos are a little misty, but there is no mistaking what sort of bird he is.

A First

We have lived in our present home for 25 years and one of the things we liked about where we live is the garden.  The previous owner was a knowledgeable gardener and filled the garden with the sort of trees bushes and plants that would attract wildlife.  We have not changed very much because we appreciate this and we have continued the tradition. We get visited by squirrels who rearrange bulbs we have planted and bring us bulbs from other gardens. We have planted two hazel trees and of course, the squirrel harvests them for us. Occasionally there is evidence of hedgehogs, but not as much as when we moved in years ago. And of course there are the birds.

We make sure that in the winter the birds get fed and we leave water for them all the year round.  The surplus apples are very popular with the blackbirds.  A few days ago I glanced out of the kitchen window, overlooking the garden, and amongst the blackbirds feeding on the apples scattered over the lawn was a green woodpecker.  The bird is much larger than a blackbird and is so colourful with its bright red head plumage, pale green body and darker green wings that it stood out.  The blackbirds were not at all bothered by the visitor.   I turned to get my bird watching binoculars, kept close to the window, and by the time I turned back, the woodpecker had disappeared.  So no photographs, but I looked at the RSPB website and found a picture - it could have been the very same bird.  I have never seen a green woodpecker before in our garden - in fact I have never seen a green woodpecker before except in books and videos!

During the Christmas holidays my camera managed to get broken and the cost of repair was more expensive  than buying a new camera.  I now have replaced the camera with a similar model and so although I wasn't able to photograph the garden visitor I have taken some photographs of spring flowers in our garden.

The earliest of our daffodils

Proper primroses

I think I shall have to read up the manual to my new camera - these photos took quite a while to load.  I shall have to change the size setting.