Your day (apart from gardening) what took place ? 2025

A marathon shopping trip in Newry yesterday, involving 4 different shops, some of it gardening related. Always very busy in Newry, traffic and people. Part of main road where I live is closed, so diversions adding an extra hour onto the existing 2 hour round trip. Was a bit shell shocked by time got back home, could only sit and drink coffee and eat biscuits - whole pack of 10 chocolate chip cookies .

 

It was a wonderful day so we ventured out to Holywell Dene which is a short bus hop away. We have walked the dene towards the coast (absolutely wonderful walk, maintained paths and wetlands ending at Seaton Sluice) but this time decided to walk towards home.

The maintained Dene ends quickly but there are some lovely natural paths to follow.

Now, the thing about denes is that they are rather deep and steep. Very steep, in fact.

We found a lovely spot and precariously made our way down, just to be (most politely) told by a group of mountain bikers that we might risk our lives when a biker whizzes past us, so decided to climb back up.

I have a lifelong background of wild walking (being a Finn) so managed to get back up on my feet. The Child needed all limbs. I'm expecting interesting feelings on my muscles tomorrow.

Onwards we trekked, and then promptly got lost. Or rather, (we agreed) we "ventured off the beaten track"

We crossed fields with broken signs explaining that the farmer is within his legal rights to shoot any dog who worries livestock (I'm sure the sign was just weathered and not shot in half with a shotgun) and finally mentally mapped ourselves and headed towards civilisation.

The inconvenient bit about rivers is that depending on where you want to go, there is a right side and a wrong side.

So we fought our way through the brambles, considered a tree fallen across the stream, upset a threesome of beautiful Roe Deers and entered a wonderland.


We are still debating which bird of prey we saw, it was rather large, about twice a Sparrowhawk and uniformly brown. There was a couple, so hopefully a nesting one.

The first butterflies were spotted too, one for each of us which is right as the first butterfly of the summer determines what kind of summer it will be for you. Both were rusty brown which means active and labourful summer.

Then, with a shared sigh of relief we spotted the first signs of civilization and found our way back home. The trek was just 2-3 hours of walking but as it was mostly steeply up and down, a bit strenuous. We'll compare our aches tomorrow

I didn't even take many photos, it was too lovely for that. This one totally fails the perspective, the stream is way way down.

 

You had a nice, relaxed ramble then .

 

Before going to my art group today I decided to have dinner in a local cafe (to save bothering at home - I'm not really a foody person)
I ordered a cheese toasty with sauté potatoes and side salad, and when the very nice waiter brought it to me he asked if I wanted cutlery ... ... but why
Is there a new 21st century trend that I've missed, for eating your dinner with your fingers ?
Chips in paper and sandwiches accepted of course

(dinner = lunch if you're posh )

 

What kind of Art do you make, Michael?

Eating a salad, especially if it's got dressing on , might be a tad messy with your fingers and I often find cheese toasties can be even worse . I've always been given cutlery when I've ordered one, even if it's to dip into soup.

 

Well this evening we had a power cut that we were told in advance from 7.30-9.30pm. So we made sure that the laptop was fully charged and then used the plug in hard drive to go back to memories. Wonderful to see so many photos that had been turned into slide shows from so many years ago and remember so many brilliant places and people.
So maybe the power cut was meant to be.

 

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I like to paint/draw old buildings, such as cottages, churches, derelict barns and things like that.
I also paint pictures and turn them into cards for people's birthdays, Christmas etc.
Here's a few, just as examples, but I usually show them on the 'Crafters Corner' thread :-