The CLT experience

In September we were visited by Craig and Linda and our first nappy wearing guest – Thomas. There was an incredible amount of eating, quite a lot of driving and numerous nappy changes all over central and western Ireland. The first day was a relaxed trip, afternoon start, to Dublin city wandering about the shops and sampling ‘Strawberry fields’. Craig went shopping for a new look resulting in the photo below. We are still looking for a title for this image, existing entrants being: “Dude, where’s my tractor?”, “My chest has slipped again” and “Look, I can make a smiley face with my jumper”










The following day we got serious: a 14 hour car trip to far Galway and back. The road-trip was characterized by contrasts: lovely fast trip to Galway city, round-a-bout related traffic hell trying to drive around the city. Lovely gently sloping green fields were seen in east Galway, while wind-swept beaches and primal bleakness came to the fore the further west we went. Highlights of the trip included brunch at Spiddal in the new coffee shop, the windswept coast near Golam Head and the drive past Lough Inagh on the R344

Over the next few days the family went off to Powerscourt, via the Military Way, through the Wicklows and enjoyed the gardens and a rather good dinner was had by all at the Templeogue Inn. The Shepherd family left us on Friday morning, back to home to Australia and the imminent summer weather – sigh!

Wedding clock

We are very happy to announce the arrival of our beautiful ticking wedding clock!
Delivered by taxi a short 3 days ago, it arrived in perfect order and ever since it has been proudly sitting on our mantlepeice keeping perfect time.
A wedding gift from friends and family it has pride of place in our new home. (The BBQ is feeling quite upstaged)
Here it is sitting happily in it's new habitat, a close up view and it's lovely olde-worlde iron key.

Visitor - Gary

Our next guest was fellow PhD student-victim, Gary. After spending a few days wondering around Dublin and yet again sampling tea and cake at the "Queen of Tarts", which we highly recommend, we went for a delightful walk in the Dublin Hills.
It was a gorgeous sunny day, we had a relaxed walk up to Fairy castle for lunch on the summit.
We had a marvellous view of Dublin Bay and beyond, and all the way around to the Great pointy Sugarloaf mountain. On the way back to the car we suprised and were suprised by a small herd of deer, which promptly disappeared before we could get the cameras organised. It is true though, we promise.
L-R Gary and Ivan on the way up, The fluffy white irish grasses (name unknown)
Reaching the summit, Lunchin' at the cairn at the top of Fairy Castle hill, View looking south, getting a little cold, the path on the way down again