Tuesday and Wednesday 16 and April 17 2024

Tuesday was a travel day to Ashford for our new house sit. A bit over two hours along the south east coast on mainly ‘N’ roads, so a pleasant, unhurried journey. We stopped at Macroom, Co. Cork, for coffee at what appeared to be the only place in town open. We were the only customers and the owner was a Syrian refugee. How did he end up in a very small village in Ireland, we wondered? Turns out he had been to Cairns once and Australia three times before the war interfered with his life. His wife’s baklava was pretty good too.

Now able to function reasonably well, Lady P drove to Dungarvan for lunch at a little café and an attached off-licence. Great toasted sandwiches and a couple of bottles of wine, then on to Ashford.

We met our delightful hosts, Michael and Karen, who cooked a meal of gnocchi for us, and we shared a NZ Pinot Noir before they went to bed for a 4.00 am departure to the airport.

Wednesday

Up at 7.30 am to a crisp morning but no rain. Fed the cats and changed the duck’s water, released the birds from their overnight captivity and checked for eggs. We already have four blue duck eggs and eight chook eggs in the kitchen, so a quiche or similar is on the cards this week.

After breakfast we spent the morning sorting mould issues back home in Cairns. I have this feeling in my water that we have another leaky pipe embedded deep in the slab between us and the unit above.

After that, we walked the 15 mins into the village for a look around, a visit to the pub and some shopping, in that order and walked home in 9C and slight drizzle. That (both) have continued all afternoon as we have some nice curried cauliflower soup made by Lady P and attempt to catch up with admin stuff.

For some Irish reason, the heating here comes on at 6.00 pm and goes off at 9.00 pm. As a result the mornings and afternoons are, to be sure, very cold. Flashy uses the pointy end of a paring knife to adjust said timer to 4.30 pm to 10.00 pm and again from 7.00 am to 10.00 am. Ooh toasty now.

Lady P, using sandstone rocks from the fields as weights for her gym routine

Cute lambs in the paddocks. Now they don't shear here, so the lambs...?

A flash bridge on the way to Ashford

Our new kitchen. Our host is a part time professional cook, so her kitchen is a joy!

Modern AAA rated homes down the road that look like, so they say, Russian prisons. I don't know about that but they are pretty boring.