Just Back from a Walk

I've just been out for a nice long walk. It's the first day that the sun has actually shone all day and it's been dry. Of course, it's plenty cold as there was a hard frost last night. There is still ice in the remaining puddles here and there, but it's a beautiful day and now that it's almost sunset, the light is a warm yellow.

I went to Pilates this morning but will likely not be going back as the class has moved into the advanced phase and I'm not ready for that--and, more to the point, neither is my body. At least I've now picked up Aquafit again so there will be that and walking. This afternoon I walked up to the woods at the end of Strowan Road, cut through the woods to cross a burbling burn (stream) and turned right to walk the well-trodden path that runs between the burn and an old dry stone wall that borders a farm field where cows were lowing. I came out at the top of Cowden Road, turned right again and headed down the block and a half to Dalginross where I picked up a companion. Helen Rae hailed me as she was coming back from a wee walk of her own. She walked the rest of the way with me back to the house. By that time, it had been half an hour for both of us. Now, only 4 more walks to fit in this week.

The really brilliant news is that I have lost another 3 lbs so that's a total of 7 in 6 days. Today I was able to fasten the jeans I couldn't fasten on December 31st.

Another piece of great news is that Don's knee continues to do a bit better. He went out to play golf with Gordon this morning and got along okay. Now he's away at the St. Fillans Music Society program.

The photo above was not taken during my walk this afternoon. This is a hardware store and pub (interesting combination!) in Dingle. I took the photo to show you how colourful the buildings in Dingle can be. What I didn't realize until I downloaded the photo is that a bird was flying past just as I snapped the shot. You know I couldn't have done that if I set out to, no matter how hard I tried. (Remember you can enlarge the photo if you double click on it.)

Only one day during our week in Dingle did it rain so much that we didn't get to do any sight-seeing (other than to walk around the town a bit). That was Wednesday the 3rd. Boris and Kay took a walk in the morning along the harborfront but it just felt too cold and raw to Don and me so we stayed in and read. In the afternoon, it looked a wee bit clearer and so we piled into the car and drove out the peninsula to see a small promontory fort called Dun Beag ("little fort") but it was so wet and mucky that we wouldn't have had a very easy walk down to it--nor a very pleasant one in the windy wet weather, so we drove right back to Dingle. We went to the Tourist Information place across the road from John Benny's Pub and arranged our hotel room in Shannon for the night of the 7th. We also walked to the Chart House Restaurant, a very nice place, and booked a table for Friday night.

Then we all went back up to the cottage and had quiet time with drinks and nibbles. When we had been at Edna's on Tuesday, I carefully watched Aodan's fire-building technique and decided to try my hand. (Boris had bought some kindling and peat and had been lighting our fires but, like the rest of us, didn't have much experience with building peat fires.) I am proud to say I built a grand fire which kept us warm, or at least warmer, until it was time to go to dinner.

We had dinner at a nearby hotel and then went back to John Benny's Pub to listen to John Benny (accordian and vocals), Eilis Kennedy (flute, whistle, and vocals), and another fellow (on guitar and vocals). It was some of the best music of the week. Eilis has a lovely warm voice which is perfectly suited to Irish music, both traditional and more contemporary, as well as the occasional pop tune.

The musicians set up in the middle area of the pub and we managed to get a seat next to the coal-fired stove and across from the musicians. Eilis's brother-in-law, John Hagerty (provost of Trinity College), joined us. Later, we were joined by two young American women on a break from college touring together around Ireland. One was from Colorado and the other was from Tennessee. They were delightful company. Don went up to the bar to get drinks and came back with a fellow we had seen in the pub the night before, who just happened to be from Buffalo, so he joined us too. The pub was packed and the music was terrific. It was perhaps the best night in Dingle.

We had heard the weather would clear starting the next day so we planned our big excursion--to the Ring of Kerry--for Thursday. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.