Just a perfect day ....

... drink sangria in the park! Now there's a thought! (ignore the annoying short ad to start with)
The sun has been shining! This was taken at 9 this morning when the sky was a blazing blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Everything is bursting forth including this rather magnificent 'Autumn flowering' cherry!
Haziness and warmth followed and I grizzled as I did a spot of work at home first thing - far far too nice to be inside but things were achieved. At school in the afternoon and still too nice to be in, so we went out sketching. Thankfully in Ireland you can still take children out without a million consent forms being necessary and enjoy something educational on the spur of the moment. We did detailed drawings of the poor old school, now much delapidated, then went over to the church and sat in the grass and drew that - wonderful.
After school I was whisked off to look at a parent's ringfort - an offer I couldnt refuse. As a chat up line that works for me!! It was a much eroded fort now encircled by the ubiquitous monterey pines. Ceridwen asked where those came from - several stories abound. One theory is that a local teacher acquired loads of cones and gave them to his pupils with the instructions to plant them, which they did. Noel told me that the cones came from Ahakista house, now Graham Norton's home, when it was a hotel and people just helped themselves. Whatever is true, and it's probably a jumble of both stories, they're everywhere.
Himself had strimmed the hill at the back of the house so I rounded up the day's activities with a bit of raking and heaping and clearing around trees.
It's all looking rather fine.