Tintern Abbey

As my sister has related, we had a relaxing and interesting first day of my short stay in Ireland. It was lovely to be taken around and not to have to make any decisions or do anything more dramatic than just walk myself around the various sights we visited.

My arrival in Ireland on Friday evening was not exactly auspicious. The flight was late, thus obviously inconveniencing neatwithice and W, who had offered to come and meet me, and then when I was walking along the interminable airport corridors to the exit, I experienced a sharp pain in my left foot as if I had twisted my ankle or wrenched my foot. A muscle pain, I guess, but no reason for it at all. I hadn't missed my footing. The only explanation I can find is that I hadn't tightened up my sandals. I hobbled to the exit, looking forward to sitting down in the car and hoping that it would go away on its own. Unfortunately it didn't, and hasn't, and persists somewhat now (Sunday morning - back blipping), and worse was to come. I've been having quite a lot of cramp in my left leg at night, and I had about 5 bouts of it on Friday night, the first of which was so painful I could almost cry. It shot down my leg into my foot, meeting the pain in the foot on the way, and was unbearably painful. That all made for a rather interrupted night of sleep.

Despite that, I was a bit more refreshed and felt less buggy in the morning, and felt ready for a tour around the house and the garden (all looking great), whilst W was tending to Husky the lawnmower. And even more ready for a tour of some of the sights of South East Ireland, as my sister has related. For the record we visited Tintern Abbey and Colclough Gardens, where we purchased the locally made cider and saw from afar what is apparently a rare 16th Century bridge (see first extra). I busied myself in Colclough gardens taking pictures of things I fancied for the garden, although obviously the difference in scale between our wee walled garden at the front and their enormous garden for flowers, vegetables and an orchard is somewhat stark. But I loved this verbascum (mullein) set against the backdrop of the Abbey Walls (in the car park) (second extra) and the clouds of Filipendula rubra (third extra). All good ideas for our wee garden.

We then stopped off for some lunch at a pub, before visiting Hook Lighthouse and finally the Temple Church. To conclude we came over the ferry to Passage East and drove through the centre of Waterford, which looks interesting, before heading home, picking up strawberries and raspberries from roadside booths on the way.

It was snacks for dinner, before I - for one - beat an early retreat to bed, still very much needing my rest.