The marriage of Strongbow and Aoife

Ooh, well thanks very much to everyone for the love shown to my anniversary blip yesterday. Much appreciated. I don't often make the front o the popular page.

I had to retreat to bed early yesterday evening, as I was coughing almost uncontrollably and I hate to do that around other people. Luckily I slept much better than the night before and woke up feeling reasonably human and coughing much less. Today has been much better in the coughing department and generally I feel fine, although my ears are still bunged up with catarrh so hearing people can be a challenge.

This morning, neatwithice and I walked around Dunbrody Forest and up to Lacken hilltop which is the site of a rebel 1798 encampment. It made for a very pleasant walk indeed. I've added some foxgloves as an extra.

After lunch, we all headed into Waterford and visited the Medieval Waterford Museum, which was very interesting, from a historical perspective and also in terms of understanding what the impact of the invasion of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell and his forces would have been. Outside the rebuilt Christ Church Cathedral and Bishop's Palace we happened across the statues of Strongbow and Aoife.

On the way back, we thought of going to a pub garden for some sunny drinks, but in the end it worked out much better just to come back to base, and have drinks and then dinner on patio, in really very pleasant conditions.

After yesterday being a bit of a washout, in both weather and health terms, it was good to have a great last day in south east Ireland.