Sunday Thoughts

Happy Sunday! After some very hot days we are back to the rain. It’s a shame as I was going to head off exploring this morning. I had a failed attempt at exploring yesterday, thanks to Google maps, I have a love hate relationship with those maps.

I was looking for the Callow Lake Loop Walk. It’s between Swinford and Foxford. All was going well until Google maps took me up one of the narrowest lanes that I’ve ever driven on; grass in the middle of the road and overgrown hedgerows – thankfully I didn’t meet another car! There was a lovely view over the lake, but I didn’t get the walk I was hoping for. The car was beeping like a mad yoke (it’s oversensitive – a bit like me!), so I gave up and headed to Swinford.

I had a little walk in Swinford, I visited The Butterfly Garden, it’s a beautiful space, and you can read more about it here. I also had a little walk around Brabazon Woods, the destruction left by the winter storms are still evident. My next stop was Tesco, the Swinford store is huge, and there’s a massive carpark, so no hoping for a space like the Sligo branch. I had a walk around Swinford town too, there are a few nice shops there, and a few charity shops too, although I find that charity shops have got very expensive these days. I’m not going to pay €50 for a second-hand dress.

The rest of the week has been good. We had our day trip to Stansted on Thursday. It was lovely to do something different, and you can read all about it here. It has made me think about the trip I’d promised myself to visit an island and see the puffins though. We hit a bit of turbulence on the plane, and I realised there’s no way I’d comfortably do a boat trip. As much as I’d love to see puffins, I can’t put myself through being on a small boat going across the wild, open sea. I don’t like boats much anyway, and I still have trauma from the journey to Inismurray Island. You can read about that trip too.

I had my blood test on Tuesday, I’m now on Folic Acid and Vitamin D. I don’t know the exact results yet, but I’ll find out next week.

Another interesting thing this week. I went for an iced coffee, I went to a place that I don’t usually go to, and there were no prices up of the cold drinks. I was charged 50 cent extra for the ice. That’s a new one on me!

I’m just home from a lovely catch-up with a friend, and I got a bit of exploring in too. I went to The Holy Well, it’s so peaceful there, and very lovely even in the rain. I also visited The Gnomes of Union Wood in Ballisodare too, there’s a least one new gnome since I was there last. You can read about the walk here, including directions of how to get there.

I’m not sure if I’ve said that I’m not accepting press releases anymore. I used to post any of relevance that I received, but in recent months I’m noticed events happening that I haven’t been invited to, even though I’ve been asked to share press releases. It’s been very much a one-way street, and even though I probably wouldn’t go to the event, it would be nice to be asked. So, there’s no press releases from now on. Although if it’s a case that a company would like to sponsor the blog or the podcast that would be a different matter. I’m open to sponsorship, some of the podcasts and adventures take me a while to get to, and the money would go towards petrol. If there’s anyone out there who would like to know more, you can send me an email: valrobus@gmail.com

Thanks to all of you who read the blog, it’s always appreciated.