Easter Saturday and Sunday

Amazing Easter weather. Woke to clear sunny skies and ground frost both yesterday and today.  Yesterday the first priority was to  get to Centra at the same time as the delivery from the woodfired bakery. The choice was a walnut loaf and a wholemeal.

Next we had been offered some chests and storage baskets, so round to collect them. Diedre and Owen had a roomful of items from Diedre's mother's house and offered to loan anything that could be useful. We've now a large saucepan and two garden director's chairs as well. It is great to have unpacked the suitcases - or most of them - into the chests of drawers and to have been able to clear what was on the kitchen counters into the baskets. And to sit out in the sun in the director's chairs for coffee and hot cross buns. Everyone is very, very kind.

On Cloughjordan main street there was a small street market - just three stalls with home baked soda bread and cakes, jams, local cheese, fresh vegetables and plants - blackcurrant bushes, herbs, lettuce. So frustrating to be in limbo and having to hold off from starting an allotment.

The children were part of the 'clean village' day, picking up litter, the best team winning a choclate bunnies but with plenty of eggs and sweets for the runners up (and passers by) too.

After  a woodfired baked walnut loaf-based lunch and the weekend papers, off the find Fairymount Hill for a walk and a view. the directions wer take the road to Knockanacree Wood but go straight on. We were looking for a hill with a big cross on top (the country is gently rolling) and did eventually find it. In a week or so the walk up through the woods will be a mass of bluebells.  At the summit, the  views were worth the climb - Lough Derg out to the west.

Easter Sunday, yet another gorgeous day. Set out for the Silvermine Mountains the other side of Nenagh for a 4.5 km loop walk in a brisk chilly wind. Silvermines was packed with the cars of people at the Easter Sunday morning service when we returned but we didn't find a much needed coffee shop and headed for Dromineer on the eastern shore of Lough Derg. Great coffee in the Lake Cafe then another 9.6 km loop walk, part of the Lough Derg way, partly on country roads and a short stretch across fields by the lake shore.

Arriving home, Met Duncan on his way to see us with more on the meeting last Thursday which he attended. He reiterated that the village sewage system put into operation two months ago has now had all its problems sorted and is now working. From next week he will be taking daily readings of the dissolved oxygen in the discharge. Quite how the authorities will view these - acceptable or not adequate- and how many months readings they will require is not clear. Offered to help any way we could (paperwork etc) but there does not seem to be much we can do.

Tomorrow we meet with Liam, hopefully we can plan a strategy for a meeting with the planner the week after Easter.