Marty

Time for me to go to bed. Good night, gang.

Where I live I am 92 m (302 ft) above sea level and, in a straight line, about 15 miles (24 kilometres) from the Atlantic.

Living at the altitude you do, I would assume you'd not have to worry about potato blight... The highest point on the whole island of Ireland, is a mountain in County Kerry, called Carrauntoohil. It's 3,407 ft above sea level (or 1,038.6 metres), which means you're over 1,500 feet higher.

I thought the potatoes were in containers (wash baskets, did you say?). Couldn't you move those out of the greenhouse? Or are you still expecting frosts?

Usually they are, due to the influence of the warm gulf stream off the Atlantic Coast. But I have experienced a couple of winters when the temperature has dropped below -10°C (14°F).

I assume you mean the wall, clo (not walk). It will, indeed! And it's a south facing wall, so it is facing the sun. Something I'd like eventually would be to build a lean-to greenhouse attached to that wall...

It probably hasn't, Albert. The old woman who it belonged to is dead for about ten years, and was ninety years old when she died. But it's good, rich soil, with plenty of roots and worms in it, so it seems healthy enough. Just real hard work turning it over this time, after probably not having been properly tended for 25 years or more! But it's a labour of love, and I'm enjoying myself.

A view from the other direction:

And I'm still digging my new the vegetable plot.

The nurse in my doctor's office phoned me early last week, asking for my permission to pass the results of my blood tests from the end of February to the Diabetic Clinic. with whom an appointment that had been made for me to visit on 24th April had obviously been cancelled. The same nurse rang me back late in the day of the 24th, to say that the clinician in the clinic was more than pleased with the results, and for me to continue with my standard medication. The nurse also told me that the doctor's surgery is still open, and stressed that if I needed to see him to give his office a call. What she also said was that I would have to also ring from outside when I got there, and to wait outside, as currently they are not allowing patients to wait in the waiting room. All sounds perfectly sensible to me. My biggest worry is what would happen if the doctor got infected. We often don't realise just how essential healthcare workers are, what risks they must be facing at the moment, and just what this may be doing for their own mental health.

And I assume he doesn't do house calls?

For social isolation, covid-19 reasons, I assume? Are you able to ring your doctor, and at least describe the symptoms?

That may answer my question from a few comments ago, but it wasn't the answer I was hoping for. I'm really sorry to hear that, Gary. Perhaps it's time to seek some professional advice...? ❤️

Could possibly have been. I also wondered if it may have been sleeping quarters for a servant or servants in the main, bigger house (which is right beside it)...

Hey, Gary! Hope the neck pains are easing off for you.

Hi, clo! Hope you also have a nice day.

Good morning, young Albert. I'm just in from the garden having a snack. Reasonably sunny day here, if a little cooler than it has been. But the temperatures are promised to impove over the next few days. Hope all's well with you

Happy Saturday, gang!

Smells are like sounds in a way... Unless either is extremely loud or obnoxious, once they become familiar they often stop being noticed.

I don't know if it will ever be finished, but I can see the upper part of the cottage becoming a self contained apartment, with the larger room being the living area, and the smaller room a bedroom. You may notice there's a blocked up fireplace on the dividing wall between the two rooms. There appears never to have been a staircase leading from the ground floor rooms, which makes me suspect that originally the ground floor was used for housing livestock which, in the winter months, would have helped heat the living quarters above. This, I have read, was a common practice in rural Ireland in days gone by. There is no doorway between the two downstairs rooms, and nor does it appear that there ever was. The only thing that confuses me about this is that there is actually a fireplace in the smaller room. It's really quite a small room, with originally just one small window, so why it (and not the larger downstairs room) needed a fireplace is not immediately clear. I actually know one of the daughters (through a camera club) of the old woman who last owned this place. That daughter is around my age, and was actually reared in the main residence. So, once the social distancing restrictions are over and the camera club can meet again, I may ask her if she knows anything about the history of the old cottage.

Well said, my friend!

Beautiful, Gary! ❤️ Stay upright You mad old fool. And scream and sing, And be that king.

Here's my week 5 offering of my challenge to upload a new black and white photograph every week for 52 weeks. Taken yesterday, it's a view of the inside of the upper story of the old cottage. You'll notice light coming in through the left hand side of the roof. That's because of the missing slate that I mentioned last week. There's also a slate missing, and one broken, in the far room on the same side of the roof. The roof timbers themselves don't look to be in too bad a shape, so initially I'm planning to just get the missing and damaged slates replaced, just to make the roof watertight. The ceiling looks a mess, but it should be easy enough to strip all the loose ceiling slats that are hanging down (easy, but potentially very messy). Most of the mess on the floor is the old plaster from the walls. If you think it looks bad in this photograph, you should have seen how bad it was before I swept the most of it out!

Hi, Page. All good here, thanks. Yourself?

Well, here in Ireland Friday's almost over, so I'll not bother with a Happy Friday image this time. I got a text to say that my monthly prescription was ready to be picked up, so I drove the twenty miles to collect it, and managed to buy some fresh provisions as well. Yay! Next Tuesday (5th May) the Irish Government were due to start lifting some of the social distancing restrictions that have been in place for over a month now, but the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) announced this evening that the decision has been made to keep them in place until Monday 18th May, when they will start to be lifted in 3 weeks phases. The only slight lifting on Tuesday will be to allow people to exercise within 5 kilometres of their home (it had previously been 3 kilometres), and to allow the over 70's to leave their homes and gardens to exercise within 5 km of home. If there is a significant increase in covid-19 cases during any of the planned phases, there will be a stepping back of the restrictions. He said school's and colleges will not reopen before the start of the new academic year starting in September (schools) or October (colleges). I'm sure that will please some of my friends' children, although I can see many of the parents not being so pleased... One thing he said will reopen on 18th May will be garden centres and hardware shops. So I know where I shall be going on that day! All in all, I think the Government are making the right choices...