Ian in hospital

I'm off to Dublin tomorrow to extract Ian from his hospital tests. So far he seems to have had lots of visits from consultants and dieticians and the main aim now is to get him to gain 1 pound a week in weight. To do that he has to consume 1,000 extra calories per day. These will be given to him by a liquid that is more digestable than the milk-shake like substance he was trying to us in the last few weeks. The general concensus is that he will gradually get better. If he isn't considerably improved by September the main consultant will do something further.

So, another week is nearly gone by. Summer has gone away and I'm tempted to put on the central heating. With any luck it will come back by the time we go on holidays as I really need to have a bit of warmth as well as relaxation.

I've just eaten a lovely mixed salad - lettuces of various kinds, rocket, nasturtium flowers, eggs, onions, walnuts, salami, tomatoes (not mine yet), anchovies, wild garlic dressing. Now I am going to head to watch Wimbledon on TV and read the Limerick Leader and Irish Times.

Saturday

Woke up 7.20am; got myself a cup of coffee while letting dogs out; went back up to bed and read "Which?"; dressed; dug up potato plants that have planted themselves and replaced them with seedling broccoli plants; talked to tomatoes (they're doing well, but they do need some talking to every day!); opened windows in greenhouse; ate some muesli; did bits and pieces.

10am-ish went shopping; first bought Grauniad in Lees; then disposed of bottles in nearby bottle-bank in new housing estate; Lidl was next, to buy air pumps they had on special offer; Superquinn and health food shop were fairly quick to get through; realised I'd forgotten to buy tickets for The Panel in University Concert Hall so went back there, to find that the ticket office wasn't open; then home at about 11.45. No sign of Szymon, who had promised to be there to sand and varnish the front door at 10am, but he turned up at about 1 o'clock, just as we were about to ring him to give out.

Ian and I walked the dogs at some stage. I had spent some time cutting Goldie's hair beforehand so he looked very neat as he walked along. I picked elderflowers and have made some cordial with them. It has to sit for 24 hours so I don't know how it will turn out yet.

It's been a very warm day, making me feel nice and lazy. Ian is heading into town soon to have a meal with Clare and Rion in Luigi Malones. Clare is off to Oz next week so it is her au revoir meal. b is preparing a salady meal for us with salad freshly picked from the garden. I'm managing to get something out of it every day, even though some days it is just a bit of parsley.

Rhododendrons

Photos

If you click on the flowers to the right it should bring you to the rest of the house and garden photos, but you may have to endure other photos as well as I can't work how to link only to the ones I want to show yet.

Watch this space

Later in the day I intend to put up photos of my greenhouse and my growing garden. We have a salad glut at the moment so I'm trying to persuade b that we should eat salads every day. I still have very high hopes for my tomatoes. I've had to move some of them out of the greenhouse as there isn't enough space for them all, and some prefer to grow outdoors.

Yesterday b and I went to Youghal and took a boat trip up the River Blackwater. The trip normally only goes about 45 minutes up the river and then returns. b, however, persuaded him to go the full navigable length so we were on the boat for over 4 hours. He wanted to take photos of quaysides and anything that would be useful for his book. It's an unusual waterway as there are quite a number of huge old houses and castles along it, mostly still actively occupied. The finest is at the end, Lismore Castle, but we couldn't quite reach it in the boat. The houses are currently occupied by either multi-millionaire Irish people, or foreigners who have invested in a pad in Ireland. The river is very wide and ideal for occupations such as waterskiing - there were some people doing this, though generally it was deserted.

The day had started beautifully sunny and we enjoyed the journey to Youghal via the Vee Gap. Rhododendrons were in flower everywhere, with great purple swathes. I'll post a photo of them too.

Ian stayed at home as he was due to go to see a film, but Clare wasn't able to go as she had to feed her siblings. He walked the dogs, and it was strange to have a day where we didn't have to mind the dogs at every turn.

Talking of dogs, Goldie has got very stiff. He finds it hard to get up the steps on the way back home via the Castle Oaks and has to take it very slowly. He still loves his walks, though, and barks crazily to remind us to bring him.

More, in photos, later....