Visitors, part two

After finishing the visa application, I resumed shoveling gravel into a wheelbarrow and humping it to the back garden, where I used it to create a border garden (covering exposed dirt that Paddy was tracking into the house). Roughly 1.75 tonnes. Not kidding. Probably 35 wheelbarrow loads.

Then I cleaned the house from top to bottom, did laundry, arranged flowers, etc. Then welcomed my former work colleague Emily and her partner Catherine for a visit. They arrived on a Saturday evening and we went down Ards peninsula for a meal on the edge of Strangford Lough. Next day, an hour's drive to Dunluce Castle, a 5 mile walk to Giant's Causeway, a visit to Ballintoy Harbour, Ballycastle, and, beginning at 4 pm, the 2.5 hour drive down the Antrim Coast. It was a very long day.

Catherine took this photo of me lying on top of a cliff overlooking Giant's Causeway. I replied by email: Does this photo make my butt look giant?

Day two was Mount Stewart, the ferry from Portaferry to Strangford, then Castle Ward, with its Game of Thrones/Winterfell setting. They toured both houses and the gardens and got a taste of life in the grand houses in the 1800s and early 1900s. Day three was Titanic Museum and the public records office, where Emily researched her father's family. Here is a photo of us in the back garden. Notice the lovely bed of Irish river pebble (did I mention 1.75 tonnes), and some of the 15 clay pots I've planted to have a Paddy-proof garden.

They left Wednesday morning and I worked Weds-Friday for Climate Action, with my steering committee meeting Thursday night. Today is Saturday, 13 July. And I am resisting the urge to go to a swing dance tonight so I can sit still and read the paper. Because that just seems like the right thing to do.

Early July