Only two weeks till we fly to London to catch up with family – very excited!! Two days later we fly back to Oz. It will be so strange! Life is still pretty quiet at Mourne Park. Frodo continues to keep us on our toes – still rolls in fox poo at every opportunity. Spends quite a bit of time in the bath – he’ll follow you upstairs and even to the bathroom door but takes off when you turn on the tap and call his name. All part of the fun!
Maurey is in one of the horse stalls at the moment nursing a pulled leg muscle. It’s a bit of a long story! We have another horse – Pepper – staying here for a while. Both horses were very excited when Pepper arrived – heaps of neighing, bucking, and racing each other around the field. Unfortunately not ideal for an older horse. Found Maurey limping badly the next morning. He’s improved quite quickly – can weight bare now and seems to be relatively pain free. It was awful to see him in so much pain initially and leg injuries can be very tricky for horses. I was worried!! Pepper refused to stay in the field without Maurey so spent some time in a neighbouring stall until things calmed down. He’s now outside in the field again and has settled in well.
Chris has been in the kitchen – yes, a big shock to everyone!! He was determined to make “Stoke Oat Cakes”. He comes from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England – they’re a local tradition and he’s been missing them heaps! A bit like “Yorkshire Pudding” or “Irish Soda Bread” I guess. People get attached – they identify things with home. I must admit he did a great job and the oat cakes are very yummy!! We had them two days in a row and Chris – now the drought has been broken – is threatening to make them every weekend. No complaints from this end!
I’ve had another go on the ride on mower!!!! Very hard to get a turn – not easy separating the boys from their toys. Still lots of chainsawing happening – we’re using heaps of firewood. The big chainsaw is back in action so trees that were once deemed too big are now back on the radar. Finding fallen trees or branches are part of the excitement here. Shows how much we need to broaden our horizons. I guess that’ll be happening pretty soon!
We had a great walk the other day – over to the other side of the river. The land belongs to Marion’s sister so not really our territory but we’re allowed access for walks. Great to see more of the countryside. We went further upstream than we’d been before – a real adventure. We used an old wooden bridge to cross the river and some rather slippery stepping stones to navigate a little side stream – a bit scary. We then followed a track up to a beautiful tree lined ridge – sheep farms on one side, views down to the river and over to Knockchree Mountain on the other. Hugging the edge of the ridge was one of the old stone boundary walls of Mourne Park – so much character. Northern Ireland is such a beautiful country!! We’ve had some great sunsets of late and a few very crisp frosty winter mornings. Still hoping for some more snow………..
Love
Di and Reg
This entry was posted in House Sits, Mourne Park (2), Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Lovely photos, again. Our ties to N.I. keep getting stronger – there were FOUR Irish folk in church on Sunday (and that’s not counting Peter, who’s in Florida for the winter!) Much love to you both,
The NI takeover continues!! We’ll be back in Europe latish June – look forward to catching up again. Love to everyone xxxx