It's not that we're in the market for fleas... or for that matter, car boots, but the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the sky was blue - so we had to go somewhere! We started out locally, just 20 minutes away in Blessington. We figure it's rude and thoughtless not to buy anything when people have gone to the trouble to get up at the crack of dawn in freezing temperatures and cart their stuff to a freezing car park - so ended up with a sparkly pair o...

Two weeks has flitted by seemingly in the blink of an eye. We drove north to Wicklow in the space of a two and a half hours, dropped our ever-increasing luggage at our friends place then motored into Dublin to return the rental car. Never quite such a feeling of relief as we have returning a rental car in one piece and not getting fleeced by the car company for any real or imagined damage. Phew! Back to our base in tiny Crehelp (near Dunlavin, which is near Bles...

The time has come (as the walrus says very frequently in our case). After a couple of months exploring the lower south-east coast and even fitting in a road trip to the west coast - we're off! Before we hit the road to Co. Wicklow we had one final local beauty spot to check out - The Cunnigar. This is a longer finger of sand stretching across Dungarvan harbour. The beach itself was massive when we first arrived, but as the tide encroached we ended up on the hig...

A long while back (January 2015) we visited the Hook Peninsula and drove the Ring of Hook when Joan was here for James's 50th birthday. It seems hard to believe that was only two and a half years ago - so much water under so many foreign bridges since then. When we last visited, it was so wild and woolly that massive waves and piles of sea foam were crashing over the walls - and freezing cold. The thought of traipsing up 115 spiral steps to the top of a draughty...

Today we visited a little-known local beauty spot with our friends Judy and Elizabeth (and of course - all the dogs). Everyone was excited and must admit Lough Morah, a small mountain lake, is very picturesque on a sunny day. We had salad rolls and coffee and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine while the dogs took the opportunity to go for a swim and run about joyously sniffing everything and anything. Definitely not on the beaten track - so we were surprised whe...