A potpourri of wonderfulness

Today is Easter Monday. It's a bank holiday. Most stores are closed but the fun was allowed to carry on. And it did.

We had booked a 1:40 pm tee time at Borris Golf Club. It came highly recommended by the barman at Bunclody. Rather than just sitting around all morning we decided to go by way of Leighlinbridge and the Arboretum garden centre. No - we didn't want to buy any plants, but the location is good, they have a great café and a pretty garden walk with fantastical versions of common animals.

Google is our new best friend, getting us everywhere, usually on very scenic (read narrow and twisting) routes. Today we chose to use the main roads. It took longer but was a nice change.

Arriving at the Arboretum we selected our lunch - bowls of yummy Leek and Potato Soup, and we shared a small portion of quiche made with bacon and brie and accompanied by a green salad and a green bean and squash salad. Like you care what we ate. Sorry. But at least I didn't take a photo of our lunch. After a brief wander along the garden walk, we hustled back inside to get warm. The threat of some sunshine had not yet materialized. That would come later.

From there it was off to Borris golf club for our game. There is no pro shop, you sign in at the bar. Green fee plus electric cart was €35 each. No, we are not too lazy to walk. The course that had looked flat in the preview pictures we saw, turned out to have lots of hills and nary a single flat lie. So we got the buggy as the carts are called and were very grateful to have done so.

I'm pointing to the aqueduct - can you see it? Click on the picture to make it bigger.

This is a 9-hole course that you go around twice, using different tee blocks on each nine. Sounds simple enough. Well, believe me, the cart was useful for reconnaissance missions to find the next tee block after putting on every green. Holes cross over each other. Sometimes the red tees were ahead of the whites and blues and sometimes they were farther back, or off to the side, or hiding between bushes. At one point it was very frustrating trying to find our next tee. 

However, I was hitting pretty well, more or less in the direction we had decided was the right one, the views were spectacular, the course was in pretty good shape and on each hole we eventually found each subsequent tee that we sought. The greens were really slow and it was hard to whack the ball hard enough with the putter, but it's a good problem to have. The back nine was accomplished more easily with all holes played in order.throughout

It was chilly throughout the round. We had sunshine, we had a bit of moisture from above, but mercifully little wind. Some black clouds looked very threatening but donning the rain pants I'd just taken off, had them scuttling away again.

After our round, we were able to use the high-pressure air hoses to clean our golf shoes and that saved a lot of messy digging out around the soft spikes. Now they're good to go for our game at Coollattin tomorrow.

We went into the bar to return the buggy key and there was a group of ladies, probably the ladies' committee, who chatted with us. The barman, Mick, was great. He poured Pat a nice Guinness and made me a cappucino. I bought a bottle of local organic honey for Ann Byrne the next time we see her.

Mick told us about the area and said we really must go to St Mullins. I'd heard of it but there are so many pretty spots that I'd never visited before. Off we went with Ms. Google's voice telling us where to go. 

It was more than worth the visit. Such a pretty little cafe down by the Barrow river next to an old flour mill. I think that the other side of the river was Co Kilkenny. We shared a pizza for our supper, Pat quaffed an O'Hara's IPA and I had more water. That's my drink du jour, chaque jour. The picture is not especially flattering and the ale is not mine, but here I am chowing down on a slice of Hawaiian Pizza - what other kind would you order in Ireland? It was Irish ham. 

Yummy Irish Hawaiian pizza at St Mullin's

From the sign you'll know exactly where we are

Along the Barrow River at St Mullin's

There was a group of canoeists who ended their journey on the Barrow about 50 ft from our picnic table. I'm not sure if it was a tour or a regular club activity. 

Ms. Google was once again called upon to lead us home and she didn't disappoint. She brought us right by Aldi where we updated our supply of chocolate and picked up more milk for our morning coffee. I suppose she would have led us on the same route anyway, but a little part of me wonders if she's listening as we chat in the car, and when we talked about chocolate she made sure our happiness quotient would be topped up. Either way, we're content.

Now we're home and settled in for the evening. Not much nightlife which suits me just fine. The local pubs are only open on weekends due to reduced numbers of patrons, at least for now. I do sympathize with the publicans for the loss of business caused by the pandemic.

That's it for now. Weather is somewhat promising for tomorrow. We'll be golfing anyway.