Reporting from... Northern Ireland for the weekend. This is my first trip to Ireland, if you don't count a twelve hour layover in Dublin a few years ago, so everything seems new and different.
We're here for an orienteering festival and after our races we went out in the sunshine to explore the local area a bit.
The countryside is gently rolling, green hills divided into fields by stone walls and hedgerows. Farmhouses, barns, sheep, trees in bloom. Somehow it doesn't look anything like Scotland.
In all directions the green hills rise and fall like swells on a vast sea.
Each little farm or cluster of houses nestles in its own private valley or hillside, out of sight of its neighbors. It seems exceedingly pleasant and habitable.
Ruined mansions and craggy ruined towers exist side by side with glaringly new housing developments.
In the sand dunes today, I walked over violets and primroses. With the smell of the sea.
I saw drystone walls made with round boulders. Through the gaps the sea sparkled.
We visited an iron age ring fort hidden in trees and a Victorian folly built on the wall of a river gorge.
I'm thoroughly exhausted but we've got another two days to go!
I hope you all have a wonderful long, relaxing and peaceful weekend.
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