Rowan Tree and Red Thread

I haven't posted in a while. Partly due to a brief visit to Dublin to touch base with family and friends and partly due to generally fuzzy-headedness on my part.

Dublin was good. We saw lots of friends, and threw an extended birthday party for sammywol, which went nicely. We combined an afternoon party with kids and brownies with a later party with wine and more brownies.

We also discovered the playground at Malahide Castle and boy was that a good find. It's a really well done playground with a good mix of apparatus for little 'uns and bigger kids. Rowan played with D, the eldest daughter of B, the friend who recommended the place to us, until she was exhausted. Oscar even managed to pod about the various pieces with great enjoyment despite his great envy of the big girls and their acts of derring-do.

My mother did the baby-sitting thing too, so sammywol and I got a quiet dinner for two in a nice Italian restaurant round the corner in Ranelagh, which was a lovely way to celebrate sammywol's birthday.

We got home on Wednesday after a night-time drive that left the kids sleeping most of the way. It's the only way to travel.

Back to work tomorrow. Sigh.