On Friday night we stayed overnight in Winnie's house as Lilian was taking a "Precept" class in Carryduff.
Rick and Katie arrived with Reuben. He enjoyed roaming about in the garden.

Friday night was Pearl's birthday so we all went out to "James Street South" for an excellent meal. Lilian was still "glowing" from the walk in the Gobbins earlier in the day.

Friday was our day off so we went geocaching down to "The Gobbins" in Islandmagee.
Turned out to be a scorching day. Beautiful here watching the sun sparkle off the sea and listening to the birds.
Had a picnic in the peace a quiet and lay down and dozed in the shade.

On the way back we stopped at "The Rinkha" for an ice cream

Some of the men in the church went off for a "Quiet Day" in the Mournes on Saturday. We arrived down at the home of Ken and Eva Needham in the heart of the Mourne Mountains who facilitate such events.


After coffee they led us through some reflective exercises and some thoughts from Judges chapter 6. We then retired to various spots around the house and garden for our own private times of reflection and prayer. Beautifully quiet and calm up here and we all felt the benefit of this time out.
They then provided lunch for us and we headed up into the hills for a walk. It was pretty misty on Saturday and we didn't walk too far but it was good to get out in the air, and the craic was good!








We arrived back to the Needham's place later in the afternoon for coffee and then we headed home, stopping at "Rick's" in Carryduff for a meal.

Interesting light in Carrick one evening during the week.
Went down to the front and took some pictures of the castle

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise!

Monday was the May Bank Holiday and I took it off. Rick and Katie arrived, pretty miffed that they left Ballymena in blazing sunshine to hit a misty day as they drove into Carrickfergus.
Reuben needed a sleep and so we put him down for an hour while we had a cup of coffee.

When he woke we decided to go for a walk on Woburn Woods.

We could see that the heat from the sun was gradually clearing the mist away and sure enough the sun broke through to give us a beautiful day.

Had a picnic and let Reuben roam about for a bit to tire himself out and then headed back home.

Reuben fell asleep in the buggy.

Spent the afternoon in the garden.

We made a Moroccan lemon chicken dish with olives and couscous which was delicious.

Another nice day. We are so blessed.

Day off on Friday so we went for a walk along the Gobbins path from whitehead to Blackhead lighthouse and back. Lovely warm sunny day and great to be outside again. Futtered in the garden in the afternoon. So all in all it turned out to be a great relaxing day off

On Sunday Carl and Mavis arrived for lunch.

Carl and I decided to go down to the harbour in Mavis' new mini, (much bigger and roomier than the origional mini which we owned in the 70's!)

Had a look around the boats and chatted with some of the guys doing a bit of scraping and anti-fouling.