Tag: cycling

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Back to school with bangers

Blackberries and green beans from our own garden

September is closer to New Year in my mind. I have been invigorated by the summer sunshine or certainly the summer light but there is a change in the air. A few tiny leaves waft to the ground. It’s not warm in the morning. There is a tinge of golden appearing on the trees. The smells are damper, edged with decay.

I freaking LOVE Autumn. I am full of the joys of Autumn. I love the excessively bright days where skies seem crazy blue when contrasted to the oranges, yellows and browns of the trees. I love blackberry picking.

With all this joy I feel I should channel some energy back into my blog. Kicking it off with an easy one but I hope it will help you get organised for the first full week back at school. This week’s menu includes lots of comfort meals and also freezer meals. Hopefully it will make the transition easier while we get used to the new old routine. 

A couple of the recipes this week are doubled (or sometimes even tripled!) so I can put extra dinners in the freezer. I immediately add these to dates in our AnyList app so I don’t forget about them. They are always scaled to feed 6: the sixth dinner usually being lunch for Himself the next day.

As a reminder we have three children aged 14, 12 and 8. Two in primary and one just started Junior Cert year. 

Continue reading “Back to school with bangers”
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Make room, the bikes are coming through

I’ve just posted my top ten tips for all you new cyclists over on the DublinBlog so check it out before you do any damage! Even though I won’t be using the new Dublin Bikes service myself I think we will head into town on our bikes today to see how it’s all going and maybe meet up with some new cycling enthusiasists.

I do think that since the recent Government tax break for cyclists there are more cyclists in the city. I have noticed more bikes parked in the bike park in work. It was especially noticeable yesterday along the Dublin Seafront Cycle path between Marino and Sutton. It was a gorgeous day in Dublin yesterday and while we were in the car driving to Portmarnock (I know shock! horror!) I noticed many people cycling along this great route. I think it’s a real missed opportunity that Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council didn’t work out the scheme to include stations at either end of this route. It is a lovely and safe route with lots of interest to see along the way and plenty of pitstop points by the looks of things.

Were I not 4 months pregnant, I would have considered doing this cycle ourselves although the first chunk from Dublin 12 to Marino would have been horrible. While I am still cycling, it’s just short punts rather than mammoth journeys like this.

I’m just off the phone from another cycling buddy who is in the city centre and says she has not seen a single bike yet. However Rapture Ponies posted this photo to twitter a little while ago so there is evidence to the contrary.

Happy cycling!

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Community spirit

At the Irish Blog Awards in February I answered a call made by Red Mum. While collecting the award for Best Group Blog for the Dublin Community Blog she invited the audience, especially people from Dublin, to get involved. I volunteered. Note that was in February. I have finally written a post for the blog. It’s about National Bike Week, kinda. Have a read and maybe see you at some of the events next week!
Re-cycling my photos :)

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On the way home

Everyday I get stopped at the lights on Sally’s Bridge. It’s just not possible to get from the set on Donore Ave through to the set Sally’s Bridge. So I take a pic with my phone camera. It’s only 2.0mps so the quality is not great but this set of photos taken since January prove one thing. It doesn’t always rain in Ireland. In fact I have rarely cycled in the rain in the last three months.