under another sun

A mysterious foggy day in County Clare. John and I drove to the nearby town, Ennistimon, to buy breakfast and food for the day. John pointing out an undertakers which also has a bar in it, which was rather marvellous and made me want to visit it. He drove us down narrow country roads with fields woods and a general Tolkeinesque fog on the barrow downs feel to it. There is a local claim that the Lord of The Rings was inspired by the nearby landscape . I'm certain Tolkien would have loved the landscape here. But the dates don't add up. He had already published the Hobbit in the 1930s Home and a lovely big breakfast, and then John drove us off to explore. We drove to a nearby ruined Church, the landscape is marvellously populated with evocative ruins of old stone houses, enormous stately houses, and churches (added atmosphere with the mist). There is a Lahiff family grave, a photo of that below. Also a Sheela na gig holding herself open invitingly above the ruined church door. ...

Monkeying around I've noticed that as soon as I start designing anything, time evaporates. Spent hours this morning moving things around by smidges, and endlessly rewriting copy. I was also sent some monkey business by Mandy in New Zealand. Her new game features excellent photographs of evil and wise monkeys, and I will write a wee bit of copy for it. In the afternoon I set off for the gym, bumping into Clare with young Aubrey. Had a nice chat and we were met by joined by Reuben and young Serge who had been into town to look around in the Natural History Museum, and do a spot of whale fancying. A mild-mannered workout today as I had a twinging back and sore throat. Lorraine home early and was able to supervise the pastry part of a layer pie I was making. I had no timings for this recipe but we guessed one and a half hours, and I felt quite proud when I sliced it open and it was in its layers of egg and onion (flavoured with mustard and thyme) and tinned pork meat and had set proper...