This blog was originally started to track our progress as we regenerated a derelict Victorian house in Dublin. We turned an old crumbling ruin in to our dream house! If you wish to read through the trials and tribulations of the house build it is best to start at the oldest blog post and read in date order. The blog then evolved in to being all about my life in Dublin, Ireland and then life in Malaga, Spain with artist "PIGSY" and now back in Dublin
I hope you enjoy reading it!
So after a super start to Sunday with a trip to Herbert Park Market (see previous post) it was then on to Rathmines Initiative Open Gardens trail.
Tbis is a trail where you can visit different gardens in the Rathmines area for a Two Euro donation to the Rathmines Initiative.
I didn't know anything about the Rathmines Initiative put they seem to have an area in the public realm and have put forward plans and lobbied for open space plazas in Rathmines along with small pedestrianised areas. This seems like things that are right up my street, so to speak, so I was happy to visit some of the gardens and support the initiative.
We cycled from Herbert Park to Rathmines and visited two of the gardens before Ciaran headed to the gym and I headed home at about 4pm.
Here's some of the pics from the garden visits. The second garden we visited was selling some plants for a bargain price of 1 or 2 euro - so I bought a plant that is called "Spanish Flag". Let's see if I can grow it!
The garden tours reminded me of doing the historical house tours when I visited Key West in the past. Such fun cycling around the island calling in to see different houses. And yesterday in Rathmines the weather was just like Florida so gave me all the KW feels on a sunny Sunday in Ireland. Just great!
It was the nicest sunniest day in Dublin on Sunday.
We started with a small walk to Nicks for coffee with Bones. He walks so so slowly these days so it's probably an hour all in to go out for a coffee in Ranelagh with him. But sure we were in no hurry.....
At lunch time we set off on our bikes with a small picnic packed in a cooler bag (newly bought the other day!) to go to Herbert Park and visit the food market.
We split a steak wrap that we got at one of the food trucks and I washed it down with prosecco that I packed in my trusty cooler bag. While Ciaran got a coffee from one of the other stands.
We had a really lovely time, with Ciaran bumping in to a squash player that he had a little chat with. And then as we cycled out of the park we heard a beep of a horn and saw two other friends with their cute little girls heading in to the park. So we had a little chat with them too!
Just a lovely time altogether......here's a few pics I took of it all
Here's some of the things I've been up to since I last blogged....
The weather has been very good here in Ireland so we've got out and about to places we normally wouldn't go to.
We hopped on a Dart to Malahide to visit the car free street in Malahide. First off when we arrived in Malahide (after a long wait for a train and then a longer than expected train ride) I thought the train station was so cute! I guess it is in the arts & craftts style of architecture (not sure about this, correct me if I am wrong) and it is very quaint and charming.
From the station we made the short walk to New Street in Malahide. We were in search of wings in Wishbone but discovered that the restaurant has closed - with no mention of this on their social media and website. But New Street itself is gorgeous and has a lovely ambiance. If you are in the area it is definitely worth visiting to experiencing the clean quiet calmness of the car free space.
As I mentioned the weather has been very good in Ireland - particularly over the June BH so because of this, we visited Herbert Park on Sunday as I knew there was a food market there. I forgot to take a pic of the market as a whole but it had a few nice stalls including a large vegetable stall, a fish seller and other stalls selling nice oils and farm fresh apple juice. Along with these stalls there was lots of food truck offerings. Ciaran went and queued for coffee while I went searching a low carb option with signs up for a Wicklow sausage of some sort.....but I never found the sausage so settled on chicken skewers which were so tasty and great to eat in the park in the sun.
And then yesterday evening I met my gal pal Alice in our usual spot of the "Canal Bank" - I love their wings! It's a casual spot and we love our casual meet up for food, wine and great chats.
Even though the restaurant is only around the corner from my house I ended up cycling the short way as I realised I would be late if I walked because I was setting off at 6.26pm in order to meet Alice there for a 6.30pm booking. In fairness it was cold when we were leaving so I was glad to cyce after I saw Alice on to the bus for her to get home across the city. Next time I must suggest that we meet closer to her home as we are on a bus route that literally goes door to door between our houses!
Today is another busy day with a lunch date planned in Dublin city with my mother and niece with the closing of the Ranelagh Arts Group Show after that. The finissage is on from 6-8pm and the weather promises to be pleasant so it should all work out very nicely.
PIGSY's artwork "I like toast" is part of this show and you can watch the video below of his recent solo exhibition in Ranelagh.
I woke early this morning and couldn't get back asleep so I got up and tidied the kitchen. I start work at midday on Wednesdays so I generally like to get up early (maybe at about 8am) so Ciaran and I have time to fit in a walk to Ranelagh for coffee before I head off on my bike to work at about 11.30am. A 6am wake up is a bit much though......but here we are.
Weekend plans
I saw a great video yesterday of plans for a redesigned pedestrianised street in Malahide. It got me thinking what I would like to do this weekend (weather is forecast to be good) so I reckon I might take a trip out on the Dart with my bike to Malahide to see what the pedestrianised street is like currently. I love pedestrianised streets so much they are so calm and peaceful and it is amazing to hear the birds and wildlife on them even for example on Capel Street which is in the centre of Dublin City!
What I'm reading
I happened upon this book "Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal" in the library the other day. It's by Terence Kealey who has a background in medicine and clinical biochemistry, and began to investigate breakfast and the concept of skipping it after he received a Diabetes type 2 diagnosis.
It's an interesting read for sure and it compounds a lot of how I feel currently while I am doing intermittent fasting. Personally I find that if I eat breakfast, it stimulates my appetite and I then end up snacking all day and consuming a lot more than if I just eat when I am hungry some time in the late afternoon or evening.
If, however, I was to eat breakfast I stay far away from breakfast cereals which are full of sugar and would try and eat some protein instead (eggs can't be beaten!) and in fact in recent times I've never eaten breakfast cereal in the morning but instead have eaten it in the evening when I wanted a treat (when I was not eating low carb). However, I always found it to be a slippery slope and could never stop at just one bowl, so I find for me that it works best to just stay away from it all together and instead just eat non-processed "real food".
What's going on with you? Drop me a line in the comments to let me know what you are reading, or what plans you have for the weekend!
After falling out of the habit of going to the movies due to covid lockdown, I can now say that we are back cinema going!
It started last Sunday, with a visit to the Stella in the Devlin Hotel to watch "Castro's Spies" which was screened as part of the Ranelagh Arts Festival. This was a very interesting documentary made by Irish film makers.
And then on Friday, on my day off work I went to the Omniplex in Rathmines to see the "Margaret Movie". Otherwise known as, "Are you there God? It's me Margaret" which was initially a book by Judy Blume.
I had been anticipating this film for awhile as my twin sister had seen it a few weeks back when it opened in Florida and she really enjoyed it. I think mostly films open in the States and Europe at the same time these days so it was surprising to have to wait a few weeks for this one to open in Ireland. But I have to say it was worth the wait and I really enjoyed it!
Sunday came around and we made another plan to go to the cinema. This time we went to the Dundrum Shopping Centre (I think perhaps my 3rd time to ever visit this place) to see the Nike "Air" movie. Again another great film and a nice trek out on the Luas to Dundrum, getting off at the Balally stop. Normally we go to the movies in Rathmines at the Omniplex but it felt like a real date going on the Luas to Dundrum. It was something different. However, when we just missed a Luas and had to then wait 15 minutes for the next one, we both agreed that the Omniplex was probably a better option as we could just walk there and back without having to wait for a tram. Either way a fun evening and we are back for sure as "cinema goers"
I borrowed "The Real Meal Revolution" from the library, which gave me a hankering for low carb seed crackers after I saw a recipe in the book.
When I set about making the crackers yesterday I found that my scales was not working so I instead made the Diet Doctor version of the recipe as it gave the measurements in cup sizes rather than grams.
They were simple to make (but took longer than expected to bake fully) - see below for the finished product. Most of the ingredients are easily found but I needed to visit Horans health store in Dun Laoghaire in order to buy Psyllium Husk which was new to me. It's probably the ingredient that binds all the seeds together so I would imagine you can't make the cracker without it - however, I did add a little milled chia seeds as an extra, and maybe this helped bind the seeds together too.
Diet Doctor refers to them as Keto Seed Crackers but I would probably say they are low carb rather than keto. And you would probably need to be careful and not eat too many if you are trying to keep carbs under a particular amount per day.
But they sure do hit the spot if you are looking for a crispy bite or something to put a bit of cheese on. I ate a few with mascarpone cheese and they were delish!
For storage I put them in these glass containers with plastic clip lids. Let's see how they last.
After visiting Nick's Coffee regularly over the past few years, I bought a bag of their coffee for the first time as a little gift for a coffee aficionado. This is a 250g bag and they do a 1kg bag too,
I didn't get the beans ground as I know the giftee grinds their own, so I felt it was better to give the whole bean.
For today, I plan to go to an afternoon film in the Rathmines Omniplex. "Are you there God? It's me Margaret" finally opens in Ireland.
I found this video by Heavenly Fan of her recipe for seed crackers. It's very similar to the Diet Doctor recipe that I followed. I'll probably try this recipe next time
As you know I am back on a keto kick for the past while. I decided to go back low carb after getting in to an awful habit of eating a massive pastry in Nick's, everytime I went for a coffee there (probably 4-5 times a week). There came a point where I realised that the only reason I was going to Nick's was for the pastry (they were pretty good!) and not the coffee that I decided I had to stop......and I needed to give up all other carbs too.
So it was back on to keto to get back in control.
One of the things that I do when I am on keto is to make homemade mayonaise. However, I generally make it with olive oil which can have such an overpowering taste.
So as an alternative I tried to find some avocado oil for sale as I wanted to make mayo with it.
I found the avocado oil in Holland & Barrett......and guess what, it is delicious and it makes very tasty mayo. And it is especially nice drizzled over a potassium rich real avocado!
If you are interested in eating low carb, check out this lady. She wrote the book that I have on my shelf right now (I borrowed it from the library). I used to follow her on youtube years ago and her story is very inspirational as well as being a great keto cook!
