weekending

Last day of the Easter holidays... a picnic at Castleroche and a walk up Slieve Gullion. I say that breezily but I'm not a natural mountaineer (apparently it was a hill I was climbing as Hugo kept annoyingly pointing out but it truly felt like a mountain) and even though I was encouraged to channel my inner mountain goat I fully insisted on not doing that, but instead used my small reserves of energy for complaining. Kevin wondered did I not feel a sense of accomplishment? I looked up from my 'yay, I haven't had a heart attack on a mountain-side' bar of restorative chocolate and said no, no sense of accomplishment just do not ask me to do that again. Needless to say the boys loved it and, with a sinking heart, I began to feel very out-numbered...

weekending

 Question: What is better than an Ulster fry on a damp Sunday?

 Answer: An Ulster fry on a damp Sunday up a mountain.

Well, to be honest, not quite up a mountain. More like at base camp. Then full of sausage, egg and tea we wound our way through mossy woods, coming out onto the mountain road and up, up we climbed among the most perfect of cone-decorated Christmas trees until we were overlooking glorious farmscapes with ancient collapsed volcanoes. Co. Armagh's Slieve Gullion is 'the mountain of the steep slope' although Hugo, who is half way through his Four Peaks Challenge with Scouts, laughed at its height (about 1800 ft).

There are cairns on the top to be discovered but not on this trip, we made for home as the weather turned from damp to drizzle and the little one's legs were running out of steam. But we will be back for more.