Mid-term break could not have come quickly enough - we were all spent and a recharging of batteries was definitely needed.

It was difficult to get outside and blow the cobwebs off, as the last part of January and early February was fierce wet and cold.

We made a point of visiting Powerscourt waterfall after some very heavy rain.

The power of Powerscourt Waterfall

Katy was terrified of the fierce power of the water and clung to me like a terrified cat.

Nelly found the spray coming off it - that reached us from 50 yards or more away - fascinating and laughed about needing her shampoo!

The girls had fun making tiny snowmen, snow angels and even a bit of tobogganing

I was willing the weather gods for snow, mainly to give us respite from school work, and we did get a little delivery.

Hannah Bolger. \ Claire Nash

I reckoned that, for any weekday snow, we would have to take ‘snow days’ and not attend virtual school if there was a scrap of ‘caloga sneachta’ in the air, never mind on the ground.

We could just claim the blizzard knocked out the Wi-Fi!

The girls had fun making tiny snowmen, snow angels and even a bit of tobogganing before it melted and disappeared.

Pancake Thursday

February is a funny month, it is so short. Nelly has a great joke: “What month has 28 days in it?”

Kids' jokes are always silly and that one makes me laugh.

This year, I remembered Valentine’s Day, but completely forgot Pancake Tuesday!

I’m not sure if it’s a subconscious pandemic coping mechanism or maybe there’s plenty here to keep me busy

My head must be a bit mushy from all the home-schooling.

I’m not following the normal humdrum of regular society, I occasionally watch the news, but other than that we keep in our bubble and forget the outside world.

I’m not sure if it’s a subconscious pandemic coping mechanism or maybe there’s plenty here to keep me busy.

We had Pancake Thursday instead and it was delicious!

Everyone had as much of their chosen topping as they liked, resulting in a healthy dose of vitamin C from the lemons and all the Nutella used up!

Spirits up

In an inspirational move to keep our lockdown spirits up, I decided we should celebrate a different country once a week by doing a little fact-file, colouring in a flag and making a huge dinner of that week’s country’s traditional fare.

Nelly Bolger with her Spanish fact-file and coloured in flag.

I can highly recommend ‘Tres Leche’ dessert from Spain and ‘Key Lime Pie’ from the USA. Both are easy-peasy to make and scrummy!

Scanning result

All the ewes were scanned, which went well - a 1.8 result, which is nearly two lambs for each ewe in non-farming terms.

Michael was happy and very quickly went about selling all the ewes carrying triplets – “too much hassle” he says.

He then bought other ewe lambs “to keep up the numbers”. I can’t keep up with him!

He has all the ewe lambs in the sheep shed and, for some reason which I consider madness, designated their care to me, as “sure you’ll be down there with the ponies anyway”.

Hannah Bolger. \ Claire Nash

I’m sure he must know by now that I know nothing about sheep. I guess the lockdown is affecting people in all sorts of different ways…

Oh, every month has 28 days.... Did you get caught out?!

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