26th February - 11th March 2012

 At the end of January, a friend kindly gave us these hyacinths, which are now in full bloom. They have helped to keep us cheerful during any dull days.

We are still moving every 48 hours, travelling around Enniskillen. We keep busy going to bowls three times a week, as well as attending two bridge clubs.

Throughout Ireland at this time of the year there are several Head of the River timed races. At the beginning of March the Erne Head of the River race was held, with the boats being launched from the Round "O". The rowing 8s all arrive by trailer and have to be assembled in the car park.

Once the boats are assembled, the crews queue up to launch them.

Each boat is carried by its crew to the outer jetty where a lower pontoon has been added, for ease of launching.

The turn on to the outer jetty has been facilitated by the recent work which was done to lower the jetty-supporting poles. ( Black with white caps). The crews bring their oars down first, so that there is no delay, once each boat is in the water.

As soon as one boat is in the water, the next one is launched. There are sixty boats taking part today, but they are very efficient and it does not take long to get them all into the water.

The RNLI launch is at hand, should they be needed.

The Head of the River course on The River Erne is about 7 kilometres long and is the longest in Ireland. The course finishes by going through the bridge at Enniskillen, then past The Round "O" to finish near Portora Boat House. The boats set off individually at regular intervals, but here two are both racing for the finish. The Galway University crew were fastest over the course in 19 minutes 35 seconds.

A crew of four boys from Belfast are doing well to keep the eight at bay.

After the race, the boats seem to be much heavier than they were when being launched!

We have been walking in the grounds of Castle Coole again on a glorious sunny afternoon. The Castle can be seen in the far distance, beyond the lake, which is a conservation area in the grounds.

We met Peanut, who is only seven weeks old. She is tiny!

She found something to eat, which we hope was puppy-friendly.