A Very British Summer Day at Wimbledon in Pictures.

I said my day out at Wimbledon was a story for another day, and here it is. It was a bit of a rollercoaster with the rain, but an interesting day seeing at least some world class tennis.

Prepare for a little overkill... There's quite a few pictures coming up!

Walking down the road towards Wimbledon, spread out in front. Note the sun still shining and blue sky...

 We got in, and straight away saw Andy Murray warming up on the warm-up courts. 

 And then the man, the myth, the legend, Mr Federer. I had to push the womenfolk aside to get this shot.

 And then the hailstones started. That's right. Hailstones. Not just rain. This is the British summer after all, we don't do things by halves.

 With the rain on, we took our seats on Court No. 1 and waited for it to subside.

Might as well enjoy the traditional strawberries and cream at Wimbledon while we wait...

 After about an hour, the rain subsided and we were ready to go...

 Aaaaaand....before the players made it on court. More rain.

 So off we went to explore the grounds a bit. Henman Hill/Murray's Field.

Watching the action on Centre Court. Jealous of that roof...

 And we have tennis! Djokovic vs. Fognini. The Serbians vs. the Italians.

 A happy crowd on Court no. 1.

 After an hour and on a tiebreaker for the first set....we have rain.

 Back to the hill.

And eventually, around 6:30, we have blue sky! (I also forgot to take photos of the end...Djokovic won, but it was an exciting third set).

 We were hoping to see another match, Venus Williams was up next, but the ground was getting too slippy with the evening coming on. Sad to miss out on seeing her.

 Too wet to play tennis on, but not too wet to cut...? Unacceptable...

 As we walked out though, there were still a few matches nearing their end. Got to see the end of the second set of Lepchenko (USA) vs. Cepede (Paraguay)

 And I got to understand what it feels like to stand behind people taller than me. I did not enjoy it. Not just one, but 3.

And then, as night was starting to fall, all tennis was done with... Covers covered, and we headed off to get the slow train back home. Great day out at Wimbledon! Very thankful for the opportunity to get there, will definitely be applying for tickets there for next July after my day out.

Harvest comes a couple of months early.

I've been eating some good healthy food from the garden more often recently as things start ripening up and filling out (particularly the peas...I have peas coming out of my ears!) 

Here's a few pictures of things that are currently brightening up my dinner plate.

I think i might be proud.

 Broad beans. I wasn't expecting the spongey bed the beans are lying in.

 Peas. They are so sweet and delicious. This picture was a few weeks ago, they are bursting out of the pods now.

Tonight's job, digging up some potatoes. They aren't massive, but more than enough for a few dinners, and plenty still in the ground!

Gardening has been a great experience for me this year. I have loved getting out into the patch in the bright evenings, (though my joy is lessened when the job is weeding..)

Still plenty growing though. Not quite at the end of the experiment just yet! Onions, broccoli spring onions and carrots are still to come. Not to mention the sunflowers, currently standing at around 5ft. I'm singing to them to make them grow, it's a competition in church this Summer, and one I intend on winning...

If you're intrigued on the gardening front, check out the regular blogging of my garden mentor Hugh Cassidy. He's the inspiration behind me getting out this year, and the first port of call with any gardening queries. Happy reading!

Olympic Fever

I had the great treat of going to London this past weekend to see some of the Olympic events currently dominating the screens and minds of the world's population.

On Saturday, the parentals, the cousin and I got to attend the first day of the badminton group stages at Wembley Arena. A great day full of some incredible play that both inspired me to get back on the court and also made me realise that I may never really played it at all...though comparing myself to the pros might be a bit harsh!

Then on Sunday we went to Wimbledon to see some Olympic tennis. This was a bit of a wash out unfortunately (a story for another day) but we at least got to see one full match! Djokovic came out on top with a few rain intervals.

Back to work in Dublin now. It's a quieter time over the Summer, but I've been catching up on Aaron Sorkin's new drama "The Newsroom", I came to the "West Wing" party about 7 seasons and some change late, so I'm determined to get in on the ground floor with this offering. Great script (expect anything less?) and fantastic to see a show on the air with some incredible acting that actually gets your heart racing. Fantastic stuff. I'm only 2 episodes in and hooked already. Highly recommended.

So I'm thankful for an incredible opportunity to see a plethora of world class athletes this weekend, and for TV that challenges the status quo and gets me thinking.