Zoë Bowyer

Before talking about what a great day I had yesterday, I need to mention that something dreadful happened to someone else. At about 10:30 am yesterday morning I was driving along the Glenravel Road on my way to walk the dogs at Glenariff Forest. The sun was shining, the birds were probably singing, but I couldn’t hear them because I was listening to music, the day was shaping up to be just perfect.

I was held at temporary traffic lights in Martinstown for ages, and then when I eventually got going again and approached the national speed limit sign at the end of the town, the car behind overtook me. He soon put his foot on the brakes. I was the second car in my direction to come upon the scene of a crash. If we hadn’t been held up by the traffic lights we may have been there rather too soon. In front of us was a completely mangled blue motorcycle, bits lying all over the place. The rider was obscured to me by the main part of the bike, which was right in the middle of the road. A white van had swerved off the side of the road.

The traffic coming in the other direction on the road had arrived at the scene first and arranged an ambulance, so there was nothing we could do but turn as there was no way we would get past the accident.

I found myself thinking about the accident many times during the day, wondering if the rider had been okay. I had meant to check the news for any stories, but didn’t get around to it until this morning. This morning I found out that the rider had died.

So, how do you follow that with the great day I had? Life goes on.

Yesterday morning I woke at 7:00 am and was out of bed by 7:30. Dave was in Donegal diving. I had a hearty breakfast of muesli and cornflakes, which I followed with a nice sit down and a lot of knitting – I am trying desperately to finish some garments while I can still fit into them, so am finishing my Central Park Hoodie.

At 8:30 I decided to do a quick tidy up of the downstairs rooms so that I could spend the rest of the day relaxing. By 9:15 I had washed dishes, dusted and vacuumed. I then got dressed and applied sun screen and lip balm, the scents combined with the sunshine outside reminded me of Mexico, specifically our time spent in Oaxaca. I made a packed lunch and then the dogs and me headed off in the car for Glenariff.

After coming across the crash we had to detour via Clogh and Newtowncrommelin to get back on the right road. I’m sure there are quicker ways to go, but I am unfamiliar with the roads around Martinstown.

We had a nice 2 hour walk around Glenariff, I cut out a bit of the Scenic Walk that had a few too many steps for my liking. It is very relaxing spending time alone walking. We stopped and had lunch on the main Waterfall walk. The forest was just getting busy as I was leaving at about 1:30. All the Sunday travellers had finished church and lunch for the day and were beginning to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day. The road where the crash happened was still closed when we returned – I guessed that it must be very serious.

Back at home the dogs slept soundly and I sat and knitted.

Later I started making Shepherd’s Pie for dinner and once I had it all sorted I decided to make lemon coconut bread. Dave returned from diving while I was baking. We ate at 7:00 pm, while watching an episode of The Wire. We had Shepherd’s Pie and baked beans followed by warm lemon coconut bread.

Exhaustion and sleep were the only other things on my mind.