Ireland day 0332. Friday 26 August 2022- Downtime

Today’s summary	Went to the gym in the morning. Did some cleaning then walked round the demesne to meet Val after her day working up at the castle.
Today’s weather	Drizzle, mist and very dull in the morning. Brightened up a lot by late afternoon and even some sun. Hardly any wind. About 18C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The green line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Demesne meeting Val Click this button to download TCX of gym session: Friday in gym

Commentary

I’ll be honest – I didn’t do a lot today so there isn’t a huge amount to write about. So I’ll keep this brief.

Val was at work – this time, standing in for someone up at the Castle main reception. A highly important front of house role! So once breakfast and lunch were sorted out and Val was off, I packed up all my clobber and wandered down to the gym. As it’s the third time I’ve been since my training session, I went through the exercise programme more or less on autopilot. I actually quite enjoyed it today, though I think I will always find the bodybuilder types who toss 50 kg weights around like they were badminton shuttlecocks a bit intimidating. I finished off with a swim and sauna (minus watch) and was out a couple of hours later.

After lunch, I hoovered the flat and dealt with some admin – I realised we haven’t submitted a gas meter reading for some time so the next bill is bound to be truly horrendous – then I headed off on a short walk. It was getting towards the late afternoon by this stage so I headed off up to the castle for a short expedition round the demesne. Val, who had just finished work around the same time, evidently had the same idea so we met up halfway and completed the walk together. She had an appointment to get her nails done (don’t worry – it’s a girly thing) so we walked down to the place where nails get done and I went off to do a bit of shopping for dinner.

Armed with lots of half price bargains – most importantly of course doughnuts – I headed back to the flat and prepared the dinner. It’s chicken goujons with mashed carrot and potatoes (all half price) tonight and it all looks pretty good even though I say so myself.

Anyway, the timer has just gone off on the oven, telling me that everything is ready. So I’m going to sign off now (see – I can be brief when I try) and get serving. Back tomorrow!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Down by the shore behind the tennis club in Malahide (and quite near to the gym) are a series of impressive wooden carvings like this one. They were apparently done by Richie Clark, a woodcarver from Mullingar, five or six years ago. This is a mythical “green man”	Seed-heads of the Old Man’s Beard, Clematis vit-alba ( as we saw last Sunday on the Dodder walk). You can easily tell how this invasive garden escape got its name. Once you realise it’s a pest, you start to see it everywhere

Fruiting body of the Cuckoo-pint, Arum maculatum. All parts of the plant are toxic to humans (but not birds), the berries especially so. There is no known antidote though fatalities are rare because apparently the berries taste so unpleasant that it’s very hard to eat enough of them to do serious harm. I don’t recommend trying it.	Pathway winding its way through the demesne, just beginning to look a bit autumnal now

I’d never seen this plant before, today in flower on the walls of the Castle courtyard. A bit of research revealed that it is Cape Fuchsia, Phygelius aequalis. It’s a native of South Africa and isn’t actually a fuchsia at all.	I decided to drop down to the shoreline below the woodcarvings (see above) to get a worm’s eye view of the marina. It’s remarkable that the boats in it actually stay afloat, as the water is so shallow at low tide.

The Malahide Historical Society have spent the summer renovating this attractive little detached house close to the castle and in it will shortly opening up a museum of local historical items. I’ll look forward to checking it out.