Ireland day 0585. Saturday 06 May 2023- Walk Shops and Coronation *

Ireland day 0585. Saturday 06 May 2023- Walk Shops and Coronation
Today’s summary Val was up at 3am to do a charity walk in the Demesne, then straight out to work.   I finished my Ice Ages paper, did some shopping, and made dinner.   Then caught up on the Coronation of King Charles III in the evening
Today’s weather Bright and mostly dry, with long sunny spells.   A brief shower in the evening.   Light south easterly wind.   Appx 14C
Today’s overview location
(The blue mark shows the location of my route)
Close-up location
(The blue line shows where I walked)
(Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected):
Walk shops and coronation
Commentary

(Summary blog only.   Last full blog was Day 0368).

Today was an unusual day.   It started at 3am when Val got up to take part in a “Darkness into Light” charity walk round the demesne, in aid of the Pieta charity.   Very worthwhile and I’m just sorry I couldn’t summon the energy to get up with her.

She was back at about 6 am so we had an early breakfast in bed, then soon afterwards she dashed off to work and I settled down to do some more Spanish homework.   Once that was out of the way, I did some final polishing of my Ice Age paper and sent it off to Prof Coxon (a quaternary palaeontologist at Trinity College Dublin) for checking.

By then, it was lunchtime, so i settled down briefly to enjoy my tuna pitta bread followed by yogurt and prunes.   Delicious.   Then, as the sun was shining and it looked decent outside, I headed out for a quick walk round the demesne, and onwards to Tesco to do a bit of shopping.  Part way round, I met a fellow student from Spanish classes, so we had a good spontaneous chat about the complexities of the past preterit tense, and also more practically about hiking in the Wicklow hills.

On return to the flat, I started dinner (steak, potatoes, peas and carrots) so it was ready by the time Val returned – unsurprisingly she was somewhat tired and hungry by then.

And of course today, back in the UK, was the Coronation of Charles III.  I’m not totally sure that I buy into all the historic pageantry and tradition, and I didn’t watch it as it happened (and neither did Val, as she was at work).  But nevertheless it’s an important event for Britain so I think we will both probably spend a couple of hours this evening watching the edited highlights on YouTube.   How times have changed, in so many ways.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

Looking towards the cricket ground from the approach drive to the castle from the Dublin Road The new chain-saw sculpture of a Giant Irish Deer, carved out of a dead tree stump close to the front entrance to the castle.   Its a new creation and has had to be protected by park railings.   Presumably because its antlers would make a tempting climbing frame for younger visitors (and sadly also for vandals) and would be likely to break off.   I have to say I’m not really keen on the whole thing
Through the Arched Window – into the Talbot Botanic garden Walking down to the Broadmeadow lagoon through the Chalfont estate
The conventional view of the coronation An alternative view
The Casino model railway museum surrounded by the iridescent green of an Irish May day
Interactive map

(Elevations corrected at  GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )

Total distance: 6670 m
Max elevation: 30 m
Min elevation: 1 m
Total climbing: 81 m
Total descent: -79 m
Total time: 01:37:41
Download file: Walk And Shops compressed corrected.gpx

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