Ireland day 0636. Monday 26 June 2023- Ice Cream *

Ireland day 0636. Monday 26 June 2023- Ice Cream

Today’s summary	Paperwork and podcasts in the morning, walk over Paddy’s Hill to Portmarnock and back along the coast in the afternoon. ice creams on the Velvet Strand
Today’s weather	Bright sun in the morning, more overcast with some hazy sun in the afternoon. Light shower around lunchtime. Moderate westerly wind. Appx 20C

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Hill Beach and Ice Cream walk

Commentary

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

Val’s at home at the moment, very much enjoying her summer break from the model railway museum.

So we didn’t rush to get up this morning, and allowed ourselves the luxury of a cup of tea in bed, some Spanish practice, and a couple of podcasts. Once we were up, I tackled a mountain of paperwork that has been building up lately, and then joined a video discussion with former colleagues from the Natural History Museum in London.

Today we had an interesting philosophical debate about what “authority” is, and what its natural limits are.

Then, after lunch, Val and I set off to complete our favourite 10k loop walk: through the demesne, up to the top of Paddy’s Hill, down to Portmarnock, and back along the shore. In line with the lazy, slightly summery, feel to the day, we treated ourselves to refreshments – which in my case included a rare example of an ice-cream – on the Velvet Strand. At that point it clouded over again and the glassy sky suggested rain (although even now three hours later it still hasn’t) so we girded our loins and headed back to Malahide.

A very nice, relaxing, day, which we both totally enjoyed.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Arum maculatum (Lords-and-Ladies or Cuckoo-Pint) has finished its thermogenic flowering and is now setting seed. They will ripen to bright red (and highly poisonous)	Crossing through the little green by the Bawn grove

From the top of Paddy’s Hill. Been there! Done that!	Val finding a suitable picnic spot by the “Eccentric Orbit” monument. It marks the journey of the “Southern Cross” pioneering flight from the Velvet Strand beach at Portmarnock, to Harbour Grace in Newfoundland, Canada

Scabious seem to be particularly abundant this year, growing all over the coastal verges. They appear to be a bit of a magnet for bees and other pollinators	Malahide Sea Scouts making what looked like a fun voyage over the narrow (and quite treacherous) straits of the estuary, from Malahide beach to the Portrane peninsula (sometimes also known as Corballis beach, or “The Island”)

I love the bright green cathedral-like canopy of the trees in the Castle demesne