Another morning, another pier walk under a clear sky, the shadow lengths already halved while the sun continued to rise towards the upper meridian transit of the solar noon.
walking
18/20 Species
We walked for an hour or so in Marlay Park today. ‘Here’s where the Wicklow Way starts’ I said, as I’ve said before. ‘Perhaps I’ll walk it this coming weekend?’
‘No, you need to build up to long walks first’ was the sensible reply. This is fair because I’ve been off the trail for over six months and with six decades under my belt, everything needs to be measured.
An Otley Run Prisoner
The first half of an old joke goes ‘I don’t drink any more’. It’s supposed to finish with ‘nor do I drink any less’. For me, it’s not so much less as none. So I felt a bit weird joking on a card that I last completed the Otley Run in 2005. The card was by way of congratulations and good luck sent to a niece heading to third level glories in Leeds.
Storied Morphing
It seems that the easiest way to add twists to your tale is to have other people retell it. This was my learning from what Manchán Magan has written up of an ongoing experiment by artist Alannah Robins in the Irish Times Magazine today.
Speckled Wood Butterfly, Buzzard and Sugar Loaf People
Yo Ho Ho Etc
A reader asked about a photo in my recent article about a shrew I met while walking in London. The photo was originally posted to WhatsApp, a great tool that I use to broadcast photos and the odd note to attest to my continuing safe progress, remaining both vertical and mentate. Cold Blooded is another photo from the same wet walk.
On A Shrew’s Passing
About a year ago, while walking around London, I saw snails massing on the tarmac path in the rain. A short time later, I saw a shrew on the pavement by my feet. The little shrew then left the pavement to walk across the road only to be clipped by a passing car.
I wondered if it was my fault. Had the shrew fled from me? Then again I didn’t build the road, I didn’t build the car. I had just walked and encountered the shrew.
