Fairies

I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.

Another opening line, this easy to identify if you have heard about let alone read the book. So which of the previous incipits was from Georges Simenon's 1932 classic, The Bar on the Seine?

Today's walk started in Marlay Park in Dublin and took in the first 8 km of the Wicklow Way up to the microwave towers at Three Rock Mountain and on to Fairy Hill. A linear walk, we covered about 15 km in ideal, beautiful conditions accompanied from time to time by other walkers, BMXers and pony trekkers. While in the park, we passed the Fairy Tree in both directions, lots of notes pinned to it by kids. From notes of gratitude for helping them recover from illness, to notes of pleading for parental reconciliation, the tree was also decorated in Mardi Gras style with beads and ribbons. When we returned, there were two gardeners adding lichen and other mystical plants to the tree. I joked that I had thought it all real and the guy the holding the ladder told me they were real fairies.


You can see the walk in Google Maps here or you can track them in Facebook where Walking Commentary posts the feed from the iPhone app Walkmeter. Imagine, the phone battery died on the way back today; the iPhone reputation for battery life is well deserved. The walk appears truncated but we did make it back.

The fund raising is going really well. We have wildly exceed the required £3000, passing £8300 on the way to our new goal of £10,000 (and then "on to infinity and beyond"?). We are hugely pleased by everyone's generosity since Care and other charities are not getting the bullish support they once did; these recessionary times have made charity more difficult. Our baking, car washing and other office-centric activities have been really well supported. Now it's time to try other sponsorship avenues, meaning you (dear reader, assuming you exist).