Blackditch.

Our class went on a little venture to a place called Blackditch in County Wicklow yesterday. We're talking about conservation biology this module, and we went to have a look at some habitat restoration work. And since this is Ireland, they wanted to restore a fen - it's sort of a wetland that is seasonally flooded. This calls for Wellies. The Blackditch nomenclature comes from the color of some of the water here once it's flooded. You can see it in the pictures. While I was standing on the boardwalk looking into the gloom, I kept waiting to here Gollum's voice saying "Don't follow the lights, or hobbits go down to join the dead ones, and light little candles of their own....". Little bit creepy. A large debate also ensued on our trip as to who was the best survival show host, and people went out around "Bear Grylls-ing" anything they found of interest. It involves crouching down obscenely close to the object of interest and gesturing while talking in an intense, hoarse whisper.....and makes a lot more sense if you've seen his show. What nerds. And yes, I'm including myself when I say that. We ended up down by the Irish sea, and just beat the rain back to the bus. When we got back to Dublin everyone went - covered in muck - to the pub to warm ourselves by the fire and with drink. We frequent a pub called MacTurcaills close to Trinity. Not too bad for a day in the field.