Horizons

Thirty staff members from the Bank of Ireland will be getting their hands dirty on Thursday when they leave the office to create an environmental garden in Cabinteely Community School, Cabinteely, Co Dublin - their contribution to Corporate Challenge Day. The initiative is in response to the UN International Year of Volunteers. If your company is interested in getting involved in long-term volunteering work, contact Business in the Community (tel: 01-8747232). Resource packs on volunteering are available from the National Committee on Volunteering, 44 North Great George's St, Dublin 1. Tel: 01- 8146103.

As we enter the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, what better way to appreciate the wonderful colours and textures of nature than to go for a walk. If you yearn for company and conversation as well as fresh air, join the Irish Wildlife Trust on one of their guided walks.

Tomorrow, the IWT is leading a woodland walk in Knocksink Wood, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow (meeting point at the National Environmental Education Centre in Knocksink at 2 p.m.). Next Sunday, , take your binoculars for possible sightings of dolphins or whales on the Bray coastal walk, meeting outside Star Amusements in Bray, Co Wicklow, at 10 a.m. On Sunday October 7th, walkers will get a chance to see fallow deer at close quarters on the walk in Phoenix Park (meeting at the Old Information Centre, Knock Maroon gate at 1.30 p.m.). And on October 14th, join a walk along Killiney Beach, Killiney, Co Dublin.

Contact the Irish Wildlife Trust (01-6768588) for membership details and directions to the starting point of each walk.

Feeling inspired by trees? If so, get writing. Crann, the organisation promoting broadleaf trees is holding a poetry competition in the run up to its autumn festival of trees, FΘile Shamhna na gCrann. Poems in English or Irish, of 40 lines maximum, should be sent to Crann HQ, Main St, Banagher, Co Offaly, by Thursday, November 1st with a £5 fee per entry. Names and contact details of poets must be attached on a separate sheet.

The first, second and third prizes are £300, £100 and £50 respectively. The winners will receive their awards at a poetry and music evening in the atmospheric surroundings of the 19th-century Gothic Revival Charleville Castle in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on Saturday, November 17th. The winning poems will also be published in Crann's quarterly magazine, Releafing Ireland.

The Manik Bagh Palace in India, designed by German architect Eckart Muthesius and built in 1933, is the subject of the current exhibition at the Architecture Centre, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. The palace, built for the Maharaja of Indore, Yeshwant Rao Holkar, remains one of the most completely realised modern houses ever built. The exhibition continues until October 2nd. Tel: 01-6761703.