Garden 2016

Flickr Garden 2016

Morning in Glencorrib

It's morning again but this time it's in Glencorrib in County Galway. We have returned to Glencorrib once again. Hard to imagine that our last visit here was in 2003. We are with our friends Margaret and Billy, on a spur-of-the-moment visit to catch up on years lost...no, not lost, merely apart.

Grasses Reach For The Morning Light

Last time I was here it looked more like light was trying to creep in. Yes, Ireland really has undergone such an enormous transformation. Even light seems to have changed properties! Photo below: Seven Year Itch Taken At Ashford Castle 2003.

Light Trying To Creep In: Ashfoord Castle 2003

Garden Creation

Created with PhotoShake. Passing some time on the iPhone, I came up with this.

Christmas 2010 in Dungarvan

Back Garden December 2010

We have endured almost a month of arctic conditions. Fun at first, not so now. However, today the thaw has set in. Temperatures are once again up to normal at about 8 Celsius, and winds have picked up. Most notably, we've had rain for the first time in three weeks!
Christmas here was wonderful, restful and exciting. Today, my efforts to move my blog from its' former home at Wordpress are coming along well. Now, I've just got to keep posting!

Created Using My iPad

Nollaig Shona go gach éinne. Bonne Noel.

Garden Heaven

A garden is a place of rest, a managed miniature of the beauty of this world, a place to return to whenever that beauty fails to shine in my life. This year, our major project outstripped all that we have created for many a year as we built our long-awaited garden room. Completed in April, it enabled us to re-landscape by the end of May so it is now returning naturally to its former state.

Garden 2010: A place to sit and look, or sip a red wine.

A place to sit and look, or sip a red wine. This year also we placed several bird-feeders. This was a wonderful decision and now various species of birds come to share it all with us. Finally, and unrelated to feeding, a pair of swallows had nested in the wooden shed. I have attempted to photograph them with their brood of four, but succeed only in frightening the little ones to fly before they are ready. Better it seems to sit and watch rather than to attempt again to get too close.

Wine? Oh yes please!

Winter 2010. Building in progress.

Thought I’d add this, taken back in late January.

Dungarvan To South Africa: A Swallow's Tale

The garden shed has been home to a pair of swallows since early June. At first, they checked it over simply by flying in and out dozens of times every day for about a week. The door is left open at night, and the dogs sleep there. Obviously however, they decided that it was suitable as a summer home. The next step in the process was simply for them to roost there. They selected a good vantage point on the top of a suspended fluorescent light, and stood there for about 3 days. Upon finally deciding to proceed with building a nest, they collected all required materials, and work was completed in about a week. Three eggs have hatched, sometime about the first week of July, and now the three are ready to fly. We have been amazed that they seem quite at ease with us walking (gingerly) in and out at various times of the day and late evening. They sometimes shrink back into the inner coziness and only their little beaks or tails can be seen. Only yesterday, one adventurous little one walked the length of the light and back again. Mam and dad take it in turns (we think) to go get food, and there’s always a noisy chattering on their return with the goodies. It is also quite amazing to watch the adult swoop down and enter the nest, only to depart again about five seconds later and dart in and around garden trees as they forage once again for airborne insects. Nature is quite amazing…and then just think of what’s ahead as these three young swallows accompany their parents abroad to South Africa! Never fear the future, they might say, or even if the fear of the unknown is within, do it anyway. It’s either that or freeze here next winter.