SHORT WALKS

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Gorse growing in the West Cork landscape along the road leading from the town of Skibbereen towards the coastal villages of Castletownsend or Unionhall. I walked only as far as Russagh Mill Hostel which lies about 2 km from the town. The walk is a pleasant one even though it is along a busy enough road, there is a footpath most of the way which makes it quite safe.
I found that along the road there was quite a bit of wetland, and also a small stream, ducks flew up when I approached. Though my reason for taking the walk was to become fitter, I enjoyed finding so many wild plants and spring flowers by the roadside, among them were two types of wild geraniums.

To my right was Lick Hill, a long hill which is so familiar to me as I can see it from the upstairs window where I live. Its bedrock is made up of purple mudstone and siltstone, behind it and to the South lies the sea, the wild Atlantic Sea. A little more towards the S.West lies the famous Knockomagh Hill, at Lough Hyne. But walking further along this road I passed some lovely green fields, very green, like you only get them in Ireland, typical with Gorse, Hawthorn, and Blackthorn growing in the hedgerows. And today the sky was blue, dotted with woolly white clouds, what a lovely contrast.

Above – Looking back towards our houses, with hawthorn hedging and wetland in front, and then the walk goes on past Liss Ard Estate where I found lots of native trees growing, their buds bursting in the warming spring sun, and birds singing their hearts out for sheer delight.
Also along my walk, and I love to see this, were stone walls, beautifully built from local stone, purple mudstone, shale and I even saw some quartz here and there. These are often grown full of little ferns, mosses, and other wild plants, this one in the photo must have been built fairly recently though.

And in people’s gardens, a magnificent Camelia bush in full bloom!
I also came across this beautiful blue door, the colour of it dazzled me!
Last, but not least, this little ladybird was sunny itself, I’m happy to say that I’ve seen at least a dozen over the last few days.
I have marked out at least seven walks in the vicinity of Skibbereen town, I’m doing this for my health, both body and mind. This particular walk took me 50 minutes and all round it was about 4km in distance. When we used to spend our winters on the island of Gozo I used to walk everywhere, exploring the whole island and all it’s little villages, and it was such a delight. I have missed this very much in the past six months and so I decided to make the best of it by mapping out some do-able walks around here and exploring nature or architecture or whatever I can find to interest me, and reading up on it all. The beautiful sunshine of the past few days has helped greatly to encourage me and inspire me, and off to a good start it has been. I am truly grateful.

THE GARDEN IS AWAKENING

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I guess it is – or rather – the gardener is awakening! Because a good crop of herbs and vegetables was growing all winter long in our little garden. But today I started getting organized because there is lots to do, and I cannot wait to get going!

Vegetables in abundance – overwintering colourful Chard, Rosemary, Kale and Celery.
  • Young Foxglove plant
The Lavender is in good condition after the winter, and the Rosemary bush is getting larger by the day.
  • Thistle and Mullein
  • An almost ready crop of Kale
  • Andive

Much of my space is still taken up by winter vegetables but some of the beds are ready, one for potatoes, and another one for flowers, this season the emphasis is going to be on food for the insects, that is so important today.

    • Helleborus
    • Primroses among the grass
    • Oxallis
    This book I took out of the library, lots of information on what to grow to help butterflies survive, great for ideas.
    • Oca is another crop I’ve tried over the last few years, not very successfully.
    • Wild growing three cornered leeks
    • Green leaved celery grows very well here during the winter
    • Wild growing Cleavers in my garden

    So yes there is lots going on even as early in spring as right now. We have enough food coming from the garden, and that helped me make the decision to grow a lot more flowers seeing that insect population is under such threat. But personally I am also very happy with this decision because I am very fond of flowers.

    • Grass needs cutting
    • A few of the raised beds surrounds are in need of repair!
    • I planted a Forsythia bush today!

    Dear friends, followers, and readers of my blog, I would like to thank you for all your encouragement. I’m coming up to 800 followers now and I treasure everyone of you.

    RIVER LEE FLOWING THROUGH CORK

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    I was very lucky today because I seldom go to Cork city these days, it so happened that for the past few days I was there, unfortunately most of that time was spent with Ian in hospital, but while on the way back from parking the car in the multi-story carpark I took these snaps today. Most importantly Ian was seen to and is doing fine, and we are home again tonight. But as you can see for yourselves Cork, which is the largest city in County Cork, and to us the nearest city, an eighty minutes drive on a good day (without roadwork stops), it is above all a beautiful and charming city. Population is only about 417,211 souls. Cork was originally a Viking trade settlement around the year 915 and is now a thriving and very popular place to shop and visit.
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    The river flowing through Cork, the river Lee, flows from a lake in Gougane Barra in the Shehy mountains on the Western border of county Cork, it winds its way down other lakes and eventually reaches Cork city where it splits into two, creating an island on which the centre of the city is built.

    A lot more could be told about this lovely river but I will carry on and show you today’s photos of the views I enjoyed so much and which I hope you will enjoy too.
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    Another iron bridge, this time it is just a narrow foot bridge, very much in use!

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    Here are some interesting and beautiful gables along the streets near the Lee river, I could not resist taking some photos of these too. Just love that gate!

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    NATURE TRAIL – BALLYDEHOB

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    Ballydehob is a small and very charming village on the coast of West Cork, and along the Wild Atlantic route. It was once a thriving mining town, now-a-days it is still overlooked by Mount Gabriel which is where copper was mined back then. Its beauty is superb, and last Saturday we decided to go on the Nature Trail which leads around and over the old railway bridge which leads over one of Ballydehob’s two rivers, the Bawnakeane and Rathravane, but I am not sure which of the two it is! We took along one of my granddaughters, she is a real nature child and took delight in drawing pictures of some of the scenery in her note-book. Ian was well able for this walk and enjoyed it too. I took note of all the new growth along the way, there were several flowers open, Lesser Celandine, Daisies, and Herb Robert were among them. I also noticed young leaves of the March Violet, a wild Geranium, and quite a few very pretty ferns.  The walk along the trail is easy for anyone and the views are magnificent.  We finished our walk in the village with coffee and delicious cake at a delightful eatery called Budd’s.
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    WINTER GARDEN

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    taking stock of garden winter 2018

    Beginning of January, and even though the days are still quite dark, there is a change to be noticed and it does the soul good.  The mist and heavy clouded days have left us for the last few days, and though we have still not seen any sunshine, there seems to be more light in the sky.  It is good, I think that one could learn to live without any sunshine, though it is hard to get used to it – it seems to be here to stay!

    This morning I went into the garden and took stock of what is happening, and there is lots!  There are the strong rigid and juicy looking leeks, the bright red and colourful chard, the celery and the cropping cabbages.  There are also the many different herbs which are flourishing right now, oregano, thyme, lavender, sage, feverfew, dandelion, mullein, broad leaved parsley, three-cornered wild leeks, young cleavers, and even some young and tender nettles.  It’s a very mild winter here, though we had very much rain during October, November and part of December.  The temperature has not gone much below 10 or 11C and the soil temperature has only just now reached 10C whereas it kept to a steady 12 to 15C before Christmas.

    The days for planning my garden for the next season are now, that is always very enjoyable.  This year my plan it to grow many more flowers, wild and cultivated, so that as many as possible insects will have food.   For ourselves I plan to grow some flowering shrubs that will cheer us during winter.  Bright yellow Forsythia comes to mind, but more research is wanted.

    What I take away from this winter is that there are certain vegetables that will grow easily and that we eat every day, these would be leeks, kale, chard, and herbs, these I will grow again and more plentiful next winter.

    I wish those of us who garden a great season and much fun and happiness in their garden! 🙂

     

    HAPPY NEW YEAR

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    May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
    May the clarity of light be yours,
    May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
    May the protection of the ancestors by yours”
    Taken from Benedictus by John O’Donohue


    Wishing all my dear friends and followers a very happy and blessed 2019!

     

    SHORT WALK IN ANTWERP

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    • Ian is having a rest sitting with the sculptures at the side of the cathedral
    View toward the cathedral from the Groenplaats.
    The Central station is an amazing building, constructed between 1895 and 1905, designed by Louis Delacenserie and Jan Van Asperen.
    • An amazing sculpture close to the cathedral
    Touristic area, part of the Groenplaats

    We were in Antwerp for a few hours only, Ian wanted to see the area around the cathedral, and I wanted to see the Lace shops in the same area. We had some lunch too 😃 Flemish food obviously! I love going back to Antwerp, eventough we mainly stay in Lier, which is not very far away, only a short train journey.

    LIER IN BELGIUM

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    Some photos of our last visit to Lier this past autumn. Lier is a charming and beautiful place to visit with many interesting sites, such as the begijnhof and the Saint Gummarus church, built in Brabant’s Gothic style. I hope that you will enjoy my short photo album.

    the lovely colours of magpie feathers

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    The most beautiful feathers of a lonely magpie that now visits the bird-table every day to our delight.
    And other regular visitors to our bird-table right now are some starlings, beautifully covered in silvery speckles.  And there are the blue tits, the great tits and the coal tits in fairly good numbers.  Another observation is that most birds look quite well fed this autumn, especially the sparrows, they look almost obese.  

    Dear friends and followers, I have been almost absent from my blog for over a month now, this is because, apart from travelling, I am doing two on-line courses at the moment and my energy and time to attend to my blog is just not there.  In another week or two one of my courses will be finished and I hope to be back to normal.  Meanwhile I wish you all well and I look forward to catch up with you all soon.  Kind regards, Agnes