west cork

OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVENTURE

| gaiainaction

While seagulls and other sea birds fly in the wind to the sound of their own piercing keow, and the crow family fight them for the food that an elderly man is putting on the sea wall, I stroll past them on my way to the coast walk in beautiful Schull.  They, the birds, don’t bat an eyelid and continue their fervent snatching and feeding. The man never looks up, so intent on his dedication to the birds.

It is a sunny but very windy winter’s morning.

I’ve just past the path where a robin took my attention, it came up close and was making some sounds but not singing, that started later.  It was the most beautiful little creature, its colours vibrant, this got me thinking that it was a male bird and that the mating season is not far off.

What fascinates me on this path are the trees.  Ever since I did a short course last year on tree identification during the winter season, I keep wondering what this or that tree is called.  I can recognise the obvious ones of course, and now I know an ash tree when I see one, its seeds, winged samaras or keys hanging down from twigs with black buds give them away.  Seeing that we have a fair (but not huge) amount of trees here in West Cork, I’m thinking of taking a further course in tree identification as it’s fun to recognise what we learn.

Celandine leaves, and here and there the yellow of the flowers are already to be seen, as are a more plentiful sight of winter heliotrope plants in flower, their pink breaking their greyish leaves along the path.  Ferns and old man’s beard are plentiful along this walk, as is ivy covered in thick berries.

Walking further along the coastline, there is plenty to see, the rocks are covered with interesting lichens, as well as seaweeds, and sea glass can be found.  The rocks themselves Devonian mud and sandstones, look dark and some of them are quite jagged but some are really smooth.

The sea here is part of Schull Harbour which opens onto the Atlantic Ocean, where it is studded with a variety of islands.  During the calmer months the harbour is a lovely sight with all the yachts and plenty of activity.

Mount Gabriel overlooks this whole area, it is a hill 407 m high. Two radar domes are to be seen on top, they monitor civilian aircraft in parts of Ireland’s air space.  Recently I have travelled along the western side of this mountain on the way to Bantry, I drove through the Barancleeve Gap along which is where archaeological evidence of extensive copper and barite mining operations during the Early to Middle Bronze Age is found.  I would like to explore.  And looking at my map I have just discovered a few more little roads in the surrounding area which might be of interest.

Barancleeve Gap

Memories of the area… Once, when I first came to Ireland with my family, I spent a year in Cork city as an au-pair, and the family took me with them for a month’s holiday to Crookhaven.  I still have wonderful memories of that time, all I had to do was walk the toddler to Barley Cove beach and entertain him.  It is there that I discovered coral and the bleached skeletons of sea urchins, and walking along the roads I noticed many wild seaside plants.  Crookhaven is about 23km from Schull, it is a peninsula and has a very rocky shore towards the top end facing the Atlantic, looking over this view, it was an amazing sight, and very invigorating as strong winds blow relentless there.

Views from the nursing home which is situated at Colla road in Schull and is a lovely place.

Seeing that I have the occasion to travel to Schull twice a week to visit Ian in the nursing home, which also lies along this coast line and has lovely views overlooking Schull Harbour, I’m spoiled really with a wealth of interesting walks and great photo opportunities. And with spring and summer coming up I look forward to this, map in hand and Google for research as a stand by. There is lots to discover I think, and I will take full opportunity of combining both seeing Ian and discovering this amazing landscape and what it has to offer.

AND WE ARE OFF AGAIN

| gaiainaction

February has started and thoughts move in the direction of what we’ll be creating in our gardens. Planning new projects, and welcoming new growth is the order of the day.   Already there is lots happening out there, even while most of our garden is fairly water logged, and it requires a good pair of wellingtons to navigate towards the elderberry bush and the back gate.  Even then, it is great to see new growth and even the odd wild flower, or the beautiful colours of the croccusses. 

Dandelion, and a self-seeded young foxglove plant

Daffodils,  and a young self-seeded mullein plant.

And an atmospheric view of an early spring sunset.  According to some folks, spring starts on the first of February here in Ireland,  but I’m never sure. I can see things happening though, which definitely point to an awakening in nature, so if not on the first of February,  then spring cannot be far off and the evenings are getting brighter too. 

Every year I purchase a few more bulbs, the last few years it has been a variety of old fashioned gladioli, I love them. But because of the heavy soil and the heavy winter rains I have to dig the bulbs up and store them. I grow lilies in containers for similar reasons, as well as alliums and agapanthus.  By now I’ve got a tidy collection of container plants.

Tulips,  grape hyacints, croccusses, and many other bulbs also seem to grow best in containers here.

Seeds are germinating inside, this year I’m trying out asters.  I picked an aster resembling a spider chrysanthemum, the flowers look lovely on the packet.  We will see.

A glimpse into our putting shed, not quite sorted or decluttered.  I was looking at a new wheel barrow recently  but they cost around €150! I think the old rusty one will get a clean up instead.

All things to enjoy or look forward to.

THE GARDEN AFTER FROST

| gaiainaction

Yes, Jack Frost has been paying West Cork, as well as the rest of Ireland, and I believe other parts of Europe too, a nightly visit. That in the middle of it I ran out of heating oil through my own lack of attention is beside the point. I was able to solve the problem very quickly thanks to a loyal plumber and heating oil providers. This did not take awake from the beauty which greats me while attending to some domestic chores like emptying the kitchen waste into the compost bin at the end of the garden. I could not resist taking some photos at least. Meanwhile a little robin has been coming closer all winter and even sang to me the other day, how totally lovely.

And what I would really like to do this year is to make my garden into a lovely space, that is nurturing to the soul, a space where my family, friends and myself can rest and find quiet and peaceful admiration for nature. And a space for wildlife, where bees and other pollinators enjoy all the flowers and find nectar. Where birds can build their nests and sing their hearts out, for a mate when the time comes. I’ve had up to five goldfinch everyday feeding on the seedheads of the Evening Primrose, such a wonder. The usual bird population is fine this winter, I’m taking part on the survey again. The chaffinches are definitely down, the sparrow count is up. There is only one dunnock whereas there have been two for years. The wren is our resident bird, as are two blackbirds, a couple. Everyday there is now a Pied Wagtail feeding in the front garden, a first for our garden. Of course the robin is always there, but some years there are two, so far there is only one, I read that the males come feeding earlier than the females so I hope that the female is still on the way. It is nice when a robin comes up to you and it feels like they are really trying to communicate with you, and when they then start to sing so close, that is wonderful!

I wish you all a peaceful, joyful, healthy and happy 2026, enjoy!

ON THE ROAD TO DURRUS

| gaiainaction

It has been a beautiful,  long, and busy summer with very little rain and pleasant warm temperatures.   I’ve collected a number of photos and writing which I’ll blog about over the winter months,  over the rainy season, but for now just some recent pictures.  

Driving over the Mine Road to Durrus in West Cork
A typical Irish house of last century
I just came across this dahlia somewhere
One late summer morning in the garden

I’m looking forward to catch up with everyone during the next while.

A FINE HOSTEL IN WEST CORK

| gaiainaction

Some days ago I took the notion to spend a few days in Glengarriff in West Cork. Glengarriff is a peaceful village lying in a lush valley surrounded to the south and east by the Caha and Shehy mountain ranges and to the west by the Bantry Bay. Its climate is subtropical and this is seen in the lush plant growth, home to several rare plants and trees, like the Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) and the royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) for example. Close by are the Italian gardens, situated on a small island better known as Illnacullin island, a beautiful place to visit.

Sugar mountain and Shrone hill, part of the Caha mountains in which glacial valley Glengarriff lies.

The Blue Pool, accessible right from the village

I think that most of all Glengarriff is a place where you can relax and unwind, but also a place where, in the village itself, people congregate in and outside of pubs and eateries, and so a lovely ambience resides. I often travel through this little village, I always stop to soak up what Glengarriff really is, a place of beauty, of peace. Even the scent is full of fragrance, the fragrance of fresh air, of oxygen. Very restorative!

Early spring in the village 2025

Why am I writing about Glengarriff? First of all I love the place and have spent time there, and secondly because of where I stayed. I like to put the Glengarriff Hostel on the map because it is an amazing place. I’ve always loved and travelled using hostels, and this is one of the best. What a nice way to travel and meet new places and people in a way that is adventurous and affordable. Glengarriff Hostel has a mixed dorm, a female dorm, family and private rooms. A comfortable sitting room and a great kitchen with a terrace looking out towards the Blue Pool and Shrone hill. Find out more on https://glenhostel.ie/

The Hostel with Shrone hill behind it
Private room
Chill out room
Kitchen
Entrance
One of the dorms
Family room

One of my favourite things about Glengarriff is the Nature Reserve which is just a stone’s throw away from the village on the Kenmare road. This is an original Oak forest, lined with pathways and walking trails, both long and short. Very interesting are the lichens, the mosses and the polypody ferns found here. The Glengarriff river runs through this forest. Both this reserve and the surrounding area is a wonderful place for hikers, hill walkers and for those interested in geology, botany and nature in general. People who like the sea can also live it up in Glengarriff, there are boat trips, fishing, and swimming.

Irish spurge Euphorbiacae hyberna
Wild Rhododendron
Along the coastline at Glengarriff

For the horticulturist there are several gardens to visit with interesting and sub-tropical species. Springing to mind are The Bamboo Gardens, The Ewe Experience, Garnish island. And Ardnatrush gardens which are my favourite, this is the garden developed by botanist Ellen Hutchins and where she did research into seaweeds among other things. Here are some photos I took there at my last visit.

Gunnera manicata at Ewe Experience
Lichen at Ardnatrush
My brother Johan and I
Tree Fern – Dicksonia antarctica at Ellen Hutchins gardens

Following is a link to a website about Ellen Hutchins:

Overview Botany of Bantry Bay

And some links to other gardens in Glengarriff to visit.

https://bamboo-park.com/

https://www.theewe.com/

https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/ilnacullin-garinish-island/

Glengarriff is easily reached by bus from Cork, via Bantry and from Killarney via Kenmare.

I’ve enjoyed looking up some websites for information, but basically I’m quite familiar with the gardens, the botany and the interesting things about Glengarriff. It is the place where in 1965 my family emigrated to from Antwerp in Belgium. Us eleven children have since dispersed all over Ireland and Belgium too, with a huge number of descendants.

The surrounding mountains are a great place for the geologist.

OCTOBER SUNSHINE

| gaiainaction

What a most beautiful autumn sunshine at the moment here in West Cork. After an incredible display of the Aurora Borealis last night, we woke up to a little bit white frost, nature has had a lot to offer this morning which I discovered during a much desired walk on the path to Russagh Mill. It’s one of my favourite walks, this path overlooks a long valley, still lush and green in the distance. Closer by I especially noticed the sunlight on the blackberry leaves lighting up their earthy colourings.

This walk also has many shaded areas with lots of ferns. The shade is created by the trees, mainly ash, willow, hawthorn, and other species too. In fact I discovered a new tree which had escaped my notice in the past. When I looked it up on my phone it turned out to be a White Willow (Salix alba), one of its common names is Golden Willow, I like that! A fact I’d like to share about this tree is that “Its inner bark – raw or cooked can be dried, ground into a powder and added to cereal flour, then used in making bread etc. It has a very bitter flavour, especially when fresh, and it is used as famine food when all else fails. The leaves and young shoots are not very palatable and used only in times of scarcity. The leaves can also be used as a tea substitute.” My Flora Incognita got this information from Wikipedia as far as I know, so that is my source of my information I want to acknowledge. I wonder if this tree was every used during the potato famine here in Ireland. Below is a photo of the said tree.

Below are the seedhead of Willow Herb, Hawthorn berries, Fern, and a late flower in the hedgerow.

Blue sky during these autumn months is very welcome.

This last photo is on another part of my walk. The farmer here was growing a plant of the legume family with lilac flowers and thick looking seed pods, there is a whole field of it here, and further along there grows a lot of Dock, now in seed. What caught my attention here was the several dozen of birds fluttering and flying around all at the same time, and definitely looking as if they had a mission in common. I whipped out my phone and checked the evolving picture before me with my Merlin app and to my delight these birds came up as Eurasian Linnets (Linaria cannabina) I was so impressed as I had not seen those before here, and so many of them together. They belong to the Finch family. Apparently they are fond of flax seeds, hence their name. The male’s colouring is beautiful during the breeding season, lots of red.

Well, that walk was so nice, and finally I’ve taken the time to write about it. I’ve missed my blog writing very much and I want to be back to it regularly. So much to research and write about. I’m still driving to Kenmare every week to see Ian, I travel through the Caha mountains and I love it, the beauty of that journey is a weekly joy. Every week something new and interesting to notice and discover. And after seeing Ian, enjoying a nice cup of tea and chat together, the journey back, very often I stop to look at a view or a rock or plant. It’s so dead quiet up in those mountains, even when I’m on a main road there are whole period of quiet. I’ll tell you more about that soon. Meanwhile, much love.

OVERWINTERING HERBS IN WEST CORK

| gaiainaction
Rosemary – this plant is three years old

Currently it is the time to take stock and make plans for this coming growing season. I have done a little of that, and I’ve also gone through my last years garden journal to check on what did well and what is just not suited to our type of garden soil, the amount of light and the temperature, and I’ve made a few notes on that. While I was checking all the beds, seeing what is growing well during the winter months, I noticed that herbs and some wild plans do very well during the winter in this area – it being the SW of Ireland. Our climate here is influenced by the gulfstream, this makes our winters mild, usually we only get a little night frost, and this seldom harsher than minus 3 or 4. The plant hardiness zone in this oceanic climate is around 9. So today on the fourth of February I took some photos of what is growing right now, what I can use from our garden. And there is quite a lot.

There are some large and strong lavender and rosemary plants, they are getting old now and a little woody, but still flowers profusely. Normally the rosemary blooms in the winter, beautiful pale blue flowers. I find that rosemary grows extremely well and fast here. The lavender sometimes blooms twice a year and gives a generous crop. Some years ago I planted a sage bush and it soon almost took over the plot, definitely overshadowing the oregano at the moment, again this plant gives beautiful darker blue flowers on spikes, which turn a rusty colour in the fall. Our oregano plants almost disappear during the winter, only a few leaves remaining, but they come up wonderfully well once the sun warms the soil. What does disappear are the different types of mint, the chives, and the lavas, but they also return with the warmer weather. The bay leaf plant grows in a pot, it is slow growing which suits me, I use it all the time. Curly parsley is another herb that stays green all winter. My French tarragon I’ve had to overwinter inside where it is doing ok. I have always loved growing herbs, because of their scent and of course because of their culinary uses. I like to cook with them. Other herbal plants in our garden, like the dandelion, three cornered leeks, borage, feverfew, shepherd’s purse, cleavers, and nettles, just appear and I only use some of them in my cooking, others like the feverfew for example I just like the idea of them being medicinal herbs, but because I don’t know enough about them – I do not use them. Nettles, cleavers, three cornered leeks, ransom, and dandelion I do use, but not for their flavour, more for their vitamin and mineral content. 

Rosemary, a lovely cooking ingredient
And decorative too
Lavender
This bush is twelve years old and still flowering strongly
Bayleaf
Sage
Thyme
Sheperd’s purse
Variegated Oregano
Borage
Oregano
Cleavers
Dandelion
Feverfew
Three cornered leek
Chives
Cilantro and lime
Gingered Sweet potato and coconut stew

I enjoyed telling about my herbs and wild plants, I hope you enjoyed reading about them. Today I cooked a Gingered Sweet Potato and coconut stew with lots of cilantro (which does not do well during the winter here – at least not outside!) 

I saw a program recently where herbs were used in a border, and left to flower and bloom. It gave me an idea, I’ve tried it before with both celery and coriander plants, but I grew them in pots. I am now going try growing them in-between other flowering plants in my borders. I guess coriander is native to the Mediterranean. Celery, though, is definitely native to Ireland, there are still uncultivated wild celery plants growing on Irish soil. Their flowers are umbelliferous, lovely light delicate flowers which will definitely add interest to my border. 

When I’m reading, thinking, talking, or writing about plants, their origins, their uses, their benefits, and their beauty, and how many of them travelled from faraway places, then I’m as happy and interested as can be. So much to read and learn about them.

TAKING TIME OUT

| gaiainaction

Nice walk along the N71 surrounding Skibbereen town. River Illen flows through the town and has many different faces, this time a faint reflexion of the blue sky and some light white clouds.

In the Uillinn Gallery I had a preview of Majella O’Neill Collins’ paintings which I think quite interesting, this time her paintings imagine the journey of the MV Alta, a merchant ship that was abandoned at sea in 2018, it washed ashore in West Cork during a storm in 2020. The wreckage is still there. I did get the distinct feeling that ships or a ship and the sea were her theme. Enjoyed some of her vibrant work. Her exhibition opens next Saturday.

I was lucky enough to see a heron!

Love these pines against the blue winter sky. Birds have started singing!

Taking time out will be snippets of my walks and indeed of my time out

a BEAUTIFUL GARDEN INFLUENCED BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD OF GREAT DIXTER

| gaiainaction

One of the most fine and inspiring gardens on the West Cork Garden Trail is situated near Dunmanway. It is the Aultaghreagh Cottage Garden which is beautifully created by Christine and Leslie Wilson who were in turn inspired by plantsman Christopher Lloyd of Dixter in East Sussex.  As part of our children’s summer holiday activities my daughter and I decided that we would visit this garden and make a nice day out of it.  We were not to be disappointed, and even the weather was with us, we enjoyed beautiful sunshine! And we were greatly inspired by our garden visit.

In his day Christopher Lloyd liked colour contrasts, he liked blocks of colour intermixed with foliage, and I saw this reflected in Christina and Leslie’s planting, their perennial borders were colourful and vibrant.  Coincidently this very year I myself was looking for ideas to improve our borders and I was sure to find that here.

As we walked past rhododendrons, azalea’s and other acid loving shrubs we came to a secluded area surrounded with lush trees and we found a pond there where gold fish were swimming and water lilies abounded as well as other water loving plants.

Beautiful flowers were visited by so many butterflies and other pollinators, a sight to behold. One of my granddaughters was able to capture a bumblebee.

To grow plants for all year round interest takes good planning and is so worth it.

After walking around the gardens with Christine and Leslie as our guides, we sat and had tea and cake, we heard the story of how they created the gardens from a bleak wide open field, they planted a lot of trees to start off with and added features bit by bit, it must have been hard work and the result is really very interesting. From the magical walled garden to the pond area, the many different sections each gave us another special feel of being close to nature. I loved seeing all the pots with day-lilies, now finished flowering and waiting to be brought into the tunnel for the winter season. We were given many tips and got answers to our many questions. We saw how much vegetables, berries and other fruit were grown, this too was inspiring.

One of Christopher Lloyd’s philosophical sayings was ‘My mother and I like plants to look like they are enjoying themselves’ and I think that’s got to be the thing that makes a garden sing! And this garden was singing all the way! We went away having enjoyed a lovely and inspiring afternoon.