Waterfalls, Loughs and Woodlands.

Now that we are retired we are able to get out and about to see the natural beauty that surrounds us. When we had the farm to even get half a day off together had to be planned like a military operation.

Now we have no such restrictions we are able to explore or revisit places of interest to us.

Last weekend we revisited the Glencar waterfalls on the border of Sligo and Co. Leitrim. We had been once before with visitors, but if I recall correctly it was a very damp day ( Irish for raining cats and dogs). Sunday was a nice dry day although not too much sunshine.

These waterfalls are well worth visiting, I  love anywhere that has water, to me it is so calming.

The noise from the cascade is deafening, the power of the water is incredible. Clearly Sligo council has woken up to the fact that these falls are a great visitor attraction and have allowed a cafe to be built.

Even this late in the year there were lots of people around and the cafe was well patronized.

From the falls we then went on to Hazelwood on the lake shore of Lough Gill, it is many years since we last visited these woods and unfortunately the beautiful wood carvings that had been there had not been maintained and are now, no more.

However the woods are still a beautiful place to visit, with lots of old trees,

many growing in unusual shapes,

and lots of fungi, most of which are not edible, but are still beautiful.

Beautiful mosses.

A grotto.

These woods are also well used, it was lovely to see so many families there with children climbing trees and generally having a good time, and feeding the water birds.

Feeding frenzy.

Fishing for trout.

Mute swan.

Common gull.

Lough Gill has the isle of Innishfree, made famous by W.B Yeats.

WB. Yeats, 1865 - 1939. 

 I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping
     slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket
     sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, 

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.'And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

From the woods we then made a quick visit to

Sligo Abbey, which in fact was a Friary, built in 1253,

we didn't have time to go in, besides which it is one of the few places that charge, however we will probably return and pay to go in but not just as they are closing.

Although the fungi that we saw in Hazelwood were mainly inedible, on Saturday we did find a beautiful horse mushroom, it weighed in at just over six ounces, just right to have half each as a starter  before dinner.

Autumn Colour.

Leycesteria formosa. Bees love the flowers.

The season is moving on very quickly, the trees are changing colour to their beautiful Autumn hues, this season seems to go so fast, once the leaves change colour you know that winter will soon be here. and if we get high winds the leaves will quickly fall. We have tried to plant our land to give all year round colour and apart from December where the only thing we have is Mahonia we have succeeded.

The Red oak is a little slow this year

but the Spindle and

Guelder rose are giving a good show,

also the Blue berries, we had grown them to give us fruit and they do give us a little, but the Autumn colour makes them worth while.

The pottery class is still going well however,

the teacher will soon be off to New Zealand for a month, I am hoping that my latest pieces will be  glazed and fired before she goes.

You never know until a piece comes out of the kiln what the final effect will be.

We are still getting Autumn Raspberries, but we have to be quick to beat the wild birds. The store cupboard and freezers are now full.

Friend and helper ready to do the butchering.

This week we again bought half a free range pig from a friend, we bought from him last year and the meat was very good, hoping that this years is as good.

making the best of dry weather.

The weather is certainly changeable, on the odd dry day we have tried to make the best of it and have a couple of trips out.

Once again we had a few hours on the Sligo coast, this time at Aughris Head,

this lovely bay also has a great thatched pub / restaurant which has a good range of seafood as well as a couple of meat dishes, as usual I went for the seafood, a large dish of mussels followed by Calamari, once again the squid was better than any I had had in Spain. Despite being nearly into October there were plenty of people around, both in the pub and on the beach.

There was the odd shower, but when the sun came out it was hot.

In between dry days Simon has been creating yet another flower bed for me.

Many of the plants that we have are either in the wrong place or have totally taken over where they were, so drastic measures needed to be taken.

A late flowering Aconite need to be moved plus several iris plants, both yellow and the blue ones. Rudbeckia had gone crazy as well as the Astrantia so they were also moved. I had also had a delivery from a local online plant company, Irish plants direct who have clearance sales at this time of year, their prices are always good, but even better at sale time so I can never resist.

I have been very good though with bulbs, the only new ones are dwarf  irises, daffodils and tulips for the rockery, and Turks head lilies.

There is still plenty of colour in the garden,

the roses have all had a second flush,

Michaelmas daisies and the late Aconite give a lovely splash of bright blue. The Autumn raspberries are also giving a good crop but it is a case of getting to them before the wild birds have a feast. We have also had a few more Blueberries, we are finding that they just don't ripen at the same time, so it's hard to get a good picking in one go. 

The Chinese lantern plant has give us a lot of lovely orange lanterns, I will dry them and use them in a dried flower arrangement.

This year seems to have flown by, next week we will get the garlic and onions planted, it seems only a few weeks ago that we were cropping them.

The other trip out was to Florence Court in Co. Fermanagh,

One of the rose  arches.

the old walled gardens have been restored and there are lovely walks through the woodlands.

This is the latest that we have visited , normally our visits would be in the spring or summer time, but there was still plenty to see. The roses are still blooming,

Beautiful shape and the perfume was incredible.

lots of Kaffir lilies

and beautiful pink Japanese anemones,

and this lovely splash of yellow although I'm not too sure what it is.  The veg' gardens were also full of veg, the volunteers have certainly worked very hard to bring these gardens back to their former glory.

They also have plants for sale( who can resist?) and I totally fell for this beauty, a hardy member of the ginger plants it originates from the Himalayas. 

Roscoeo purpureo