Dun a Ri Forest Park

Ladies Lake

I know I have blogged about this park before but seeing as its only 'down the road' I reckon this wont be the last time it comes up here. But I just cannot help myself.
I've been really lucky as an adult to live near great parks, my last abode wasnt too far a drive from Newbridge Park in Donabate,  Ardgillan Park in Skerries and Malahide Castle in North Co. Dublin.
All lovely parks; with playgrounds for the kids (very handy esp when our boys were younger), small cafes, and Newbridge Park has a wee farm too. I have some lovely memories of all three. Time spent in these parks kept me sane through some tough times in my life.

For anyone living in an estate having a public amenity like any of these parks near by is just brilliant.

For those of us living in the countryside having a park near by is equally brilliant. There isnt many roads where I live that one can go for a 'stroll on' without the fear of being run over by a speeding car. And if you visit this park on a good day you will meet plenty of strollers/walkers/joggers.

I count myself blessed to live so near to such a wonderful park, not a playground or cafe in sight though! But the entire park is like a playground, just ask my 10 & 11 year old boys! And if you are looking for a drink there are 2 wells to satisfy your thirst!

The park has 565 acres, with the Cabra river flowing through it. We are still finding new parts to explore, or should I say the boys are always finding new parts to explore, I just follow. Here is a little taste of what its like....

Cabra River Walk

Cabra River Walk

Refreshments available..

Cromwells Bridge

Rabbit Bridge

Horse Chestnut

A very quick job

A couple of weeks ago we picked up some nice cute Lobularia maritima (Alyssum) flowers in mixed colours. They make great ground cover, but I was probably very late planting them out. They are supposed to be annuals but the 2 we planted last year came back again this year so fingers crossed these wee guys will make a reappearance next year, bigger and better!

Buying a second hand house has its advantages, one of which is that the lawns are established and the previous owners used railway sleepers to kerb the front drive.

But arent they very dull looking? And the one thing the garden is missing alot of is flowers. Something we are slowly trying to rectify! So I had an idea for the Sweet Alyssum....

After a bit of weeding I planted them out inbetween all of the sleepers. Some gaps were bigger than others so I had to compromise in places. But if they grow (hopefully) we'll have beautiful wee flowers instead of weeds/grass.

A work in progress..

Woke up yesterday morning to no rain, which considering the week we've had was a surprise.

And as the old saying goes 'make hay while the sun shines' I was up and dressed and out to the garden as fast as my legs could carry me (not necessarily true but I can pretend).

I've so many jobs to do in the garden that I try to do them all at the same time, so a bit of this then a bit of that.

But one job that is a bit easier to do when its not raining is filling the wheelbarrow with sand/clay/pebbles and moving it to the veg patch.

A few weeks back I laid down sheets of black plastic inbetween some of our raised beds to kill off the grass and weeds. The idea is to eventually get rid of all the grass inbetween the raised beds and have nice pebbled walkways around them (easier said than done).

I've removed some of the plastic to reveal dead grass and mud. Next step is to put a layer of sand down before putting the polythene cover, and then covered this with pebbles......

our Sapro Mira potatoe plants

Its hard work, and theres only so many barrow loads I can manage in the one day, this is one job that will take some time to complete.

On the other side of our garden our so called lawn is now a meadow, we havent been able to mow it due to it being so wet but we dont really mind because the wildlife are loving it.

Another job I had been planning to do this year was make a permanent structure to enclose our 3 Blackcurrant bushes, a fruit cage of sorts, but I think it will have to wait, because the berries are starting to ripen and the birds wouldnt be long about finding them and eating them all on us.
So I've just covered them in netting instead.

In the polytunnel all of our 20 Tomato plants (Gardeners Delight) are starting to flower, I have to say I am so excited. Even the four extra that I have planted in pots are flowering. Hard to believe that from such a tiny flower comes one of Mother Natures juicy mouthfuls.

This gardening lark aint easy...

I feel like the garden has given up on me, what was once (a few weeks ago) full of hope and empty raised beds waiting to be filled is now full of gloom, heavy wet soil and still empty looking.

What is left of the Parsnip seedlings I planted havent grown, the rest are slowly feeding the hoards of slugs that visit the raised beds at dusk.

The Beetroot seedlings are doing a bit better, not growing but mustnt be as nice to eat for the slugs.

I have a continuing battle picking the blighters off the Onions every evening but I seem to be keeping atop of that problem (they dont like the Garlic as much it seems).

The 'greens' are ok thanks to plastic bottles covering them and I have invested in some copper foil to go around their bed. The slugs dont seem to cross it (so far).

I managed to mow the grass around the beds yesterday (in between showers) so they dont have as much hiding places today. If it wasnt for the resident frogs I shudder to think of the infestation of slimey pests we would have.

Outside may be sad this week but inside the polytunnel we are getting a loads of  Strawberries every day.

But turns out we are not the only ones 'enjoying' them, found a 'stash' of them in a corner of the tunnel.....

I am hoping its only mice........

Lough Derg shore mini-break

It seems like a lifetime ago but a couple of weeks back we were basking in temperatures of up on 28 degrees in some parts of our beautiful isle.

Hopefully we will feel those temps again soon; maybe in time for when the kids get their summer break from school in 2 weeks time.

We were lucky enough to have booked a self-catering cottage that gorgeous May weekend for a small family break.

On the shores of Lough Derg, Terryglass, Co. Tipperary.

Terryglass, for those who have never been, is a lovely wee village. It has 2 pubs and one shop, all beside each other and within a few mins walking distance from the pier and the self-catering cottages. The perfect spot to relax and unwind.
Both pubs (The Derg Inn and Paddys Bar) do food and have picnic benches outside, perfect for lunch/dinner on a sunny day (we ate 'out' every evening, whats seldom is wonderful!).

Down at the pier there are plenty of facilities ie public toilets, showers, playground and picnic benches for those staying in the marina or interested in watersports.

We toured for the few days we were staying there, keeping as close to the waters edge as possible. First port of call was 15 mins up the road; the town of Portumna, Co. Galway. Home to Portumna Demesne, Forest Park and Portumna Castle (some of it open to the public while still under restoration) and gardens, on the shores of Lough Derg (we didnt do much walking as we had my partners elderly mother with us).

Next day we traveled southwards, along the 'Derg Way', and found a lovely wee spot to pull in and park.

Of course my eldest spotted this boats Irish name before us adults! (please look it up if you dont know what it means hehe)

We drove down through Killaloe (lovely town too) to a village called O'Briensbridge and across the Shannon on this bridge is Montpelier, Co Limerick.

On the way back to our rented cottage we dropped into the village of Dromineer for an ice-cream.

 And were lucky enough to see this wee family enjoying the good weather.

After a lovely few days it was time to say goodbye to Terryglass and a lovely weekend.

Enough with the rain already!

I love the rain, in moderation of course.

I love to see everything go extra green after a shower, and the droplets of water drickle off blooms; as I run for my camera to try and capture some images....Thats on a good day though.

After a few hours it gets a bit boring, then after a few days it gets downright annoying!

I hit off out in the last hour to take a few pictures of our gardens 'wet bits' in the hope of finding something positive after the torrential downpours. So on with my wellies, I knew I'd need them today.

We had so much rain yesterday that last night I had to go out digging a bit of a drain to try and clear away some of the excess water that was holding up behind our new extension....thankfully alot of it had cleared away by this morning (really need to get the footpath/drainage in).

Know how these guys feel..................

Theres a bit of sand in this barrow but the rain has filled it the past few days..

Think these wee Sycamore seedlings are watered enough, time to take them out of their 'bath'....

Even the poor Rhubarb are flooded, but I cant remove them from their watery home...

We really need to put some drainage into our garden, all of the lawns have surface water.
Everywhere I walk there is this..

My photographic walk-about had to end abrubtly, not by the driving rain (wasnt heavy while I was out) but because our farmer neighbour had arrived at his farm next door and if he took a glance over the ditch and saw me out taking pictures in the rain he might think me a tad mad.
So I tucked my camera away for a brighter day (hopefully).

Catch up in the polytunnel

Well hello again blog!
Its been a while blog, have you missed me?

I had great plans (& pictures) to blog about some Tomato plants, weeks ago,which failed to come to fruition.....until now.

Once upon a time I had a space in the polytunnel and some growbags.........

And outside our back door I had some of these(Gardeners Delight), which had been 'hardening off' the previous week or so in a small plastic greenhouse.....

So with a coupla Bamboo sticks, some twine and a scissors we have these.....

I really dislike throwing away living plants so I potted up the 4 spares; hence the pots in the middle of the bags. This year I put 2 plants per bag rather than 3 like I did last year (only 2 out of the 3 bore fruit).

On the other side of the polytunnel we decided to grow our Strawberry plants this year. This is half of them...

Plenty of flowers (& future Strawberries).....

And while watering the tunnel our resident slug eater peeped out for a shower..

Wish he had a few more friends though because we could do with alot less slugs in our garden, with all this wet weather they are breeding like rabbits!
And speaking of rabbits we spotted 2 during the week in our garden browsing over newly planted seedlings....... its never ending with this gardening lark.