Ya win some, ya lose some

We have had a hard year trying to grow carrots, they just never 'bloomed'. But a few did manage to grow a bit.
Then I noticed one day that something else other than slugs were starting to enjoy what there was of the few carrots we had....never seen it before

Wasps! I had heard of them attacking fruit but never veg still in the ground.
Anyway they only had 2 attacked, the rest I harvested...

I think the soil was a bit too fertile for these !! Must remember that next year.

Our Tomatos have started to produce as well, the Gardeners Delight are ripening (& taste gorgeous) but our San Marzano tomatos are all still green.

Glenveagh Castle & Gardens, Donegal

I just have to share another post about our hols to Donegal, promise its the last one, but I couldnt leave out our visit to the garden in the middle of Glenveagh national park.

Lough Veagh

The castle itself was built between 1870 and 1873, a large mansion built by a fella Captain John Adair, who wanted it to look like Balmoral castle in Scotland.

The castle & veg garden

View from the lake

Bunbeg, a wee harbour in Donegal

While on our hols in Donegal we happened upon the small harbour of Bunbeg, and enjoyed a bite of lunch in the small cafe/bar/B&B that is situated at the entrance of the harbour, with views over the water. It used to be a mill once in its lifetime.

The cream building is the old mill

 Looking at the photo above you would never think there is a big harbour behind you, a great site for it. Cannot imagine the waters ever getting too stormy here.

Our day trip through Donegal

The most annoying thing about a 'staycation' in Ireland is the unpredictable weather, as we all know only too well over the past few (so called) summers.

BUT as we all know too, no matter what type of weather there is we will always manage to find a gem of a view or a waterfall or something that takes our breath away. And when theres been alot of rain theres loads of fast flowing water!

Myself and herself love the countryside, especially anything to do with water (maybe thats why we ended up living in Cavan, a lake for every day of the year!) and it felt like we stopped to have a look at every river/stream and lake we came across on our way from Letterkenny to Glenveagh National Park.

I make no apologies for the following photos, the day was dull and overcast but I took loads....heres a few hehe

Poor solitary tree

Ten days ago....

I havent been on here in what feels like ages, we have had a busy 2 weeks or so.
Busy doing 'staycations', and entertaining relatives and kids. Sligo, Donegal and Dublin got visits; a couple of nights in each county has meant we had some sort of summer holiday, but none of it will stand out in a few months time.
Why? because it seemed to rain most of the time! and although it did stay dry for our 'outdoor' trips, its just not the same without suncream, shorts and sandals...........which reminds me I didnt even have to buy sandals/flipflops for the kids this year! Now THATS a real sign of our summer isnt it?

So thats my excuse for not posting, but I did take a few pics....
Ten days ago these were taken

A wee Gourd & its predator!

I am having a constant battle keeping slugs off our Gourds, I will have to have a better plan next year. I never thought of any kind of slug barrier when planting these babies out. Our 3 Courgette plants are completely gone, and the Pumpkins are just about surviving..
But the Cabbage I planted are thriving, just have to see how long I can keep the netting on, and the cabbage white butterfly off!

On a different note anyone who has had building work done on their house will know our pain....(even though its a voluntary pain) our building of an extension is such an intrusion on our garden/workshop/home. They're nice guys but getting an extension is a pain in the ar*e! It started back in early July and now the novelty has gone! We're hoping it will be finished very soon so we can get back to normality! This was our building work ten days ago..

Hopefully I wont leave blogging as long the next time now that the summer hols are nearly over.. oh and heres a couple of Poppy flowers...2 survivors of about 30 I planted ! look nice though and on the plus side I will try to save some seed from them, so it hasnt been a total flop.

Holding our breath.....

After spending the time and energy sowing seeds, watching them germinate, harding the young seedlings off and eventually planting them out the last thing any gardener wants is to see them die.

This is really our first time being proper gardeners, our last garden was nearly too small to count!
So every plant is precious to us.

But I have had to learn to accept that sometimes the slugs win, or sometimes our plants just dont grow.

But on the positive side we harvested our Blackcurrants............ all 220g of them !!

We also managed to grow Garlic, and harvested them the other day!

But while half of our Tomato plants are thriving, the other half look as if they are stunted.

The one in the middle isnt growing!

Out of the 9 Gardeners Delight we planted only 3 look like they are growing, and will have some fruit, and out of the 9 San Marzano plants we have 5 with Tomatos on them...

Cant wait for them to ripen!

Our Pepper plants have babies!

Even the spare plants in the 2 litre pots

& the ones I didnt pot on...

A Walk in the Park

Before moving to the country, from Dublin, we enjoyed living within a mile of the beach and a lovely public park. Both wonderful amenities for the local community, especially for the likes of us with kids (& a puppy at the time).
So when we moved we really missed being able to go for walks in the park, and the kids playing on their favourite fallen tree stump or in the playground.
But little by little we began to explore our new area. There is Dun Na Ri forest park not to far away from us in Kingscourt, open to the pubic all year round and it has a river running through it! Our boys favourite part of  the park.
They have already discovered its bridges/stepping stones and we think we have found all of its paths.

Pic taken early last year on one of our first visits

We love going to this park, and thought ourselves very lucky to have found one with more things to explore than in the Dublin park.
Then we found another one....in Bailieborough.
This one doesn't have the river flowing through it, but it does have a lake instead!
The boys prefer the river to the lake to play around but our dog prefers the lake lol
Yesterday we took a trip to it while the rain stayed away, to get the boys/dog out for a good walk.

Rusty going for a swim!

The Bailie park does have one feature that the boys love.......their very own 'climbing frame' (who needs man-made monkey frames!)
So while they were climbing, (or attempting to climb) I explored a bit and found these gorgeous fruit!

Wild Raspberries

I couldnt believe it! I have never seen Raspberries in the wild before, and they tasted yummy too, myself and second son had a taste, first son not so brave.

And of course what kinda park would it be without the good auld Blackberry?? they are here in abundance (in flower).

I think we will be back when they ripen, as the only Blackberries around us are on the main road, with the traffic fumes on them!

We wandered on (after the boys had enough of climbing) and went on the hunt for Foxgloves, but we found a field of these purple flowers instead..

After much 'googling' I cannot find the name of this wildflower/weed, and its everywhere around here at the moment, in full bloom.

Our walk took an adventurous turn when the heavens opened and the huge drops of rain threatened to drown us if we didn't take shelter. And where better to shelter than in among the trees. Now Conifers are not the best for shelter but we managed to find a good auld Beech tree off the beaten track.
This was our 'view' for the 10 minutes it rained...

While we waited for the rain to ease off, I spotted some Foxglove in among the trees right behind us!

Think a visit to Dun Na Ri is next, wellies and rain jackets on! Dont ya just love our Irish summer?

And today, as a sounvenir of our walk, I have an infected bite the size of a 2 euro coin on my left elbow!! I hate those pesky mosquito bites, but could be worse, I've only one.