A Walk Along Tralee Ship Canal.

 Sunday was another beautiful day.  We drove to Subway and I had half a bacon breakfast Sub.  The wife had some potatoes grilled slices.  It was quick and inexpensive and fuel for our next walk:

A sign for the Dingle Way.  At the beginning of Tralee Ship Canal.  Also The North Kerry Way.

A pretty cottage.  It reminds me of one of those Cottage teapots the wife collects.

Looking from the towpaths over to Blennerville windmill.

A sign warning walkers and cyclists that the swans can be dangerous.   A family of swans having a rest and Mr Swan was not an happy bunny.  He started spitting and hissing and some of his words made the air blue.  

A beautiful bench memorial.

The walk was only two miles and flat and tarmaced.  The walkers were friendly except for Mr Swan who hissed at us when we walked past his wife and Cygnets.  

Fair play again for these easy walks which can enjoyed for free by all.  All you need is a pair of comfortable like a pair of trainers or " the runners" like they say here in West Cork.

I love walking.  Especially when I can get my wife to go walking and talking with yours truly!😊

I went for an eight mile walk close to home today.  I think I'm getting back into my walking.  The wife reckons I must have been a dog in another life.  Maybe she's right.  I wouldn't  like their dinners though!😊

A Walk In Ballyseedy Woods.

We went to Kerry on Saturday.  It was a glorious  sunny June day.  Perfect for a stroll.  I noticed the brown sign for Ballyseedy Woods near Tralee.  We have passed the sign many times but this time we parked up and followed the signs into the woods.  

Signposts and a very good path surface.

The walk  was being enjoyed by people of all ages and some  walkers even said: "Good afternoon" to us.
 

A signpost of some of the wildlife tenants who reside in the woods.

Interesting stones.  I found the stone message on it's own quite poetic and profound.  Fair play to who ever paints and places these stones on the trails.

A fern and a sign for the Old Coach Road.

A carved man and an old roasting tin ingeniously made into a feeding tray for the birds and wildlife in winter.

The carved figure with his wife.

A cheeky Robin tap dancing on an old tree stump.  He said"All the world is a stage boy". I nodded and thanked him for his clog dance.

Hope you enjoyed another one of my walks?

Even The Honeybees Like Ground Elder Flowers.

 

We were sat watching the bees gathering pollen on some Ground Elder yesterday.  

Pernicious weeds that us gardeners are sometimes the bain of our lives  are also a source of food for bees and insects.

Perhaps we should treat our weeds like our cultivated garden plants and live with them?  Well some of them anyway.

Heads up:  It's  apparently a Buff tail Bumble Bee.  Not many people know that!🤔

Pernicious Weeds.

 Pernicious weeds.  No it's not the name of a Prog Rock band that once played Glastonbury Festival way back when.  I'm  talking about weeds (or wild flowers) that drive gardeners mad.

One such pernicious weed is Ground Elder. It resembles the Elder tree with it's flowers in particular:

I think its a pretty flower.  The Roman's are said to have introduced it to the UK and England even.  Why do news reporters never say England any more?  

Ground Elder is a member of the carrot family.  And it's pernicious rhisomes/ roots drive gardeners mad.  Some people use glyphosphate weed killers to eradicate it.  Stoic gardeners like myself pull it out and live with it even though it can be a nuisance.

In  Ireland the ancient monks are said to have introduced it to be used for a cure for gout and arthritis.  

Do you have a pernicious weed that drives you mad?  Would you use weedkillers to eradicate it or can you live with it like me? Soil slaves of the world unite!🎤😊

A Bit Of Prog Rock On A Friday.

 I haven't featured any of my favourite Prog Rock bands for a while.  One band who I would really like to see is the Canadian Prog outfit Saga.  The lead singer comes from Wales.  Another great Prog  band from Canada is Rush.  Who I have been fortunate enough to see twice, once in Birmingham and once in Sheffield.

My friend overseas emailed me a few years ago and said they were touring Germany with one of my favourite English Prog bands Magnum who I have seen twice.  Circumstances wouldn't  allow at the time, unfortunately.

Germany really appreciate Prog and Heavy Rock and bands from all over the world tour Germany.  Oh how I wish I had seen Saga and Magnum.

Is there a favourite band you had a chance of seeing and you regret not getting tickets?  I think it's about the outdoor concerts started again, don't  you?

Here's  one of my favourite Saga tracks from the nineteen eighties:

Hope you have a great weekend.

A Trip Over To A Beach On Mizen.

Myself and J and our canine friend drove over to Mizen on Tuesday afternoon.  This is is the last Peninsula next to ours in the Southwest of Ireland.

We drove through Schull and Goleen to Barleycove.  The parking is free and there are no real facilities but it's relatively quiet and a nice place to pass an hour or so.

Google photos reminded me we visited Barleycove this time last year.  There must be something working in my subconscious to visit in June?🤔

It was a nice way to have a walk and look at the sea.  Not that I don't look at our bay every day!😊

Pictures From My West Cork Gardens In June.

 I couldn't think of much to write about so I have had a week blog break.  This morning I walked around the gardens and the flowers were displaying their Summer dresses in all their glory.  Thanks flower girls!

Outside the kitchen door.

Pink Cranesbill Geraniums flower and come back every year.

Valerian self seed and this one's growing in a mortar between the paving stones at our front door.

Osteospermums growing in pots.  I made lots of cuttings of these last September and we have many plants putting on their Summer floral display.

Pot Noodle Gardening..

 No I haven't invented another Prog group name.

Regular readers will know I like recycling stuff.  Here's a plant pot I made from an old Pot Noodle container:

I got a grown up😀 to help me puncture a drainage hole in the bottom and filled it with compost and one of my Catmint rooted cuttings.  

The plant isn't bothered about it being in an old Pot Noodle container.

Three Years Ago.

I've finished working on the island now.  Only the other day I was looking on my mobile phone on the ferry to work and I noticed good old Google had sent me a photo or three of what I had been doing three years ago this week.

Myself and an old friend had met up at Bristol airport and travelled by train to Dorset and Thomas Hardy's fictional Wessex.  It's on the blog search of this blog.  We visited film and book locations and three former houses where Thomas Hardy dwelled

We walked many miles and even visited Shaftesbury (me and the black Labrador picture) and Jude The Obscure book locations and Gold Hill where the famous Hovis adverts were filmed.

The sun shone and we stayed in tents and visited the wonderful Wetherspoon's pubs and drank copious amounts of English real ales.  We also took in a day at Wimborne Folk Festival and we went to see Blackwater County play in the Paddock on a lovely hot Summers day and sampled some pints of Ringwood bitter.  It was a really enjoyable and educational trip:

Here's a picture of Blackwater County.

I love this band with their Irish, folk, punk style of play:

My Octopus Teacher.

 Someone I worked with recently recommended that I should watch: My Octopus Teacher on Netflix.  It's an incredibly beautiful and moving documentary about an Octopus in a kelp forest and a diver.

To digress for a paragraph or a second.  I was standing at the pier waiting for the ferry last week and two work colleagues and I were watching Jelly fish close to the harbour wall.  I asked one of my workmates what purpose did Jellyfish serve?  He wasn't sure!

That night I asked Doctor Google and I read that they don't have brains, eyes or a heart and are made up of ninety five percent water.  They eat plankton and fish eat them.  They are all part of the food chain and all creatures play a part in providing food for every living creature.

That's the same  message I get from the documentary.  It's incredibly beautiful, poignant and sheds a light on the world under the water.  It's excellent!

Christmas Shopping In June.

 Regular readers will know we're always after a bargain or three.  Today (Saturday) we went looking round some charity and found some Christmas cards in cellophane.  Three packs for 1 Euro.  

We couldn't resist our inner Womble and duly bought them:

Have you collected any Christmas presents bargains yet?

A Garden Visit To Muckross.

 We went to Muckross in Killarney on Sunday  morning.  Muckross House, Gardens and Estate are in Killarney.  Car parking and the estate and gardens are free for everyone to enjoy.  

Queen Victoria once stayed in the big house and it is said she put tourism on the map in the Southwest of Ireland.  It's another place we never tire of visiting for it's beauty and spectacular gardens and scenery:

I met an English sounding lady sat reading a book overlooking the glasshouse and we talked about where the walled productive kitchen gardens would have once been.  Then she told us about a spectacular walk to see the Rhododendrons in all their glory.  A lovely lady, day and gardens and a good time had by all!