Saturday, August 23, 2008

Friday August 22nd Sunshine. Lake

Well, obviously summer has waited until now to appear. It's been beautiful today, not too hot but plenty of sunshine. I do hear the rain's back tomorrow though. Jim badly needed to cut the grass so I took Buster for our woodland walk. The lake was pretty still today and at times looked a gorgeous blue, reflecting the colour of the sky.




Grasses reflected







As it hasn't rained for a couple of days, the lake has receded quite a bit. You can see the 'tide line' in this photo:






The brown raised bit to the left is where the water was the other day.











These old dry reeds were left behind by the
receding water















The rocks have re-appeared, though not completely





I took a slightly different route inside the wood and found this tree root. I've always wanted a rootery in my garden. We have some small bits, but nothing as splendid as this. Bit too heavy to
move!





Upturned tree root







Buster wore his new harness, which shines in the
dark!






How splendid is that? After I'd taken Buster's photo I fell down this hole!

























I couldn't resist my little group of bull rushes again.



In fact I took them twice, from 2 different shores.


It's amazing how different they look.

















Shrub reflection

























A close up of some fungi by the lake on a log



Dried grasses to the right and new, lush green grass to the left, side by side in harmony
















A perfect salmon pink toadstool as yet uneaten by slugs








Ireland's national plant, the Shamrock














We walked up to the main road (tiny little road) and passed this wondrous looking plant. Jim told me it is burdock.



The horses had obviously been this way:











It was such a wondrous day that we decided to walk along the road a bit more. There is a chap we know called Paul who lives right at the end of it. I thought I might get a cup of tea there. Now Paul and his wife bought his land for a song quite a while ago, when it was incredibly cheap to buy. It had on it an old Irish traditional cottage. Paul, in his wisdom, decided to put a second storey on the top, but didn't do it properly and the whole thing became unsafe and has in fact been condemned. In the meantime they lived in 2 caravans. After 8 years, his wife gave up the unequal struggle and left but Paul stayed on and still lives in the caravans. He does a variety of jobs such as staging for music concerts and was building some picnic tables with benches the last we heard. Having walked there, which was quite a way, Paul wasn't in, which enabled me to take a few photos. You'll probably not believe your eyes. The caravans:

It must be so damp in there. The curtains are rotting at the bottom. Here is one of his bench sets. Maybe he'll get better with practise. He is making them out of pallets. The blue ones should be fun.




This is the back of the now condemned cottage. Such a pity












Only the cat was at home...












He did have a very pretty everlasting sweet pea though:



Click on any photo to enlarge.






Eventually Buster and I headed back to our car. In the little lay bye before ours, I recognised the car of one of our neighbouring farmers, Martin, who is an alcoholic. He has been in rehab many times but usually lasts about a day on his return. I was going to take a photo of his car as it has a smashed windscreen with tape over it, but he still drives it to the pub and back. Then I spotted that Martin was in the car. He rolled down his window and the smell of booze almost knocked me over. It's all very sad.

At home, Jim had mowed meadows and the arboretum, and said we ought to put a STAKE in a tree up the top of the meadow. It was surrounded by brambles, which I had cleared. Since then, it has a
list of about 45 degrees! Obviously the brambles were keeping it up. Here it is:



What a sad tree!








Jim waiting patiently for the photographer to 'stop fiddling about'! And the now totally upright tree:



















I decided to clear some more brambles (it's a never ending job) and stayed outside until it became too dark to work, about 9.15pm.

Fabulous dinner again with our own carrots, broccoli, courgettes, potatoes and redcurrant jelly to go on the pork steaks ( got that one right) - (not our own). Followed by Jim's special crumble with our own apples and blackberries picked after we'd sorted the wonky tree. Delicious. If we had a pig and a cow or goat, we'd be almost self sufficient.


12 comments:

Rachel Green said...

Fantastic shots, as ever.

What a shame about the condemned house, though, and I wouldn't trust those benches.

Well done jim for staking that tree.

BT said...

lol, I'm still fiddling with the blog to get the layout right! No, the benches don't look too sound, do they?

Hey, it was a 2 man job to steak the tree! I had to hold the steak in place while Jim hammered, very dangerous, then push the tree upright while he attached webbing to the steak and tree. lol,
xxx

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Lovely photographs, and then I got to the end and the description of your tasty sounding dinner made me hungry!!

Happy weekend to you!
And to Buster!

BT said...

thanks Pam, Terry and Edward. Glad you liked the photos.

Have a great weekend too.
x

Tess Kincaid said...

I do so enjoy going along with you on your interesting walks! It was fun to see the shamrocks just growing out there among the moss. I have some in a pot on our back patio. They are leftover from St. Patricks Day, when they sell shamrock plants in all the grocery stores over here.

Your dinner sounds dee-lish!

LITTLE BROWN DOG said...

Gorgeous pictures, BT - really conjured up a picture of your corner of Ireland. And I'm glad to hear you've been having a bit of dry weather - friends of ours have been over there this week, looking up some long-lost relatives.

Yes - such a shame about that little house. It looks really cosy and there's obviously been a lot of care taken over the upper storey.

Thanks for visiting my page - I enjoyed yours.

DK said...

ooh I really love those bullrushes, always a favourite of mine.

Can I steal the cat in the window for EnchangedGlimpses? :-)

K xxx

aims said...

Sorry Gina - but I've been laughing for quite a bit now with this post. Your words made me conjure up putting a steak (that you eat) up in a tree and I couldn't figure out why you would want to do that. I realized as I read further what you were talking about. Then I see Rachel has tried to slide it in there...but you missed that one too! What a hoot!

I too have a shamrock in a small pot. A friend gave me some rootings and it is growing nicely now. The bulrushes are quite the shots...and that house...what a crying crying shame! OMG!

So typical of some men - living in squalor like that and making rickety things that they think are beautiful. Had an uncle just like that - however he was more like the driver of the car....totally hammered most of the time - but living in a 1 room shack. What a story!

Now I'm wondering - should we have steak for supper?

BT said...

Oh for goodness sake. Jim said 'your spelling' to me. Good one aims!! Write out 100 times, STAKE, STAKE, STAKE!!! LOL. I can see why you were confused. You must have thought we had carnivorous trees! Note to self: Must try harder!

K, of course you must pinch the cat in the window, I took it for you!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Keanan Brand said...

With all the photos, I felt like I was there, taking the walk with you and Buster.

I love dogs, not so keen on cats, but they seem to like me. Go figure. Anyway, the photo of the cat and the window conjures up story material. Well done!

BT said...

Thanks for visiting Keanan, glad you enjoyed our walk. Rain stopped play today.

Ces Adorio said...

I found you at Willow's. I enjoyed looking at your photographs. It seems everywhere in Europe it's just beautiful.