Wednesday, 27.8.09 Mixed Bag

Dark Skies Over Lough Graney, taken from our local farmer Kevin's back field.

Lake Walk

I took Buster down to the lake, the quick way, via Kevin's farm. It had rained most of the day so I wasn't sure whether the weather would stay dry! This is were we go through Kevin's gate:


Buster came back to see what I was doing. Notice the trees are changing colour. It's really turned Autumnal the past week.
The water in the lake (Lough Graney) has risen and is now touching the boards of the fishing stand. Buster is already out there looking for any bits the fishermen may have dropped. He was a bit spooked by the noise of the water on the wooden boards. I just hoped they wouldn't give way.
A closer view, Buster wouldn't turn to the camera!
The sky looked dark and threatening

This is in the other direction - just as bad.

The clouds seemed to be heading straight for us.
A very watery sun put in a brief appearance.
It must be lovely to have a house so near to the lake's shores.
I usually walk along the shore a little way but the water was far too high. These flowers were above water a week ago. Buster had a bit of a paddle but not for long.

This is one of Kevin's old barns, look at the colour of that sky.

We walked back up the hill and I spotted this lovely moss and hawthorn berries:


Then a pretty colourful patch of hips and blackberries:

Buster eats the blackberries off the bush!

Look at the ladybird feasting on the ripe blackberries.

This made a colouful, Autumnal shot with ferns, bramble leaves already turned red and ripe grass seeds.
The sky was still dark over this beautifully colourful field.


Here, a dock leaf is all lacy after the slugs have been feasting. It looks rather pretty.

Some bullocks had appeared in one of the fields we pass and they had just been fed. I thought he was rather a handsome fellow.
They had no manners at all. The black one had his front hoofs in the trough!

A row of bottoms! Look how muddy it is.
Up on the distant hillside the wind machines were turning.
Looking back towards Lough Graney, the black cloud was still there.
We turned left and up our lane. Martin has had his field cut for sileage but it hasn't produced many bales. He doesn't feed it at all.

The Building Work

This walk was on Tuesday and the builders had been very busy all day trying to sort out our water and sewerage system. We came back to this amazing spaghetti junction:

Can you see Sandy investigating it all? He blends in with the pipes.

Taken from above. Could win the Turner Prize I reckon!

A long view. The building on the right is the new extension and to the left is the old barn, the one which is being demolished.

All the pipes will eventually be hidden of course. Today the builders didn't turn up at all!

Jim and I decided that it would be a good idea to remove all the plants from our rockery. AAAAH! It seemed a bit drastic but we feel sure that when the barn is demolished, the rockery probably will be too. We moved most of the plants up to the allotment, where the potatoes have come out and planted some around the garden. It was a busy afternoon. It was also mostly sunny today. Amazing.

Tomorrow

I have been invited for morning coffee at Mrs Broderick's lovely house. Her sister is now back from visiting other relatives and wanted to meet me again. She is a nun on a 3 month rest from her work in Zimbabwe. No doubt there will be cake....

I do hope you enjoyed our walk. It didn't rain in the end, in spite of the threatening skies.