Birr

We took a trip to Birr on Saturday. With C being with me I took very few photos compared to if I were on my own, but it was nice to have him with me for a change. He'd been promising me for a long time that he had to go on business and I'd get a trip in that way, but it hadn't happened yet this year. As there was a car he wanted to look at in the town, we combined the two on Saturday - along with another two cars on the way back - it was a long day!
The gardens were lovely, as always, but you could see that the hard winter had taken its toll. Compared to this time last year there wasn't nearly as much growth ( the border of agapanthus, where I got so many butterfly photos last year, was very sparse, and though the colchicum were out, they weren't in the same drifts that you could see from the far side of the river. There also seemed to be several trees down - I imagine more to do with the weight of snow than wind, as the fallen trunk C walked across looked quite sound, so he said.

I would have thought these were irises if I hadn't seen the odd flower heads!

Bare Beauty 2

Birr, again...

I heard someone on a gardening program last week saying that she would always have mahonia for the scent. Well, the one in our neighbours garden that I hang all my feeders from definitely is not scented, and neither was this one - just beautiful.

 I am not overfond of hydrangeas and only spent some time trying to get a good picture of one in the summer because I wanted a photo to make a card for a friend. This time of year, though, I think thre are really beautiful - I'd have them happily if they looked like this all year round.

Bare Beauty

More photos from Birr. It was lovely to see the structures of the trees so clearly, and to have views that are normally obcscured by all the growth.

Swan Lake

 I was lucky enough to have another trip to Birr today. In a way it's a pity C's meeting last week was cancelled, because it would have been beautiful in the snow, but a nightmare to get there. This morning was a cold frosty morning and a beautiful drive down, although almost as soon as we crossed into Offaly it seemed to get milder and less frosty. More will follow, but as we were up in Lisburn for the weekend an early bed is called for tonight.
I spent too long sitting on a bench near the lake watching the swans and ducks, and got too cold - but I still think it was worth it. Shame I can't add a sound track  - as well as the honking of the ducks there was a little warbling whistle, for all the world just like a referee's whistle blown softly. I only heard it when I saw the moorhens around, but since I've often seen them and never heard that sound before that could have been pure coincidence. I also had fun watching all the goldfinches and chaffinches, along with coal, blue and great tits. But alas, as I only made a definite decision to go just ten minutes before C wanted to leave, I forgot to pack his spotting scope in my bag.

Birr Miscellany

Since we leave on holidays at the weekend I'd better finish off with my Birr photos. I mentioned the carpet of colchicum, so here a couple of photos of that. I'd seen it from the near side of the river, and as I thought I still had half an hour till C would be ready for lunch, I crossed the river to get nearer. And then he rang and said he'd be at the café for lunch in 5 minutes and he didn't have very long as the meeting still wasn't over. So I went back after lunch to get some better, less rushed photos.

A lovely sculpture made from oak, commemorating the completed restoration of the Millennium Gardens, which include the hornbeam cloisters.

Derelict greenhouses

By one of the rivers

Another riverside path

Do you remember this ? I left it longer than I should have to strain it, it should only have been a few weeks. But I strained it recently - first through a strainer, then through muslin, then through coffee filters. Even after all that it still as some sediment, but it smells heavenly,  like essence of Christmas cooking - mincemeat, plum-puddings, all those lovely spicy treats. My sister tried it as an aperitif when they were here over the weekend, and enjoyed it.

Birr - Hornbeam Cloisters

If I had to choose a favourite part of Birr, which would be an almost impossible task, this part of the garden might  just be it. For years I had a couple of enlarged photos hanging on the wall. There are old weathered statues at the ends of two of the alleys, with rambling old roses growing around them. Since it was far too late for the roses, I've opted for a photo looking in the opposite direction with a ladder at the end. This time round the cloisters weren't the usual haven of peace, as they were being trimmed for the winter. So when I went around in the morning, the gardeners were on their break and they had the radio on, and when I went back in the afternoon there was a duet of hedge-trimmers. But it's still a place that always fascinates me, even with that noise going on! It was grey in the morning, lovely and sunny in the afternoon. I'd love to see it in the winter when it's more bare and skeletal. But then, I am just assuming that hornbeam is deciduous.
p.s. - that big dragonfly was a Brown Hawker -

I have a sudden horrendous attack of hay-fever caused by I don't know what; I am itchy and scratchy, my eyes are itchy and scratchy, my throat is itchy and scratchy. I brought in the last of my Stargazer lilies, but I didn't react like this to any of the others. Off to bed, hoping that it's better tomorrow as we are expecting my sister and her husband round.

Birr - Wildlife

I have never seen so many of these butterflies all in one place - Brimstones, I think.
On the agapanthus they had to thrust themselves right up into the flowers to get at the nectar, whereas on the more open flowers they could just land - if you look, you should be able to see the proboscis of the one on the pink flowers. Even in flight when they were coming in to land on those flowers, the proboscis was out and ready - but the photo is blurred.

No dainty butterfly this - that body and legs are positively chunky!

One super-size dragonfly - haven't had time to check out my wildlife book yet. The first time I saw one flit across the lake I thought it was a small bird, and when I finally got to see one at rest after a long time stalking them and waiting, I'd say the body could have been 3 inches long.

He's pretty well camouflaged, but in one part where there was a little swampy stream with reeds and grasses, there were a whole flock of blue tits flitting around. Delightful to watch. (And with any luck, soon C is going to decide to get me a tele-converter for my lens!). I just wish I was better at remembering bird calls - while I was watching them there was something in a bush behind me making a funny almost hissing sound. But while I am good on music and can generally pick out the right chords for a song after hearing it a few times, I just can't get to grips with bird calls.


Swallows on the wire in the car park. When we arrived the lines were full of birds, which C thought were swallows but I thought were swifts or martens. As we were a bit later than we would have liked, he didn't have time to check through his spotting scope, he had to head straight to his meeting. But on comparing the photos I took then with the ones I took when we were leaving, I still maintain the ones in the morning didn't have those long forked tails.

Birr - quick snaps

I am glad I pushed myself a bit to go for the trip to Birr today, it was such a lovely day weatherwise, and lovely to see the gardens coming into their autumn colour.
Top memories with no photos -  the yellow flash of a grey wagtail flying down the river, two ducks swimming through the weeds and snapping at flies, the most ginormous dragonflies I have ever seen - still working on identifying them, the swallows flying over the lake...
Just a couple of photos till I get more sorted out. I gave myself another push and took almost all my photos on manual, and was pleased with how they turned out.

Birr

Just a last few photos. I am sorry I don't have any worth sharing of the hornbeam cloisters - they are so wonderful, but at this time of year they are so leafy that you don't see the structure as well as you would earlier and later in the year.

72" reflecting telescope, originally constructed in 1841 - 1845, and restored in 1997.

Fagus Sylvatica "Aurea Pendula"  - always a striking splash of colour.

Poppies

The lake - again!

The  meadow land in front of the castle hasn't been ploughed for a couple of hundred years - it used to be grazed by sheep. It's full of all sorts of wildflowers. I didn't see it this time, but in the past they have mown a path through part of it in the shape of the spiral nebula  as observed by the 3rd Earl of Rosse who built the telescope.

The Castle - not a good photo, but I think I have to include one.