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- Oct 3, 2018
The wildflower grand finale for this year
The wildflower final hurrah of the year at Lough Mardal is dominated by this beauty. The Devil's-bit scabious. I've come to love it so much. Maybe because it's the last of the wildflowers here now til next spring and puts on such an impressive grand finale virtually blanketing the land in every direction, even the boggier bits. Devil's-bit scabious was considered a powerful plant in folklore. It was an important ingredient in an old Irish potion to cure the 'evil eye'! There
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- Jul 25, 2018
Wild billbery-picking
We are very lucky to have wild bilberries growing along the shoreline and they are now ripe for picking! The girls actually managed to save some for later on our first foraging expedition, which was a first! I should have got a photo of their black lips by the end of our mission. Next time... :-) In Ireland, the fruit is known as fraughan, from the Irish fraochán, and is traditionally gathered on the last Sunday in July, known as "Fraughan Sunday". They are known has hucklebe
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- Mar 10, 2018
Frogs Spawning
Now that the cold weather has passed the ditches by the lakeshore here are teeming with frogs all getting down to business and putting on quite the display as they produce their frogspawn. You have to be stealth-like in your approach as they will dive and hide as soon as they see you. Stealth-like is not something three-year-olds are good at, so you can imagine the approach with twins. But they're quick learners and today we were able to crouch down and watch for quite a whil
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- Jan 31, 2018
More Days Like These
Big news, the sun came out today. So it was the first decent walk for days that didn't feel like an endurance test. Although usually always drawn to the lakeshore today we went up the hill. The view on a good day with Donegal Bay in the distance always catches your breath. (The sound of angle-grinders on the building site ruining the peace but playful toddlers and meditative zen dog compensate.)
More of these days please. #Glamping #Travel #EcoLodge #BeautifulDestinations #
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- Apr 16, 2017
Going Cuckoo
There was much excitement this morning at breakfast - the cuckoo is back! We have been looking forward to its arrival but weren't expecting it quite so soon. Last year Maisie used to wake us all up at 6am cuckoo-ing, the actual cuckoo singing in the background outside. Maisie's cuckoos are an oddly amusing sound to wake up to. She has been practising them again recently as a result of all the cuckoo chat, warming-up for her morning serenades with her old pal. We can't wait.
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