Pretty Meadow Brown butterflies are everywhere at the moment. These two are getting a little romantic. :-) #Nature #Butterfly #Summer

First cuckoo flower! Love this little wildflower. Means our resident cuckoo is due to arrive back any time now. Must have heard the weather forecast for the next few days. 😎🌞🍦🏊‍♂️👙 #Nature #Cuckooflower #NatureDestination #Wildflowers

They're waking up. :-) #Nature #Trees #Spring #EcoHolidays

Spring is in the air - and love is in the air too if you're a frog. We have lots of frog spawn in the usual places and frogs everywhere giving each other piggy-back rides. 😉😎 #cyclesofnature #Nature #Frogs #Biodi #LakesideGlamping

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

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

A small selection of the beautiful wildflowers that now dot the landscape at Lough Mardal #Wildflowers #Nature #Ecofriendly #Biogdiversity #Beautiful

Cuckoo flower with teeny tiny orange specks that are the eggs laid by the orange tip butterfly. And two photobombing flies. And filthy gardening nails. #Nature #Butterfly #Cuckooflower #Bio #Interconnectivity #Wildlife

The cuckoo is back! One of the loveliest sounds of Spring that stops you in your tracks. #Nature #Spring #Cuckoo #Birds

All the frog spawn was frozen when we went on our routine inspection today. Incl one frog (demonstrating Darwin's theory). Will the frog spawn survive I wonder? We hope so! #Nature #Frogs #FrogSpawn #Wildlife

A lonesome snowdrop. Hard to imagine in a matter of weeks the place will start transforming with new colours as the wildflowers start popping up in ernest. Jeepers it's been a long winter. #Nature #Wildflowers #Biodiversity #Spring

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

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 #

Exceptionally fluffy catkins on this Willow tree by the lake. The toddlers think it's a candy-floss tree. Or maybe it's more they wish it were a candy-floss tree! #Nature #Catkins

Stunning Autumnal colours when the morning sun hits the forestry across the lake at the moment. Proving that grey days can be beautiful too. #Nature #Trees #Reflectios #LakeReflections

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.