A visit to Blarney gardens

 Another month is almost gone and it's been a good month.  The virus figures have reduced significantly and people are going out again meeting up in large groups and it's just great getting back to normal.  Today my sister called up and we surprised her by bringing her to see Blarney gardens in Blarney, Co. Cork.  We had all been to the castle in previous years when our American cousins came to visit but haven't been back since.  We never actually walked through the huge 60 acres of sprawling parklands which include gardens, avenues, arboretums and waterway gardens.

We first sat and had tea and cake in the café before beginning our stroll through the colourful pathways. 

It was busy with tourists. They were happy and enjoying their surroundings. It felt great to hear all the foreign accents again after an absence of two years.   

               

              

The photos are only a glimpse of the beauty. The herbaceous border is my favourite. I really didn't want to leave. We didn't get to see everything even though we  stayed until closing time. We will be back!

MAY DAY

Today is the first day of May which is always a lovely month.  Long evenings with sunset this week just before  9 o'clock.  We still need to have the heating on at night but hopefully can reduce the time by half in the next week or two.

We have been going back and forth to west Cork and Kerry in the last month spending lots of time outdoors walking and taking photographs of the beautiful Beara peninsula in South west of Ireland.

One of my photos from east Cork which features the Cathedral in Cobh was selected for the month of May for a calendar.   It wasn't my best shot of the town but nevertheless they seemed to liked it.  I just managed to click at the exact time when a break came in the clouds and the sun burst through for a few seconds before it darkened again. It had been raining for most of that day.