Birds and Flowers

During the recent travels in west Cork and east Kerry Dana got many beautiful shots of flowers and plants, so we are just sharing a collection of them here.

West Cork

Sunday morning we had breakfast at our hotel in Glengarriff and then set out to tour the Beara Peninsula. Unfortunately, we had finally lost our good weather, so it was a little overcast as we crossed the Healy Pass, but we still got some nice pictures. The top picture is the winding road we had driven up; next is a view at the crest, looking into beautiful Co. Kerry! The third one is an example of the contoured hills.

At the west end of the Healy pass we found and toured Derreen Gardens(actually this was in Kerry - part of the west side of the Beara is in Kerry), a vast woodland. We then continued down the peninsula, but the rain got the better of us and we decided to head back to Kerry. We stopped for lunch in a pub in Castletowne Bere - had a choice of 3 pubs and happened to choose this one. They had big signs about this book, and Mary and I had both read it - we thought it was the actual pub picture, but you'll notice the spelling is different. But it is definitely one of the pubs he included in his tour! It looks the same except we didn't have a dog or a nun.







As we drove back to Kerry (another pretty pass, the Caha, with great tunnels - but no pictures) we found a great heritage park with an ancient stone circle, a famine cottage, and other excavated ruins. Dana and Mary toured it (I rested!) and found it very interesting. As we left, we had a very friendly little donkey! We stopped briefly in Kenmare and headed home - a great 4 day trip!

West Cork

Dana, Mary and I met up on Saturday morning, checked in to our hotel, and took a boat to Garnish Island. This is a beautifully landscaped island with an Italian garden. We enjoyed walking the island and had lunch at the patio of the tea room. On the boat over we saw a colony of seals.
We also saw Maureen O'Hara's house - she lives here full time now. This is her house, with the white gables. The week we were there they were holding a Maureen O'Hara Golf Tournament. As part of that, they were showing many of her films in the room across the hall from our room in the hotel! She was actually coming to "The Quiet Man" on that Sunday evening - we considered staying but decided to stick to our plans. Mary did do her exercises in the film room and thus viewed the special chair brought in for the star to occupy that night. Anyway, back to Garnish Island - it was so beautiful and we had great weather.









After exploring the little village of Glengarriff, we rested, then had dinner at a very old, traditional pub. A group of women from Cork City moved over so we could have a table - in talking to them, we found that they were lifelong friends (from preschool and/or secondary school) and were celebrating their 60th birthday year - sound familiar, like my group in OK! They had been to Italy, Spain, Kerry, and now West Cork. We joined them later at another pub - seee picture. Later still, Dana and I enjoyed music at the pub in our hotel.

June 09 West Cork

Mary and I had planned a little trip (after she returned from her other little trip to Edinburgh!). So on Thursday, Dana drove us to Cork. We all ate at my new favorite place - Quay Co-op and then she explored while he and I went to a doctor's appointment - the shortest one in history - hurray! We then met Mary. Dana dropped us off at the bus and we rode to Kinsale and checked into our very nice B&B. We then immediately took a boat ride on Kinsale Harbor - such a beautiful place and time of day (6 pm, still sunny). It was a little chilly, but as you can see they passed out blankets! We ate dinner and had a good rest. The next morning we took a walking tour of Kinsale, which was beautiful and fascinating. This Grey Hound pub dates from 1690!We then went to Charles Fort, a huge star shaped fort that dates from the 7th century (and was burned by IRA forces in 1922). It is interesting and huge and worth a return trip, as I slept on a bench for part of our visit! Diane (SLT from Cork) picked us up there and we did some mandatory shopping and then had a wonderful dinner at Fishy Fishy! Diane then drove us to Bantry where we had another nice B&B. The next morning (Saturday) we walked around Bantry, then took a bus to Glengariff. The plan was to meet Dana there - and amazingly, we found our B&B, walked out the door, and there he came down the sidewalk- great timing! Our B&B was actually a hotel in the middle of the little village. I'll continue this narrative in the next post. This post is all Mary's pictures!

June 09

On Mary's first day here, we had a phone call from Lea Anne Brooks, who worked with me in Early Childhood. She and her family were in Adare, Co. Limerick on holiday and coming to Kerry. They stopped by the next morning and we had a great visit/reunion! (I felt much better than I look even though I was only 2 days out of hospital!)

On the Saturday after the 21st birthday party (see separate post) we took a tour of North Kerry. We went to Carrigafoyle Castle and Ballybunion, where we finally got the traditional Virgin Rock picture of Mary - she somehow avoided this on her last visit!








And the following day we had a very musical day - church and hymns in the am, then to Killarney for the Co. Kerry music festival/contest and the open air ceile - look at all these dancers! Then we rushed back to Tralee for the Pipe Parade, which closed a day of contests for them. It was colorful and fun.