Things are really greening up, though it still only feels like early spring. Wood anemones, Wood sorrel, Cuckoo flower and Daffodils all add splashes of welcome colour. Who needs elaborate shades, when simple whites, yellows and delicate pinks can do the job just as well?
Captivating may not be a word you’d immediately associate with frogs. However, we are spending a large amount of our meal times watching the frogs in the garden pond and my youngest is particularly captivated by their antics. Our kitchen window overlooks the pond and is a perfect place for observing them.
Yesterday’s count was an estimated 150! Last year there was 63, so it is a big jump in numbers. Today is damp and it looks like they are beginning to disperse, as there are a lot more sitting around the top of the pond, and moving away under the beech hedge and through the garden.
I love to see frogs in the garden as I know they will do their bit in keeping the slug population down.
Above the sky is grey, but we haven’t had anymore snow since very early this morning and Storm Emma has gone. Wedneday’s daffodils are a bit deeper in snow. And the school is closed so we can have some fun in the snow.
The photograph below shows hawthorn branches encrusted in various different lichens. Trees are not just trees, but living ecosystems in their own right.
There are at least eight different lichens here, and these are all on the same tree! It is estimated that there are 1,165 species lichens growing in Ireland, so maybe eight on one tree isn’t that many after all!
So we find ourselves at the end of 2017. It has certainly been a mixed year in so many ways.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading. To those of you who took time to comment I really appreciate all your kind words, encouragement and interest.
And finally, I hope 2018 will bring much love and sunshine to all your lives.
crab apple in snow
Last week, the whole place seemed to be muffled by a great, white blanket. And for just a short few hours we seemed to have a silent world.
Combining today’s daily prompt – mushroom, with the weekly photo challenge of experimental (as I had a little play with this image before posting!).
Shaggy inkcaps
Following on from the post of whole pumpkins, here are the carved ghoulish faces of yesterday’s work. Wishing you all a happy and safe Halloween.
Gratitude that we managed to grow two, decent sized pumpkins this year, so that the children had one each to carve! And thankful that my son was generous enough to allow his younger sister to hog the large of the two!
What do we expect from Autumn? Leaves, nuts, fruit, fungi, colours and storms!
We’ve already experienced Storm Ophelia (or ex-hurricane Ophelia) which was one of the strongest storms to hit Ireland and caused a lot of damage in the south and south east of Ireland. Some homes are still waiting for their electricity to be restored. It is hard for us to imagine a week without electricity, though our parents and grandparents would have been well used to it (our own area being electrified in 1951). Today, Storm Brian, is passing through, he is not expected to cause as much damage as Ophelia.
Many large trees were felled by Ophelia. This year, we are told is a good seed year for oaks and beech. So it seems appropriate to try and set some seeds to replace some of those that have been lost. We’ve collected some beech nuts from some impressive local beech trees. We’ve also collected some sweet chestnut seeds but only found a few acorns so far.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if one day one of our collected seeds could look like this (we will of course be long gone!).
Beech tree at Turlough, Co Mayo
Murtagh's Meadow 