Autumn

Autumn is my favourite season for two reasons: my birthday is in September and leaves! Leaves are such fun! I am like a child when it comes to them. Some poor person has gone to the trouble of sweeping them into a nice pile and I’ll just kick them.        So, on Sunday off we went to the woods. Currabinny to be exact.

Autumn is coming

a lonely leaf

bee who wouldn't stay still!

There were some flowers to break up the Autumn colours!

pretty in purple

fuschia

There was some fun too!  

Half man half monkey!

Yes, I am a child!

spooky!

roots

And, finally, some information I didn’t know about Currabinny Woods.

I couldn’t believe my eyes!

As I mentioned previously, I love the sea. Up until this year I had thought that the nearest beach to me was Fountainstown or Myrtleville. That was until one day I got a call from Kamilla telling me she was on the beach in Ringaskiddy. Now, anyone who is familiar with Cork knows that Ringaskiddy is where the ships and ferries come in, and it’s where all the pharmaceutical factories are. In a nutshell, there is no beach! I knew the area really well (or so I thought) because I’d learned how to drive there, and everyone knows the road just stops at the water, right??????

WRONG!!!! It turns out that if you keep going to Haulbowline, where the naval base is, there’s a little beach. So, the following Sunday off we went to the beach that is only 7 minutes from our house. It was nice, but stoney. Anyway, yesterday we were across the water from that area and we could see what we thought was a sandy beach. We went to investigate and we couldn’t believe the lovely beach we found just 1 km away at Lough Beag, complete with white, powdery sand, shells, clear water and peole walking their dogs!

blackberries

Crosshaven and Currabinny Woods from Lough Beag

one of the millions of shells on the beach

a ship leaving Cork Harbour

So, Kamilla, next time you’re back, we’ll bring you here!  

Blackrock Castle

I’m a Cork city girl through and through and one of the most important things in Cork is the harbour. I grew up next to it and as a result I love being near water. I could not live in a land-locked city, let alone a land-locked country. I need the beach!

Cork harbour is a natural harbour and claims to be the second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area after Sydney in Australia. (There are a couple of other harbours that claim this too, we might let them share it with us!) You can see Blackrock Castle as you come nearer to the Port of Cork. http://www.bco.ie

The castle now houses an observatory and science museum, and it is totally crooked! I had a job to get a straight picture!  

Blackrock Castle

Blackrock castle

Blackrock Castle

Port of Cork

Birthday Flowers!

More lilies and sunflowers, and some flowers I don’t know the names of, thanks to Mike and Ciara!

sunflower and pretty pink flower

sunflower

flower I've named green wire wool!

pink

lily close up

Lilies

Lily close up 2

Achill

One of my favourite places to be is the beach and this year we were very lucky to spend a few days on Achill Island, Co. Mayo while the sun was shining! Achill has five beautiful beaches and we made it to four of them. We had one of the best views we’ve ever had from a hotel room and I think it’ll be hard to beat this. These are the Minaun Cliffs, which are the highest cliffs in Europe.

Minaun Cliffs after a storm

We arrived just as the rain was clearing and we didn’t see rain again for the rest of the break!

The first thing we decided to do was to visit the Deserted Village at Slievemore. There are dwellings here ranging from 5,000 years old to 500 years old!

Deserted Village

Deserted village

After that we continues on the road to Silver Strand and Golden Strand, where we had a picnic and watched some kitesurfing. It’s the perfect place for it.

Powdery sand on Silver Strand

Slievemore

Golden Strand

Amazing kitesurfers!

We braved the Atlantic drive to find one of the most amazing beaches I’ve ever seen (and beaches are my thing!) If I just saw a picture of it, I wouldn’t believe it was Ireland! Here is Keem Bay!

Keem Bay from above.

Keem Bay!

The water was crystal clear and very welcome after the heat of the car.

Cliffs in the sun this time!

As it’s an island in the Atlantic Ocean, fish and fishing is very popular!

Dinner arriving!

The final beach on the tour was Keel, where I got to try my body boarding skills. (They’re not that good for anyone who’s wondering!)

Keel

One of the things I want to dot his year is do some more bodyboarding.