You may be forgiven for thinking that this is a scene from a remake of the Flintstones by Tim Burton., but believe it or not, it is a real house in the rural settings of the Fafe mountains in northern Portugal. A Casa do Penedo, or “the House of Stone,” was built...
Bloom 2010, Ireland’s largest gardening, food and family event.
Here are a few photos of my visit yesterday to the Bloom gardening event , in the the Phoenix Park Dublin. installation by Hortisculptures I think my actual overall favourite was the display by Hortisculptures at the main entrance. A close second was this garden by...
I’m an alien I’m a legal alien, I’m a Gunnera in West Cork
Well without trying to upset anybody, I have to admit that Gunnera is one of my favourite perennial plants. This might be upsetting for some as there are people out there with a very strong opinion about them, but I will talk about that later on in the post. First I...
Garden Piano
A few weeks ago when down visiting my parents at our family home, down in West Cork, I went for a wander in the gardens (you may remember these gardens from my previous post ‘‘garden labyrinth’). During my wander I stopped off to have a look to see how the garden...
Everglades Gardens at Leura
A few months ago, I was asked fellow garden blogger Britt Conley from the Photo Garden Bee to partake in a photo meme. For the post I chose a photo I took at the Everglades Gardens set in the Blue Mountains at Leura, Australia. Picking this photo (below) made me want...
Blackthorn, Shillelaghs and the tree of the fairies, the Hawthorn
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) Draigean (Gaelic name) This native Irish tree may be known by its Latin name Prunus spinosa or one of its many common names, such as sloe, wild plum, wishing thorn or mother of the wood. A close relative of cherries and plums, Blackthorn is...
Shell House ‘Nautilus’ New Mexico
A few months back while researching for my post The Shell House at Ballymaloe Cookery School, I came across this very different and quite literal Shell House. This story may not be really garden related, but it’s so wacky and fun, I’m gonna post about it anyway. This...
‘Its fruit Jim, but not as we know it’
So the sun is finally shining here in Ireland and the plant growth, more than a month behind is finally bursting into life. All this good weather means I have very little time for my blog at the moment, so this weeks post is a quick one. Here is some strange looking...
Stone Chairs. Some ancient some not so ancient…Yet….
One of my favourite things to build is stone seats. There is something very special about sitting in a stone seat, it feels very grand, almost throne like. When building stone seats, a portion of my time is spent sitting, making sure that they are comfortable and...
‘Extinct’ plant flowers, in Dublin’s National Botanical Gardens
This is a story I have just come across, posted on the RHS website. Apparently just a few minutes drive from where I am sitting, in the National Botanical Gardens in Dublin, an abutilon thought extinct until just a few years ago has produced multiple flowers for the...