Burren holiday

Back as promised (threatned) to bore you with photos and tales from our hols down in the Burren, Co. Clare.  Well, the weather was wet, wild and windy and Himself had the Manflu but we made the best of it and got ourselves out to the Burren Perfumery and its magical herb garden and its tea rooms.  Of course I had to buy some lovely organic rose facial serum and rose face cream 'cause I'm at the age where you have to look after yourself, right? And a few bits and pieces for Xmas pressies etc, etc...   Well, we had to vacate the audiovisual presentation in a hurry when Himself got a fit of coughing.  Maybe a Perfumery wasn't the best place to bring a Manflu sufferer???

The herb gardens attached to the Perfumery are stunning...you would come out of it wanting to redesign your own space..

 Liam in an arbour of Golden Rod.

The cutest little glasshouse ever!

This was an old bed frame with an old cast iron bath inside it..with a chicken wire frame in the shape of the human body inside the bath....with moss and small plants growing over it. If you look close you might see what I mean..

A little pool that had Water Boatmen skating all over it..but the photo doesn't show this.

According to the experts September is not the best month to see the rare plants and flowers in the Burren but here are a few we saw:

                                                                       Carline thistle

 Bloody Cranesbill - the pink flowers!

Maidenhair fern peeping out from a crack..

 Himself in front of a row of Hazel Trees.  Believe it or not I had never seen hazel nuts on a Hazel tree until now..

Hazel tree with nuts!

 Hawthorn tree bonsaied by the weather,wind etc in the Burren

Hawthorn tree bonsaied by man in a Bonsai nursery just outside Kinvarra, Co. Galway.  Man copying nature...or man learning/improving on nature?
Now for the bit of culture...when I last visited the Poulnambron Dolmen (1992) I was able to climb on top of it with Snip, my Pom (Little Snippets, geddit??) and have our photo taken.  Nowadays things are a bit more controlled and OPW'd (Office of Public Works).. there is a rope around the actual dolmen...

But when you hear that this was only discovered and excavated in the 1980's...it makes you wonder what other ancient sites are hiding from us.
To return to more modern times we did manage to visit An Siopa Bui, the Craft Supplies hub of the West and much further and manage to buy some Whiff of Joy dies and plunder the depths of their PayperBox supplies. Kerry and Kim are so helpful and knowledgeable and enlightening that a trip from anywhere is worthwhile!
Ger x