The Jewels of Ireland

Over the past couple of weeks we have searched for the hidden gold of the Leprechauns.  Unfortunately, we did not find the gold at the end of the rainbow, but we did find plenty of jewels…

You may have heard Ireland called “the emerald isle” on account of its lush, green fields and forests.  And this is true – it is exceptionally green here, probably due to rainfall.  As we drive we see landscapes in a patchwork of different shades of green.

Sometimes the green takes over the road…

The road in this video has a speed limit of 80 km/hr!  You can see that it’s really just a single track with grass growing down the middle of the road, and the trees and hedges closing in from both sides to form a natural tunnel.  We have encountered cars and trucks coming the other way on a few of these roads and it leads to some very tense moments!

I soon discovered that there was more to Ireland that just green.  Houses, pubs, bridges, and just about anything that can have a plant grown on it or have a basket hung from it will be covered with colour.  Everyone uses combinations of colours with green injected for good measure.

Colour by the bucketful

Wandering through an emerald wonderland

Beautiful shades of pink, purple, and blue

Splashes of colour

Mounds of colour

Cascades of colour

A shot of sunshine on a cloudy day

Going up the garden path

Busy bees in Ireland

One of the most interesting gardens we encountered was at Blarney Castle, called the Poison Garden.

The goal of this garden is to provide visitors to Blarney Castle with information on poisonous plants that can be found around us daily.  It is thought that in the days of the castle, a similar garden may have existed with similar plants for medicinal or culinary purposes.  While the plants in the garden are poisonous, the number of actual deaths related to ingesting poisonous plants is so small that no stats are kept.

And finally, for the knitters out there.  I didn’t see a sign for what this was or why it was done, but here’s what I call the “Sweater Garden”…

You can barely see the forest for the sweaters…

Rapunzel, Rapunzel…let down your hair!

This sweater is the “Bees knees”!!

Maybe they really love their trees here and don’t want them to catch a chill!