Recently we visited Belvedere House and Gardens near Mullingar in County Westmeath. We had visited before so just spent a few hours wandering around the house and gardens. It is a lovely place for a day out and we booked online before we went €6.50 per adult. My last post includes some photos from the walled garden and glasshouse. Here is the house itself and views of the larger gardens. The weather has wonderful here in Ireland for the past two weeks but some rain came yesterday. The garden will start to flourish now so I'm off to the garden centre today to buy some Antirrhinum (snapdragons), Nemesia and perhaps some Sweetpeas. I have two new trailing Hydrangeas that I set last year and they are going to bloom this year as the blooms are appearing. My Lupin is also doing well but it appears something may be eating the flowers buds!!! I will have to investigate...

Now that Summer is here, I am trying to get my garden into shape. I have set a wildflower patch like last year and also some nice flowers along my fence. I had to remove half of my shrub bed as the soil was very poor and now I am in the progress of extending it in the opposite direction with the help of my husband. I hope to plant hydrangea, some lavendar perhaps lupins and alliums. I know very little about gardening so any tips or any guidance is welcomed. Do feel free to comment. Is it too late to start planting flowers or any suggestions of some nice ones to plant?

Below are some photographs I took of my recent trip to Lissadell House & Gardens, most of them are from the Alpine Garden. I can only dream of having a garden like this...

Some photos I took this week and some from the archive;
Hope your having a nice August so far...

From top left; a view of the lake at home from one of the rural laneways on the farm, sunset last night out with the calves, another view of the lake and meadows from the farm, a lane on the farm, another pretty sky in the evening time from my front porch, a cart of flowers from Tankardstown House in County Meath (taken from my archives), the gardener's cottage at Kylemore Abbey Victorian Gardens (taken from my archives), a landscape shot from County Leitrim, and finally a resident mute swan on the lake.....

How pretty is this gardener's cottage! I fell in love with it when I visited a few weekend ages. It is the gardener's cottage at Kylemore Abbey Victorian Walled Gardens- the largest walled gardens in Ireland and unique as it was built on bogland. It is such a cute looking cottage with its white walls and teal windows, trimmings and fencing. It overlooks the walled gardens which are spectacular. Have a look at my photographs below and for more information visit Kylemore Abbey.

Last weekend we visited Powerscourt House & Gardens. I had visited before with friends and love the place. The gardens are amazing and you could spend hours going around them. They are well worth a visit and I highly recommend them to anyone visiting Ireland or for those of you who have visited yet!  

As promised, here are some more photos of our trip to Madeira, all of the images below are of Funchal the capital city of Madeira.

Old Town

View from Marina back to town

Urban Garden

Old Town

Cathedral

 

Taxi Rank

Marine with cruise liner

 

Boats at Marina

 

 

You have have noticed that I am not very green fingered but I can appreciate some nice gardens when I see them and I love the natural environment, I love trees and flowers and when I get my new home I want a lovely garden too. I help out alot in my mother's garden. At the weekend I took these photographs of the garden centre and gardens at the estate we visited, hope you like them!

Today I went off on my adventures again and here are some photographs to share with you. We went to Belvedere House and Gardens. I hope you are all enjoying the lovely Summer, the weather is fabulous here! So perfect! I get to work from home tomorrow which is a nice change. Hope all the Dads out there had a nice Fathers Day too :)

Here is a folly on the estate. This is the largest folly in Ireland. For those of you who may not know, a folly is an ornamental building serving no useful purpose, mostly built to adorn the landspace. Here is the jealous wall built in 1760 in the style of a ruined medieval abbey to block the view of a larger house nearby resulting from a quarrel over a lady. Doubt these things happen today!!

Another view of the folly!

Here is the large house on the estate known as Belvedere House. The estate comprises of 160 acres along the lake. The house is a large Georgian Villa designed by architect Richard Castles. There is also a wonderful Victorian Walled Garden.

Come with me through the arch to the Secret Walled Garden..

It was so sunny today.. wish it was like this every day...

Another folly on the estate; the Gothic Arch

Spectacular views of the lakeshore

So peaceful and relaxing

What a perfect Sunday, thank you for taking the time to enjoy my photographs and letting me share my memories with you...

Hope you all enjoyed your day too :)