How is your Summer going? Already the evenings are getting shorter and there is a coolness in the air at night. I haven't taken much holidays off work yet but I have had a few days enjoying the good things in life... spending time with friends and family, nice food and enjoyable times...

Friday I took the day off work and met up with some old friends in Dundrum which is on the south side of Dublin for those of you who may not be familiar with the area. As you may have noticed I am not a city person and only go to the city an odd time to meet with friends or shopping. So off I went in my little red car to have a catch up with my friends. We decided to have lunch in Jamie's Italian. I didn't realize that Jamie Oliver has over 30 restaurants worldwide. I ordered a plank pizza and it was really delicious, followed by cheesecake which I didn't finish as I was so full. Overall it was really tasty. It was quiet enough for a Friday which was nice as we could spend a bit longer chatting to each other. The decor is industrial style with lots of fruit,vegetable and meat hanging from the counter which we were not keen on as it looked almost fake. The food was lovely though and I would recommend it. Have you visited any of Jamie's restaurants?

Last weekend , I was more in my comfort zone when we visited the Tullamore Show with my sister in law and her partner. The Tullamore Show is the largest Agricultural Show in the Country. It is located a few miles outside Tullamore town in County Offaly. The weather wasn't great but we made the most of it, wellies, hats, umbrellas and raincoats were out. There was an array of home craft and goods on display from the competitions which we spent a long time looking at, followed by lots of pedigree cattle, sheep, pigs, hens, etc. I enjoyed the sheep shearing competition, but we missed the sheep dog trials. There were a lot of market stalls and food stalls. Overall it was an enjoyable experience and is worth a visit, even if you are not a farmer, a farmers wife or even from the countryside. I didn't have a proper map of the show so found it a bit difficult to navigate my way around. Next time I will keep the map that came in the Farmer's Journal. Agricultural Shows are very popular here in Ireland celebrating and showcasing all things agricultural, the livestock, the way of life, food, craft, our traditions, heritage and customs.

Here are some of the wee calves on the farm

How cute is his wee ears

And lots of adults too!

Here are a few more of my new neighbours when  I move house. 

Some photographs of my boyfriend's farm. Part of his farm is in a Natural Heritage Area. This is a designation in Ireland for an area considered important for the habitats present. It also holds species of plants and animals whose habitat needs protection. There are a lot of Whooper Swans on the lake each year. The land is nestled among rolling drumlin hills and lakes and many of the fields roll down to the lakeshore. Here is a view of one of the fields across the lake which is surrounded by the lake on three sides.

The farm is both dairy and beef and I love the wee calves. My boyfriend will think I'm mad taking photographs of the calves but they are adorable and very photogenic don't you think...

The ear tags are so large, the poor calves look like they are wearing large ear rings. The ear tags have to be fixed as it is EEC law. It doesn't hurt them though as it is the same as us getting ear rings :o)

This little one has yet to get his jewellery. I really like this wee calf- look at those adorable eye lashes :o)

He's a little camera shy

And then he got use to the camera, he lost one of his ear rings too

And last but not least, how cute are these three little calves...

they all wanted to get a look at me..

And here are a few photographs of my neighbours sheep and lambs, I couldn't get close enough as they kept running away and the mothers kept hiding the lambs, sorry they are a little blurry