The weather is so beautiful here in Ireland. Today myself and my husband went for a nice long walk along the lake shore, he went fishing and I took some photographs while taking in the wildlife all around me. His land goes right down to the lake shore for a few miles so I call it his little peace of paradise!

Last Sunday we went exploring as the weather was nice, below are a few images of took of one of the local lakes with the sky reflecting in the water. I love the blue tones :)

{Own Photographs}

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 :)

This weekend was a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland :-) Don't you just love long weekends! I hope you all had a nice weekend, did you get up to anything nice??? I Spent some time with my boyfriend and enjoyed the good weather :-) Here are a few photographs I took of the Forest Park...

I spent last weekend with my boyfriend, took a few photographs on Sunday, Saturday was dreary and miserable so I painted for awhile and stayed indoors. Here are three photographs I though I'd share with you all. I took them on Sunday. Here is a nice flower in bloom in the garden, love the colour.

We went for a drive too, took this photograph of some of the lakes.

And spotted this wee traditional cottage which is not a restaurant, thought it was pretty too

Hope you all had a nice weekend, next weekend is our bank holiday weekend :-) Looking forward to that!

This weekend the weather was wonderful here in Ireland, it was 26 degrees. Everyone was out and about and I spent some time on Sunday wandering around the farm. I spotted a big birds nest and low and behold there were eggs in it. Then I spotted the mother- she is a wee Moor Hen very secretive. She has nested in a small pond like water body in the farmyard which is unusual especially when there are lakes all around, but at least she will be safe here. I read that Moor Hens like to eat animal feed so that may be why she nested right in the farmyard. Here are a few photographs of my stroll around the farmyard. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and had lovely weather too :o)

Can you spot the nest?

Take a closer look, it's blurry as I had to zoom in alot

And can you spot the eggs??

 There are two in sight and possibly more, I also read that it takes the chicks 21 days to fly so I hope to get some photographs of them. Hopefully I will not miss them.

Here are a few other photographs of paradise...

As I look around at the lovely landscape, the trees, the lakes, the scrub, the islands- it seems like time has stopped, no people, no buildings, just the wonders of the natural world all around me, my escapism!

This bull was relaxing in the shade, I was the other side of the hedge and fence though!! He had a big ring in his nose- very stylish!!

This Sunday I had a fully charged camera to bring on our trip to Lovely County Leitrim. Why not explore all the lovely sites I saw. It was dry and sunny but cold at times. I hope you like the photographs. The first is of the courthouse, It was converted into a gallery/ theatre and design house for arts and crafts.

Here are a few of the boats that travel along the Shannon Erne Waterway in Carrick on Shannon.

A pretty quaint courtyard which now houses a coffee shop but it was closed when we were there.

   

Another view of the boats at the waterfront.

Again the old cut stone courtyard buildings, I think they have markets here on Thursdays.

More cruise boats

This is said to be the smallest Church in Ireland, isn't it very quaint. I couldn't get a great photograph of it as there was a car on the street blocking the view.

We went on a stroll through this wee urban park which lead to the waterfront.

And came across this converted church which is now a restuarant.

And a closer look, it is nicely restored, I love when old ecclesiastical buildings are converted into new uses.

A Georgian house which was located next to the courthouse, very grand indeed.

Pretty cherry blossoms I just had to photograph them, they are such lovely trees with their perfect pink petals.

This landscaping was in a small village we passed through, isn't it pretty with the bog oak sculpture and the water feature.

And across from this sculpture was this wee railway man on the signage to mark the village railway station

So there you have it, our tour on Sunday, it was quite short but there was lots to see. We hope to make it to the seaside some of the weekends soon :o) I love the sea air and I'll be sure to take some photographs to share with you all :o)

Such a pretty swing in the garden, we saw two cute wee rabbits running around here

Right behind this gazebo is a golf course, have a look