Wordless Wednesday :

For more Wordless Wednesday posts go here and here

Follow me down the lane .....

... through the blue gate into the restored Victorian Walled Garden of Kylemore Abbey ... (restoration began in 1996) ...

.. which is completely enclosed with brick and limestone wall

A stream divides the two halves of the garden ... the Flower Garden ...

... and the Kitchen Garden ..

... part of the Kitchen Garden as a section for herbs - medicinal, aromatic and culinary ..

Here is another part of the flower garden showing one of the two restored glasshouses, of which there were originally 21 ! Part of a wall of another being restored at present is seen at the bottom of pic ..

.. which were all heated by means of a limestone kiln underground and grids through which the heated air came through ..

Would have loved to have paged through these old gardening books ...

... which are on display in the restored Head Gardener's House ... seen on left with the blue 'brookie lace' gables and windows ....

Also shown in photo above is the restored Labourers' Bothy ... and below - the side door of the bothy ... note the well-worn step under the door ...

Broken clay pots next to the steps going down the limestone kiln ...

Beautiful trees shade another part of the garden which is filled with shade loving plants ...

.. and a bench or two ... to rest awhile ...

.. beside the trickling stream ...

.... where you can see the fluttering butterflies ...

... and catch the scent of fruit ripening on the plants trained against the surrounding walls ..

... and the rain-washed apples

Midday made it difficult for photos .. but it's a beautiful and interesting garden ! So glad you came with me ...

I am impressed !!

These are most of the books we have for the littlies when they come to our house. These are the most read ones .. that's why they're on the floor in the lounge ready to be picked up and opened ...

... lots of new ones ... lots of older ones ..


... and lots of even older ones ....

The other afternoon, as like most summer afternoons, our ritual is to take a picnic rug onto the lawn under the shade of the trees, with a couple of books and some toys. Mainly books.
And then we read .. well, I read to Bradley and Connor.

Two different ages is making it tricky .. so we have to have turns !
Connor has a story read, then Bradley has his turn.

Sooo ... the other afternoon ... we sat on our picnic rug and Bradley read to me !! I was most impressed! I have heard him read words and short sentences but on this occasion he read the whole of The Three Billy Goats Gruff !!!

He struggled on the big words but I only had to tell him once and then he remembered. My children learnt to read by sounding out the letters to make up a word - these children are learning by sight of the entire word. Is that a good thing? I don't know, I'm not a teacher but surely you need to know how to spell the word, then say it.

I have many books like this one .. with repetitive sentences ... The Enormous Turnip, The Magic Porridge Pot, The Gingerbread Man, The Enormous Pancake, Chicken Licken etc etc and we read them all the time ... I have done with all my children.

I can read Chicken Licken with my eyes closed!!! Clever Granny !!!

Anyway ... the modern way is working and he read to me ... the whole story. He is in Grade 0!!

I was impressed!!

Weekly Winners : 1 - 7 Nov

A B C ...

A is for animal .... (the camel's got boobies ! exclaimed Connor .. not sure whether he was impressed with the explanation of the desert and storage of water ... boobies seem more simple!)



B is for building ...

C is for Cat ...

D is for dog ...

E is for easy instructions .. (!)

F is for folds .. delicate and pink ...

G is for 'gonna be a big rose one day' ...

H is for 'hey... a 'thnake' !!!

For more Weekly Winners visit Lotus at sarcastic mom

Skywatch Friday :

I found a rainbow for Nicole ...

Hubby and I had glorious weather while holidaying in Ireland recently so much so that this was the only rainbow we saw ....
... and I had to capture it for Nicole (our DIL) who was, at the time, very ill. She needed a little bit of luck - and lots of praying - to get her well again and she asked me 'kiss the Blarney Stone' and 'find the pot 'o gold at the end of a rainbow'.

We kissed the Blarney Stone (although now I know it's for 'eloquence' but we'll throw in luck here too!) ... and then we found the rainbow at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford while photographing the beautiful port with it's sculpture of a Viking ship's bow ..


Sorry ... Nicole ... just couldn't find that lil' pot 'o gold !!!! Searched .... and searched .... and searched ....
.. and by the way, she is well on the way to recovery !!

For more spectacular skies around the world visit Skywatch

I will let the photos 'do the talking' ..

... of the small Gothic Church - 'miniature Cathedral' - at Kylemore Abbey in County Galway ... which is a short walk from the Abbey along a very pretty avenue of tall trees and the largest rhododendrons I have ever seen (not in flower so didn't take a photo) ...

... it was built by Mitchell Henry (refer to previous post on Kylemore Abbey) between 1877 and 1881 as a memorial to his wife, following her untimely death

Beautiful, isn't it?

Wordless Wednesday :

For more Wordless Wednesday's go here and here