Garden and Pub..

Today was a bit less driving, we went up the road to Derreen Gardens, then to a relatively hidden pub with good food and drink. We had a lesson in farming mussels along with the food. Chatted with a German couple and petted (and fed) a couple of donkeys.  Pied wagtails surrounded us, bobbing up and down as they moved quickly in search of food.
Sean talked with a fisherman who caught smaller crabs, took their large legs for sale and threw them back to grow more. We ate an excellent chocolate brownie and drank exquisite slow whites at the Derreen Gardens cafe.
Enjoy - a very overcast and dark day so I struggled a bit with most of these.

The history of the gardens is fascinating..

Naked Ladies...

Low tide reflections

Green, green, green

Count the rings..

Mushrooms and leaves..

A interesting place to explore...

New Zealand Tree Ferns - dicksonia antartica

Magnolia bud..

Artichoke flower..

Helen's Pub and B&B in  Killmakaloge, just down the road from Dereen Gardens..

Mussel farming is fascinating - grown here on long ropes.

I enjoy Murphy's - seems (to me) a bit creamier than Guiness.

The Ladies Way went one way, and Lady's Way went another.

 These two came running down to the gate to get whatever we were going to give them - we pulled handfulls of grass, the same grass as was in their yards, but they seemed to like the stuff in our hands best.

Pied Wagtail, also known as 'washtail", "Peggy dishwasher", "Willy wagtail" and "wash tail".

1. The origin of the washer names is a mystery, but it may be because women once washed clothes, as well as pot and pans, by a stream or village pump, the sort of place that pied wagtails also frequent.