naurwenseaflame: (Pagan - Spell)
I thought I would post this link again - because they've updated their webpage and all. :)
You may remember... last year when we went to Ireland we did spend an afternoon working with hawks, an owl and watching falconry. :D

http://www.newgrangefalconry.com/

We didn't get to see their eagle as they had only just gotten it! :) But he got mentioned. My, Odin is quite the name for this beautiful bird! :D

You get to work in a small group - as small as you like really because it's private lessons you get and that's wonderful, because it's all peaceful, no stressing about anything, and you get to ask things and purely enjoy it.

So if you're ever in Ireland and feel like doing this... you have an address now. :D

And awwwwww:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29268339@N08/2727812923/

That's their flickr page by the way. :D
naurwenseaflame: (Ireland - Hill of Tara)
Hmh, I'm SLOWLY getting there as how to post photos on here so they don't leave the entry halfways empty. Fingers crossed!

Today... it'll be mainly photos of our visit of the National Stud & their Japanese Gardens and gardens in general...
I'd read about this place somewhere online and thought it would be interesting... :D
And so it was!
It's a huge area, near the Curragh which is the horse racing area not too far from Dublin. The Curragh itself looked very impressive. We drove by and it's HUGE. It was empty right then and I couldn't really take photos on the way...

On we went then and after a bit of some yumminess to eat we visited the Japanese Garden of the stud - it's really beautiful and I liked its concept a lot. You start walking along a path and first you come to a small cave which is called the cave of birth. The path itself symbolizes the path of life. And so you walk on and on through this beautiful garden, following paths of childhood etc. then to the path of love... to the *engagement bridge*... etc. In the photos here you can see the Honeymoon Path. :)

Further then, after the garden, there are the wide meadows and fields where the horses have their homes. :)
It's a wonderful place to just walk, walk, walk. And you get away from the tourist crowd easily - which was badly needed as there were some annoying ones right when we arrived. Phew! :)
You can have a guided tour, but we didn't take that one as we wouldn't really have had the time and we'd rather wanted to just walk on our own and see a little more then. Thus we came across this meadow with 3 mares with their foals. Aw!
They were shy first, not coming any closer at all, but then their curiosity got the better of them and one by one they came to us to have a closer look at their visitors. :D I could have stayed there for ages. :)



The Honeymoon Path...


... in the Japanese Garden of the National Stud of Ireland. :)


The Honeymoon Path...


Green, Green, Green...

I love this view of the small lake in the Japanese garden...


Green, Green, Green...


Mum on her way... :)

She alawys chooses the unusual paths to follow. :D


Mum on her way... :)


Mum and baby Horses :)

They were lovely... and in the end very nosy. While shy at first in the end almost all of them came to us to have a closer look. :D


Mum and baby Horses :)


Play with Me!

This foal was so playful. I think if it could have gotten out of there it would have tumbled right into me hopping around excitedly. It was so sweet!


Play with Me!


Water...

... glittering in the sun


Water...


The Cullen Bar

Ha! I had to take a pic of this one! Seems as if there's a Finbarr Cullen that we Twilighters haven't heard about, yet. Hmh! ;D


The Cullen Bar


Well, the last photo... hahah! :D As we can see the vampire family has spread out to Ireland... ;)

Today, when we had 30°C and it was really roasting hot I thought back of the lovely summer days INCLUDING fresh breezes we had in Ireland. *that* climate is certainly perfect for me. :)
And the rain now and then definitely adds to the excitement. LOL



naurwenseaflame: (Twilight - Livejournal)
And here goes my first offical entry... and some mainly fun photos:

We had a good journey, good flight, everything went really well. Got our car super-fast, almost didn't find it as now you have to pick up the rental cars in a parking building near the airport and let's just say it's kind of hidden. We had a silver Nissan Micra which worked a treat - and we spotted this type of car over and over again all over Ireland. Must be a favourite? It looks smaller on the outside, but actually a lot fits in. Our luggage certainly did. :)

We drove to the first house we had rented... and got SO LOST!
You really need a navigator there. Once you know your way you're just fine, but searching the house for the first time... no chance.
The lady who owns it knew we were on the way and called me to ask if we were nearby and I was like yeah, in the village you told me NOT to go to. LOL. We really ended up there. So she came by car to pick us up. I guess she found it just as hilarious. :D
Some tea was awaiting us... and a really large but cosy and lovely house. I'd take that one anytime! Plus big spacious gardens and all *on your own*. No neighbours directly nearby yet you're not really far away from the next village (...) or main road. Handy!

In the morning, Sunday, we discovered we had a couple of cats to adopt.
The lady had warned us there were cats, wild-ish ones that her husband actually fed and looked after a bit. Figured out there were 3 fluffy white cats, one without a tail, one big-ish one and then a slender one. All of them too shy to be touched but nosy enough to peer into the kitchen, especially since there was a small bowl for them by the kitchen door anyway.
So... Nurdhegilwen's familiar with adopting-cats-for-a-week-in-Ireland - we did just that. LOL.
Some while later I discovered 2 kitten in the shed behind the house - one white and one - BLACK!!! :D SO cute. Unfortunately I've no photos of them as they were well hidden and the slender cat which I soon called *mum* was always guarding them, but I saw them play a couple of times. AW!
The big cat seemed to be the guardian of the house as he mostly slept by the kitchen door and usually was the first one to visit us as soon as someone started strolling around the house in the morning. >^.^<

Here go pics:







































1st week - 1st house: My Bed *our* Cats
1st week - 1st house: My Bed

I had to take a photo of it because it just looked rather nice... :) AND it was super-comfy! :D *misses it*
*our* Cats

How many do you spot? :D
Close up Meow Narnia in the Garden?
Close up Meow

They were too shy to be touched, but still adorable and one of them which I think was a male kept on guarding our house. :)
Narnia in the Garden?

Well... you never know, right? :D
Our Car, our Bear, our Tiger... Boots!
Our Car, our Bear, our Tiger...

LOL, the bear's mum's (yes, it's a teddybear dressed up as a gingerbread-man LOL), the tiger's mine. They were posing during the whole holiday. Here they're showing off our lovely (rented) silver (no, not a Volvo, sorry) Nissan Micra. :D
Boots!

We had to buy some definitely-waterproof boots for the falconry lesson, so here they are... :) In the end we had to leave them in Ireland. They were really heavy and also big, no space in our luggage... but they should have a good home by now - we gave them to the lady who owns the 2nd house we rented and she found them lovely. :)
THE Restaurant of Navan Synchro Swans
THE Restaurant of Navan

You love Indian Food? You are in Ireland? Preferably near Navan? You'd like to visit a drool-icious restaurant? Here it is!!! *waves @ Nicole!!!*
Synchro Swans

You won't believe when I say that I actually WAITED for them to do something else than scratch their tums for ages... both at the same time... in the end I gave up and took THIS photo instead. :)
Mini-Birdie Natural Beauty
Mini-Birdie

Who spots the Robin? :D
Natural Beauty

This one was really unusual - I've definitely not seen any such flower before.

Sunday was a tiny drama-day as Ed discovered one of the car's tires was losing air. I called the lady asking if she knew where we best could get that fixed and well, she came over along with her son who grabbed the tire and went off in search for *someone to fix it on a Sunday*. Bless them for their help!!!
In the meanwhile we were told to *go somewhere and enjoy the day* so we went to the next town to do some food shopping and also to visit a small local market that sold yummy homemade jams, scones, cheese, veggies and... small packs of scrabooking crafty things. They were thrown in between the scones. LOL.
So it was a bit of a lazy shopping Sunday *only* but way ok for us as all three of us were really tired after tough times at work and then travel-Saturday...

Arrived back at the house and got our tire back immediately, fixed by whoever for 7 Euro only. Woooooooooooh! :D
Lucky!!!

Well, and my next entries will be more adventurous, I promise. ;)

Um, can anyone tell me why LJ leaves such a huge empty space between my texts BEFORE the pics? In EVERY post??? :(






naurwenseaflame: (Cute Ladybird)
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!


Ladybird Lavender Ladybird Lavender
I saved this little fellow from the bathroom window and set it into our lavender pot on the balcony yesterday... well, and by this morning it had chosen to explore the lavender. :)



Just a cheerful little post... I had to post this photo. I love ladybirds, I love lavender...

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