My daughter's trip to Ireland

My teenage daughter went on a class trip to Ireland. She bought me some yarn, I was thrilled!

And she loved the signs (this was at Newgrange).

And below is Newgrange, a megalithic structure built circa 3000 B.C. It is huge and covers about an acre, and was built with basic stone age technology, i.e logrolling. They believe that over 300 men worked more than twenty years to build it.

One of my daughter's classmates fit perfectly into an ancient grave at a ruined abbey.
The lake at the foot of Kylemore Abbey. My daughter wondered if the nuns "broke out their bathing suits frequently".

She took lovely pictures of the gardens at Kylemore for me.

Shamrocks in bloom...
My daughter took the ashes of parents of friends of ours, and spread them on Crough Patrick, a sacred pilgrimage mountain, 2500 feet high.

A wonderful castle in the town of Doolin. Apparently rich Americans use it as their summer home.

Lichen growing between odd rock formations.
Eyjafjallajökull erupted while they were there. The sunset was striking that day.
The famous cliffs of Moher on the west coast.


A beehive hut. These were built by monks in the early middle ages.
The Japanese Gardens at the National Stud in Kildare. My daughter liked the 'Tunnel of Ignorance', but apparently made the right turn and ended up on the 'Hill of Enlightenment'.

The National Botanical Gardens in Dublin. Just look at those plants!
Trust my daughter to find the most bizarre flower. These were as big as her hand.

She liked the birds she saw, here's a Magpie. They are as common in Ireland as crows are here, but much more beautiful.
Her class also visited the Guinness visitor center in Dublin.
A Quote from the novel 'Ulysses', by James Joyce (one of my favorite authors).
Lovely tile work at a church in Dublin.
Molly Malone. Did the song mention the cleavage? It must have.
Because of the volcano, they were "stuck" in Dublin a few extra days. She loved her trip.
-Kathy

A garden on Cape Cod

Knitting Out Loud is a vendor at library conferences, and so I was at the Massachusetts Library Association 2010 Conference in Hyannis last week. I stayed with friends in Brewster, John Posey and his partner Paul. John is a landscape designer and Paul has an antique shop, although "antique shop" doesn't quite capture the extraordinary pieces he has in the gorgeous renovated barn which houses his shop.

John's is one of my very favorite gardens. It is charming and intimate with a lovely structure of interesting trees and shrubs beautifully juxtaposed.

When I was a child in California, my grandmother and my mother both made beautiful gardens, filled with apricot and almond trees, fuschia, roses, gladioli. When we moved to the D.C. area we often visited Beatrix Farrand's amazing Dumbarton Oaks. Moving to New England, Caprilands became our garden destination. Finally, a move to one and a half acres in Maine twenty years ago gave me the space to create my own garden.

But it doesn't have the wonderful sense of mystery and intimate space that John's garden has. You turn off the road through big evergreen shrubs and emerge on the tree-lined gravel drive.

I love the gravel drive, you emerge from between the evergreens to this serene space, bordered on one side by the row of trees, and on the other by the Federal period house.

Teddy greets you.
Garden sculpture
leads to an inviting winding path.
There are secret doors.
I love the box. It won't grow in my garden, too cold perhaps.
The antique shop appears.
Another inviting path.
The garden melts into the woods.
Another view of the shop.
Olive and Teddy accompany me down another path,
past tulips
and yellow primroses.

I love the shapes and colors of the shrubs and space they create.
The entrance to the house is framed by holly trees and lovely urns. Inviting and tantalizing.
Korean spice viburnum. Lovely fragrance!
Another charming path. You always want to see where they lead!
Charming rabbits on the steps to the guest house.

Clivia.
And gorgeous begonias!


Now I'm going to go weed my garden!
- Kathy