Hello there everyone! How are things where you are? Our county borders reopened here in Ireland last week… And maybe it was this, or possibly I was inspired by Paddy and Plunkett’s “great escape” last week, but I decided it might be a good time to escape to the lovely Irish countryside for a couple of days!
Explorer Beastie came along too, looking very dapper in his new Aran sweater.
Um, can you maybe turn around so we can see?
Much better! That’ll keep you nice and cosy while we go exploring. Although it looks like we’ve been uncommonly lucky with the weather – you’d hardly know we’re in Ireland at all!
This apple blossom is great, isn’t it?
“Yes, and it smells AMAZING!”
“Hey, what’s over there?”
Oooh, good idea! Let’s head off over the fields and see what we can find.
It wasn’t long before we came across these very delicate flowers – does anyone know what they are?
“I’ll stand next to them, for scale!”
Identifying these was easy enough though – hello, primroses!
It’s always nice to see their sunny yellow faces peeking out of shaded, Beastie-sized hollows in the hedgerows.
And even though we were there last week, it looks like we only just caught the end of the May blossom! The Irish countryside is white with flowers at this time of year, thanks to the many hawthorn and blackthorn trees that make up our hedges. This is a blackthorn tree, I believe…
Ahhhh! I think we might just hang out here for a while, and watch the clouds drift by…
… And listen to the birds singing in the background. Make sure you have the sound on when you watch the video, so you can hear them too!
See you next time!
Aha! I can help you here. The flowers are Lady’s Smock. They are also known as Cuckoo Flower, so called because they come into bloom around the time the cuckoos fly in from Africa. They grow in marshy, boggy places and for some reason they have done really well this year because they seem to be everywhere in Ireland. Orange Tip butterflies love them and use them as the food plant for their caterpillars. I loved the birdsong sound track! Quite an orchestra Explorer Beastie had there!
Aaah, trust a Queen Bee to know the names of all the countryside flora! And the alternative name really holds up, we heard cuckoos calling almost constantly while we were there. There were plenty of orange tip butterflies around too – they just never sit still long enough to be photographed! Thank you for solving the mystery, Queen Bee 🙂
What a lovely adventure, thanks for sharing 😊
Thank you! And cheers for joining us!
What bliss!
Thanks, Mariss! It was lovely to get out of the city for a while and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature!
Nice sweater and beautiful images from the Beastie Spring exploring!
Thank you! Explorer Beastie was loooong overdue some new threads 😂