Ilnacullin

Today we visited Garnish Island, otherwise known as Ilnacullin, off Glengarriff.  Like many places in Ireland, it seems to have multiple varieties of its name - many times it is referred to as Garinish (with an extra i).

We caught the ferry from the Blue Pool, which was a lovely secluded inlet.  The ferry took us past some basking seals in the bay, and out to the island.  One of the first things we saw was a Pittosporum Tom Thumb (first extra).  This is supposed to be a dwarf variety of pittosporum - and the one in our garden will have to stay just that.  If it tries to grow this big, it will be subjected to some radical pruning!

We had a wonderful walk around this garden, and I took many photos.  Next extra is a plant called Colletia cruciata.  It caught my eye for the verdant moss on the bark, so that is what I have blipped, but we did note the vicious spiny stems (not leaves).  When researching this, I came across this website. 

We climbed to the top of the Martello tower (3rd extra) - up a narrow spiral staircase which was a challenge for my knee.  From the top there were great views across to the mainland.

But my main blip had to be Mr Heron.  I am always somewhat amazed at the way these large birds manage to land on quite small branches in trees.  We were sitting having a cup of tea and a sandwich, waiting for the boat to return to the mainland, and he flew into the tree above our heads.  On his first visit, my camera was fastened away in my bag, and I missed him.  But he returned - he appeared to be picking nesting material. 

PS.  I've added another extra.  It was Robin's 1st birthday yesterday - it really doesn't feel like a year since he was born.  This is obviously not taken by me, but sent to me by my daughter.  I look forward to visiting them in June.