Day 66
Almost two thirds of the way through my walks and another quite lunchtime walk with the dogs. I took a few more shots this time as there were a couple of things I missed.
I have somehow forgotten to post any shots of this plant which is incredibly abundant at this time of year. I don’t actually know what it is called but it brightens up the place anyway
The mushrooms are still doing well and I spotted a few more interesting ones.
Day 65
I’m writing this a while after doing the walk due to general laziness but it wasn’t a terribly exciting walk. I nipped out at lunchtime to do the loop with the dogs. Due to not wanting to add yet more mushrooms to this, I refrained from taking any more mushroom pictures. The heather is looking quite fabulous at this stage so I’ll post one of that.
Day 64
I got out for a quick walk at lunchtime and I made it quite a quick on. Still not a lot of interest about apart from the various mushrooms growing around the place
I took the slightly shorter route expecting to get my legs completely soaked from the long grass but somebody appears to have been up with a knapsack sprayer full of roundup as it has all been killed. So that makes it all a bit easier. Hopefully it isn’t a sign of the forestry people taking an interest in advance of coming in to do some cutting.
This lot are well on their way to establishing one of their characteristic rings.
Anyway the dogs and I had a nice quick unremarkable walk around the forest. It was dry for the most part.
Day 63
This was a quick lunchtime loop with the dogs where I firmly failed to dodge a good soaking from a brief shower. It had stopped by the time I got off the road but it was a bit sudden. Anyway, the first odd sigh was this snail who was enjoying a nice snack of rowan berry.
The blackberries are well underway and I enjoyed snacking on a few on my way around. I even found a solitary bilberry that had been overlooked by the birds and other walkers.
Farther around, the mushrooms continue their colonisation of the forest with a couple of new varieties making an appearance
These ones usually end up forming great rings in the darkest parts of the woods. While the rings haven’t quite developed, they are appearing in clumps.
Day 62
I’ve been away on holiday so this is my first walk in a couple of weeks and quite a lot has changed. The heather is finally properly in flower. Despite extremely heavy rain over the weekend, it is still quite dry up there.
I went straight up after getting the dogs out of kennels and they were two happy dogs. They always enjoy a run out but as they had been cooped up for two weeks, they especially enjoyed it today.
The main difference of today’s walk is that the mushrooms have made their annual appearance and I managed to get a couple of pictures.
These tiny ones end up covering a lot of the forest floor later in the year. I really wish I knew a bit more about mushrooms as I’m sure some of them are delicious but I would rather not take the chance with my lack of knowledge.
I found this rather striking red one growing on the path in our field at the edge of the forest.
So that’s about it for this walk. Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of it over the next few days – I’m getting really close to two-thirds of my goal which is just as well as the
Day 61
I’m posting this a couple of days late just as I’m being a bit lazy. I delayed my normal lunchtime walk for a work from home day until the evening as I wasn’t really feeling like it at lunchtime. It was quite a muggy evening but everything was quite dry – no gaiter weather. Our thistle is getting a bit past its best but it’s neighbour has now flowered
Things are changing so fast at this stage – some of blackberries have berries forming and are well past the flowering stage, while others are still flowering.
Further on, a few of the bilberries are developing nicely but they don’t seem to have done very well this year – there are very few. Ardagh mountain isn’t really quite high enough for bilberries to thrive but the do make quite a tasty little snack for late summer walks.
It is funny how you take time to find things out when your children ask you, but I had myself wondered since I was a child what “cuckoo-spit” was. It is fairly abundant at this time of year although is isn’t too prevalent later in the day. Anyway, I looked it up and discovered it is a defence mechanism of the Froghopper nymph. The secret the foam and then hide from predators inside the foamy mass while living off plant sap. So that’s that mystery solved.
Day 60
There was time for a quick walk when I got home from work so I went out even though the sky was looking a bit ominous. Sure enough it started drizzling as I was going up the lane and it was really tipping it down by the time I got into the forest.
As a result I didn’t take many pictures due to being worried about my camera getting wet. My thistle had made a full emergence by how though so I did get a shot of it.
It was all a bit of a mad scramble due to the rain but I would think I was close to a record time. We all got rightly soaked and were happy to make it home
Day 59
Another fine lunchtime and I managed to get out for a walk. It was a fine clear day and things were still pretty dry up there. Visibility was clear to the horizon. We were up on one of those other hills at the weekend at Uisneach but unfortunately it was too wet and misty to be able to look back.
Our thistle is still making progress but it is getting a bit more difficult to take a clear picture of it, especially when you have a dog pulling at you eager to get on with her walk.
We continued tramping round at a reasonably good pace with not a lot else going on. I did spot this rather pretty little orange flower growing in the gravel path. No idea what it is.
After that it was back into the covered tracks until we spotted a wasps’ nest about 5 minutes from the end. There seems to be a lot of wasps about this summer for some reason. We have something in our bottom field that is rooting them out – probably a badger.
So all-in-all that was quite an interesting little walk between our flower and the wasps nest.
Day 58
I managed to get out for a quick walk on a showery Saturday afternoon. Luckily enough I did manage to dodge the showers so had a nice stroll. The elder-flower is in full bloom by now and looking quite nice. Indeed some of the trees have finished up already.
The thistles haven’t progressed much but there is a bit of difference about them. I have got some pictures of some others a bit further one but I’ll refrain from posting them unless I miss the same stage on this one.
The dogs had a nice time – they always love getting up the forest.
The visibility was very good today.
That’s about it for this post. I had a grand if uneventful walk.
This doesn’t warrant a new day as I had already been round at lunchtime but as it had been so dry the last few days, I decided to take the bike around for a spin. I have a reasonably nice aluminium hard-tail with hydraulic discs that I bought in a previous life and has only ever been up Ardagh Mountain once and that was only the easy bit and not far from 10 years ago.
So anyway, I dusted it off and set off up the mountain. After huffing and puffing up the road I set off around the left loop which has a hard gravel base without too much difficultly despite my lack of bike fitness. I had a bit of fun after the peak scooting down and again it was pretty easy going.
Once I crossed the road, the going got a bit tougher as the path is mostly mud here. I had to dismount a couple of times and I nearly sunk a couple more. Eventually, I came a-cropper and went over the handlebars and luckily landed in heather so no harm done apart from a slightly bent brake-lever.
That was the worst of it over so I rattled down through the rest which turns back to gravel fairly quickly. I decided not to take the turn-off that keeps me in the forest but instead continued on the good surface and finished off the loop by cycling into the village and then back home.
Anyway, that was fun for a change although I might apply a bit more wisdom the next time and dismount for the rough stuff until I lose about 15 kilos and 10 years.