The signs of spring are really about with the blackthorn coming into flower and all kinds of things springing to life. Everywhere you look there’s birds carrying bits of twigs. We had a bit of a frost this week but there is a definite sense of it being the last of it.
The wood-sorrel is also starting to spread quite nicely. This makes a really nice addition to spring salads so I should be able to start foraging a bit quite soon. The only problem is that it really doesn’t keep.
We had a fine day for it. It is still just a little cold, but my rain jacket stayed in my bag for the duration. I didn’t really bother me. A few of the hardier trees are coming into leaves. This is one of the willows at the bottom of the garden starting to look quite lively.
It was a grand lunchtime walk and we got around in well under an hour. I feel that winter has one last kick left in it but we’ll see.
I’ve been meaning to get up in time for the dawn chorus for a while but as my planned walk for tomorrow has been hijacked by the guides, I decided to go out this morning while it was still peaceful. I got out of the house by 6:30 while it was still half-light and the festivities were in full swing.
I took a couple of videos mainly for the audio to get a sense of the sounds but of course it didn’t really work particularly well. It might have been better if I’d stopped for a couple of minutes so that I wasn’t breathing so heavily.
It was a lovely walk surrounded by song although the dawn chorus proper died down around 7 unfortunately. Still it was a very peaceful experience to be up on the mountain so early while everyone else was still in bed. It was getting a bit quieter in the forest but not so much that it wasn’t still impressive. It might have been even more peaceful without two mad dogs
This is one of the dogs in the weird half natural half flash light inside the forest at 7 AM. She had a nice time of it anyway;.
Continuing on the theme from the last walk, it was seriously wet today at lunchtime when it was time to head out. I’ve given up being bothered with the weather so I put on my raincoat, got the dogs and headed off.
It was really just a question of getting the head down for a quick march for exercise with not a lot of note to experience. Still, any walk is better than no walk. We had a nice chat on the trip round.
This is the turn-off the last stretch home. If you don’t take this turn you end up coming out on a local road and adding a 2 km road walk to the loop which is none too pleasant.
The flooded track looking quite misty and drab. This section rarely dries out completely and even if it does we have established a track around it so we wouldn’t bother with even then.
Walking forests and trails in the midlands of Ireland