We decided to all get up relatively early (for a Sunday morning) and get ourselves up the mountain for the solstice dawn – which is supposed to be at 08:38. Unfortunately we were greeted with an overcast morning which wasn’t so great but it still got bright.
With the half light, conditions weren’t so great for photography so not a lot came out well. We didn’t have the fastest of walks and went around the longest route so it was nearly 10 by the time we got back home ready for a nice hot breakfast.
This will be my last lunchtime walk of the year as I’ll be off work until the new year. This was the usual quick flit around. The place is quite fresh looking after a good soaking for the morning.
The water levels are finally catching up to what is normal for the time of year with a nice little stream running along one of the paths.
Due to the dogs being somewhat deranged I had to get out for a walk on a soaking wet Sunday afternoon. It was so wet that I really didn’t bother with the camera around and just charged around in 45 minutes to avoid getting overly wet and cold.
You can see how dark it is at this time of year. I had to use the flash to take this picture and the background is almost completely black.
Anyway, we got around quickly and got into the warm and dry without much ado.
This was a normal quick lunchtime walk on a fine dry day. I spotted this splash of colour on the way up the hill which is nice to see at this time of year.
I don’t normally take pictures of the road section at all. This bit is about 50 metres of road that you need to walk between the two halves of the forest loop. It is quite a spot for people to get rid of a bit of household rubbish.
There is so little light around at this time of year that the camera really quite struggles. It does however give this fantastic washed out effect sometimes.
This looks rather interesting and has suddenly sprouted up all over the place.
This is the most remote part of the forest. There is no proper path through here, just a track that is mostly worn there by me and the dogs.
We managed to find a break in the showers to get out on a cold grey day and got the dogs out for a Sunday morning stroll. The weather is very changeable with fine sunny spells between flurries of hail, sleet and snow.
Bizarrely some of the gorse bushes are bursting right into flower although I forgot yet again to take a picture.
After doing the top loop we were greeted with a hail-storm when we entered into the second part of the walk. It was quite strange listening to it in the shelter of the trees.
This lichen was looking rather interesting but it was too dark to be able to take a picture without the flash and the flash was a bit harsh. I might try taking the SLR up some day if it is dry as it handles low light a bit better.
Despite the sleet and hail we had a nice a brisk walk and it was good to get out – not least because my 100 walk target is looking a bit shaky at the moment.
Not an awful lot to say about this walk – another quick lunchtime loop with relatively limited photo-opportunities due to being in a bit of a hurry.
The mushrooms are still in fine form
These posts are getting quite brief and I am getting a bit lazy about posting them in a timely manner. However, I am almost caught up now and will get back into more detailed posts after the next one.
This was a quick lunchtime walk on a fabulous brisk winter’s day. The sky was beautifully clear but it wasn’t terribly warm.
It was mostly just a quick scarper round the forest and annoying I had to keep the dogs on the lead due to the work still going on up there. So I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures until nearly then end.
This is the remains of what once would have been quite a fine farmhouse in its day. There isn’t a lot left of this but there are still fine stone lintels and bits of corrugated iron left.
Just down the path from here, the place is quite flooded.
There are pretty much no leaves left on tress now.
Yet another Saturday walk although I did have a bit of company today. Still the logging goes on – they have actually cleared rather a large swathe of forest by now but they aren’t working today.
There are still splashes of colour about the place between holly and this rosehip bush.
If you go a bit further up some gorse bushes have burst into flower. These seem to be flowering pretty much all year round at the moment although they hit a peak in the spring.
It was another miserable wet day so I didn’t bother bringing the camera as it was just too difficult to keep it dry. Hence the rather boring phone photograph.
The forestry people are still hard at it but again they didn’t bother me apart from making me keep the dogs on leads. I made really good time due to trying not to get too wet. I was on a deadline as it was a lunchtime walk on a break from work
Walking forests and trails in the midlands of Ireland
