Ireland, Part One.

We stayed in Killarney for a week, in County Kerry, and it was great. These sheep were in a field behind where we were staying.

Here is a leaping lamb.( Click on the photo to enlarge.)




Now, this little lamb, the white one? Doesn't it look cute? It is, it's very cute. Here it is with it's mummy and sibling.



And here it is with its mother...





Cute, no? No. Because.... after this photo was taken, it sort of, looked at us (Moose and I), and we thought that was pretty cool, it was just staring at us. And staring. And... staring. I mean, it didn't even blink. Not at all. It just...kept...staring. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it didn't even blink. Not even once.
Here it is, and I know it's blurry, but you get the idea.


And other sheep, other lambs came up to it, and it would ignore them and KEEP STARING. I'm pretty sure it had the devil in it, and so we did the obvious, and ran. We fled from the unblinking devil lamb. I must say, we did comment, while fleeing in horror, that it had really cute ears. For a minion of the devil.

Killarney was gorgeous. Really, really lovely and green. I took the giant fuck-off bus we'd been given, and I drove that bitch around the Ring of Kerry. Which was dodgy, because at the best of times, the road looked like this


and there were sheep everywhere I tried not to hit, whilst also trying to keep the van from plunging off the insanely narrow roads.




We stopped at Ladies View, which was named after Queen Victoria's favorite view in the area when she visited with her ladies of the court.




Here is my family at Ladies view- Left to right- John (Ad's dad), me, Ad's stepmum Jackie, Moose, my aunt Re, my dad (who tried to hide in every damn photo),and Mum.


We stopped for lunch in Sneem


and it was a great day, though the weather could have been a bit nicer, it rained on and off all day.





We visited Mucross House, which is a beautiful estate, and the property and lands were given to Ireland and became it's first national park. This is also where I scored that free wool. We took a Jaunting Cart around the grounds, looking at the lakes, and visiting the Abbey.



This was the horse that pulled one of the carriages, Molly, and the cat, Misty.







Here are the Abbey Ruins, which are being restored at the moment. Really impressive, lovely place. People are still laid to rest on the grounds, even today. Because of the weather in the area, I was surprised that some of the graves that were 20 years old looked as old as the graves that were 200 years old.




This place was very atmospheric, and so, with my interest in the paranormal, I ducked into a deserted, pitch dark corridor and took a couple of photos.

Here is the first, the camera really struggled to get the photo, and I have to say I'm impressed. A tripod would have been handy, because the camera took about 15 seconds to take each one.




Then I stepped further into the corridor, and caught these two




Very cool, but alas, not a ghost. There was a teeny window down at the very end of the hall, and it caught and bent the light.

Here is dad and I in the jaunting cart. We were going beneath a bunch of trees, and it was too dark, so I had to lighten it, but I like this photo-






And here is Moose and I with our driver. He was a cool guy who sang little made up songs to the horse while we drove.



Just down the road from Mucross House is the Torc Waterfall, which Moose was really keen on seeing, and which she almost met her maker in.
The path leading to the waterfall was unbelievably verdant. I've never seen so much green, and I love green.



green








Moose tried out my camera, and I showed her how action mode works. Here I am, er, in action, although I can't really move very fast, on account of the lousy body I'm stuck with, but this is my representation of green inspired joy!



Oh, and the waterfall? Very impressive. Best one I've seen, though to be fair, the only one I've seen, really.



And here I am with the Moose, firmly gripping her jacket to keep her from pitching headfirst into the falls...



Feeling sheep deprived? Here's that lamb, post-leap.





We also took a day trip to Kinsale, which was beautiful.


So that's it for now, though there is more to come, including MORE SHEEP, the Ring of Dingle (insanely beautiful), Moose's first shot, hailstorms in Dublin, and illegal photography at the Book of Kells!

All the photos can be seen on my flickr page. Just click the thing on the right there!