At some point I had looked up what kind of butterfly this is, but I’ve long since forgotten. These flowers, though, attract them, and there’s a whole garden area on the Blarney Castle grounds where they cultivate the flowers to draw the insects. It was wonderful fun in there with my friend Susannah, creeping after butterflies and inhaling the scent of the blooms.
The Blarney Castle grounds go on forever, and here and there you find unexpected bits of the past cropping up. This is one of them, a secluded, lovely cabin down by a stream and near to the lily pad lake. I could live there, given half a chance.
This is almost the first thing you see upon leaving the train station in Cork. Usually it’s not quite that foreboding. :)
I feel terribly damned clever for snapping this shot just as the duck was, er, ducking, into the water, even though it’s pure luck and happenstance that I clicked the shutter at that very moment. :)
