A Seal in the River Liffey, Dublin

I am just back from a family holiday in Ireland.  When there, we has a day trip to Dublin, taking the train along the coast from further south.  We had read that you can see seals here so kept our eyes peeled all the way there in the hope of seeing one ... without luck.  I have never seen a wild seal.  Oh well, maybe another time.

In Dublin we walked down to the dock area where we took a moment alongside the River Liffey to decide what to do next.  At the same moment we all turned to look at the river and what did we see - a SEAL!!  It was just chilling in the middle of the river, without a care in the world.  I found this video from The Irish Times from 2 years ago when a seal was filmed in the Liffey at the same place as we were so apparently our sighting was not a first, although I do not know if the seal we saw was the same one.  We watched it for a while and it was obviously looking for fish, diving for up to 10 minutes at a time before resurfacing.

The article in The Irish Times asks whether the seal will become the Dublin equivalent of Fungi the Dolphin.  Fungi is a wild bottlenose dolphin who happily lives in Dingle Harbour, Kerry, on the West coast of Ireland.  When we were there in 2000 we specifically went to see if we could see him but without any luck.  

Seeing this seal was just as good though and such a surprise as we knew nothing about seals in the Liffey.  It also proves that the water is not too polluted which is great news for a city river.

Have you ever seen any wildlife in an unexpected place?

Seal in the River Liffey, Dublin.  Image from The Irish Times

 

Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens, Tramore, Waterford

On our recent trip to Ireland I was keen to visit a few gardens.  As we were there in October many were closed for the winter but a few were still open.  I have already blogged about Cappoquin Gardens in Lismore and today I give you a very different style of garden: The Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens in Tramore, Waterford.

The gardens reflect the life and travels of Patrick Lafcadio Hearn who was born in Ireland but who travelled extensively in America and Greece before finally settling in Japan.  They are split into 10 individually themed gardens where plant structure, rocks and water play more important roles than flowers.  There are however flowers to be seen, including one when we visited, that most certainly should not have been in flower in October, a Japanese Iris.  Irises grow wild in Japan and are also cultivated widely in gardens there.  The Japanese attribute meanings to their flowers and the Iris means Good News.

The American Garden

Cappoquin Gardens, Waterford, Ireland

Over the half term holiday we managed our first family holiday with all 4 of us together in six years and we headed off to Ireland.  I have family there so in between introducing Simon and the boys to my aunts, uncle and cousins we also managed to fit in plenty of sightseeing.  Cappoquin Gardens in Co Waterford were one of the few gardens still open in October and it looked like we picked a perfect autumn day to visit.

Cappoquin House was built in the 18th century on the site of an old castle.  Its imposing Georgian Manor is also open to the public at certain times but we only wanted to visit the gardens ... which besides the gardener we had to ourselves.  A leaflet detailed what each part of the garden was used for or represented but we actually enjoyed just walking along its grassy paths through areas of woodland, herbaceous borders and shrubberies all exhibiting their delightful autumn colours.

For anyone like me who is rather fond of hydrangeas this garden was a veritable treasure trove of pinks, blues and whites: