SATURDAY CRITTERS -Mount Stewart Lake

Last week my Art Appreciation class had their summer outing at Mount Stewart House. One of the members, Alan is a guide in the house and he offered to give us a guided tour of the paintings and house.  I did not take  any images as I thought it would distract from his tour.  Then we had a delicious lunch followed by a walk round the lake but first a music video I promised you from yesterday, taken at Clandeboye Estate to listen to while looking at the critters I saw at Mount Stewart. 

CLICK HERE if the video does apear below.

Of course I think  everyone know the above is a UK Robin and then we passed these wooden horses. When we reached the lake we saw Mallard, Azure Dragonflies, Moorhen, Painted Lady Butterfly, a number of species of bees and wasps on the Echium and wildflowers and one of the Swans.  The other one is now on a nest and I am glad to say that it is out on the reeds and no one can see  it now. 

You can hardly see the Mallards sitting on the bank above as they blend in so well with their surroundings especially as they are all moulting.  Below is Alan, who not only gave us a wonderful tour but I discovered he also took great photographs and he was the one to spy the Dragonflies.  

I hope you enjoyed this post from Mount Stewart and thanks for visitng today.

I am linking with SATURDAY CRITTERS.

Tomorrow I am starting another series and this time I am taking you to Great Saltee Island.  Now do not worry the crossing is only 15 mintues in very calm waters.

Many thanks for all the comments you leave.

Flowers at Clandeboye Estate (Part 10 )

 This is the antipenultimate post in the series from Clandeboye Estate and I gave myself permission to ‘play' with some of the flowers I photographed that day so sit back, no more words are necessary, just enjoy their beauty.

You do not have to tell me if you had a favourite today however it was be lovely if you did!  I just hope you enjoyed seeing them.

Many thanks for your visit and also to all who leave comments.

THROUGH MY LENS - Clandeboye Estate (Part 9)

If you have been following my posts last week on this series I photographed while I was visiting Clandeboye Estate, you will realise that it was the perfect sunny day for this garden to be open to the public. Many families had brought picnics while others opted for buying lunch in the Courtyard area while the children enjoyed the jumping on the bouncy castle. 

I went up these steps and found this slightly elevated grassed area with all the Tombs of the family resting there.

Last week I showed you a few images from Chapel Walk, Bee and Bear Gardens as well as the Arboretum and Pinetum however today some of these images are from Sheridan and Brenda’s Gardens.

There were thousands of people there that day and that probably for me was the biggest challenge in trying to get the shots without anyone in them. However as the child below was not facing me I thought it was a special moment to capture of this family while quietly enjoying a picnic on the estate overlooking the lake.  

I hope you are still with me on this walk. I know I took a lot of images over the 3 hour period that Sunday but it was so beautiful and so much to see.

I am linking with THROUGH MY LENS.

As I had no more images of birds from Clandeboye, tomorrow I will be sharing a few images and video of Swallows in a nest and House Mstartins building a nest at Mount Stewart and then back to Clandeboye Estate for 3 final posts.

Many thanks for visiting and also to all those who leave comments.