Loop Head walk 
Loop Head walk 
Loop Head walk 
Loop Head walk
Loop Head walk
Went round to the tip of the peninsular at Loop Head, with a light house, and a loop walk around the headland. Sunny day and fantastic rock formation, big slabs layers of rocks lying at different directions.
sea Aster
Only moss grows on the ground giving a spongy feel when walking, and some pretty pink flowers.
Kilbaha 
shrimp netting
live shrimps 
blanched for 15 seconds
Near the harbour wall at Kilbaha,
found an easy access to get in the water, with wetsuit and a strong net, indeed
getting them from scooping around seaweed. Good experience to forage for free
food, but quite demanding.
Ballyheigur Bay 
Ballyheigur Bay 
Ballyheigur Bay 
Ballyheigur Bay 
Ballyheigur Bay
Walked the 2 sandy beaches nearby, Banna Bay and Ballyheigue, both over 5km long, quite wild without much human modification.
mobile bread coffee station 
Jagodzianka
It is at Banna Bay that this very neat looking van is parked, belong to an organic bread coffee shop in Tralee. All ingredients are organic and made by the two Polish owner couples. Learned that the traditional bread Jagodzianka, is a wild bilberry filled soft bun with crumble topping. Looks good and sure have to try, especially after a long walk at the beach. Very generously filled with wild bilberry, apparently collected by kids in Poland for their pocket money. There is bilberry in Ireland but hard to find manpower to do the picking job!
Banna Bay 
Banna Bay
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| Fenit bridge |
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| view of light house |
End of summer vacation and weather is glorious, dropped everything and take the campervan out for a spin, to the seaside near Tralee, 2 hours away from home.
We parked near Fenit Bridge, where they allow camper to stay overnight (very rare in Ireland) and can enjoy sea view.
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| Dingle peninsilar |
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| Dingle peninsilar |
The evening is overcast but the sky is dramatic, and view of the opposite Dingle Peninsular is very pretty.
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| horse mackerel and gurnard |
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| mackerel |
The bridge is popular with fisherman, an easy to reach location and to catch, at the moment, mackerel and horse mackerel.
grilled mackerel and horse mackerel 
grilled mackerel and horse mackerel 
horse mackerel on top and mackerel below 
sashimi
Bunratty castle
It is a tourist site here, near the Shannon airport, with a well preserved castle, a park with walled garden, water mills, farm animals, traditional houses in the last 200 years for different classes of people, plus old shops, basically a village to show how is life in the old days.
A Medieval Banquet is added in the 60s after the opening of Shannon airport, a genius idea of the owner of the park to attract tourists to stay behind, to spend money in the local area.
Indeed quite shocking to see so many tour buses in the park, and loads of tourists, mostly Americans, around. I was sceptical that it could be a cheesy tourist event.
Well enjoyed walking around the park with the many gardens and buildings, all well preserved and maintained.
The banquet is fantastic, it is a good way to visit the castle, not just walk througth and look, but really spending time in different rooms, enjoyed the food and excellent music, both singing and harp performances.
Aperitif in the great hall
The aperitif is mead, served in the great hall, food in the dinning area and coffee in the ground floor reception.
Singers and musicians are also waiters, or
I should say they act as Medieval waiters and present food with the manner and
tone as in those days, great performance on stage and at the tables, a memorable evening.
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| Black mulberry |
I have read in many gardening and foodies' books that it is worth planting black mulberry tree and wait for it to mature to bear fruit. Supposedly black mulberry has the best flavor among all other berries, and only tasty when fully ripe, turns very soft and hence impossible to transport, a fruit hard to find in the market at that maturity.
I planted 2 tree seedlings, don't know how many years I have to wait for them to bear fruit, I count it as a legacy for future house owners.
Found out that there is a dwarf tree variety available that will fruit from the same year, just like bush type berries.
It is interesting to watch it growt and taste the berry, indeed only worth eating when fully ripe and really soft, the flavor is hard to describe, so rich and intense like no other berry, a good purchase.
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| Black mulberry flower |
The fruit comes out from the base of branches, hence it is good to shorten the branches regularly to make them having more branches.
The flower is amazing, unlike any other berry and fruit flowers.
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Grapes in Ireland |
Indeed can grow grapes in Ireland, inside poly tunnel. With the warmth and not being rained on, they are super healthy, no problem with mould, disease, nor pest at all.
Harvested the first bunch of eating red grapes, white ones are still sour.
With continue good harvest of beans and tomatoes, these 2 dishes are on the table very regularly.
Cherry tomato Sungold is now my no.1 favorite cherry tomato, really lovely balance of sweetness and sourness, better than any other tomatoes I have grown and tasted before.
I like to cut them in halves, if there is time, mix with salt and olive oil and rest for an hour, to soften a little, then mix in fresh basil just before serving.
Or put the dish in warm oven for 5 minutes to do the softening job instead.
For runner bean Painted Lady (my long time favorite variety) and climbing bean Sunshine (easy to harvest with the bright yellow colour, and beautiful in the dish), I like to cook with a few garlic cloves that have been slow cooked in olive oil, some water, salt, some chili flakes. So that at the end of the cooking, the water evaporated leaving a light sauce wrapping the beans.
