Powerscourt Gardens

This weekend found us trekking to Powerscourt Gardens.  It's a lovely estate about an hour away from Dublin by bus.  I have to say that after taking in this view, I could see the allure of marrying a man 50 years your senior.  A castle/house/fortified estate has existed here since the 13th century (thank you wikipedia).  (I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures.  It was, gasp, actually unearth your sunglasses SUNNY and I think my iphone has forgotten how to cope.)

View from "back porch"

Flowers in fireplace
Does anyone know what the pink one is?

Charlie and Shadow Shout

After having a super yummy lunch (those Avoca ladies sure can cook!), we started wandering the gardens.  Charlie got adorably interested in his shadow at the bottom of a fountain asking "Shadow Shout, how did you get all the way down there?"  Charlie has been all about shadows lately and has gotten the other 2 interested as well.  

Looking for frogs

After a quick inspection to be sure that there weren't any frogs, we moved along to flowers.  My favorite type of garden is the cottage type where there is just this riot of color.

A formal cottage garden ;-)

Then we came to this fabulous cluster of lily pads- sadly, no toads here, either.

On the way to the Japanese Garden, we got to go through this wonderful rocky passage filled with very Irish looking moss and greenery.

Next up was this little waterfall that had Noah completely fascinated.

Noah

Charlie isn't a nature boy precisely.  He's sort of the classic "boy."  He loves rockets and space ships and learning about all things mechanical and then he also loves to climb trees, pick up worms, and examine snails.  So, of course, the stream was for him.

Charlie

The path wound it's way through some forested area.  Whenever I'm confronted with older growth forest, I always wonder about the American colonists.  Can you imagine getting off a ship and knowing you had to get crops planted Very Soon and were confronted with this:

biggish trees

As you went along the path you came along to this wonderfully romantic looking tower.  Sadly, all things that glimmer are not gold.  The tower is fairly modern, built in 1911 (I think- google wasn't very helpful) and modeled on a pepperpot from the 8th Viscount's dining table.  It's still fun to let your imagination roam with the image, though.  Doesn't it seem to just be screaming out for some sort of dashing adventure ala The Princess Bride?

Pepperpot Tower

And, perhaps my favorite picture of the day: