A Stay in Wexford

Self and OH plus Connie and Huddie spent a week in County Wexford.
We stayed at the Horse and Hound for B&B, it being welcoming to dogs, having a good starting location near New Ross, having a nice laid-back attitude and fulsome quantities of food.

Safe in the undergrowth and awaiting a juicy meaty meal, we spied:

Connie rushed Pushkin later though :(. Escaped, of course :).

Drove to a different beach or sight every day from Monday to Friday, when we returned home.

We were SO LUCKEY with the weather - absolutely beautiful, bright, sunny most of the time yet the air was fresh and clean.

TINTERN ABBEY Click to enlarge. Constructed by a fascinating character by the name of Marshall way back(plenty of info on the net about that history).

OH WITH HUDDIE - yes, 16 year-old Huddie who adapted well to the travel. He is a veteran after all, having played his agility and herding skills all over the place in his youth. 

FETHARD HARBOUR

HOOK LIGHTHOUSE

Forty shades of blue

Lough Ennell Sept 23 2018

A little unexpected at this time of year - and quite lovely.

Little olive-brown egg

Connie was very excited by something in our hedge - a long Chamecyparis along half the boundary of the the house garden She went in up to her tail tip. Thought I heard faint sounds but nothing definite - and I saw nothing unusual.

The next day, passing the same spot in the hedge, I found a lovely sage-coloured green egg! When cleaned and dried it looked more olive-brown. Unusualy for September the 14th ?.

Here it is beside large hens' eggs:

It measured 4.5 X 3.1 cm

Looked to https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2016/05/identify-egg-shells/ to identify it 

It seems to match a pheasant's egg best among those shown there. The pheasant. it says, lays between April and June so perhaps it was there for several months - or some Pheasant has got its timing all wrong. There were pheasants coming and going earlier in the year so perhaps one of them left this behind. Interestingly, it was at just the spot in the hedge where a Leghorn hen I once had (Atilla the Hen - old DroimAnUan blog posts) used to hide her large clutches of 13 eggs years ago.

Connie likes a Big Stick

Many dogs like you to throw a stick for them - Connie prefers a small tree.

 Give it a good beating:

Then chop it down to size.

The Autumnal air got in her nose this afternoon in the woods and she went bonkers - got wind of a fox and off she went for a long time - then returned smelling of - FOX. I wonder what she makes of them? wearing her clothes and all, smaller but with attitude?

Wish I had a collie-cam sometimes.