Seaforde Tropical Butterfly House

It was quite a nice day yesterday so my family and I decided to take a trip to the Seaforde Gardens and Tropical Butterfly House, which as the name suggests is a sort of estate with beautiful gardens and a butterfly house where they have all these exotic species of butterflies, birds and reptiles. My mum used to take my sister and I there all the time when we were little but we hadn't actually been there for years and years now so it was a bit of a blast from the past, and a nice little break from work since I'm off at the minute for the bank holiday weekend!

Inside the butterfly house, as well as all the butterflies, in a beautiful array of bright colours, there's also an abundance of gorgeous tropical plants and flowers, it almost has the look and feel of a jungle or rainforest, especially with the sound of the water features and the birds chirping and whistling. It would be my absolute dream to own a garden as beautiful as this someday. 

Also, in one of the sections there was a koi pond full of fish with all these turtles just laying around on the rocks looking very thoughtful, as well as lots of beautiful exotic birds in enclosures around the outside. They looked happy enough and very well cared for, but it always makes me kind of sad to see birds in cages. 

When you come out of the butterfly house, on the grounds outside there is a maze and a beautiful vast walled garden with lots of nooks, crannies and hidden pathways as well as all these peacocks just wandering about! 

When we were going through the maze my mum started "doing a Hansel and Gretel" as she called it- i.e. picking leaves off the bushes and leaving a trail so we could find our way out again apparently- so very dramatic! Haha

How are you spending bank holiday weekend?

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Weekend Roundup

I really had such a lovely weekend these past few days. Between starting work and everyone being away on summer holidays it'd been a few weeks since I'd seen anyone so it was amazing to be able to spend a chilled out weekend with a few of my best friends!

We had some lovely weather here on Saturday morning so my cousin, Jenny and I got up bright and early and went for a long walk in the park followed by some lunch in Belfast. It was the first time I'd seen her since I got back from uni in June so it was great to spend some quality time and catch up. We went to this really quirky restaurant called Birdcage, though because it was quite busy I didn't manage to get any photos- I'll make sure I will next time!

Later on Saturday night Isabel and Libby who are two of my best friends from school came to stay at mine and we had a typical girly movie night with lots of chocolate and a cheeky bottle of Rosé. Then after a long lie-in the next day we braced the rain and headed back into the city for another lunch date. This time we went to a restaurant in the city centre called Made in Belfast which has a menu made up of all locally sourced produce. It can be a little pricey but it's completely worth it because the food is so good!

It was quite a special occasion for the three of us because since we've all moved away to different unis we really don't see as much of each other as we'd like to any more. Isabel (Izi) lives in London now and because of commitments with her job over there she can't come home very often. In fact, she's only back in Northern Ireland for two weeks this summer before heading back off again! So whenever we all get a chance to see each other it's literally the best thing ever. I really couldn't have asked for a better end to a week of placement!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

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One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree - W.B. Yeats

These are a few photos I took with my family today. I didn't really take them with the intent of sharing them, rather I like to take photos because it relaxes me, but today reminded me how much I do actually enjoy sharing my photos and writing about them. I took these on a walk around Castle Ward and some of the scenes reminded me of one of my favourite poems by Yeats that I thought I'd include.

Hope you are all well!

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A Dose of Irish Coastline

Uh ohh... I feel like such a bad blogger not posting anything in a week now! But I guess my life has just been pretty boring as of late and on top of that I really haven't felt very inspired so I decided to wait until I had something to say. 

This week my mum and I have just been out and about in the car, trying to teach me how to drive again since I haven't driven since last summer and have lofty ambitions to save up for my own car for uni over the next few months (whether this will happen remains to be seen), in which case I'll need to eventually make the mental drive between the ferry port in Cairnryan in Scotland back down to Lancashire. At the moment, we've slowly been conquering motorway driving and I HATE motorways, the slip roads just terrify me, driving in general terrifies me but it's something I really want to overcome, just to achieve a bit more freedom and independence. I don't know whether it's because I'm a relatively new driver, but I'm constantly aware of the fact every time I get in the car and start to drive I'm basically hurtling into a dark abyss in a metal death machine... I'm hoping these feelings will pass.

I was very proud of myself yesterday as I drove the whole way to a place called Portstewart along the North Coast which is about a one and a half hour drive (or two hours for me driving at a steady speed of 45mph the entire way). It was quite scary as I didn't realise it but there are literally about a million roundabouts on the way, like literally a million and they freak me out a little bit too, as do confusing road markings and big cross-road junctions. But I got there!

Being a very small place, Northern Ireland for me has its few ups, and a lot of downs, but one thing I can't argue with is its spectacular coastline, especially along the North Coast. Portstewart Strand (above) is one of my favourite beaches on the Antrim Coast. It actually belongs to the National Trust which is why it's so well maintained, but it's basically just a long stretch of white sandy beach that goes on for miles up to the rugged cliffs where Mussenden Temple sits. I also couldn't help but notice last night how amazing the colours on the beach were, with the green sand dunes, pale sand and then the sea, a sort of teal colour against the blue grey sky, I'm so glad I had my camera with me!

You can drive your car straight on to the beach and my mum, my sister and I have spent many evenings, in both summer and winter sitting on the strand chatting and eating chips as the sun goes down. 

Well I am absolutely staaaarving, so I think I'm going to have to leave this post here and go and have some breakfast!

Much love,

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