Jo Hynes visits Norn Iron

[mark smyth]

Jo has been with us since Friday and goes home of Wednesday.

day 1 - snowdrop day
day 2 - Giants Causeway + Antrim Coast
day 3 - Robin Hall + Botanic Gardens Glasnevin
day 4 - Mountains of Mourne + Castlewellan Arboretum
day 5 - David & Janet Ledsham's garden - weather permitting.

[mark smyth]

Giants Causeway in a random order. Jo will add her's when she gets home

[mark smyth]

Waterfoot at the foot of Glenariff on the Antrom Coast road. Scotland just across the sea

[mark smyth]

Frost on the trees. Why would frost form on only the south side of the twigs?

Bushmills River. Now you know why whiskey is brown 

[Martin Baxendale]

Bushmills River. Now you know why whiskey is brown 

I'm currently working my way through a bottle of Bushmills. In fact, think I'll have a quick nightcap right now. Night, night!

[cohan]

Frost on the trees. Why would frost form on only the south side of the twigs?

Bushmills River. Now you know why whiskey is brown 

nice photos, interesting to see the area..
frost often forms mainly or exclusively on one side --i often find looking one direction the view is white, the other direction looks bare--there will have been fog drifting in  from one side, and crystals forming only on that side; when the fog is more pervasive and/or lasts longer, it will be all over...

[mark smyth]

Jo meets Robin Hall
Jo meets Margaret Glynn
Jo and Tom in Dublin's botanic gardens

[Ragged Robin]

Great atmospheric photos, Mark, and I really like the light in Waterfoot 01 and the swell and crest of the wave.  Your new Avatar really suits your style 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Your new Avatar really suits your style 

Very distinguished if you ask me ! 

[mark smyth]

shootin', fishin', huntin' type

[Martin Baxendale]

Jo meets Robin Hall
Jo meets Margaret Glynn
Jo and Tom in Dublin's botanic gardens

Nice to see Margaret's lovely smile - it's so infectious. Hope to bump into her at Margaret Owen's at the weekend. Not that the rest of you don't have nice smiles too, of course. It's just that there's something about Margaret's smile that just makes me want to smile too. 

[tonyg]

shootin', fishin', huntin' type

I'd stick to fishin' ..... safer

[angie]

Mark you look very pleased with yourself, anything your not telling us... maybe you have won the lottery
Angie

[mark smyth]

lottery - I wish

[Jo]

Hey folks ,its about time Jo put some pics of her trip to NI up here.  Tom and I had a wonderful time and were really spoilt by Mark and Margaret.

Mark played the perfect host and showed us all round the sites.  The Giants Causeway was fantastic, I don't know what I expected but it was better than that 

We visited some wonderful gardens and saw some mouth watering snowdrops, colchicums and crocus. Marks greenhouse is a real treat.

The photos below show Marks place and some of his plants. Needless to say I didn't write down names so the colchicum, covered in frost had a long name starting with K?  Mark ?  And the crocus had a wonderful bronze reverse. 

The Hellebore was spectacular, all covered with frost.