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Tag Archives: walking
November is an Assault on the Senses
And no, I don’t mean a riot of fall color or the scent of burning leaves. I mean dairy cattle. Living in dairy country generally isn’t a problem. It means that when we look out over “our” valley, we see black and white cows in the pasture, not horses. (And I’ve learned that Freisan cows look just like Holsteins and I can’t tell the difference.) Still a pretty picture. And I had already learned not to walk certain roads when it’s been raining. The cows travel from pasture to barn along the roads, sometimes for 20 feet, sometimes for a few hundred. That’s ok – the rain washes off their leavings. But sometimes there is enough room by the side of the road for the farmers to have an aisle for the cows. They use white tape fencing to mark it off, and the strips of land used to be … Continue reading
Yes, Ireland Has Trees
Have you ever noticed that most of our favorite pictures of Ireland’s scenery are grass-covered hills with stone walls and sheep, but hardly any trees? The more I looked, the more I wondered if I’d be able to handle a land without forests. But Ireland has forests! According to one site, Ireland had only 1% forests a century ago. The Irish Forest Service has been planting managed forests, and when they got to a third of a million hectares (however that translates into acres), the company Coillte was formed. Coillte (sort of pronounced Kweelcheh) now privately owns most or all of the harvested forests, which have walking trails and recreations spots in the “forest parks” which are open to the public. Other forested land is owned by farmers, and the total is now up to about 10%. If you want a long hike, head for the waymarked trails. But for shorter adventures, you can head … Continue reading
Posted in IRELAND
Tagged forests, hiking, IRELAND, Irish forestry, trails, walking, waymarked ways
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