50 Shades of Green

Yes, it's a sneaky knock-off of the book/movie title, especially since none of this will be sexy at all! But it is an apt title for all of the different shades of green. When we left Lincoln, it was as green as we have ever seen it and yet, the lushness back home could not hold a candle to the varieties of plants, trees, hedges, and hedge rows painted in so many beautiful shades of green. Around every bend in the road, and oh-my there were bends, the beauty of Ireland was revealed.  I look forward to updating this blog with photos once we are all home. Jean and/or John (mostly Jean) were the trip photographers.

By the by, the other quintessential bit of Ireland that waited around many bends were the sheep. The BMW we rented could stop on a dime, which was good since that's how much lead time we had. Sheep are everywhere. They are "branded" by paint. A paint brush full: different colors for different flocks.And speaking of differences in sheep --the sizes differ and the face markings differ but that was just the beginning of the differences!  The face markings were intriguing ... some looked like Kiss! Then there are the black sheep. They are seldom seen but when spotted are oh so cute.

Back to the greenery ... Jean and I agreed that the most intriguing green is nearly a chartreuse  color! It was gorgeous and found on well kept hedges! Look for it when the photos are uploaded. 

We did feel like tourists as we kept repeating ... it's so green, it's so green! And so natural. And unlike many tourists, we didn't find many golf courses ... but I imagine that they were the greenest of all! (The one we did find was a links course, next to the Atlantic ... wind might have been a factor. Just perhaps! And it was over 300 Euro to play. So we counted ourselves lucky that we weren't playing ... as Jean and I made a mental note of what we could buy with the 300 Euro saved!