Lehid Harbour Tour

Just to be at the rocky shore is one of the best meditations🧘‍♀️ Taking the time to sit still on a rock, surrounded by the never ending bubbling and clicking of seaweed, mussels, snails, crabs, worms, anenomes, sandfleas, bacteria.... (you see where I'm going with this 😊)
of course we are always surrounded by soooo many things and organims in our lives, sometimes the vastness can be overwhelming and it becomes difficult to focus...
The practice of walking along the shore and picking 1or 2 things that catch your attention, is a great way of stopping the busy mind and just let the eye wonder, not even an intention needs to be there just to be fully present.
Then you see something and you pick it up, you feel its weight and texture in your hand, you look at it closely, all the little characteristics, that make it unique.
Close your eyes and feel its energy, the never ending pulse, matter, stardust✨
Energy traveling up and down your arm, merging, realising you are one 💜
Maybe asking it a question, or you have sensations in certain parts of your body, just keep noticing, maybe a story unrevals, brief visions, colours...
Keep breathing, surrender and accept 🙏
With great thankfulness, empathy and honour of being allowed this experience you place it, to where it belongs 🌍
The shared moment is a present, that will last for ever 🥰

Happy Earth Day everyone, for me everyday is earth day, as for many others...🌱🌍🌱
I just wanted to share some info about ribwort, this plant is growing everywhere! And its' leaves have been used in traditional medicines world wide. You can eat the young shoots raw in salads and the bigger leaves are great as tea.
It's most common used for the relief of mucus in the sinuses and for coughs from colds
It's also an anti- inflammatory, helps with urinary tract infections, cuts, rashes and insect bites.
I've been collecting leaves today and will dry them for storage :)

✨❤️✨

Found beautiful Irish Moss today🌞 Going to use it as a gelling agent for jam, I'll keep you posted

Had a heart to heart with this lovely cormorant 💕
Love these beautiful creatures, he was just sitting next to this little river beside the road ☘️
Birds were very active around us today, more than usual... did anyone else notice this today? 🧙‍♀️

Love making these drift wood framed canvas prints of my pictures ✨
A past moment captured and framed by the powerful energy of the salt water cleansed wood....
I also sell these custom made, with my or your pictures or paintings, I’ll get it printed and add a fitting frame 🙂 You can also find us on Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/NaturesTreasureCraft?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

The Portuguese man o‘war has reached Lehid Harbour as well.
Beautiful creatures, never realised they can grow up to 30cm and the tentacles up to 50meter!
It’s not a jellyfish, but a siphonophore within the genus of Physalia. It’s not a single organism either but consist out of a colony of different zooids, which can only survive In symbiosis.
Usually it swims on the water surface, but in danger the sail can even be deflated to submerge 🙂 Keep your distance from them they have a very painful sting, also after being dead.

Just noticed the first fuchsia berry 😊
Will collect and freeze them and when I have enough I’ll make some jam 👩‍🍳
The first fuchsia was discovered in the Caribbean in the 17th century, by a French monk and botanist Charles Plumier and he named the plant after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs.
110 species of Fuchsia are recognized; the vast majority are native to South America, but a few occur north through Central America to Mexico, and also several from New Zealand to Tahiti. One species, F. magellanica, extends as far as the southern tip of South America, occurring on Tierra del Fuego in the cool temperate zone, but the majority are tropical or subtropical.
We have many in southern Ireland, because of the mild climate caused by the warm air of the golf stream passing by.

Enjoying the autumn sun 🌞☘️🐾
Huge amounts of seaweeds washed up on shore during the weekend 🌑

Nostoc commune or witches butter, were the first cyanobacteria assemblages that were transported from the ocean onto land by the wind over 450million years ago.
out of these nitrogen fixing ‘jellies’ mosses and fungi evolved.
They are a popular dish in Asia and have very high anti- inflammatory compounds.

“What a beautiful morning” said the sheep, gazing over kilmakilloge harbour...
What a reality to be alive in 🌍

Found this beautiful ink cap mushroom, as the name suggests it’s ink was actually used for writing🍄

Vermillion Waxcap or Hygrocybe helobia is growing in our garden ☘️
They are common all over the world in temperate regions.
Apparently edible, but not very tasty.
Not going to eat it, because there isn’t that many and I’d rather leave it for nature 🍄

✨Rocky spirit✨
Sitting here
Feeling safe
Mother Earth
Elementals, Chemicals, Colours
Imprinting
Red, yellow, blue
Millennia passing
Passiveness
Changing worlds
Shaping you
Being still
Time and space
Eternal observer
Sharing the same ground...

What do you see? 🌊

Never seen a shoebill before. Just had to share it with you 🦖 💜
Great video of the natural habitat and all the different birds living together 🌱
What’s your favourite unreal looking animal?

On a quest for the Shoebill One of the most sought-after bird species in Africa is the Shoebill, a large prehistoric-looking bird, only occurring in remote papyrus swamps. Mabamba swamp...

Some pictures of Kush Organic Shellfish mussel farm, during low tide. Huge kelp on the bottom part of the mussel ropes. In future it would be good to install heavy ropes, that cross between rows, creating space were seaweed can attach naturally. Creating habitat for bottom feeding animals, hence increasing bioturbation on the ground and increasing the oxygen exchange between sediment and the water column.

Meadowsweet is used for Bronchitis,
Heartburn, upset stomach, ulcers, joint problems, bladder infections etc
It was one of the three most sacred plants for the druids. And it was used to flavour mead.
It is considered a dry herb, getting rid of excess fluids in the body.
It contains salicylic acid, which is good to relief pains such as headaches.
It reduces acidity and and protects the mucus membrane of the digestive trackt.
Scientists have shown an effective removal of the bacteria Heliobacter pylori, which is carried by many people and known to increase the chances of gastric cancer.
Research has demonstrated immunomodulatory properties of meadowsweet from both the flowers and roots of the plant. All parts of the plant contain high levels of phenolic compounds, including a newly discovered flavonoid glycoside named ulmarioside, which is unique to Meadowsweet. Ethyl acetate extracts were shown to inhibit both T-cell proliferation and complement cascade activation (a major part of innate immunity), therefore inhibiting the immune response. They also inhibited the production of reactive oxygen species (free radicals). All of these processes play a part in the inflammatory response, and explain the effectiveness of meadowsweet preparations in the treatment of inflammatory conditions.
Meadowsweet was a celebrated herb in Celtic times, representing the Flowerbride, otherwise known as "Blodeuwedd" - the maiden aspect of the triple goddess.
This gentle flower was used to attract love, peace and happiness and was especially popular in love spells and potions. Adding this flower to a bridal bouquet was thought to bring joy and blessings to the bride!
Also enjoying a long history as a strewing herb, Meadowsweet's flowery, astringent properties made it an excellent choice for dwellings, serving as an insect repellent as well as a disinfectant.
In 1838 an Italian professor, Rafaele Piria, produced salicylic acid from the flower buds of Meadowsweet. In 1897 Felix Hoffmann, working for the German drug company Bayer, synthesised salicin based on the study of meadowsweet which was better tolerated by the stomach lining. Bayer named the new drug aspirin, derived from an old botanical name for meadowsweet: Spiraea ulmaria. This in turn gave us the important class of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), still widely used today.

We all need to rethink our consumption of fish, if there is less demand, less fish will be caught...

The University Of Aberdeen has issued the latest depressing news of a catastrophic die-off: 70% decline of world population for seabirds since 1970 The University Of Aberdeen has issued the latest depressing news of a catastrophic die-off, this time the unfortunate species is the wor...

An other day an other mussel farm ;) Lovely to see the juvenile mytulis edulis, which attach naturally to the recycled ropes. Thanks for taking me out and the informative chat Sean McCarthy
Let's hope the future Marine Spatial Planning will put the environment first and support our ideas of integrating seaweeds and other marine species # BIMIreland.ie

Just a few pictures from today, beautiful jellyfish hanging on the mussel ropes. 'Dragons' head :) and a little shore crab.
I was surprised how clear the water was just next to the pier!

Exploring the oyster farm at Templenoe pier with Kush Organic Shellfish
The team was shaking the oyster bags, to clean them and enable even growth of the oysters.
Found many species like fucus
ascophyllum
ulva
Sargassum
and
Also many common mussels and periwinkles. Thousands of empty cockle and clam shells, left behind from the herons, grey hooded crows and oyster catchers picking and feeding. The arctic terns and lesser black- backed seagulls were circling over us
A lot of the run- off is filtered by rushes and long grass

We are planning on integrating more space for seaweeds to naturally attach on.
Maybe adding clams beneath the oysters to improve the soil quality and benthos.
Clams have been shown to supply the seabed with oxygen and increase bioturbation. Therefore, lowering organic matter accumulation and promoting nutrient recycling.

Self heal or Prunella Vulgaris flowers and leaves are edible, raw or as tea.
It was named after a severe soar throat condition, which it cures.
It has a quite neutral taste and smell, but it has a slight bitterness and scent of rosemary.
It’s a cooling herb
As its name suggests, it connects you to your higher or true self. The purple flower stimulates the third eye chakra, helping you to see and judge clearly as well as its throat healing abilities, which help us to speak out freely.
It makes one very present in the now, it gives one power and activity, but in a very grounded and calm way.
Truly balancing feeling.
It’s been used for inflammatory bowl disease, diarrhea, colic, and stomach upset and irritation gastroenteritis.
If you like to read more about this herb, check out this website 🙂 https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/self-heal-herb.html