The beast ...

... is on the move! The gunnera has woken, It's an incredible and complex plant, these are the flowers, and awe-inspiring but unfortunately it is not indigenous and is highly invasive . It's also almost impossible to get rid of and we have two massive specimens by the  pond which we attempt to keep in check but they can grow up to nearly 3m tall with a similar spread- the leaves are nearly as big as me! I was amazed to see each frond ends in tiny flowers. 
A very busy but enjoyable couple of days with the Kiwi friends of Sue the house sitter in town. A delightful and very well travelled couple, they're on a nine week trip having so far been to Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria), arrived in Dublin nipped across to Galway, then down to us and are now heading back to Dublin via Cork before jetting off to Edinburgh to see their granddaughter, then down to London, finally ending up in Paris! Phew! They treated us to a really delicious lunch in the Fish Kitchen in Bantry where  they were keen to try some seafood - they had scallops and black pudding, Himself had chowder and I had an extremely fresh and healthy salad but we could not  resist the panacotta with berry compote! Wrecked now!