{"id":6052,"date":"2024-11-18T23:50:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T23:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/?p=6052"},"modified":"2024-11-18T23:50:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T23:50:41","slug":"surprising-finds-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/18\/surprising-finds-in-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprising Finds in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After visiting Ireland for the first time, I was surprised by a few things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Palm Trees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Palm trees??? Few if any of the photographs of Ireland’s landscape you see online show palm trees, and yet they are there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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photo \u00a9SandraBeck2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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photo \u00a9SandraBeck2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Actually, I did know about this, but I didn’t expect there to be so many of them. The weather is moderate enough to allow them to grow (they are not native, by the way) but they don’t<\/p>\n\n\n\n

necessarily thrive there. My question is why??? Why plant one? I don’t think they are particularly attractive. And c’mon, let’s not pretend we’re in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Fuchsia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The other surprising thing (and I did not know about this before I went) is that fuchsia grows wild in Ireland in big huge bushes. They are beautiful. I approve! Again, this plant is not native to Ireland. I think they are considered invasive in some areas, though. But in other areas the plant is appreciated as a colorful pollinator. In the photo below you can see how large they can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9CindyThomson. 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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\u00a9CindyThomson, 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Does any of this surprise you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Robins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Besides plants, I noticed robins are different from the ones in Ohio. It’s surprising that there are birds, plants, and animals of different species in different parts of the world, but I hadn’t thought about robins. Below are the robins I normally see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by\u00a0Jongsun Lee<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And here is what they look like in Ireland. I saw a little guy like this hopping along the path I was walking on at the Giant’s Causeway. Sorry, North American robin, but the European robin is so much cuter, don’t you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by\u00a0Chris Smith<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After visiting Ireland for the first time, I was surprised by a few things. 1. Palm Trees Palm trees??? Few if any of the photographs of Ireland’s landscape you see online show palm trees, and yet they are there. Actually, I did know about this, but I didn’t expect there to be so many of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6057,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions\/6057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}