The best brownies

Today I went off on one of my random drives. Started off at Loughinisland Old Churches - the ruins of three churches which were once on an island in the middle of a lough - inspired name! Then from there I went on to Seaforde. There I visited the Tropical butterfly house - lots of them flying around me and landing on leaves and flowers. There are also peacocks and pea hens wandering about outside! Anyway, in the cafe there, I got the best brownies I have ever eaten. They were chocolate, and had Maltesers baked into them and pressed in on top. The girl heated the brownie up and served it with cream. Yum yum yum!!!

Taking a short cut in round by Ballydugan (to avoid Clough), I happened upon a place from my distant memory. Uncle Joe (who was married to granny's sister Rebecca) used to take us for drives in his car - probably where I got my love of driving from. And he always used to take us to a lakeside car park where there were ducks, and there was some sort of pub or inn beside it. I could never find where it was, until today! I was driving along, and suddenly, there was the car park and the lake! As I say, it's at Ballydugan, just down the road from Hollymount Parish Church.

From there, I went into Downpatrick, stopping briefly up at the cathedral for some photos of the exterior and Saint Patrick's grave. Then it was on to Struel Wells just outside the town. Amazing wee place with four separate bathing houses and running water passing through (which seemingly has healing properties). My exploring done, it was back home from there. photos coming shortly on Flickr!