Yesterday was a great day to go for a family bike ride.  The weather was dry and mild which equals perfect!  Our littlest one is 8 and well capable of keeping up with the rest of us.  We decided to visit our neighboring village, which is called Tallanstown.   It was a beautiful and easy 10 minute bike ride.  It was fair day in Tallanstown, with lots of people, music, animals, and different fair attractions.  We enjoyed walking around, seeing the sights, and catching up with friends.  I confess that I didn’t take pictures of the fair (just my kids!).  I think the history and beauty of the village are more interesting.  I had taken some sunny day pictures of the park previously, and today I went back and captured some of the historical side of the village.  It was raining while I took my photos today. Bucketing rain.  But I had this blog post in my head, and that was that!

I enjoyed learning about Vere Foster (1819-1900), a man of wealth with ties to Tallanstown, who lived his life helping others less fortunate than himself.  The statue is fitting, displaying books, since his efforts brought about great change in the Irish education system. He did this to improve emigrants chances of success in America.

The park in Tallanstown is a lovely, peaceful place.  It has pretty paths with so many different plants and trees.  I loved all of the different textures, and sizes of plants (that’s what I go for!).  It is very well maintained.  They are currently putting in a new herb garden.

It came as no surprise when Tallanstown won the national Tidy Towns competition in 2010. The village is pristine and beautified with flowers, lots and lots of flowers!  There is a great deal of pride in the community, and it shows.

We really enjoyed our afternoon out and about.  We arrived home just as the rain started.  Great timing!

I am still figuring out the best way for me to display photos in my blog.  I’m trying a different way today. The pictures are small, but if you click on them it’ll open up a slide show.   Please feel free to let me know what you think!  Is it better to have less photos (I put more in today, to try this out!) enlarged in the blog? or more in a slide show?  Thoughts and comments are always welcome!

Enjoy this little tour of our neighboring village!
Dana

Our bike ride to Tallanstown. (Picture taken while biking!)

Our bike ride to Tallanstown.

Failte “Welcome” to Tallanstown.

View coming into Tallanstown.

Water feature in Tallanstown.

Water feature behind Tidy Towns plaque.

Tidy Towns National winners in 2010. They were presented the plaque by then president Mary McAleese.

Vere Foster: A man of great wealth, who put the well being of others first. After he discovered that Irish emigrants were having a tough time due to lack of education, he sought to rectify this. Through his efforts, a much higher standard of education was brought about in Ireland. His statue is here due to his ties to Tallanstown.

The life of Vere Foster.

Center of Tallanstown.

Former National School. There is a sign on each side of the building: one saying “Male School” and the other “Female School”.

The Maguire family’s donation helped fund the park.

The park was partially funded by Program for Peace & Reconciliation.

In the park looking towards the front gate.

New paths in the park. This is being made into an herb garden.

A view of the green within the park.

Cut out stone pathway.

Beautiful stone double seat.

Lots of shapes, textures, and colors (ok, different shades of green!) in this sheltered garden.

Mom’s three kids.

Mom’s three kids being really good 🙂

Mr. Tayto, an Irish Icon for the Irish owned Tayto Brand crisps (potato chips). There is a Tayto theme park that is quite popular (http://www.taytocrisps.ie/park/).

This is a beautiful home garden in Tallanstown. The back flowers are all white calla lilies! It was bucketing rain when I took this picture, unfortunately, so the view isn’t as clear as I’d have liked.