We are a short drive down the road from Blessington - 14 kms, our local town. We are truly in the garden of Ireland here in County Wicklow and today decided on the Blessington Lakes Drive. Officially it's called the Pollaphuca Reservoir (from the Irish "Puca's Hole" - a Puca is a ghostly spirit from Celtic folklore that can bring either good or bad fortune to rural and marine communities. So pretty much got all the options covered). The reservoir is active for both water supply and electricity generation - but for our purposes it's just an absolutely stunning drive. We took some steaming hot pasta in our thermos and some toast for lunch and of course a thermos of coffee and a couple of cookies and stopped twice along the way to take in the reflections on the lake. We even popped into the local stately pile - a Palladian mansion built in 1741 called Russborough House - at this time of year, only open on weekends for tours... so we'll be popping back on Saturday. We've been incredibly fortunate to have had several days of sunshine and blue skies - accompanied by 8 degree highs and frosts first thing in the morning - but the rains are due tomorrow (a chance to think about our outings and edit the photos). In the mean time, the drives amongst the crazy-beautiful Autumn foliage are keeping us off the streets and on the roads. Enjoy the photos!