The Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi said that ‘The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.'

And sitting on the banks of this fine remote Irish mountain stream (small river), I was reminded of these very words as I photographed the scene after a recent photography workshop in Ireland's fine springtime countryside.

For 30 minutes I enjoyed my own solitude, gazing on the fast flow of the fresh water and felt in awe of the scenery just here in front of me.

I'm sure that the river banks must have been full of wildlife but I couldn't hear much over the constant sound of the flowing water.

The mightiest tree in the forest, an Irish woodland.

A recent visit through an Irish woodland saw me find and photograph the mightiest tree in the forest, pictured here.

It can't be done, to cut down this tree with a herring - I thought to myself.

Well, I did find a shrubbery before finishing up on my quest to photograph this fine, green place.

January is over, spring has begun in Ireland - according to tradition, and colour is coming back into the landscape.

Winter is colourful in Ireland, the countryside remains green all year round but at the the end of January we see the emergence of cherry blossom, snowdrops and crocus.

The snowdrop galanthus nivelis is not native, nor is the crocus (here crocus etruscus) but both will be found in gardens and the wild now, many varieties of cherry are found too although the wild cherry is native.

A woodland river flowing and swirling through the rocks under the tree canopy high above.

It just takes time, time for the action of the flowing water to finally erode the obstacles in its way, slowly carving a fine channel through even a tough, durable rock such as granite.

Beech trees fagus sylvatica are one of the finest trees to find in an Irish woodland.

This non-native species was introduced at some point in history, many centuries ago at least, and has become so widespread that it would appear to be a native Irish tree.

Exploring in the Irish countryside can be a fine and rewarding experience.

Here, I found an old stone bridge dating from the 1840s over a small river surrounded by green trees, its stony riverbed shallow with long grasses sculpted by the low summer flow.

We stood in the water here, no need for wellies, to photograph this scene.

Join Panoramic Ireland to explore and photograph the Irish countryside.

I've been photographing bluebells for twenty years now, but I only recently realised that I have few posts here on Panoramic Ireland on bluebells.

Here a mixture of architecture and landscape in the Irish countryside as bluebells grow amongst ferns on the woodland floor below the old stone bridge.

Winter has been mild so far this year in Ireland, we haven't yet seen the snow and cold temperatures of early 2018; trees, shrubs and flowers that don't normally show much signs of spring growth are now sprouting and flowering.

Here, plenty of colour from crocus flowers seen with raindrops after a little rain.

Despite it still actually being winter, these flowers are providing a colourful addition to the Irish countryside.

It's a time of year full of inspiration as nature slowly returns to brighten up Ireland.

Join me to photograph flowers, landscapes and city streets in 2019.

I'm a photographer, I'm also a tour leader, geographer and explorer.

I was thinking today about exploration and how, sometimes, a day's exploration can bring unexpected results.

Here, a short walk along a riverbank turned into more of an adventure than I had planned on, traversing the river and climbing over rocks brought me to this picturesque section of the watercourse, lined with autumnal leaves and this fallen tree that made for a good place to stop and set up my tripod.

The greylag goose Anser anser is not a common sight in Ireland yet in some of the wetlands around the country it is possible to see these majestic birds like here with several young enjoying a dinner of grass.