My Miscellany

Sunrise

2012-02-07T18:32:00.000Z

It's so lovely having the brighter mornings and longer evenings. I got up just in time to see a wonderful red glow in the sky this morning and snapped these two photos. I'm only sorry I can't also share the two swans flying overhead as I walked out to the bus stop about twenty minutes later. And just think, only one other person there took the time to notice them!

Not a long enough evening for DH who is outside working on his motorbike with a friend! The job took longer than anticipated, and a dinner that was primarily leftovers to start with now has to be expanded to feed three. Bit late to start on some naan bread, I think I'd better go and do a few poppadoms!!

Farmleigh in the Frost - Flora

2012-02-04T08:00:00.000Z

More photos from Thursday morning... An onion set in the walled garden, and the hedge in front of the vegetable area.

A big difference from back in July when the duckling were napping on this trunk!

Farmleigh in the Frost - Birds

2012-02-03T20:54:00.001Z

I didn't bother getting up early to go shopping yesterday as I'd have had to de-ice the car in a major way. But mid morning it had cleared in the sunshine and I took a trip to the park after collection a parcel from Amazon at the sorting office.
It was funny, because while the ground around Quarry Lake was quite frosty (picture with the moorhen), the lake there wasn't frozen at all. On the other hand, the lake in Farmleigh was almost totally frozen over and the ducks were reduced to a very small amount of open space just in front of the café.
No photos of them, but I saw more chaffinches than I think I've ever seen together before.

Hot off the Needles

2012-02-02T21:34:00.000Z

Very hot! V's birthday is tomorrow, and because the only flower pots I had were 1 1/2" bigger than the pattern (from one of Jean Greenhowe's booklets), I had to scale everything up. Scaling up the little cactus was easy, and goodness, and smaller and it would have been even more fiddly to turn the arms inside out and stuff them. But I miscalculated on the pot cover and had to go back and start it again without much time to spare. I also wasn't sure that several straws, even nested inside each other, would be strong enough for the stick, so I used an old, blunt, wooden knitting needle trimmed to size.

I'd hoped to have edited some photos from the park and Farmleigh this morning, but the day just disappeared. Instead, here are a couple of my favourite cards from January.

Green

2012-01-29T18:25:00.000Z

Blackcap and Spring Flowers

2012-01-26T21:02:00.000Z

I visited my aunt today - lots blooming in her garden, even fuchsia and one lone stem of myosotis. These poor camellias will likely feel the cold and suffer, judging by the forecast for the next few days, but they were beautiful!

Before I left I spotted the blackcap in the tree. It was drizzly rain here and I had to take the photos through a window, but little by little I'm working my way up to getting a really good one.

Birds

2012-01-24T20:21:00.000Z

We are regularly having two robins together these days - one still a bit of a dimwit, and one who knows that when it hears the door open it's likely to get food.

Redpolls on the feeder. They're quite feisty little birds - while there may be six or more around, they don't seem to tolerate more than three at a time on the feeder.

Still getting regular visits from the female blackcap, though I haven't seen a male yet. And we had long-tailed tits on the fat-ball feeder the other day too - a real treat!

Dublin

2012-01-15T19:48:00.000Z

Today is my sister's birthday. As she was up in Dublin we met for lunch on Friday. It was a beautiful morning - if I hadn't been meeting her (and looking for a present before) I'd certainly have gone to the park.

We had lunch in the Silk Road Café at the Chester Beatty library, so most of the photos are around Dublin Castle.

As I wasn't working we were able to meet early, thus ensuring a table in the atrium, which is a bit quieter without the noise of the coffee machines. This was looking in to one of the inside rooms.

There was quite an interesting looking exhibition but I'd walked too far and had too much to carry. I might try to get back in before it's over, especially as L told me there were some lovely Chinese robes as well as the photographs. Success in present-buying, I managed to find a book I didn't even know was on her Amazon wishlist, and I bought a lovely new frying-pan which the security guard came over to admire.

Berries and lichen

2012-01-09T20:50:00.000Z

Blackcap

2012-01-08T20:47:00.000Z

Well - if this had been a male the cap would have been black. The female is more of a chestnut colour.
It's about the first time in three years I've seen one in the garden, and along with the redpoll it's another bird that C had never seen before.

They're meant to have such a melodious song that they have been nicknamed "the northern nightingale" but I'm afraid that with the door shut all I managed to capture sound-wise was C!

Seen around town

2012-01-07T22:25:00.000Z

Haven't had time yet to upload any photos from our walk in the park last Monday, but at least there are so few of these snaps from around town that it didn't take any time to copy and edit them.
We have, to go with the rowing Santa from Christmas Eve, a biker Santa. Well, not what C would call a real biker, but he certainly caught my attention on the way to work the other morning.

As did a welcome ray of sunshine lighting up this building. It's been so, so grey these last couple of weeks.

On Thursday afternoon there was some respite from the gale-force winds, and the sky brightened up too around lunchtime, so I walked into town after work to get some wool for a couple of projects. This is the Christmas "tree" on O'Connell Street.

This scarf was a last-minute idea for a Christmas gift for my aunt. Had to phone the wool shop to make sure that they'd have two balls of any of the nice colourways in stock, so as not to waste a journey in to town if they didn't.

Happy Bird Day

2012-01-02T20:51:00.001Z

Well, today was the first day that the weather was good enough to tempt us out for a walk in the park.
It also seemed to bring a veritable menagerie, as C said, to our feeders. And we definitely have a pair of robins now. As well as the dimwit one who flies away when I put worms and suet pellets on the wall for it, we have one flying to the back door. So I wonder is the tamer one perhaps one of the young ones or even the adult female from last year, which Mr. Dimwit is now letting into his territory as a prospective mate.

We've been having a pair of blackbirds moseying around the patio recently - here they both are in next-door's mahonia tree.

A sparrow in the mahonia

Goldfinches

Redpoll

Great tit

Coal Tit

Blue tit

And of course a robin. We were hard pressed to find a good picture from last January to print a calendar page for our notice-board (in fact we cheated and took one from last February instead), so I've decided to leave my robin as the blog header for this month.

Sunny it may have been, but it was also very windy which wasn't ideal for taking pictures of birds perching in the tree.

And here's a photo of the Moravian Sugar Cake which we had for breakfast on Christmas Day:

New Year, old photos

2011-12-31T15:43:00.000Z

Wishing everybody a happy, healthy and peaceful year for 2012.
One of my holiday projects has been scanning some old slides for my dad and transferring them to CD. It's amazing how many things are familiar - there are blankets and counterpanes I remember, and there's even a skirt my mother is wearing in one of them that I remember wearing myself at one stage! Those old tweeds certainly lasted and lasted...

We've had a lovely restful week. A large pot of ratatouille provided several meals, and the leftover beef from Christmas Day was enough to make a bobotie and a shepherd's pie to eat plus one of each for the freezer. But the weather has been awful - wet, grey, cold, windy...C has gone to (hopefully) help his friend fix the last major issue on the car, but it started raining a while back and I hope they're not getting too wet!
I'm amazed at how new and fresh the wood looks in the photo with the trailer! I remember it well as we used to love riding in it to the dump to see what we could find to bring home with us, and on summer holidays the crates with the dogs were always packed onto it as well as all our bits and pieces. But I never remember it looking as fresh and pristine as it does in that photo - I guess it was very soon after Dad had made it!

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T08:00:00.002Z

I was feeling lazy on Saturday and didn't make my usual cinnamon buns for Christmas breakfast.
Instead I made this Moravian Sugar Cake - it's been a while since we've had it.

Moravian Sugar Cake: 2 large or 3 medium sugar cakes

2 medium potatoes
1/3 cup lard
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tblsp dry yeast (I used between 1/2 and 1/2 an ounce fresh)
1/2 tsp sugar or honey
approx 6 1/2 cups flour

For topping: butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, cream.
Cook the potatoes till soft, reserve 1 cup of the water and mash the potatoes.
In a small pan heat the reserved potato water with the butter and lard till they are melted. Add the honey, salt, and mashed potatoes and mix well. Cool to lukewarm.
While cooling, activate the yeast in the 1/4 cup warm water with sugar or honey. You can do this in a large mixing bowl ready for the next step.
Add the eggs and potato mix to the yeast. Add 2 1/2 cups of flour and beat for about two minutes with an electric mixer.
Gradually add more flour as needed till you have a soft elastic dough.
Turn into a buttered bowl, cover and leave to rise.
Knock the dough down, turn onto a floured board and knead lightly. Cover and leave to rise for about 10 minutes.
Butter shallow baking pans.
Pat or roll the dough out to fit - it should not be more than 1/2" thick. Brush the top with melted butter.
Cover and leave to rise till almost doubled in size.
With your thumb, punch little indentations over the surface of the dough and fill with dots of butter.
Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and liberally with brown sugar, and then dribble heavy cream over it.
Bake in a preheated oven 400F / 200C for about 15-20 minutes till golden brown.
Serve warm.
To freeze, wrap tightly in foil. When ready to use, heat in a moderate oven still wrapped in the foil.

This comes from The Bread Book: A Baker's Almanac by Ellen Foscue Johnson.

Alternative transport for Santa!

2011-12-23T23:03:00.001Z

C had a half day today, so I walked into town after work and we met for lunch in a little Indian deli which came recommended by a work colleague who is half-Indian and knows what he's talking about. Certainly the food was lovely, and there are more things we'd like to go back and try some time. I will say, though, that C's "Indian Fanta" as opposed to Irish Fanta was a rather lurid orange, although he reckoned it tasted much better.

Anyway, on the way to meet him I stopped to watch a cormorant flying up the river, and then spotted Santa and an elf in what looks quite like a currach. It's obvious that they're not used to rowing, though, and they certainly weren't going at any pace. We're used to seeing far more expert rowers racing along further up-river where all the rowing clubs are.

New garden visitor

2011-12-19T21:40:00.001Z

I was so excited this afternoon to spot a new bird on the nyger seed feeder. I've been clearing a lot of chaff of it, and was hoping that meant that goldfinches were coming regularly even if I hadn't got to see them. Then I spotted some chaffinches also enjoying it. But this afternoon I saw a redpoll - a first for me. Not great photos, because it was a very grey and overcast day and I had to take the photos through the window in case I frightened him away. But now I know I may see him again, I'll be ready with the right lens on the camera and the tripod handy to the back door.

I actually managed to accidentally delete the best photo - I thought I had it locked, but instead it disappeared into thin air. Last time I downloaded data recovery software it came complete with something that my AV flagged up, so I was slightly reluctant to try again. But I can happily endorse this programme: Pandora Recovery. I'm glad it occurred to me to go and look on CNET rather than a random Google search, as they normally scan the downloads they offer to ensure they're virus-free.

I got my little redpoll back. According to my book they're about the same size as goldfinches, but he looked smaller to me. Pretty sure it's a male, as the females have a less prominent red patch compared to the male.

Sunset in the Park

2011-12-18T21:07:00.000Z

We had a fruitless walk through the park this afternoon in the vain hope that we might spot the pannier that C lost off his motorbike last week. He hasn't walked that far since he had to walk home from work in the snow this time last year, and is still suffering. I walked about the same distance on Friday on the same errand but a less scenic walk.
At least we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset as we trekked back to the car cross country...
At the start of the walk I spotted more unusual fungi.

As we started the cross-country bit of our walk back, we spotted lights in some trees. As we got closer we could also see white roses and lots of little tealights in glass jars. As we were taking a closer look, two guys arrived to disassemble it all. Apparently they had been setting the scene for a friend to propose (successfully) to his girlfriend, and now that the coast was clear they'd come to take it all down again. They'd even highlighted the couples initials carved in the tree a year or so previously with a heart-shaped garland of lights. Then they were looking forward to the cigars and beer that they'd been promised in return for their help.

Round and about

2011-12-08T21:54:00.000Z

This morning I saw a blackbird on the ground picking at a fallen rowan berry. I wished I'd had time to stop and take the camera out - even in the miserable grey windy weather the contrast between the berry and the bright yellow beak was wonderful. But the train service here isn't frequent enough that I could afford to miss the train...
However, I did snap these last week - on another wet, though not so wild, day. The rose is in a garden just up the road. I'd seen the fungi a week previously when they were fresher, and they looked like lovely glossy wood, almost. But it was a day when I'd decided that a camera on top of six library books was just more than I wanted to carry, and by the time I passed that way again they had faded a little from their original beauty.

This is another one I saw on the way to the bus stop one morning - it almost looked as if it were melting into the ground. I don't remember seeing such a wide variety of fungi in the local area as I have this year.

Did I say that last time we went to the park we saw more deer gathered together in one spot than I think I've ever seen there before?

And they weren't all at a distance either - a small part of the herd was quite close to us.

France - finis

2011-12-05T20:54:00.000Z

Just a few of the birds from the bird park. I can't actually remember what this first one was called - and I thought I'd taken photos of most of the signs for reference. The flash of green was just beautiful. I feel it was perhaps some type of teal.

Goose

I did see a Night Heron perched in the hedgerow when we were having our boat trip. This one, however, was in the bird park - in the same enclosure as the storks.

We've always just driven past Morlaix on the main road, but as we were early for the ferry we decided to leave the main road at Morlaix and drive up the coast to the tip of the peninsula, and then cut across to Roscoff. We stopped along the quay in Morlaix for a walk. It was a very picturesque town - we'd definitely make a detour and spend more time there again. We missed France's tallest lighthouse, somehow.

We drove on up to Carantec, a tiny village on the north coast, and had another short walk along the cliffs.

Lighthouses reminds me that I never posted this photo from La Rochelle - it was strange to see a lighthouse that far inland. Perhaps it was to guide boats towards the lock gate into the basin, I don't know...

Park morning

2011-12-03T21:55:00.000Z

I blew it and accidentally had my camera set for flash colour balance. Luckily all the files are there in RAW and I can convert them, but for the time being I've only done these two. It was a lovely bright sunny morning so we took a quick trip to the park. Lots of deer, and a charity run with bicycles and runners.

Favourite cards for November

2011-12-01T11:29:00.000Z

No hesitation here - these two are still sitting on the piano.

It looks like a busy month ahead, but I hope to finish the last of my French photos over the weekend. I'm not going to bother with all the bird park ones, but we had a lovely walk along a headland in Brittany on our way to the ferry, as we had some time to spare.

Marais Poitevin

2011-11-28T20:24:00.000Z

A windmill near Marans. Being off-season it wasn't open at the time we were passing, but it does still operate (primarily as a tourist attraction) and produces flour which I would definitely have bought to try if it had been open. The sails are wooden slats which fan out - I think you can see in the second photo. And the weather vane is a hen and chicken.

Photos from our boat trip along the canals in the Marais. As posted in an earlier post (the one with the storks video): according to Wikipedia it covers about 970 square km , and according to our guide there are about 6000km of man-made drainage canals, as well as some natural ones. This work was started during the reign of Henri IV (1553 - 1610), who called in the Dutch experts, (just as the English did with the Norfolk fens in the early 17th century). We saw a lot of wild hops and teasels, there was also a lot of willow, ash, birch, alder and hazel. In the old days, according to our guide, they used to transport cattle from field to field on flat-bottomed "barges". I saw a night heron perched in some bushes, and a quick glimpse of a kingfisher. You can pre-book dawn or dusk boat trips which would probably be much more fruitful in terms of wildlife spotting. Introduced animals include the coypu - we saw their holes in a bank, but not any out and about.

The tiles on the roof of this little hut are typical of the region. They're made from local clay - at intervals along some of the canals you could see excavated areas at the edge where the clay had been quarried. Our guide could remember either his grandfather or father (I should have made a note, as at this stage I can't remember!) working in the clay pits. My recollection is that the guide told us the tiles were called dames (ladies) because originally they were shaped over the thigh, but quick research hasn't yet confirmed this.

Teasels

Wild hops

We really enjoyed our boat trip - it was shaded enough that we enjoyed the sun without getting burnt, it was very peaceful and there were no flies. We'd certainly do it again if we're back in the area, although having had a guide this time and learnt about the area we'd probably hire our own boat next time. The poling certainly doesn't look as arduous as rowing, although I am sure there's a knack to be learnt before being able to do it smoothly and evenly.

Sunny Park Day

2011-11-22T21:26:00.000Z

I was on a day off today and it was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies. Still can't drive the car, waiting for circuit diagrams and so on...but I hopped on the bus and went for a walk.

The American Wood Duck has been so hard to get a good photo of in the water - I think because its plumage is so dark - but on land I managed to get some much better ones.

I saw a lot of rippling in the water at one end of the lake and spotted a little rat swimming along. I don't know if we have water rats or if it was just a regular one, and he's so small in the photo that it would be hard to tell. I was looking to see what caused the ripples in case it was the terrapin I saw a while back.

In Farmleigh I saw a little bluetit feeding from the base of a tree - shooting into the sun, so the photos aren't the best. Makes a change from seeing them on the feeders here, though.

Lots of toadstools around - this one was lovely:

Plenty of holly berries too. I was intrigued by this little sapling which must have rooted from a berry a bird dropped into the cleft in the tree trunk.

Favourite cards

2011-11-21T19:00:00.001Z

Not much card-making in September with holidays, but plenty in October so I'm putting them all together.

L'Houmeau

2011-11-20T18:45:00.000Z

Nearly finished our French holiday!
Our last campsite was Le Petit Port de l'Houmeau. There is a big municipal campsite in La Rochelle itself, but this one was very near and on a regular bus route into the city, so we decided to go for it. Not as nice a site as LaRoche Posay, but very pleasant and helpful staff and a lovely location. In our short time we fitted in a couple of walks along the seafront, a swim (me only), and crepes at sunset in one of the few cafés that was still open at the end of the season.

We never did make it out to the Ile de Ré - but looking at the bridge out to the island I am fairly sure I would not have enjoyed the journey, either by car or on a bicycle. Personally I was content to admire it from a distance.

Red skies

2011-11-16T21:40:00.000Z

On the days that haven't been overwhelmingly grey we've had some lovely sunrises and sunsets. The disadvantage of living in a built-up area is that you can't really see them that well - or get good photos.

The sky really was that pink for a brief while the other morning: I could see the glow when I went out to put a wash on, so I grabbed the camera and went out the front door, but within less than ten minutes it was all gone. That was also the morning I saw a heron fly over - but that was before I grabbed the camera.

In the night sky you can see the ivy flowering in the garden next door. I'd actually taken a photo of the ivy flowers when I walked along the canal last week.

Warm off the knitting needles, I posted this little jacket off on Monday morning. The little hood is detachable. I always wonder about long hair getting caught in the buttons, though! I'm currently knitting a neck-warmer to use instead of a scarf on the motorbike, and then I have a couple of projects for my nieces and nephews with some wool I got from my sister-in-law when we visited recently.

La Rochelle, le fin

2011-11-13T15:00:00.004Z

The 15th century Hôtel de Ville (town hall) is undergoing extensive renovations - we didn't go in, just admired the amazing details from outside. You can see the marine heritage showing through, and the fleur de lys emblem of the French kings.

This plaque was on the perimeter wall. It's a memorial to Léonce Vieljeux, the mayor from 1930 to 1940. Originally an army officer he remained in the reserves when he started working in his father-in-law's shipping company. He actively resisted the Nazi occupation, refusing to hang the swastika from the hôtel de Ville when he was asked to, and helping Resistance members to escape. He was expelled from the town in 1941; when he returned in 1944 he was arrested and then executed, aged 79.

Double-decker carousel in the square where the bus station is. I was hoping to capture the sound on the video, but it doesn't come through, sadly.

La Rochelle again...

2011-11-12T20:56:00.003Z

We walked out to the pleasure marina, which is possible the largest in Europe with 3,300 berths. On the way we passed the maritime museum. C didn't want to go and see it, saying it couldn't possible be as good as the one in Barcelona. I think it's a pity we didn't walk further down the quay, though, as apparently Cousteau's Calypso is moored just beyond the museum ships. There's a municipal bike hire scheme in La Rochelle - you can see some of the bicycles in the second photo.

Porte des Minimes

We walked along to the end of one pier in the marina.

Quick snaps around the town - not quite sure what the first one is all about!!

Cinema and café in the square where the bus station is.

Mandarins

2011-11-09T21:33:00.001Z

I've had a cold the last few days so as usual I'm behind with editing and uploading photos. I have some more La Rochelle photos edited but hadn't got as far as saving a draft post.
So instead here's a video clip of the mandarin ducks in the park last week.

La Rochelle continued

2011-11-07T08:00:00.001Z

With its importance as a port dating back so far, the harbour entrance is well fortified .

On the approach to the tower in the third photo (La Tour de La Lanterne, used as a prison for Dutch, Spanish and English sailors between the 17th and 19th centuries , and apparently with interesting graffiti from that time, though we didn't go inside), you can walk along the old walls. It's actually pretty much a street till you get to near the end, with some lovely houses along it.


Rue sur les murs / Road on the walls

I can't help wondering was it always so tidal!! It doesn't seem that such major fortifications would have been necessary if that had always been the case. I'm sure the ferry captains are well used to navigating the narrow channels at low tide, and they were well buoyed, but still...
You can see the modern part of the city to the left in the first photo.

La Rochelle

2011-11-06T18:13:00.000Z

Our visit to La Rochelle was photo-heavy. Being a lovely bright sunshiny day helped!
It was founded in the 10th century and by the 12th century was already an important harbour. In its early history there were a couple of periods when it was part of England's territory in France, and it was the last city to be liberated from the Germans at the end of WW2.

The big clock tower at the entrance to the city from the harbour front is a pretty dominant feature - first seen from inside the city (as our bus dropped us at at square fairly near the centre), and then from outside the city walls.

A shop just beside the clock tower inside the city walls (l'horloge is French for clock) - great graphic design:

Another feature of the city is the stone arcades along some of the streets:

Guy-Victor Duperré (1775 - 1846) was an admiral and three times the Naval Minister for France. His name is one of the names inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. I can't believe I don't have a digital photo of the Arc de Triomphe to link to - it's definitely time we paid another visit to Paris.

A treat in the Park

2011-11-05T21:47:00.000Z

Today was a sunny and crisp November day. We put on our walking boots and went to the park in the morning, after a good warming porridge breakfast.
Time is short today, but I wanted to share these beauties - there must have been at least 5 male mandarin ducks and 3 hens. They were the funniest things to watch as well as being so beautiful - I could have stayed a lot longer if C wasn't starting to get cold.

More park pics and a little mandarin video to follow as soon as I find some time.

Trip Down Memory Lane

2011-11-02T21:50:00.000Z

I picked out a lovely autumnal photo of the lake in Farmleigh to use as my header for this month - but then I couldn't find any colour for the title that worked, so I had to scrap that idea. C, whose turn it was to choose the calendar photo for the month, chose a snow scene but I wasn't sure I wanted to be looking at snow all month, so I actually had to go back to November 2009 for a suitable November photo...

Last week when I went to visit my aunt she had a hairdresser's appointment just around the time my train got in. So instead of my normal walk up to her cottage, I walked around the seafront instead. Much more my home turf - I can't count how many times I must have walked along that road.

The South Beach - when we were on it last summer I noticed a lot of some type of grass growing in it. That was never there when we were kids. And it used to be possible to bathe in the men's bathing place! I remember a couple of midnight swims there, but looking at the condition of the graffiti it's been a long time since the water came in that far.

There were several "in memoriam" benches along the front - this was the most unusual, and a great take on a rowing boat.

A Ringed Plover trying to open a mussel, a young Herring Gull and a crow...

And some information boards on what may be seen.

My brother always loved this anchor!

Working on the new marina and harbour. Or more like not working - it's all fenced off, but there was no sign of any machinery either from the train or walking around the harbour. A victim of the recession, I suspect.

And look - you can see the house where I grew up - that red roof with all the chimneys. The big tree to the left is a eucalyptus. It was the only tree in the garden that we couldn't climb - with a trunk diameter of at least 8-10 feet, and the first branch coming out about 15 feet up that was hardly surprising. But we could clamber into it from another tree beside it, and there was a rope for climbing and swinging from.

The LaTouche Hotel was where I (very briefly) did ballet, and I've been to a couple of weddings in my time too. It's pretty derelict looking now!!

Angles sur l'Anglin

2011-10-31T09:00:00.000Z

Our last outing in this area was to the nearby town of Angles sur l'Anglin. The weather wasn't great - it was overcast and a bit on the drizzly side, but it wasn't far and it was certainly well worth the visit, it was very picturesque. When we were on the way back to the car we thought we'd go and see the interpretative centre for the Roc aux Sorciers - a 14,000 year old carved stone frieze. With our usual luck it was closed, and there was no indication of whether it was closed for the day or merely closed for lunch. There was a very jolly group of French tourists who were hoping we knew more than they did - they were enjoying an impromptu picnic on the steps of the centre, complete with their boxes of wine.

We also enjoyed a short walk out of town down a lane that led to a reservoir - lots of little birds in the hedgerows, and lots of walnuts on the ground. I still have a bowlful on the kitchen table.

The rain got much heavier, so that we'd decided that it was unlikely that we could get the tent down and move to our next location in time to set it up before dark. But just as it got to the point where it wouldn't be worth moving on, the skies cleared and the sun shone enough to get the tent dry. So it was a very quick and unmethodical packing, just a case of getting everything into the car as fast as possible, and on from the Poitou-Charentes area to the Charente-Maritime.

La Brenne

2011-10-30T20:22:00.001Z

After we had lunch in LeBlanc we found a short trail to walk along one of the many lakes in the area.
In the first photo you can see some tall aerials. There were a lot of signs right beside them - no parking, no photography, no stopping...I think that perhaps it was a Very Low Frequency transmitting station for the French naval submarines, as there is one in the locality. We couldn't work out what the object floating in the water was - there were two of them just beside each other, and we came across more in another lake.
We saw the usual herons, egrets and mallards, but I think this was the only place we saw cormorants, and we also saw some crested grebe.


Chicory


Yet another hunting themed weather vane

Just across from where we parked was this little building. It must have been a communal oven way back in the days when not everybody had one in the house (four means oven in French). The door was ajar, so we took a look inside.

After a lot of wasted time trying to find the interpretative centre despite the road closures and detours we did finally find it - only to discover that most of it was closed and only the shop area was open. C'est la vie...

One morning I was opening the cool box, and just noticed this grasshopper in time not to catch it as I swung the lid back.

Last of the Sculptures...

2011-10-27T22:02:00.000+01:00

This one was called The Bigger Picture. From a distance it didn't look all that interesting; we'd passed it in the distance, and it just looked like a tall chicken-wire cone with bits and pieces all over it. I'm so glad that we ended up passing much closer because we went into the Palm House through the orchid rooms and ended up coming out the front entrance. If C's feet weren't starting to give out I could have spent a lot longer admiring all the little details.

Flying frogs - I think it's funny that they were for sale individually, they look just right like this.

And this fun one was in the botanical family beds, and was title Family Bed Labelling. It reminds me of drawings from when we did plant biology in school.

Next post should be back to France - one outing left in the LaRoche Posay area.
Election today today - I don't know which particular vote caused such a turnout, but I've certainly never seen it so busy, and the officials at the desk where we picked up our ballots said the same. For us we had a bye-election as well as the presidential election and the referenda.

More of the Sculptures

2011-10-23T21:33:00.000+01:00

His Master's Voice - for an idea of scale, the figure wasn't more than 6 to 8 inches high.

I liked this one - it was called Green Shoots as far as I remember.

Master and Muse

These ceramic seed-heads were another one I wouldn't mind having in the garden - I've always loved the shape of poppy heads. I wasn't quite sure about the one with a face in it, though.

It's miserable wet and windy weather here with a severe weather warning in place. It rained all the way down to my brother's yesterday, but luckily it stayed dry for most of the drive home; I hate night drives in the rain, they make me a very bad passenger.

Back to France

2011-10-21T21:59:00.000+01:00

I still have a few more sculpture photos, but I'm in the mood to remember France today.
One of our outings from LaRoche Posay was to the Brennes Regional Park. It's mostly small lakes and woods, with the focus on wildlife. C was a bit disappointed in it but I think he was tired that day. We started out by finding one of the centres that had a hide and a small bookshop. We got lucky in that we happened to visit the hide on the one morning a week when there is a naturalist there to help identify the birds, and with a much more powerful scope than our little one. We saw a couple of egrets and herons, a flash of kingfisher, and a bunch of lapwing/greenshank/redshank. After that we tried to find the interpretative centre, but a couple of roads were closed off with diversions, so we found ourselves in the nearest large town, LeBlanc, for lunch.

LeBlanc is on the Creuse, the same river as our campsite.

A butcher's

A fishmonger's

Botanic Gardens part 2

2011-10-20T21:11:00.000+01:00

I've been under the weather with a bad head-cold the last few days. I'm glad it's on its way out, as we're meant to be going to visit my brother and his family on Saturday, but it means I've been in bed in the evenings...
Some more sculptures from the Botanic Gardens exhibition, which finishes up tomorrow.

These lilies were in the herbaceous border. I really liked them, C wasn't so sure.

This tent, wigwam, teepee, whatever (called Pine Shadow) was made entirely out of pine needles gathered in the garden and stitched onto ribbon.

Some clever titling here - it was called Answering the Call of Nature, and the building in the background is the old toilet block. I don't know if it's still open since they built the new centre at the entrance. The telephone box was probably about 5 foot high, as it was easy to see the phone sitting on top of it, although from the distance I took the first shot at I couldn't work out what it was.

This one was on the wall around the Alpine House. I really liked it, but I think I might have preferred it set into the ground and reflecting the sky.

Concrete eggs in a large nest - the nest was easily about 3 feet across or more. Fun!! When C said Dinosaur Eggs I thought he was reading the title of the piece, but actually it was just called Nest.

Botanic Gardens part 1

2011-10-16T21:32:00.000+01:00

I didn't take a lot of flower photos this time - it was a very overcast day and they weren't looking at their best.
But the morning glories in the Palm House were absolutely beautiful!! They're slightly soft focus as my lens had steamed up so much and I didn't have lens wipes with me.

This was possibly my favourite sculpture. I can't find the plan of where they were all sited in the gardens, so I can't check the title in my catalogue just now. I could have spent ages looking at them from different angles and seeing how the reflections changed.

I am still around...

2011-10-15T21:59:00.000+01:00

The time had come to format my hard drive, re-install Windows and restore everything, so that took a whole day, pretty much, but it was spread over two days. I think it's all back to normal now; still some programmes that I won't remember I used to have until I need them, but all the important things are up and running. Towards the end of my last computer it was so flaky that I was having to re-install several times a week but it's probably been three years since I last had to do it. So after I'd installed Windows and was trying to set up broadband again I was looking and looking for my LAN connection, till I realised that of course I had to install a few drivers to get things going. And then Thunderbird didn't like me having three accounts, and although I did a specific Thunderbird back up and restored what should have been ALL settings, it only restored one account but all the emails. It took a day before I wondered why I wasn't getting any emails...

We even managed to make it to the Botanic Gardens today. The Sculpture in Context exhibition ends on Friday, and having missed it last year I was determined that we'd make it there this year. The forecast was not good - rain - and our car is still hors de combat / in the dry dock, so it had to be good enough weather to go on the motorbike.
And it was!! You couldn't call it sunny, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was dry which is what mattered.
I'll be back with more photos later on in the week, to be going on with here is the one that I voted for as my favourite. It was titled Do Androids Dream of Mechanical Sheep. Isn't it so much fun?

Azay-le-Ferron

2011-10-09T21:35:00.000+01:00

From Brittany we drove to LaRoche-Posay, and a very pleasant campsite, with large pitches and lots of greenery.. It was right beside the river Creuse - you could walk out through a gate in the hedge along the back of the site and you were right on the river bank.

One direction along the river also took us along the back of the local racecourse. We didn't actually get to see much of the town itself, which was a shame really as when we did drive through it it looked lovely, with some old mediaeval areas. Lots of wildlife around the site - we saw red squirrels several times, and although we never saw them there were certainly owls around, and I encountered a bat one evening walking back from the toilet block. We arrived late and only barely got the tent up before dark, and it was decidedly dark by the time I was trying to cobble a meal together. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best for the three days we were there, but it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. The very helpful site owner gave C lots of ideas of things to see and places to go, and luckily the afternoon that we'd planned to go and see a nearby castle - Azay-le-Ferron - was the afternoon it poured and poured. We managed a bit of a walk in the grounds before the tour was due to start and before it started to rain . A short break in the rain allowed the guide to give a brief history in the front courtyard - helpful, as the castle had been expanded from its earliest origins and there were at least three distinct architectural elements. No photography allowed inside, but it was certainly interesting to see. It had been lived in right up to the 1950s, when the last owner left it to the city of Tours on condition that it was opened to the public. There were a couple of very fine parquet floors and an amazing wooden ceiling that had come from an old hôtel particulier in Versailles which was being demolished. I can't now remember how long the guide said it had taken to reassemble the floor, but I think it was in terms of a couple of years. Also interesting to see was the difference between a large tapestry hanging which had been executed entirely in gold and silk, and how well that had stood the test of time compared to another large hanging woven from cotton and wool, which had faded so much more even though it wasn't as old. There were also some beautiful botanical watercolour paintings around the door in the main bathroom, which if I remember had been done by the sister of the last owner. They were done in an earlier style, though, along the lines of Redouté, and they were so light and luminous that I thought they'd been painted on glass. It was interesting, too, from a "professional" point of view to see the kitchen. It seemed a lot smaller than the kitchen that I had cooked in when I worked in a large old house in Yorkshire, which would have had a similar number of staff in its heyday as Azay-le-Ferron did.
The last owners of the house had been a hunting family for at least a couple of generations; they'd hunted in the parkland around the estate and also on safari in Africa - with all the trophies to show for it. I'm thinking this is also why the weather vanes are as they are.

The tower is the oldest part, dating back to the 15th centrury

Some architectural details

The library, in the square across the road from the castle

It's quite mild here for the time of year, but very windy. We went on the motorbike to visit my aunt as the windscreen wipers on the car weren't working and I didn't want to chance a 30 mile motorway drive in the rain. Thank goodness the wind seemed to have died down a bit compared to earlier on in the week, but when I went out shopping the next morning I saw a tree down just about a hundred yards from the house, and a large branch fallen from another tree. It's still mild on the whole but I think I'll be buying a tub of fat-balls for the birds next time I go shopping; on Thursday morning it was cold enough that I decided it was time to bring my hats out of storage.

Quiberon

2011-10-06T22:11:00.000+01:00

The last of our outings in Brittany was to the Presqu’île de Quiberon (presqu’île means *almost an island*). It's somewhere I can remember visiting the first time I went to France - we cycled out to the peninsula from the Perrut's house in Carnac. I remember the long sandy beaches; having grown up swimming in the Atlantic and the Irish sea it was a novel experience to swim somewhere where it was warm enough to just lie on a towel and get dry. I remember too the fact that even then there was still some barbed wire here and there in the back of the dunes, left from WW2.
It was mixed weather that day - it was quite cloudy when we were in Quiberon, at least by the time we'd had lunch. But after we were almost back to the car after a long walk it turned beautifully sunny, so we went and sat on a beach for a while. Lunch was some very nice crêpes in the Duchesse Anne - savoury buckwheat crêpes for starters, and some lovely sweet ones with apples flambéed at the table with Calvados.

Fish shop


Bakery

A few hardy souls sunbathing before the sun actually came out. When it did, people seemed to come out of the woodwork. In this picture and the following one you can see little changing rooms (I guess) built under the esplanade.

We got to see some cirl bunting, male and female

Some rather fine graffiti on one of the old WW2 blockhouses

Hitching a ride

All along our seafront walk there was a spicy smell, a bit like cloves. We never did identify which plant or bushes it was coming from, but it was certainly lovely.

C sitting on one of the beaches further back towards the mainland. We were watching some would-be kite surfers, but in all the time that we were there they never really got going. And it wasn't quite warm enough to tempt me in for a swim - paddling was enough.

Beyond Vannes

2011-10-04T21:53:00.000+01:00

Geographically Vannes is set in the centre of the Gulf of Morbihan, more or less, so there is an arm of land out above and below it. After we left the town we drove along the southern peninsula right out to the end.
First stop was a cider museum, with tastings afterwards. There was a film, and then a self-guided tour round the old machinery, all well signed with plenty of information. There was even a bee hive, because of the importance of bees for pollination. I haven't smelled that smell since we used to have a hive in the garden when I was growing up. At the end there was a little orchard with a collection of different types of cider apples.
The photos are of two cider presses and a mobile still.
The first cider press is a central screwed one - there was also one with a long transverse beam running across the top. I'm afraid I don't know how to translate the technical terms into English.
The granite one is the only one of its type that the museum was aware of - it dates from 1929 and is cut from one piece of granite. Easy to clean was the advantage, apparently, and there was no need to take it apart each year for maintenance.

We got to taste four different ciders. The one we liked best was what they called an aperitif cider - crisp, sweet, slightly acidic. That was the one we bought a couple of bottles to take away. We also had a sweet, a brut and a semi. Me, I love the Breton cider. It's low alcohol, often only 2% or 3% abv, and it really tastes like fresh pressed apples. I wish we could get cider that good here. Traditionally in the restaurants it's served in little jugs (a pichet), and drunk from pottery (or if you're upscale, china) bowls. But when we had some down near La Rochelle, it was served in pottery beakers.

Along the way after that we stopped and went for a walk along some estuary land. We saw some egrets and plovers as well as herons and swans.

Port Navalo is the little town - if you can call it that - at the tip of the peninsula. We had another walk here around the end of the headland...

Quick picks

2011-10-02T22:00:00.000+01:00

Still working on my French photos - we're not even out of Brittany yet! But the weekend is never a good time, even such a gloomy, wet one as this was.
A reflection of Frank Sherwin bridge in the Liffey one morning last week. The river was so still and the sky was so blue; the bridge itself is a bit burnt out in the photo, but I took several and I think this one best shows how the reflection almost looked like a road in the water - almost a Yellow Brick Road.

As we were away I don't have wide scope for picking favourite cards for September. The apple and pear ones were fun, a different colouring style to normal, and I enjoyed doing the little pony for one of my nieces - they all go riding every week, so I thought a pony stamp could earn its keep. This one reminds me of the Norman Thelwell books my sister used to collect.

We have a robin around, but I don't think it's Mrs Robin, as it initially flies to the feeder and picks seeds from that, and will only come to the back step after it's sure all is clear. I'm hearing a lot of robin territorial noises, though, so there's another robin around somewhere for sure. This evening when I went out to open the back gate for C there was some lovely birdsong, but it was too dark to see who was singing.

A good book - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; there seem to be some very negative reviews on Amazon, but they're in the minority. We both enjoyed it, though initially C had thought he wouldn't bother reading it, and his mother is currently reading it and enjoying it a lot. We were just discussing this evening how hard it is to choose books in the library - a lot of the time I'm very happy with what I pick from the shelf near the desk of recommended books, but there has to be a better way of finding what we like.

Vannes part 2

2011-09-29T22:23:00.000+01:00

C is a sucker for boats and marinas, so I think his first view of Vannes after we'd driven through it and found a (free) car-park and he could relax, already endeared the town to him. A canal leads from the town out to the Gulf of Morbihan.

Vannes is an old town, and there are many timbered houses in the centre.

There's also an old castle and the old city walls and ramparts...

If I recollect the sign on the walls, the covered arcade in front of this building was where people used to do their washing in the river.

...and a small cathedral:

Vannes - part 1

2011-09-26T21:52:00.000+01:00

I think of all the places that we visited, Vannes was C's favourite. He says he'd love to find a camp site near there and go back for longer. I remember visiting there one evening when I was about thirteen or fourteen - I can still remember the smell of the chocolate crepes we had in the car on the way home. It was less romantic in daylight, but still a wonderful place to wander around.

These photos are mostly just shop signs...Sadly the paper shop (2nd photo) was closed for their annual holiday - it would have been a lovely shop to go into and browse around.
The 6th photo is typical Quimper faïence style. I must take a photo of the little lollipops I bought for my brother's kids - their wrapping is a similar style.
The 7th photo, the little money bag, was a sign on the Crédit Agricole bank. It has a rather mediaeval feel to it, I think.

By the lake

2011-09-23T21:34:00.000+01:00

A couple of times we visited Lac de Guerlédan, an artificial lake created in the 1920s for hydroelectric power. Being late in the season it was quiet, but there were still some watersports going on, and we saw a cruise boat going up the lake. C was impressed with the quality of the sand on the beach we stopped off at - certainly more sandy than many beaches here.

At one end of the lake is the Abbaye de bon-Repos, an old (founded in the 12th century) Cistercian abbey which had fallen into total repair, but in the '80s the local community started work on restoring it. The church is still a ruin, but the abbey building is well restored. There was an exhibition on monastic food and cooking, which was interesting to me. In the cloisters they had planted beds of wild-flowers - beautiful.

Model of the abbey as it appeared in the 18th century

Old pigeon loft / dovecote

First stop...

2011-09-21T21:37:00.001+01:00

...was our friend's house in Brittany - fairly central. The first time we stayed there, C fell in love with the house, but we can see Pierre's point that it's cold in winter and quite isolated. These photos were taken on a damp morning when we took a lazy day and didn't do much at all. I did walk down to the main road (about 1.5 km) to drop the rubbish back into the bins for collection. It was the only day I needed to wear shoes and socks. We did the same walk together in the evening when we went to visit somebody, after I'd assured C that it wasn't nearly as far as he thought it was. Thank goodness we both had torches - just one might have been a bit inadequate.
It's an old house - it's been in the family for several generations. Originally it would just have been one room deep - along the front you can see the barns to the left, and the house to the right - downstairs is a kitchen (two French doors), sitting room (French door and window, and a small sitting room area to the right of the front door. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms and the bathroom, opening off a corridor running along the back of the house. I've been in Irish farmhouses with a very similar construction. At some stage a (relatively) modern extension was built, so along the back of the house there is a boiler room, another dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

In the barn/garage you can see a Breton flag hanging on the wall.

Setting out

2011-09-20T21:21:00.001+01:00

The last time we got the ferry to France it was very grey and overcast as we headed out from Cork. This time, though there were some clouds, it was lovely and sunny and quite warm. We were able to sit out on sun chairs on the deck for quite a while after most people had moved in and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. Cobh looks a lot prettier in the sunshine - or else they've painted it up a lot since 15 years ago.

I'm going to totally skip chronological order here and add two pictures from the way back. The first one was taken through the portholes at the front of the ferry. You can see the Breton flag flying. It's hard to tell how rough the crossing was - it was certainly rough in our cabin, which was very near the front. Even though we weren't out at the side but well towards the centre we could hear the waves against the side (or front) of the ship, and all Saturday my head was spinning in circles. But at least we both managed to sleep more than we expected we could, and in spite of C's expectations a couple of times, I never fell out of the bunk.

We arrived back to a grey, rainy day. It was very heavy rain for about half the drive home. We'd have stopped off at my brother's for a break from the rain and a cup of coffee, but when I rang him, there was some special event on at the kids' riding school and they weren't going to be home for some time yet, so we soldiered on.

On the home front - the coal tits were the first to realise the feeders were filled up again. I've seen a couple of blues and greats too, but the sparrows are only slowly returning and I haven't seen any robin yet. You know I've often mentioned how territorial robins are. I actually got to see two fighting on our last morning. A whole big campsite, and all the time we'd been there (and in the previous one) I'd heard a lot of territorial robin talk. C was having a last strum on his guitar before packing it into the car, so I went off walking round the site and just at the end of the row where we were pitched, I saw some movement on the ground. A closer look and it was two robins up close and personal tussling on the ground. So it is true what they say!! No photos of that, and none of the first ever kingfishers I saw :D. We saw one on an outing from our first campsite, from a hide beside a lake, and I saw another one from the little boat when we had our trip along the canals in the Marais.

Quick post

2011-09-18T21:12:00.003+01:00

Just back from two weeks in France, still trying to catch up with everything.
The first half of the holiday we stayed in Brittany, borrowing a house from friends (that's where we were for a funeral last summer, and it was Pierre's house we stayed in, as his daughters still have it). Second half we camped in two different sites. This little video was from the third area we visited - the Marais Poitevin., a large marshy area also known as La Venise Verte or Green Venice. According to Wikipedia it covers about 970 square km , and according to our guide there are about 6000km of man-made drainage canals, as well as some natural ones. This work was started during the reign of Henri IV (1553 - 1610), who called in the Dutch experts, (just as the English did with the Norfolk fens in the early 17th century).

After our trip along the canals we visited a bird park - mostly waterfowl, and a great way of using the natural landscape. These storks were some of the birds we saw, and we were lucky enough to be treated to a real sight. When we passed by their enclosure on the return to the car, they were all just standing around quietly. The sound from their beaks was quite amazing - like very fast castanets. After all that display, that pair settled down to a mutual grooming session - I don't know if they were picking some sort of mites out of each other or what.

More will follow as I get organised during the week...

Favourite August cards

2011-09-13T11:30:00.001+01:00

Like July, August was a good month for feeling creative, so I have several favourites.

Autumn is here

2011-09-05T09:34:00.001+01:00

I was watching the birds the other morning and noticed that the mahonia next door has started to flower - a sure sign that autumn is here. Our sweetpeas are just coming to an end. I thought mine would be late, as I didn't soak them and germinate them indoors as I normally would, or even start them off the year before. But no - in spite of my shortcomings I have been seeing them all over the place the last month or so.

This is the tail end of my Californian wildflowers. I hope I can identify the one that is somewhat like an osteospermum - they have been very pretty, and have come in yellow, pink and an orangey red.

Hoping to save some seeds from the little miniature California poppy type ones, the heads are just ripening nicely.

Life is busy...

2011-09-01T11:30:00.000+01:00

And the birds seem to be much more timid these days, although Mrs Robin and another one still fly to the back step for a snack (not together). I still see the coal, blue and great tits, and the dunnocks. I think I've seen a couple of young robins too, and the starlings are enjoying feasting on the rowan berries.
As C said he saw a sparrowhawk in the front garden last week (it flew into the window, and then sat on the hedge to recover till it was chased off by magpies), that might account for the birds being more cautious. I had a feeling we had some sort of bird of prey around as I saw a dead pigeon with wings torn off on the grass one day.
I wanted to share this video of how quickly the sparrows flock in when they see the feeders filled up - but as you can see, they take flight quickly when they hear the train go by, even though that's a sound they must hear so often during the day. I've been trying to get a better video, but they're not cooperative. I wish that the sound of their wings came out better. I remember hearing a programme about sound recordists some years ago, and they did say it was a hard sound to capture - but can be quite easily simulated with flapping leather gloves if I remember correctly.

Birr

2011-08-24T22:15:00.000+01:00

We took a trip to Birr on Saturday. With C being with me I took very few photos compared to if I were on my own, but it was nice to have him with me for a change. He'd been promising me for a long time that he had to go on business and I'd get a trip in that way, but it hadn't happened yet this year. As there was a car he wanted to look at in the town, we combined the two on Saturday - along with another two cars on the way back - it was a long day!
The gardens were lovely, as always, but you could see that the hard winter had taken its toll. Compared to this time last year there wasn't nearly as much growth ( the border of agapanthus, where I got so many butterfly photos last year, was very sparse, and though the colchicum were out, they weren't in the same drifts that you could see from the far side of the river. There also seemed to be several trees down - I imagine more to do with the weight of snow than wind, as the fallen trunk C walked across looked quite sound, so he said.

I would have thought these were irises if I hadn't seen the odd flower heads!

River Birds

2011-08-19T22:10:00.000+01:00

There seem to be a lot more gulls nowadays, and especially more black-headed ones - even though they're not so black-headed at this time of the year.

There's been an afternoon programme on Radio 4 this week in the 15-minute slot at quarter to four which has been covering farmland birds. Today was a lot about sparrows (and I have a video of those, just got to upload it), but one this week covered black-headed gulls, and mentioned Kehar in Watership Down, and how that was the sound they made. It's true - I specially listened out this morning and heard it.

Wednesday morning, or was it Tuesday, was the first time I'd seen two cormorants together. Given that one is in the foreground and still looks smaller I wonder if it's a juvenile.

Park time

2011-08-16T22:02:00.000+01:00

I had to go out shopping yesterday morning; the weather was a bit mixed but I stuck my camera(s) and some old bread in the car just in case, and it was well worth going for a quick walk in the park. It wasn't enough to wake me up sufficiently, apparently. I managed to delete, beyond retrieval, the photos on the Olympus, including some good tufted duck ones, and the female mandarin. Luckily I had used both cameras and still had a few photos left at the end...

Tufted Duck


A red-eared terrapin - presumably a released pet

I nearly missed noticing the terrapin, because it was unusual to have such a good view of the tufted duck staying still in one place, but I caught sight of it in the corner of the camera viewfinder. A moment later and it was gone.

My echinacea is long over, and I never got a photo of it. Mind you, it was nothing like as spectacular as this in Farmleigh!

Mrs Robin's plumage has grown back in - she now looks fresh and pretty, and is much less timid again also.

Sunshine and showers

2011-08-14T20:42:00.000+01:00

Today was a day of sunshine and some showers so heavy that it sounded like hail on the windows...

Starlings

The rowan berries are magnificent this year

Hope this little dunnock was just cold and not sick

Early in the Morning

2011-08-13T21:25:00.000+01:00

It's become almost impossible to get leaf Earl Grey tea anywhere but in town.
And we were down to the last scrapings in the tea caddy - you'd think we were back in the old days when it was so valuable it was kept under lock and key. (On Radio 4 next week they're serialising Pepys' diaries, and one of the trails has him writing that he'd just had his first taste of a new drink called tea, but he couldn't see it becoming popular).
So on Thursday morning I got an early bus all the way into town. Thanks to the light traffic (holidays, no schools) it flew into town in no time, and as it had stopped raining by then I went in to Stephen's Green to fill in some time.
It's the first time I've ever seen a heron there. In the end I wished I had even more time, but I had to get to Bewleys to get my tea and then walk back across the city to work...

Speckled Egg and more

2011-08-08T21:09:00.001+01:00

I haven't seen a speckled egg like this one in ever so long - I was about to crack it to make the batter for dinner, but then I thought I'd take a photo!

Mrs Robin's tail is growing in nicely. She's still moulting, though - as she was sitting on the wall early I could see a little breast feather blow off and drift away in the wind.

This bud is the yellow flower that looks a bit like a daisy. I still haven't looked through my flower books to try to identify it - it's got quite a fleshy stem. There's beautiful colour in the nigella seed-heads, too.

I can't think how long it is since I last baked this - ten years or more. I'd totally forgotten about it till I came across it again recently looking through the cookery book (Ronald Johnson's The American Table). Last week I thought I'd asked the butcher for one piece of striploin that would do a stir-fry, but I discovered that he must have mis-heard: when I got home there was a large piece of sirloin, enough for the stir-fry and then a good bit left over. Just the right amount for this:

Colonial Beef Steak Pudding (serves 4)

2 tblsp vegetable oil
1 lb boneless beef, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 chopped onion
1 tblsp flour
1 cup beef stock,
2 tblsp tomato purée, 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and pepper - I add thyme

2/3 cup sliced mushroooms - we're not mushroom fans, I use carrots
2 tbslp oil or beef dripping
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 eggs

Heat 2 tbslp oil quite hot, and brown the steak in batches. Add the second batch back to the pan, add the onion and cook for a few minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for another few minutes. Add the stock, tomato purée and Worcestershire Sauce, carrots and seasoning to taste. Bring to the boil, reduce hit and simmer over a very low heat uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours, till the meat is tender. If it dries out too much add a little more water, but the aim is that at the end of the cooking time there should be very little liquid left.
Heat the oven to 450F, 230C, Gas Mark 8.
Heat the oil or dripping in a 1 1/2 quart casserole, with at least 2" sides.
When the oil is really hot, pour in the batter and then drop spoonfuls of the steak mixture over the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes till the pudding is puffed and brown.
My recollection is that I used to do this in a soufflé type dish, so that's what I used tonight, but I think it would have been better in a wider, shallower dish. Certainly when we used to have toad--in-the-hole my mother used a roasting tin, partially cooking the sausages and then pouring the batter over. We used to have it with sugar - that seems strange to me know. But Yorkshire pudding is good to me almost any way it comes, and essentially that's what this is, except that I use milk and water mixed for Yorkshire puddings.

A Miscellany

2011-08-05T21:20:00.001+01:00

Photos that didn't make it as the blog header this month!

My other favourite cards from July. Seems I made up for having felt in a creative slump all June to have ended up with several that were all favourites. Neither of these is my normal style at all.

Mrs Robin has been very elusive recently - even when she is around she's been much more timid than normal. I suppose it's because she feels vulnerable, but from my point of view it's as if she doesn't want her photo taken while she looks so shabby. She'll snatch a couple of worms and then retire behind the bin. I'm happy to say that after several days of not seeing her at all, today she flew straight down to the back step and stayed there to eat - with her new tail starting to show and looking all fresh. No camera handy, alas. These are from last weekend, the last time I'd seen her properly.

Busy busy

2011-08-04T22:10:00.000+01:00

Busy week - I'll change my blog header for tomorrow.
But just to go on with, on the way to work one day this week I spotted a cormorant flying down the river and then landing on a high wall for a grooming session. No free papers this week, so I wasn't planning to go as far as Heuston Station, but since that's where the cormorant was, I went the extra distance.

I said I had several favourite cards for July to share. Several of them appear to have already been tidied into the relevant folders, and with a sore swollen gland I want to get an early bed tonight.
But Woodstock is still flying around where I can easily find him!

While the Sun Shines...

2011-07-30T13:54:00.000+01:00

...make hay.

Most of this week was dull and grey - some of it was almost like winter apart from being warm. Thursday was one of those oppressive leaden grey skies, with enough drizzly rain to make you wet but not enough to warrant an umbrella.
But Wednesday, which was one of my days off, was a beautiful sunny summer's morning. I went to the park, where they were busy making hay while the sun shone. Apart from the dust making me sneeze a bit, I really enjoyed watching them, along with the feel of the grass beneath my feet and the lovely smell. And if we have another hard winter, it looks as if there's plenty of feed for the deer.

Poor C was bitterly disappointed because by the time he got home from work it was back to being grey and cloudy - at least he got a little sunshine this morning.

(Well, that's strange. There are two embedded videos, but only one is showing in Preview. I'll just have to post and see what happens. If Making Hay 2 is AWOL I'll put it in another post.)

Ducks galore

2011-07-27T21:52:00.000+01:00

A few other ducks from the park on Monday...

Female Mandarin duck - smaller and daintier than the mallards

Female tufted duck

Adolescent mallard - you can see the green just starting in on the head, but there's still some soft, downy baby fluff on the back

Duckling duo

Blue flash

These are two more wildflowers that have appeared from my Californian section. This is the one that I thought was going to be some sort of escholtzia. I guess it bears as much relation to the ones I grew before as the little heartsease does to full-blown cultivated pansies. I tried to take a picture of the foliage but I need to go back and try again. This isn't much bigger than a buttercup!

Ducklings revisited.

2011-07-26T21:10:00.001+01:00

I had a lovely walk in Farmleigh and the park yesterday, although it was horribly heavy and muggy. I went to Farmleigh first, and started feeding the ducks the heel of a loaf of bread - and along came the little ducklings scooting at high speed. Then it was time to hop out onto the tree trunk, have a little groom and then a nap. It certainly made it easier to get some good photos when they weren't zooming around in the water. I love the little chittering noise they make, too.

Even though they were just napping, it was hard to move on and leave them, I wars really enjoying watching them. I've always liked the way the ducks use that curved branch to stand on and groom themselves - it makes for great reflection photos.

When I walked over to Quarry Lake I saw a lovely female mandarin duck, and several female tufted ducks who came up much closer than normal - more photos tomorrow, and the recipe for the Mississippi Mud Pie I made for the weekend.

Farmleigh Ducklings

2011-07-23T21:52:00.000+01:00

These little chicks are so much later than the ones on the canal or even in the park, but apart from the solitary singleton I saw way back, they're the only ones I've seen there, so I don't even think they're a second brood. First I saw one, then two, and in the end I think we counted nine fearless little things. I'm glad we got to Farmleigh this morning - I had a lot of cooking to do today, but after I'd given 4lb of kidney beans their rapid boil for ten minutes, I reckoned there was time to go for a walk and call in to the butcher to get some mince while they simmered away.

Playful chick

Intrepid chick

Up close chick

I'll have to go back on Monday, weather permitting, and hope that they are still there! I've never been so near little ducklings before.

The funny flapping and splashing in the background is a moorhen.
Listen to all the funny little squeaks and cheeps - and see those stubby little wings!!

Poor Mrs Robin is moulting and has lost her tail .(I hope that's what it is, it's the most likely at this time of year). I hope it grows back soon. She looks funny in her truncated form.

I'd hoped to have a recipe to share but time isn't on my side today...next time.

Two flashes of gold

2011-07-22T22:16:00.000+01:00

On the whole it's been a pretty grey and gloomy week.
Here are two flashes of colour which brightened it up.
We've had goldfinches (including a juvenile) at the feeder for a couple of days this week.
And this little heart's ease has popped up in my pot of Californian wildflowers.

I'm busy trying to winnow down my 1300+ photos from June to a manageable amount before I run a backup. It's all those baby birds!!

And a very brief display of robin rivalry: Fatso (my new name for him now his tail has grown) is trying to muscle in on Mrs Robin's territory. So as I heard the babies chirping to be fed I put some worms and grain on some bricks on the wall where she could easily get at them. But even there Fatso flew in.
Mind you, yesterday I saw one of the babies trying to chase Fatso away, so maybe his takeover bid will fail!!

For the birds

2011-07-17T21:59:00.000+01:00

There are no flies on this little baby robin - he knows just where Momma flies to to pick up those tasty titbits she brings back. Actually, I'm interested to see that when there's a variety of stuff on the doorstep for her to choose from, she seems to like to bring a variety back to the little ones. Even though mealworms seem to be her favourite she'll bring grains and seeds and fruit back to the babies too.

Much of yesterday was rainy and not so warm - time to put the duvet back on the bed tonight, I think. But in between, C and the birds both enjoyed the sunny spells.

Mrs Robin on the trunk of a tree that came down in the snow two winters ago

I never picked a favourite card from June to share, because I was feeling flat and uncreative and didn't really have a favourite that stood out. This month I have several favourites, so I think Woodstock can settle in with the flock of birds in this post. Thanks for the twine, Lorraine!

We were sort of expecting a friend of C's to call yesterday, and we only had about three biscuits in the house. Since I knew Jorges likes peanut butter I went looking for a recipe for a bar cookie (for convenience) with peanut butter. This is what I found:

Oh Henry Bars: (approx 40)

2/3 cup butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tblsp vanilla (I thought this was a lot, and would cut it back to not more than 2 tsp another time)

1/2 cup corn syrup (golden syrup over here)

4 cups porridge oats

6 ounces chocolate chips

2/3 cup chunky peanut butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add vanilla, corn syrup and oats. Press into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 350F, 180C for 15 - 16 minutes.

While it bakes, melt the chocolate chips (I just used chocolate) and peanut butter together over a low heat. When the cookies have cooled slightly, spread this over and allow to set.

We don't have Oh Henry bars here, so I did a bit of googling to find out more about them - and the cookies. This recipe is from The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook, with a note that it came from the Boston Globe. But pretty much any recipe I looked at was almost identical. They all stress not to overcook!! One suggested using a 10" x 15" jelly roll pan with a reduced cooking time, although she notes that the original recipe was the size I used. That would give a thinner coating of peanut butter and chocolate on a thinner oatmeal base - I think I like the sound of that.

In the garden

2011-07-15T21:56:00.000+01:00

I've seen the new robin fledglings briefly - scurrying across the shed roof, and hopping around in the bushes.
This little one must be from the first brood. Mostly, though, I just hear them cheeping in the bushes, and making that funny kissing sound when they're being fed.

Mrs Robin enjoying a pause in the sunshine after some intensive food-foraging.

Just as well she had that sunshine earlier - not so much fun having to forage in the rain.

Young blue tit - you can see more blue coming in.

Young coal tit

Dunnock on the wall

I planted two packs of mixed wildflower seeds a bit late, in May. I think this must be from the Californian selection, as I'm pretty sure I recognise some escholtzia foliage coming along nicely, but I'm not sure what this one is called.

On the Way to Work

2011-07-14T21:48:00.000+01:00

Two separate mornings, just gathering a few pictures together. The swans were yesterday, in Phoenix Park. My sister was up again (a video editing software interface is no longer Terra Incognita), so I got an earlier bus than my normal one with her, and then went for a walk in the park before work.

The wall is beside Heuston Station. It's looking down onto the river, and I no longer have a good head for heights so taking a photo at all was somewhat precarious, but I loved the sight of all those daisies growing vertically (reminds me of a vertical garden we saw in Paris, only these were prettier), and the fact that because you were seeing them from underneath you could see all the pink.

A few birds...

2011-07-12T18:22:00.000+01:00

C had an extra birthday present last week. I was working up here and heard what I was pretty sure were long-tailed tits, so I went down to see if I could see any. I saw two in the trees, but then had to come in to make dinner. As he stood and watched he saw four of them in the mahonia - he was so pleased.
He'd been talking about seeing a wren - I was never 100% sure that it wasn't a young dunnock, but look here - I'm pretty sure this is a little wren. Had to take the picture through the spare bedroom window - lucky I cleaned it recently.

This is definitely a dunnock - young and mother. The juvenile is still getting fed a bit, although he's well able to forage for himself.

Mrs. Robin in pensive mood...

Baby blue!

Cormorant

2011-07-09T16:00:00.008+01:00

For all the many times I see a cormorant flying up the river, or swimming and diving, last week was only the second time I've seen one standing on some of the junk in the river and grooming. And the first time it was just straightforward grooming, not the wing-drying, which I've only ever seen along the cliffs.

My sister is due to stay over again this week. I'll be glad if she can give me a quick video-editing guide so that at least the program makes sense. I like the way YouTube lets me replace a soundtrack that's pretty much just traffic noise with music, but not that it then gives you non-optional advertising...

Scavenging

2011-07-08T15:57:00.000+01:00

The SCS challenge this week was a scavenger hunt - the objects to find were a leaf, a stone, a shell, a feather and a bottle or a can. Well - not living by a beach a shell proved problematical. I believe that it's been a bad year for slugs and snails - a good year for gardeners. (On the same note I also heard that there are fewer insects, which is why many bird feeders have seen more juvenile activity than would be usual).

It was also hard to find a stone of any interest - I nearly had to "scavenge" one from the windowsill.

Leaves afloat - note the seaweed too!

A robin's feather I found in the back porch

Snail on the wall

Not local - I spotted this beside the tram tracks near work

Message in a bottle

It's WAY too early for the rowan trees to be turning.

I found the robin feather around the time that Scarface got his scar, so I assumed it was after a fight between him and No-tail. Sadly I haven't seen Scarface for the last week or more. Mrs Robin is feeding her brood, though. They've fledged - she's flying off in all directions with her food for them instead of always in the same direction across the garden and over the wall, and I can hear that funny little kissing noise coming from the hedge when she's feeding them. Now she is certainly managing to find insects. She had a whole beakful of something too small to identify when I got home from work today. It still didn't stop her from flying straight to the back door the instant I opened it, and trying to fit a couple of mealworms in as well.

Take Flight

2011-07-07T16:01:00.000+01:00

Archibald MacLeish "Ars Poetica"

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown --

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

*

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind --

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

*

A poem should be equal to
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea --

A poem should not mean
But be.

Life in the Country

2011-07-06T22:02:00.000+01:00

Town bird's country cousin - I know which I'd rather be!

Plus an older picture of a chick, showing just how big those feet are!!

Life as a city bird...

2011-07-05T22:43:00.000+01:00

Taking a walk on the wild side!! I often see a moorhen or two at Heuston Station when the tide is low.

Taking Off

2011-07-02T14:05:00.000+01:00

(This is the post I thought I made during the week, but it went AWOL. I think what happened is I originally posted it accidentally when I was copying the video link, so I quickly saved it as draft. But I think when I then posted it, it posted for the day I'd done it accidentally...another lesson learned. I could see a lot of fish in the river yesterday too, but they were on the far side to where I was walking, and as I was going to get the free paper and then to a little Polish shop for fresh yeast (they were out of it), I didn't have time to cross over and walk back).

Normally I see the cormorant either diving and swimming, or they appear in flight barrelling up the river. A rare treat to watch it taking off twice in the last few days. I spotted some big mullet in the river last week too.

Peace in the Park

2011-06-30T21:48:00.001+01:00

These ducks were just gently drifting in the morning sunshine - they rather reminded me of all the locals swimming in Astros last year - just gently floating in the water and gossiping away.

Back Yard Burglar

2011-06-29T22:08:00.000+01:00

No-Tail's tail has grown again, but it's still quite easy to tell him apart from Scarface. He's still trying to muscle in on the territory - when he's around I hear a good bit of territorial chirping. But he's not one to come close to the house, whereas Scarface and partner are both happy to come up to the door, and even a bit further. I'm pretty sure they have another brood - I saw one of them deposit a faecal sac on a branch the other day, and they're flying off with food again, which wasn't the case for a while after the last little ones were fledged.

Casing the joint

Peanuts??

Nah, this looks better!

This IS better!!

Back to the nest with the booty

Not sure what happened to the post I thought I made yesterday, I'll just try posting it again tomorrow...

The robin formerly known as No-Tail, in the early morning sun. I'm not sure if he's fatter just because he's only feeding himself, or if he's puffed up for territorial display - or both.

Coots in the Park

2011-06-25T08:00:00.004+01:00

As promised, coot videos. Not one, even, but two.
It was fascinating watching the coot reorganising the nest. At first I wondered if it was for another clutch of eggs, because the chicks currently on the lake must be at least a month old now, more like 6 weeks. But when you see the chicks walking around the nest in the second video, there certainly couldn't have been any eggs in there. I don't know if the chicks go on living there for a while as a safe place - I haven't been able to find much information. And looking at the lengths of the stems, she must dive quite far down towards the base of the lily to nip them off.
Anyway - after the first video ended the coot swam over to the little island in the centre of the lake, and after rooting around a bit she came out with an old leaf in her mouth, and started swimming to where the young ones were. I didn't quite see if she passed the leaf to another adult as in a baton relay, I almost think that is what I saw, but maybe the two just crossed paths. Whatever, the leaf got given to one of the young ones who seemed to sort of nibble at it and then drop it. And then, as in the second clip, he swims back to the nest collecting his own contributory twig along the way.
Lovely as the bird sounds are, there was almost nothing but wind noise on the first video, so I've replaced it with music - learning all the time!

Lakes - and birds

2011-06-24T16:58:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a day that threatened rain, so I put off going out, but then decided to risk it.
First picture is the lake in Farmleigh. I used to always walk counter-clockwise around it, but then one day I needed the sun behind me for a photo (to be taken ten minutes walk from the car, or maybe it was five), so I went clockwise, and I've gone clockwise almost ever since. But yesterday I bucked the habit, so my first views were from a different angle to the one I usually photograph.

Young coots, and a mallard drake. Well -I think they're both young coots. I find it confusing that they look quite like moorhen chicks, but since the second one, which looks more like a moorhen, was being fed by a coot I'm fairly sure of my ID.

Then I went to Quarry Lake in the park, hoping to find the Little Grebe again. I spent so much time watching some coots that the rain clouds had moved right in - but I still did get to see the Little Grebe and also some mallard chicks. Just two - I've hardly seen any this year, just the one bunch down on the canal and these two, none at all in Farmleigh. Little is the operative word for that grebe - and I was about 5 minutes away from the house when I realised that although I'd remembered spare batteries for both cameras this time, I'd forgotten not only the spotting scope but my mobile as well. I didn't make it back to the car before the rain.

Videos of the coot to follow tomorrow...

Summer in the Kitchen

2011-06-21T20:39:00.000+01:00

It's certainly not summer outside this week. I had a pot of basil that I bought a couple of weeks ago for tomato soup, and it needed using up so I decided to make a big pot of ratatouille for dinner tonight. I thought C didn't like it and that I would be eating the rest of it myself, but it appears his taste has changed since the last time I gave it to him - a good discovery.

The more traditional version is cooked with more olive oil, but I like this version from Anna Thomas's From Anna's Kitchen. She uses less oil and a fresh tomato sauce for extra cooking liquid - even more summery goodness.

Ratatouille:
I used two small aubergines / eggplants, two courgettes / zucchini, 2 onions, 1 each red and green bell peppers, 4 large tomatoes for the sauce and two at the end, plus some basil, parsley, garlic and a spoonful of balsamic vinegar.
The aubergines, courgettes, onions and peppers were all cut into 1/2" dice. The tomatoes were cut a bit larger

The tomato sauce was simply 4 tomatoes skinned and coarsely chopped, and simmered for about half an hour in a little oil with a crushed clove of garlic and some chopped basil till it was reduced.

While I made the sauce I degorged (is that how you spell it in English?) the aubergines; in a plastic colander I sprinkled them lightly with salt and left them for half an hour. Originally this was to remove some of the bitterness and excess liquid. A bit like scalding milk being a hangover from when it was needful, I think that most modern varieties are a lot less bitter then their early predecessors, and personally I don't bother doing it with the courgettes. I do, however, think it helps make the aubergines a bit less absorbent, so I usually do it with them. After this rinse them and pat dry with kitchen towel.

Heat 1 tblsp olive oil in a large pan. Add the chopped onion and a clove or two of crushed garlic, and fry gently for about 7 minutes, till soft. Add the courgettes and aubergines and continue to fry gently, stirring well, for another 7 minutes or so. Add the peppers and the tomato sauce, along with some salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for about twenty minutes. Add the tomatoes, chopped basil and parsley and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Cook for another 5 minutes and serve.
We had with pasta tonight - I like it with crusty bread, and I like it almost as much cold.
Funny, it's a real Provencal dish, but I don't believe I had it when I was staying in Provence on a teenage exchange visit.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

2011-06-20T21:59:00.001+01:00

Flying visit from me and the birds. I was worried because I hadn't seen the little robins for a few days, but my sister said she thought she saw one when she was here. She just wasn't sure if it was a dunnock, as there are plenty of them around. She probably saw both! I spotted these two briefly the next day, but they seem to have given up foraging on the patio and have become much more timid.

There was an enormous amount of territorial robin song at one stage yesterday when No-tail and Scarface were both around, along with the (presumably) female who happily kept on scavenging for food. I suppose the tail will grow and the wound will heal and I won't be able to tell them apart any more, but even if it's only for a short while it's nice to be able to tell them apart.

Phoenix Park 2

2011-06-19T19:42:00.001+01:00

The Wellington Monument was somewhere we always enjoyed going for picnics when we were small. It obviously still hasn't lost its attraction for young children - just as I was leaving a mother arrived with her two young boys who raced each other up the steps.

Recently when we had friends coming for lunch over the weekend I thought I'd make Parker House Rolls. The name was so familiar that, when it came to getting out the Joy of Cooking and reading the recipe, it was a shock to discover I had no memory of what they looked like, and I had to do a bit of online searching to get an idea. It's a well-worn page in the book, with all the conversions from US to Imperial pencilled in by my mother, so I think she must have used it as a basic bread dough. Anyway, they were delicious that day, so I made them again on Friday since we were just using up some leftover tomato and rice soup for dinner.

Parker House Rolls: this recipe says it makes 30 2" rolls. Well, mine must have been way too big; I used a 3" cutter and got 14 and a little round roll. But any smaller than I made them and I don't see how they could possibly take the advised 20 minutes to cook - mine were done in less than 15 minutes.

1 cup / 8 fluid ounces milk
1 tblsp sugar
2 tbslp / 1 ounce butter
1/2 cake / 1 sachet yeast (I used 1/2 ounce fresh yeast)
1 egg
3/4 tsp salt
2 5/8 cup flour - I used a cup to measure, but this would be something over a pound but under a pound and a half
melted butter

Scald the milk, add the sugar and butter, and when it's cooled to blood heat add the yeast and leave till active.
Normally I don't bother with scalding - I think it's one of those hangovers from old days ,when it was necessary to kill any bacteria. But in this case I needed it hot enough to melt the butter, so I went with what the recipe said.

Sift most of the flour and the salt into a large bowl. Add the egg and the yeast mixture and knead well to make a soft and very light dough. It's important not to use too much flour, but obviously you need to be able to work with the dough, so use enough flour for a soft but manageable dough.
Put in a clean bowl, brush with melted butter and leave to rise.
Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/2" thick and cut into rounds with a floured cutter - I used my largest one, which is about 3 inches.
With the handle of a knife dipped in flour press a crease along the centre of each roll.
Not in the Joy recipe, but one of the ones I found suggested brushing with melted butter at this stage, which I did. Fold the rolls over along the crease line and press together lightly.
Place in rows on a floured tray, cover and leave to rise till doubled.
Bake in a hot oven (425F, 220C) for 15 - 20 minutes, serve warm.

I should have taken a photo, really, but there weren't very many left after dinner! Next time...

Phoenix Park

2011-06-17T21:14:00.000+01:00

My sister stayed over Wednesday night, so on Thursday I got an early bus with her, and after seeing her off at the mainline station I went for a walk in the park as I still had plenty of time before work. Just as well it was yesterday and not today; we had heavy rain almost all day long.

Mister or Mrs Blackbird collecting a beakful of worms.

A mistle thrush

There were also a bunch of swallows and swifts swooping low over the grass - lovely to watch.

And more squirrels than I've ever seen in one place in the park before.

Morning Visitor

2011-06-16T20:16:00.000+01:00

To the victor the spoils

2011-06-15T21:00:00.001+01:00

It's entertaining to see the young birds happily pecking away on the feeders themselves, but when a parent comes in sight they start making cheeping noises and opening their beaks wide.
On the other hand, when you see the tiny portion they manage to get from a peanut compared to an adult, I guess they still do need some supplementary feeding!!

This coal tit spent a lot of time picking away at the dead end of a mahonia twig. I think it might have been looking for nesting material - it flew off with its spoils, and then came back and picked something else out of the gutter.

And just for a change from peanuts, this little great tit went scavenging in the shed gutter...

Singing Chaffinch

2011-06-14T20:31:00.000+01:00

It has always bugged me that I find it so hard to learn birdsong enough to identify. I even had a whole sound theme on my computer at one stage with different bird songs for opening and closing files, new email, starting up and so on. That didn't work, and anyway I prefer a silent setting as I often have the radio on. It annoys me even more because I know I have a musical ear - play me a song a few times and I can pick out all the basic and most of the less basic chords. You'll lose me when it gets to things like minor sevenths with added ninths and so on, but it always surprises C how much I can pick up and if he finds the sheet music I am right. And picking up a melody by ear on the flute is easy - it's only if I want to harmonise that I like to see some music, or at least the chords.
Anyway - this was the year I learned to identify a chaffinch from its song, so when we heard a bird singing loudly in the trees just as we crossed the railway line and turned down the canal I was able to say "that's a chaffinch". And I was right....