Beyond the Park

I've been spotting some new utility box art in Castleknock village recently (Caisleán Cnucha is the Irish for Castleknock). The first one I noticed was someone painting the young fawn, and I meant to be sure to look on the way to work to see what she had done - but it's very discreetly tucked into a corner and I didn't think about it for a few days till I noticed the one with the lamplighter and the badgers, and then I made sure to pay attention to the first one. There's one she's still working on, so far there is a floral background and white spaces for birds to be filled in, so I will keep an eye on that one. It has to be said that incorporating the lock into the deer's nose looks better from a distance, I should maybe try taking another photo from the other side of the road - but it's quite a busy road and it might be hard to get one with no traffic. 

I particularly liked the middle one, with the lamplighter. Until a few years ago I still used to see the two old men who maintained the lights. The actual lighting and turning off had been automated, but as they are old gas lights they still require regular maintenance. At the time I saw them, the two brothers were in their late seventies and late eighties. A couple of years ago I stopped to talk to the younger man who was now doing the job and he said that the Flanagans still helped out in the workshop. There is a lovely book about them and the history of the park - The Lamplighters of The Phoenix Park  I haven't been lucky enough to see badgers, but I know there are some in the park. 

We have finally been having some much-needed rain, and the other morning when I went out to the shed to bring the wash in, there was a classic spider web running from the nectaroscordum to C's bike, which was not in it's normal place, but which made a great backdrop to highlight the web.
 

July favourites

 Scraping the bottom of the barrel to find any, it was a stressful month with zero creative mojo. 

The get well card was for my brother-in-law after a hip replacement, and I hope it arrived because it's not like my sister-in-law not to mention receiving anything we send. 

I did try to force myself on a couple of outings - one to the Shackleton Gardens and on the day I cycled in to the Oxfam bookshop in town with as many books as I could fit I stopped by the Dog Pond in the park on the way back - but as I had as many books as possible, I only had a standard lens on my camera so that it would fit in my bum bag - so not great photos even though I was lucky enough to see two Little Grebes. 

The fungus (which looks to be an Oak Bracket) is the only one from the park. The rest of the Shackleton Garden ones are available HERE. 

The blog header is from the Shackleton Gardens in August 2025. 

June favourites

 In spite of ongoing stress and a heatwave,  June was quite a productive month.

The first two cards were for a sewing/stitches challenge. I made the Tyvek one and then remembered I had wanted to revisit a challenge where you stitched a grid on some paper with the sewing machine, then soaked it briefly in warm water and then distressed it gently between your fingers till some of the paper came out, leaving a lacy like (more or less according to your taste) panel. I'm still not happy that the purple ink I stamped the sentiment with is a totally different tone to what I used to colour the aquilegia, so I might yet stamp it again in a dark green...

The last two were for a technique challenge - I had decided last year not to feature it myself because the lovely examples I had scene all used scenic DP which is something I have very little of. But I looked through what I had and reckoned this paper pad would work well, just meaning that I had to cut my strips narrower than most people did. And with the wonders of hindsight I realised after I had made them that of course I could have just stamped a scene and used that.  Stress and tiredness are what I blame...

The header photo this month is from when I visited Ballybeg Priory in Cork with my sister last year. I thought I should have had more photos from Doneraile Park, but I know it was a very hot, sunny day and it wasn't the best for photos, and the one I would most like to have used wouldn't really work for a blog header. 

One week, two walks

 Last Saturday we picked C's niece up from the Luas terminus ( light rail network) and went for a walk in Phoenix Park before lunch. First thing we saw after parking was a group of people with large nets, and when I looked back, it was four years ago less one day that I had also seen a similar sight, and it was people looking for the young fawns to tag them.

Mallard with chicks on the bank of one of the ponds, hen tufted duck with chicks on the Quarry pond (they're hard to see, but if you zoom in you'll see the chicks are still so small that one of them is standing on a lily pad)... When C's brother and all the family were over here 20 years ago we also went for a walk in the park, and when the girls first saw the deer, they were so excited that they were finding it difficult to hold their cameras steady to take photos. So it was nice to see a large herd of deer again this time.

We've been having something of a heatwave here - not as extreme as the UK and mainland Europe, but still hot by Irish standards. Last night we went for a walk along the canal in the evening.

The foreground in the heron shot is one of the houseboats moored along the bank. There were two adult swans and four cygnets down at the 12th Lock. And walking back I spotted a hen blackbird gathering berries to bring back to the nest. 

May Favourites

 Exceedingly thin on the ground. We had a guest for a week, I was down cat-sitting for my sister for a week...

Photos are a reflection of bamboo from my sister's backyard in a dish on the kitchen counter, a mural on the wall of a derlict building across the road from her, the nectaroscordum emerging from its sheath (last month's header photo was a picture of it in full bloom in the Shackleton Gardens. I'm glad to say that ours has been attracting bees too), and a field down in county Carlow when we brought our house guest down to visit a friend. That was a rather overcast day by the time we got there, but the morning had been good enough for us to take a long and scenic route for the drive down. 

This month's blog header is a photo of The Lough in Cork, when I was visiting my sister last June while C was over in Thailand. 

April Favourites

 With the Easter break and the longer brighter evenings it seems like I was a bit more productive in April! 

My blog header is from a visit to the Shackleton gardens last May when a friend from the UK was over for a week. It was fabulous weather, we went on two day trips, and another day he and I walked to the gardens along the canal bank while C was working. 

  The plant is Nectaroscordum siculum, and the clumps of it were absolutely thronging with bees. I have some coming along nicely in pot myself this year, I can see the buds developing. 

We have a holiday weekend here and I hope to get time to cull a bulk upload from two outings last week, but here a few as a quick sampling - Farmleigh and the National Bird of Prey Centre.