April Favourites

 It must be the longer evenings, it's certainly not that work has eased up any. Maybe the break over Easter helped too - whatever the reason, I have more favourite cards to share this month than the previous couple. 

The one with the owl was an Earth Day challenge, so for something recycled I used the kitchen towel from the box I use for spraying in. It had a good colour mix for the owl, I just lightened the centres of the eyes a little with a Posca pen. 

The "wishing and dreaming" with butterflies was to use our choice of techniques. The sanded pencil background is one I really enjoy - and this time I also used the stencil with the pencil remaining it to do some stencil embossing/monoprint, giving me another background for my stash.

The diorama was for a song-inspired challenge - I went for a mash-up of Yellow Submarine (obviously) and Octopus's Garden.

The 30th of April already -where has the year gone! I'll be back tomorrow with a few photos from a bike ride the other day and a new blog header. 

Botanic Outpost

 We took a trip today to Kilmacurragh gardens, which is described as an 18th century country estate, part of which officially became part of the Botanic Gardens in 1996. I think all my visits there pre-date that, though I've only ever known the house as a ruin. One of my first outings with a proper "grown-up" camera (an old range-finder, nothing even as fancy as an SLR) was there, so it holds fond memories memory. I still have most of the photos from that visit. 

We had missed what they describe as a carpet of crocuses and other wildflowers in the meadow in front of the house, but were at a good time to enjoy the rhododendrons. 

The "Broad Walk" is described as being wide enough for two Victorian ladies to walk side by side in their hoops and crinolines, and alternates yew trees and rhododendrons - all now massive. I imagine they looked much more orderly 200 years ago.

I had thought this looked very like laburnum, but being now under the auspices of the Botanic Gardens many things are well lablled, and it is in fact a Sophora cassioides.

This old trunk was always a favourite of ours, reminding us of Lucy M. Boston's Green Knowe books.

Someone told us they had seen a woodpecker. Sadly, we didn't see it, but we did see a red kite soaring overhead. 

These and a few more photos (25 in total) are in an album HERE. It also includes a short video snip of a little mallard chick. Last Sunday, or maybe it was Monday, we went for a walk along the canal looking for ducklings. All we found was one single solitary duckling with its mother, which was a little sad really, I'm sure it means the rest of the brood were predated as I've never seen only one before. 

A Miscellany

 I think I might have mentioned last year that a new sculpture was erected near the entrance to the park. I have been meaning ever since to take a photo of it - but in the morning I'm just focussed on getting to work, and on the way home I'm on the wrong side of the road. And when I go for a leisure cycle in the park, I go a different route. But I finally made the effort to stop the other morning, while the daffodils were still in bloom. It was a grey overcast morning - the previous week would have been more spectacular with dense fog and the sun breaking through.

Today was an intermittent bright and showery day. When we were sitting down after dinner and C was wondering if he'd get a break in the weather for a walk, we saw a beautiful rainbow. It got brighter and brighter - sadly was already dimming by the time I got to the front door with my camera. It's hard to get a good photo because of houses all around, so I settled for zooming in.

Since I have been proofing my boules in a glass bowl lined with a floured cloth ever since Christmas, I finally splashed out on a couple of banneton proofing baskets. I didn't attempt yet to make my bread directly in it, but used the lining cloth. Better than chocolate, C said. I also attempted some ciabatta for the first time, which turned out pretty well.

And I'll finish off with three photos from Farmleigh. Sunday was a sunny day if still on the cold side, and I persuaded C onto his bicycle and out to Farmleigh while the bread was rising. 

I forgot to change my header the other day ; that has been updated so we now have a photo of magnolias in Farmleigh from last April.

And now it's time to see if File History is working in Windows 11, so far I have had three failed backups and I don't like being without one. I might have to resort to third-party software.