July Favourites

 Very thin on the ground - the cat/bee is only added on C's account.

We had a heatwave which probably didn't help creativity, along with the fact that we have still not yet finalised the sale of my aunt's cottage. And I've been covering extra days in work with other people on vacation - that time of year. 

I did visit my sister a couple of weeks back - right in the middle of the heatwave. She looked at the forecast and did a switch from her original plans, so on Saturday afternoon we went to Doneraile Park and the ruins of Ballybeg Priory.  The park was a good place for such a hot day, plenty of shade from the trees. But unfortunately not so great for photography with high contrast.  C and I used to see the signs for Doneraile every time we visited my parents, but never made time to visit so it was nice to finally get to see it. 

The full album of photos is here, I've just added a few. The dovecote in the priory was amazing - it has something like 352 little slots inside where the birds could nest. As it tapers to a narrow exit at the top, it's almost like a camera shutter. The monks would have kept the birds primarily as a source of fertiliser. 

On the Sunday morning we just walked to the Lough, which I think I have mentioned before. It's such a surprising little lake right in the middle of a residential area. a great amenity. We saw at least two coot families with very vocal youngsters - learning to dive but still very dependent on their parents. There were also a couple of radio-controlled boats, although we were unable to spot whoever was controlling them. 

My blog header is a photo from the Phoenix Park last August. Since they already harvested the hay back in May, I am rather expecting them to get a second cut this year. 

June Favourites

 It must have been a more productive month as I have several cards I was really pleased with, but I can't say it felt like it, and it's pretty obvious I never had time for editing and sharing any other photos. 

It would also appear that July is a time I take very few photos. I looked for July 24 and found about 5 - one of which actually turned out to be my sister's. I looked back to 2023 and it was pretty slim pickings too. The photo I ended up using is from last July in the Phoenix Park. With the early hot spell we had this year, they were at the hay cutting and baling stage six weeks ago already this year. I imagine they might even get in a second harvest. 

The most fun one to make was the one with the sort of mesh - it was for a mixed media challenge, and we were to create some sort of netting. The linked tutorial was paper stitched with a grid using the sewing machine, than thoroughly wetted until you could poke holes through it. Definitely something I'll try again. 

The one with the rolled felt roses used a bird sticker from Lorraine, which was perfect for filling in a bit of empty space on the card. 

May Favourites

 Not many!

It was a busy month - a few extra days in work, and a friend staying so we went on a few outings. So I'm afraid I still haven't had time to do anything with photos from Paris. There's a culled but unedited album here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/4brZEY1At6UgA7yWA  

We had pretty much two full weeks of sunshine and bright sunny days - making it hard for our friend, who left Ireland 25 years ago, to remember what Irish weather can really be like, and also making it harder to spend time on photos - too warm and too bright. Normal weather has now resumed...

One of the things I did with Rod on a day that C was working was book a visit to Farmleigh House, something I'd always meant to get round to, and this was the perfect motivation. I must have picked something up when we were out shopping in the morning because when I went to get the bicycles out, mine had a totally flat tire. Luckily there was just time to replace the tube and still get there in time for the tour that we had booked. 

I'll add a couple of photos of the house, since there are plenty of the garden on the blog already.

The painted ceiling, if it's possible to click in and view it larger, has swallows flying around. It was painted when the Guinness of the time was confined to bed and unable to get out and about, so it brought the outdoors in. 

Example of book-binding

The blog header this month is a photo from last June, taken on the beach at St Georges de Didonne - one of the many sunsets we sat and watched. 

April Favourites

 April! Whatever happened to March? I'll have to look back. 

Not many from April. I hope to be along shortly with photos from our trip to Paris, but live has been a bit busy since we got back. I was also sick for a week, so not many cards that qualify as favourites

.

And just a couple of photos from Paris till I get time to edit them...

The header photo is hawthorn from the East Coast Nature Reserve last May. 

Cork catch-up

 I said that I had been down to Cork in February, and I shared a few photos in my February Favourites resumé. If I'd known we'd see so many birds I'd have packed either a tripod and longer lens or my bridge camera which has a longer zoom, but I was stuck with what I had. The full album is here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MJj9cU2yvrvwXPsm6

The small castle is Blackrock Castle and Observatory, which my sister said we'll visit another time. 

Since I already shared the bird highlights in that earlier post, I will here include a few shots from my January visit, which was a walk in the same place but closer to the city along the river Lee. 

And having caught up with January and February, that means that I should be able to add a post from Farmleigh some time this week. We've had a couple of lovely sunny days where you could really feel the warmth of the sun - Thursday was one of those, so after doing the shopping I took my camera and headed out straight away seeing that Friday's forecast was not so good.  The first days of sunshine were so welcome - the amount of grey days with no sunshine at all was getting to be so long that it was making newspaper headlines. 

February Favourites

 Once again are thin on the ground...

We had such dismal weather - it was making the news headlines when some parts of the country had seen no sunshine for 10 days. So my sister and I decided that last weekend was probably a better bet than the previous one for me to go down to Cork. It probably was - Sunday was very wild, wet and windy but we had a lovely walk along the Lee in the afternoon on Saturday, and with the tide going out, got to see more than just seagulls. It was especially lovely to see two curlews - we heard them on one of our walks elsewhere last year but didn't see them. This time it was see but not here. I still haven't edited my photos from that walk yet, so I'll just add a few photos here and then (hopefully) have a link to an album next time I manage to make a post. 

Curlew, curlew with oystercatchers, turnstone, plover, and a painted drainage something or other - the little ladybird was painted over a protrusion in the pipework. If I'd known that we were likely to see so many birds I'd either have brought my Nikon or a longer lens for my Olympus, but with the weather forecast being what it was, I had no great expectations. 

This month's blog header is some snakeshead fritillaries in Farmleigh, taken last March.