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. 

Botanic Birds and Beasts

 I'll split the Botanic Gardens into two posts as I have several mandarin duck photos...

As per the title, this one is (mostly) birds. 

A snatched shot of the squirrel. From the sound in the bushes we had thought it was a bird, but I think it was the squirrel taking a flying leap to grab a berry from the tree. 

I'll be back with May Favourites tomorrow, and then the flowers from the Botanic Gardens.

The full album can be found here. 

Along the coast

 I recently had to go for my annual medical check-up for work, and this time I made an afternoon appointment for after work. Knowing that I would have a little spare time I tucked my camera into my bag, and took a few photos on the way.

First up was the changed decor on this utility box - last year it displayed a Viking cycling along, a sheep looking through a porthole and the Pigeon Chimneys (as blogged here). This year it was totally different.

Shortly after that, you reach yacht club land, so I spotted this sign.

After that I reached Bull Island, a bird reserve and two golf links.  I cycled out to it along the second causeway, so between the two I spotted a couple of egrets and some shelduck.

As it was fairly overcast I didn't great photos on the reserve, but here are a couple. It was certainly lovely to feel sand beneath my feet and smell the tang of salt air. 

On the way back I spotted some more utility box art. I'm afraid the close-up didn't turn out well, and I can't remember if at that stage I was just using my phone because I needed to get home and get dinner cooked before going out again...I'm thinking it was just my phone at this stage. In any case, I also took a long shot to depict the setting, because just beyond the road is St. Anne's Park, and in fact there was a heron in the little pond/lake.

Since Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning with blue skies, and we were both awake early, we took a trip to the Botanic Gardens and I'll be along shortly with a recap of that. We were delighted to see a mandarin duck (they've been gone from the park for several years now) and a little grebe, plus a swan family with very young cygnets. 

Farmleigh - photo heavy

 After a dearth of photos all year, I finally have some. We were awake fairly early on Saturday, and while the weather wasn't as beautiful as Friday, it was still quite sunny and we decided to head to Farmleigh. The biggest treat was seeing some little grebes - we couldn't work out if there were two or three because they swim underwater for such distances. Hard to get a good photo because of their smallness and speed, but I did manage a couple. There were plenty of tufted ducks and coots, a couple of moorhens and of course mallards. The photo of the mallard was a fun one, because the water was so still and clear that we could see his feet paddling away as he moved along.

Apart from that, the photos are Spring flowers, a ladybird C spotted on a dead leaf on an echium, and my new jumper, hot off the needles. I used a voucher from my brother to buy a new book of Aran patterns, and a gift cert from work to (mostly) buy the wool, which is merino with 5% silk and 5% cashmere, and has a lovely feel. It's not actually Aran (worsted/sport) weight, it's double knitting so it's not as heavy and I'll probably get more use out of it. 

Cowslip

The early thrush catching the worms - and maybe a caterpillar

Hot off the needles

 I bought some of this wool in a wine colour to knit a sweater for C - I got half of it knit while he was over in Maine, but I have had to sneak it up to the attic to sew it up up here. He also had some cough/cold, and was allowed not to go into work at all for two weeks so I haven't had a day here without him. Anyway, it was a beautiful soft wool, 80% merino, 20% angora, so even though pink wouldn't have been my colour of choice I was happy to take pink rather than nothing. Being bulky it knit quickly, but I had the sleeves, fronts and back (without the flower petals) finished when I decided I would really prefer to take it up a size, and I'm glad I did because now it will fit over a light sweater.  The pattern is Sylvi from Ravelry, and I added the pockets because I think pockets are indispensable. 

I was hoping to get C to take some nice pictures yesterday when we were up at his dentist in the north of Ireland - but his appointment ran late and being the shortest day of the year, the sun had gone down behind the mountain across the bay by the time he got back to the car. The first photo of the oystercatcher has that odd colour because the setting sun was reflected in the sand and water. I enjoyed watching them and a couple of flocks of sandpipers till it became too cold and windy, when I returned to the car to wait there. So, instead of a lovely scenic backdrop, I just used my remote control out behind the house :D.