Hot off the Needles - May Flowers

 I knit this for a friend. I left it a bit late to start something, because we heard so early that she was expecting - probably the best bit of news I got all last year. If I'd had more time I'd have thought about knitting a large cot blanket with jungle animals which was a great hit with both recipients who have got one in the past. I was showing C a couple of possibilities on Ravelry, and instead of any of them, he picked this one out. By the end there were 750 stitches on the needle - I had to order a 60" one, I didn't even know they came that long - and one ball of wool knit about 7 rows. (Editing to clarify that it was knit on circular needles in the round. I hadn't known they came in that length - I couldn't source one in Ireland at all.) It was hard to get a good photo. It's approximately 36" diameter. The pattern was called May Flowers

We had atrocious weather yesterday, heavy downpours - C's motorcycle ride-out was cancelled. I'd warned him that if the weather was half decent this morning, I was hoping for a quick trip to the Botanic Gardens to smell the lilacs and see the peonies. It was very overcast and grey looking, but we headed out anyway. I'll have to swing back with another post for the peonies, whenever I get time for a bit of editing later in the week. But here are some of the other treats we found...the hawthorn in full bloom, a little moorhen chick, rhododendrons. beautifully backlit gunnera. The robin was perched on the border hedging in the peony walk, and so close I could have touched him. 

The herbaceous and annual borders were both pretty bare, with just sand marking where the different seeds had been sown in the annual bed. But it was a worthwhile trip - and it started pouring on our way back, so the timing was good. 

Utility Boxes

 A couple more utility boxes - one from Cork, when we were down a few weekends ago before we were, once again, limited to travel within Dublin. No expedition to the Galway/Clare border to look for sloes this year: when the park where we have gathered them before proved fruitless, I bought some raspberries and we will try raspberry gin instead. This utility box is one of a series, but by the time I passed some more, I was fully laden and less inclined to stop.

The other one is on the main road outside the Botanic Gardens, and I've always wanted to take a picture of it. Last weekend C went back to the car, and I went out the front gate and walked back along the road.

And just a couple more photos from the Botanic Gardens, since I'm revisiting it...

Botanic Sunshine

 We woke in good time on Saturday morning and enjoyed a breakfast of cinnamon buns. I need to translate and write out the recipe because I have lost my original translated version; though it's tagged as "American", it's from a long-ago French magazine, let's hazard a guess at 40 years or so. I still have the original file card from the magazine. Plenty of maple syrup along with the butter, sugar and cinnamon. We'll be finishing them off for breakfast or morning coffee tomorrow. 

And since it was a beautiful clear blue sky with sunshine, and we were still early enough to get to the Botanic Gardens before the car park was full, we made the effort and were glad we did. The greenhouses are still all closed, but there was plenty to see and enjoy. 

Loved seeing all the little treasures some boy had found it worthwhile collection in the back of his bicycle.

One particularly fearless squirrel scrambled up C's legs in the hope of finding some food, but unfortunately he considers them to be rodents and shook it off before I could take a photo. 

Botanic Gardens

We did well! On the heels of our quick trip to Farmleigh, and with restrictions eased so that we can now travel within our own county, we took a trip to the Botanic Gardens the following Monday.  I've been so busy ever since that I still haven't had time to edit all the photos, but here are a handful. The heavy thundershower the previous Friday hadn't done much for the peonies, but some still looked good. It was lovely to see all the bees buzzing about. There was a one-way system (with a map posted by the pedestrian entrance but NOT at the carpark, so we didn't get to see it till we were starting our second time round to get to the lily ponds. We passed on going round a third time to get to the rose garden) and the glasshouses were all closed, but it was a wonderful morning out. We saw not one but two turtles (tortoises? I'm never sure. I know turtles swim so if they're in the water that's what I call them). No dragonflies, though - I was hoping for some of those.

 

More autumn colour

A quick look at the forecast and Saturday promised to be a lovely sunny morning - at least as far as current weather conditions go. So we set an alarm, got up in good time and took a visit to the Botanic Gardens.  Disappointed in the sculptures compared to previous years, but that wasn't why we had gone - we certainly enjoyed the rich colours and the warm sunshine. Today, in stark contrast, has been grey and drizzle or downright rain all day. We're glad of our dose of sunshine yesterday.

The bracket fungus looks like the porch for a little fairy house, I thought. And C thought the colchicums were so pristine that they were one of the sculptures.

Botanic Gardens - floral

I'm so glad we got our visit in on Saturday. Sunday morning dawned (well, I can't say dawned, we weren't up that early) grey and dreary, and I'm pretty sure I heard rain at some stage too though it did brighten a little later in the afternoon.

Here are the garden, as opposed to sculpture, photos.

This month's blog header is a photo of a diver taken in Greystones last October.