July snaps

July started out raining...

and it feels as it has pretty much continued that way, although fortunately not on Saturday afternoon when I visited my sister. I had taken a couple of photos of this utility box last summer, but that was the time my memory card got corrupted, and I wasn't able to download any of the photos from that day. The last couple of times I was there were over the winter on dull grey days, but as Saturday was bright, I was able to snap it again. Just with my phone - knitting, chocolate mousse and assorted other things meant that I didn't actually pack my camera that day.

And never, in all the times I have visited the English Market, has it been so empty. However, I didn't wish to stand about in the way in the entrance blocking other people, so I only took one quick shot of the lovely Art Deco heron fountain; usually it's so crowded that it's not possible to get a full view of it.

I shared a couple of closer shots last summer. In case you missed them, here they are again:

Fota Arboretum

C was away for some days - he left on a Friday morning, so that afternoon after work I got the bus down to Cork and spent the night with my sister - we had planned an outing to Fota Arboretum. We did have a couple of showers, but nothing that we couldn't shelter from under the trees. It was a lovely day out.

Here's a link to the album with most of the photos I took, I'm just uploading a select few here. We visited the formal gardens first. Not so formal now as they would have been in their heyday, there were four patches of wildflower meadow set into the lawns.
I was totally fascinated by the way the fronds of the cryptomeria seemed to start out almost fused, looking like a sponge or a coral, and then opened up.

Old Cork...

We took a trip to Cork yesterday: I spent the afternoon with my sister and C visited a friend. I was partly going to visit an art exhibition. As we were walking over, I asked my sister about the Elizabeth Fort, since I'd spotted it the night before on Google Maps when doing some planning. She and her husband said that they'd looked at it once but it wasn't really worth visiting - however, as we were passing the bottom of the street it was at the top of (literally, Cork is full of hills), we swung by - and it definitely was worth a visit. It was a very grey overcast day just turning to drizzle and not very suitable for photography but we enjoyed a walk around the walls and they enjoyed picking out all the landmark buildings.

Right beside it is St. Fin Barre's cathedral - and the golden angel and just-turning beech foliage were a great match.

It was also interesting to see all the different rods used for cleaning and loading the cannon.

The top one with the hook was for cleaning out debris left from the previous firing. The next one down with the sponge was used for cleaning the barrel prior to re-loading again. The scoop was for putting in an accurate measure of gunpowder, and finally the ramrod was for tamping it in. 

Someone appears to think that good knots won't hold in the current windy season! This was the base of the flagstaff. 

I have often seen this vintage store as it's just across the road from where I used to get the coach when I was visiting my dad. I've even been into it more than once for a browse around, and I knew it included a coffee shop - but for some reason I never noticed the Italian coffee pot on the shop front before. With major roadworks on the quays it wasn't even possible to get a good photograph of it. 

Happy Christmas

The last two weeks here have been absolutely hectic, I feel as if I hadn't stopped since we got back from Paris (not even any time to edit the photos, that's a holiday task).
As I write this it's Christmas Eve afternoon and I have been baking all morning - melon soup, chicken pot pie and the Bûche de Noel for tonight at my aunt's house, fresh bread for lunch with half the dough being saved for cinnamon buns for breakfast tomorrow, and a Bailey's cheesecake for tomorrow. Now it's time to start winding down...

The first photos are from Midleton on Thursday, all of the library. Thursday was a beautiful day, not too windy and even a little warmth if you stood in the sun in a sheltered place.

Bûche de Noel for Christmas Eve - thank goodness there is some of the chocolate buttercream frosting left over because I would hate to think that I had used an entire four 125g bars of chocolate. At least the cake this year is lighter than the chocolate roulade I normally make, since I came across my mother's old recipe on a filing card somewhere. We had the dinkiest little miniature ones in Paris, complete with tiny little sugar toadstools and little plastic saws/axes for decoration.

Merry Christmas to all my cyber friends.

Setting out

The last time we got the ferry to France it was very grey and overcast as we headed out from Cork. This time, though there were some clouds, it was lovely and sunny and quite warm. We were able to sit out on sun chairs on the deck for quite a while after most people had moved in and enjoy the warmth and sunshine. Cobh looks a lot prettier in the sunshine - or else they've painted it up a lot since 15 years ago.

I'm going to totally skip chronological order here and add two pictures from the way back. The first one was taken through the portholes at the front of the ferry. You can see the Breton flag flying. It's hard to tell how rough the crossing was - it was certainly rough in our cabin, which was very near the front. Even though we weren't out at the side but well towards the centre we could hear the waves against the side (or front) of the ship, and all Saturday my head was spinning in circles. But at least we both managed to sleep more than we expected we could, and in spite of C's expectations a couple of times, I never fell out of the bunk.

We arrived back to a grey, rainy day. It was very heavy rain for about half the drive home. We'd have stopped off at my brother's for a break from the rain and a cup of coffee, but when I rang him, there was some special event on at the kids' riding school and they weren't going to be home for some time yet, so we soldiered on.

On the home front - the coal tits were the first to realise the feeders were filled up again. I've seen a couple of blues and greats too, but the sparrows are only slowly returning and I haven't seen any robin yet. You know I've often mentioned how territorial robins are. I actually got to see two fighting on our last morning. A whole big campsite, and all the time we'd been there (and in the previous one) I'd heard a lot of territorial robin talk. C was having a last strum on his guitar before packing it into the car, so I went off walking round the site and just at the end of the row where we were pitched, I saw some movement on the ground. A closer look and it was two robins up close and personal tussling on the ground. So it is true what they say!! No photos of that, and none of the first ever kingfishers I saw :D. We saw one on an outing from our first campsite, from a hide beside a lake, and I saw another one from the little boat when we had our trip along the canals in the Marais.