Seen Around Town

I spotted this utility box art a couple of weeks back, when I was walking to get the coach down to Cork. It used to be much more of an abstract pop-art design. This new one is much more appropriate, as it's outside Smock Alley Theatre,  converted from a 19th-century church building, incorporating structural material from an 18th-century theatre building, and built on the site of the 17th century Theatre Royal, Dublin.

This is the mural that used to be on the side wall of a building I often pass on the way to work,

there are a few photos of it as a work in progress in THIS post from last year. 

Since the new Roe & Co microdistillery opened in the old Guinness power plant building, it's been replaced with this bird's eye view of Dublin.

You can see the Pigeon Chimneys on the left - the photo below shows them from the ferry as we left Dublin this summer. The building under them is the new distillery. I assume the river is the Liffey running through. The tall building is St. Patrick's Tower, as shown in THIS post. 

Canal Walk

We took a walk along the canal the other evening when the sun came out after a shower.
Lots and lots of yellow wild iris, a mother duck with some little ducklings - and some young people swimming in the lock, it must have been freezing!
When the ducklings came over to the side of the canal where we were, they seemed to find great grazing on the algae growing on the houseboat. I was wondering if you could hear them from the inside.

I spotted these flying pigs - just for you, Lorraine. It's an old, possibly Georgian, office building which is being renovated into shared office spaces with a restaurant and bar. The workmen are still beavering away, so the windows are somewhat dusty. I think this is going to be the bar.

Allium time again - as always, they grow in plantings along the roadside, coming up after the daffodils and tulips have gone.

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.

A Cold and Frosty Morning...

Yesterday was a crisp, cold clear morning. I had a long list of things to do, but we took time out for a walk in the park and thoroughly enjoyed it.

A couple of things got pushed on to today, such as the pears with ginger which we were out of stock of, and starting work on a Christmas gift never got started at all - but it was still worth taking the time to enjoy the scenery.

Park History Part 2

I think the Mountjoy Cross sign is now quite out of date, since it's now a roundabout!

I have been thinking that some fine mornings I should get an early bus as far as the park gate and walk through the park to work - and Thursday's walk has given me an extra nudge in that direction.

Park History part 1

We are currently experiencing a partial bus-strike; no service last Thursday or Friday, most likely the same next week, and Friday and Saturday the following week. I use the bus to travel to work...the train runs behind our house, so on Thursday morning I took the train to work and walked out from the city centre.

The train service at commuting times is pretty OK - just crowded - but off peak it's not so good, and I knew that the earliest I could get home would be nearly 2.30. So, when we finished work a little early, and the day had improved from the morning drizzle into sunshine and a nice breeze, I decided to walk home. I know that I can get from work all the way through the park to the stop near Castleknock gate in less than an hour. And I normally walk home from the dentist in something like twenty minutes, so already the journey was broken down a bit in my mind, just leaving the bridge between the park gate and the dental surgery.

If Google Maps is to be believed it is a 9 km walk  - just over five miles, and they estimated 1 hour 53 minutes walking. I was aiming for one and a half hours, and in fact made the trip door to door in hour hour twenty-five - which is not bad considering that I took so many photos along the park section that I have to make this in two posts, and since I was only using my phone, I had to unlock the screen every time I stopped for a photo. And several information signs were missing - at least half a dozen.