Farmleigh Again

 I took a quick trip to Farmleigh one morning a couple of weeks ago, hoping to inspire C to take a trip to see the magnolias the following weekend. He settled for just looking at my photos. This weekend we were finally able to travel further, so we went to the Botanic Gardens - but alas, I forgot to check that there was a memory card in my camera. So he did get to see some magnolias in real life.

Here are a few photos from the Farmleigh trip. I'm also keeping an eye out for ducklings everywhere I go, because I can see that this time last year we were seeing them on the canal. No sign of them there, no sign in Farmleigh, no sign in the Botanics.

There is what may be a tufted duck's nest in the lake. I don't know, it looks more like what moorhens make to me, but whatever it is I'm sure it's bird-made and not man-made.

I did take a few photos in the Botanic Gardens with my phone - I shall have to see what they look like on a larger screen and whether they are worth sharing. In any case, even without photos it was well worth the trip - sunshine, blue skies and birdsong. 

Park Walk

 Yesterday was quite good weather-wise, so in the morning I walked down to the local shops when they opened, and then C came on down in the car and we went to the park. It made for a different walk for him, as normally he just departs from the house on foot and walks around the immediate area these days. And it was nice for me to get away from the main road straight through it, pleasant a commute as it is. It turned cloudy as we drove there and parked, but it brightened up again and there was real warmth in the sun.

Last weekend I made a big pot of minestrone, which did three meals for the two of us and lunch for me. By the time we got to the third meal, I was on a day off and made Parker House rolls to have with it. Normally I have used the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, which requires rolling the dough out and cutting circles. This recipe, which I found on the King Arthur Flour website, was much easier, and they turned out beautifully. I'm ashamed to say I ate four of them while they were fresh from the oven. I thought the addition of potato flour was interesting - one of the recipes I use for the nearest one can get to baguettes without French flour calls for the addition of cornflour to the regular white flour. 

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 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.

 

Farmleigh

Friday was our anniversary, and I had hoped that the weather would be good enough for me to cycle to Farmleigh on the way home from work, and for C to meet me there. In fact, it was light rain for most of my cycle, and heavy thundershowers after we got home, but we were lucky to enjoy a mostly sunny spell while we were there. The walled gardens, sadly, were closed; probably because it would be hard to maintain social distancing along the narrow paths. And of course we were far too late for the magnolia and the cherry blossom. But I don't remember ever seeing the catalpa in bloom before, and we were intrigued by the tetracentron sinense. 

Despite the fact that C had assured me that the bicycle would fit in the back of the car, it didn't - or at least, not without taking the wheel off. I can't say I was surprised, but he was!

In fact, I put almost all the photos here but there are a handful more in a Google Photos album HERE

Summer in the Park

Yesterday we went for our first walk in the park since lockdown - it's within the 5km radius, it was a beautiful day, it's a holiday weekend and C had been up to his eyes in work last week so he needed a total break (as much as possible in current circumstances) from the house.

It was beautiful. Very warm... The deer were all lying down in a huddle, which I would have thought would make them warmer, but maybe there was some cooling effect. It was cute seeing the budding antlers. Across the grassland we could see swallows and we are fairly certain we saw skylarks, too. 

Many of the ducks by the pond were also too lethargic to do anything other than sleep in the sun - mallards, and a Muscovy duck. 

But round the side of the pond as we walked back towards the car, there were a couple of adult coots and some very scrawny looking chicks rustling their way through the lily pads. The adults were constantly calling - I wondered if it was so that the chicks could locate them in the dense growth. A totally different bird soundscape here to the open grassland. 

And down by the lower lake in the woodland area, it was cool and shady and a third, different bird soundscape.

 

I hope it's possible to click on these photos - I was trying the new version of Blogger which will become the default in June.