I paid a visit to Farmleigh on Thursday morning, which turned out to be a good choice as Friday and Saturday were both very showery. As I was stowing the saddlebags in my backpack and switching sunglasses for regular, I had a curious visitor who first perched on the pedal and then flew up to the handlebar of my bicycle.
Sunday 22 May 2022
Farmleigh
Sunday 1 May 2022
Canal Ride
I had my annual medical checkup last week, and since driving aggravates my shoulder, I decided that it was withing cycling range given a good weather forecast. It was a nice combination of into town along the canal, and then a short part through the city before I was back out on the coast road with a cycle lane all the way. Now I know that I can plan around tide times and take a trip to the North Bull Island nature reserve with my camera some time. Last week, though, I just had my phone and I was a bit pressed for time on the way out because C was wrong when he told me I couldn't miss a particular turn. I had spotted this utility box on the way out, and was glad to have time to stop and take a couple of pictures on the way back. The two striped chimneys are a classic Dublin sight - Poolbeg Power Station, and there is a strong Viking heritage in Dublin. In fact the Battle of Clontarf (this area) in 1014 resulted in the victory of Brian Boru and his Irish army over an Irish-Viking alliance, and came to be seen as a battle that marked the end of the Viking domination of the country.
Wednesday 29 September 2021
Farmleigh in the fall...
Today was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and a distinctly crisp feel in the air. Since tomorrow's forecast isn't great, I decided to push myself out of the house after returning from leaving my sewing machine in for a service, and I went for a walk in Farmleigh.
There was a small clutch of relatively young moorhen chicks - they must have been the last batch of the season, because while they were no longer little scruffy balls of fluff, they weren't that big and they were cheeping madly. I also some some young tufted ducks, which were probably the ones I shared a video of a couple of months ago.
Here are the moorhen chicks.
Also some of the general flora. I was surprised to see so much blue (not in the photos, but the herbaceous border had a lot, more monkshood than I've ever seen in one place before, but a couple of other things too. I always think of blue as a Spring flower colour...
I'm not personally a huge fan of hydrangeas, but I always think the dead heads look so pretty |
The waterlilies on the lake are dying. I thought this one looked like a perching bird - in fact I did think it was a bird on first glance |
And one utility box art which I snapped with my phone near work a few weeks ago. Our president has two Bernese Mountain dogs, and Aras is simply the Irish for "building" - so the president's residence is Aras an Uachtaráin. I think there is also something written on the other end of it, but I haven't paid enough attention to it as I'm usually focussed more on traffic.
Sunday 16 May 2021
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
Thursday 6 May 2021
Canal Walk
Finally my duckling hunt paid off. It was a beautiful (but cold, a heavy frost overnight) morning, and as I had bad earache yesterday I decided to go for a walk along the canal rather than cycle in the park. I walked to the lock along the road, because where the houseboats are, and beside the train station, is usually the best place for finding ducklings. Nothing there except a mallard drake enjoying the sun, and a moorhen showing the beautiful browns in its plumage in the sunshine. Normally I think of them as black birds. But, despite the recent heavy rain and frequent hail showers, I decided to risk the mud along the towpath and walk back home canal-side, and that was where I found my chickies at last. They were tiny, I don't think they can be hatched that long. And yet this time last year, any we saw were well past the fuzzball stage. I wonder why they were so much later this year...
Apologies for the brightness - it was, as I said, a very bright sunny morning. I'm sorry, for some reason the photos are showing in reverse of the order I wanted, and it's one thing that is not so easy in the newer Blogger dashboard, moving them around. My walk started at the bottom of the photos here. Many of the houseboats were decked out with planters and tubs full of colourful Spring flowers. The snail was on the side of a barge which does charter trips.