May Favourites

 Not many!

It was a busy month - a few extra days in work, and a friend staying so we went on a few outings. So I'm afraid I still haven't had time to do anything with photos from Paris. There's a culled but unedited album here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/4brZEY1At6UgA7yWA  

We had pretty much two full weeks of sunshine and bright sunny days - making it hard for our friend, who left Ireland 25 years ago, to remember what Irish weather can really be like, and also making it harder to spend time on photos - too warm and too bright. Normal weather has now resumed...

One of the things I did with Rod on a day that C was working was book a visit to Farmleigh House, something I'd always meant to get round to, and this was the perfect motivation. I must have picked something up when we were out shopping in the morning because when I went to get the bicycles out, mine had a totally flat tire. Luckily there was just time to replace the tube and still get there in time for the tour that we had booked. 

I'll add a couple of photos of the house, since there are plenty of the garden on the blog already.

The painted ceiling, if it's possible to click in and view it larger, has swallows flying around. It was painted when the Guinness of the time was confined to bed and unable to get out and about, so it brought the outdoors in. 

Example of book-binding

The blog header this month is a photo from last June, taken on the beach at St Georges de Didonne - one of the many sunsets we sat and watched. 

Farmleigh - photo heavy

 After a dearth of photos all year, I finally have some. We were awake fairly early on Saturday, and while the weather wasn't as beautiful as Friday, it was still quite sunny and we decided to head to Farmleigh. The biggest treat was seeing some little grebes - we couldn't work out if there were two or three because they swim underwater for such distances. Hard to get a good photo because of their smallness and speed, but I did manage a couple. There were plenty of tufted ducks and coots, a couple of moorhens and of course mallards. The photo of the mallard was a fun one, because the water was so still and clear that we could see his feet paddling away as he moved along.

Apart from that, the photos are Spring flowers, a ladybird C spotted on a dead leaf on an echium, and my new jumper, hot off the needles. I used a voucher from my brother to buy a new book of Aran patterns, and a gift cert from work to (mostly) buy the wool, which is merino with 5% silk and 5% cashmere, and has a lovely feel. It's not actually Aran (worsted/sport) weight, it's double knitting so it's not as heavy and I'll probably get more use out of it. 

Cowslip

The early thrush catching the worms - and maybe a caterpillar

Farmleigh

 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.

I don't recall ever noticing so many wisteria before - a whole row of them growing up frames  - and yet I must have been there around this time of year. With peonies also out and some oriental poppies, it slightly made me regret that I hadn't had the energy to go as far as the Botanic Gardens.

I did cycle the longer (and flatter - usually I go for the shorter and more hilly = exercise) route so that I could take a picture of the deer sculpture now that the alliums are starting to come out.  I did grab one at the tulip stage, but missed the stage after that when there is some tall stem with either blue or white flowers, and which I haven't yet taken the time to identify. 

 

A Miscellany

 I think I might have mentioned last year that a new sculpture was erected near the entrance to the park. I have been meaning ever since to take a photo of it - but in the morning I'm just focussed on getting to work, and on the way home I'm on the wrong side of the road. And when I go for a leisure cycle in the park, I go a different route. But I finally made the effort to stop the other morning, while the daffodils were still in bloom. It was a grey overcast morning - the previous week would have been more spectacular with dense fog and the sun breaking through.

Today was an intermittent bright and showery day. When we were sitting down after dinner and C was wondering if he'd get a break in the weather for a walk, we saw a beautiful rainbow. It got brighter and brighter - sadly was already dimming by the time I got to the front door with my camera. It's hard to get a good photo because of houses all around, so I settled for zooming in.

Since I have been proofing my boules in a glass bowl lined with a floured cloth ever since Christmas, I finally splashed out on a couple of banneton proofing baskets. I didn't attempt yet to make my bread directly in it, but used the lining cloth. Better than chocolate, C said. I also attempted some ciabatta for the first time, which turned out pretty well.

And I'll finish off with three photos from Farmleigh. Sunday was a sunny day if still on the cold side, and I persuaded C onto his bicycle and out to Farmleigh while the bread was rising. 

I forgot to change my header the other day ; that has been updated so we now have a photo of magnolias in Farmleigh from last April.

And now it's time to see if File History is working in Windows 11, so far I have had three failed backups and I don't like being without one. I might have to resort to third-party software.

Spring is Springing

 We finally had some bright sunshine weather, so I fitted a trip to Farmleigh in on Thursday morning. Unfortunately the walled gardens were just being closed for maintenance when I got there - if I'd known that I might have waited till today which was also a bright sunny day. But that's life.

My eye was caught straight away by a duck that didn't look like a mallard - and which did indeed turn out to be a shoveler. I have a feeling I might have seen them in the Zoo, which is also in the park, and we have definitely seen them in the bird reserve down in Newcastle, but it was the first time I'd seen one here. I think there was a female with it too - they are very similar in colouring to female mallards, so while I was there I just thought it was a mallard, but when I zoomed in on a couple of photos, I could see that it also had the distinctive long bill.

I also got lucky and was able to grab a few photos of a little wren.

Then we have some backlit magnolia buds and a couple of flowers, and a still life someone had created on one of the picnic tables, along with a glimpse into the walled garden through one of the gates.