A beach - at last

 We took a few days break away from home last week, and camped in my brother's garden so it really felt like a holiday - especially combined with the amazing weather we've been having. 

Our first outing was to a nearby beach, and it was wonderful to walk on sand, paddle (and swim) after barely having seen the sea for over a year and a half.

It wasn't a large bay - but large enough when we walked to one end from the car park, and then to other end and back.

We saw plenty of gulls (mostly black-headed), some oyster-catchers, an unknown little brown bird, and at each end there were sand martins nesting in the "cliff" front. I could swear I heard a curlew too though I didn't see one. It's possible, I used to see them from the train when I was visiting my Dad in Midleton. 

Due to the blogger issues I'm not going to try to sort them all in order. 

Sand martins on fence

Oyster-catcher

Martin nests 

Black-headed gull

I'll be back with some photos over the next few days. We also visited Fota Gardens and Arboretum, and had two forest walks. 

Hot Off the Needles

 as promised. I've been knitting this Aran sweater for a while - C picked out and determined on a v-neck cardigan pattern which he wanted converted into a crewneck sweater, so the sizing required adjusting and the whole front neck shapings had to be calculated. And there was a pause while I knit the baby blanket - but it's done.

 I also made him a shirt. I had ordered 1/4 metre of peacock feather fabric for masks, and when he saw it, he requested a shirt. So that was his anniversary present. For some reason it's very hard to get the colour of the fabric right. I sent my sister a photo of a spare mask to see if she would like it, and when she got it, she said the fabric was even nicer than the photo. It is - I've ordered more to make a summer dress for myself - and didn't think the photo I took of the shirt was worth uploading. There's more jade green colour in the fabric in real life. 

From Wednesday in the park, a coot chickling.

And on Thursday, as C had taken a couple of days off, we went for a drive and a change of scenery. This is Lough Tay, in the Wicklow mountains. Of recent years it's been used to film The Vikings, and the houses and piers visible in the second photo are part of the film set rather than authentic original scenery. From the amount of trucks and vans in the car park above it, I suspect that shooting was happening on the day. 

It was intermittently cloudy and quite windy, but after the prolonged lockdown that started at the end of December, it was lovely to see some totally different scenery. 

One Sunny Day

When we were driving home from Coole, the skies cleared to a lovely blue. And the next morning we had another window of good-weather opportunity. It hadn't been in the forecast, so we weren't prepared for a longer drive but we took an outing to a lake that was not too far away. With the sun out, it was quite warm on the limestone once we were out of the wind. We saw plenty of wagtails, a female chaffinch and some unidentified small brown birds.

More of Clare

Our second outing was to Coole, one of our regular places to visit. I still remember the time we went over a New Year, when there had been heavy flooding in the locality followed by some freezing weather. Some of the paths were inaccessible, and some had a layer of ice over shallow water. That was a much abbreviated but memorable and enjoyable walk. 

The first two photos are part of a series, a facsimile copy of one of Yeats' poems. 

No swans (or hares, we've seen those here before) to be seen - all I found was three swan feathers. And despite the fact that apparently it has been a very dry summer down there, the lake was quite full, and towards the end of it there were parts where the narrow trail was submerged. 

There was an amazing thicket of wild raspberries - ripe, juicy, sweet. I wished I'd had something to collect some in. As it was, we just enjoyed a passing snack. 

Plenty of assorted fungi - and a young frog who still seemed to have part of his tail. 

A brief interlude

in the country. We were able to go to Clare for a few days last week. C had to take 10 days compulsory leave before the end of August, and I couldn't take any time off after July 20, so we got away while we could. The weather was mixed, but it was a really nice break. I'll share a few photos here and maybe in another post - there is an album with 58 photos HERE. 

The photos here are from Dromore Wood Nature Reserve, with the last two being the lake beside the cottage we stayed in, and the view over the lake from the house. 

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: