Canal - Ancient and Modern

I suppose it's not so ancient, really - work on the Royal Canal started in 1760 and it was completed in 1817.
When the motorway was extended it involved a huge engineering project (1996) to get the canal, railway line and various sewage and water pipes. We have a friend who was studying civil engineering in college a couple of years before this interchange was completed, and he said it was a project that they studied in college. Anyway, when they were upgrading all the motorway interchanges over the last couple of years, that meant even more works. Right now I can't find the photos I took a couple of years ago. I know I took some - we walked down on a snowy day as far as we could go till we hit a dead end at the new interchange. Yesterday we decided to walk down and take another look - now you can once again continue walking along the length of the canal.
It's just strange to have such a green, verdant bank before the Twelfth Lock and the marina, and then have a short passage over the motorway and through a concrete jungle before once again finding yourself in a rural setting and the 11th lock.

I'll have another look for a couple of photos of the incomplete interchange, but right now I'm stiff from 180 miles on the back of C's motorbike on a rather wet and windy day, and a bath is beckoning. Still, it was a good experience - while some of our biking in Greece has been on main roads, most of it has been down side roads and tracks, and it was good to discover that motorway biking may actually be less boring than motorway driving. Except for the wind...

Hail fellow, well met...

Hail - yes.
I walked down along the canal before going to get some bread and vegetables. It had been showery, so I was wearing a raincoat, but I wasn't expecting thunder, lightning and some hail.








I was glad I waited under a sheltering tree and walked on the extra bit to the Twelfth Lock instead of just going straight to the shops - I was rewarded by seeing a mallard with nine little chickies.


Just watch that little laggard scooting over the water. And what amazes me is how dry they are - this was within two minutes of the hail shower. You somehow don't expect those fluffy coats to be waterproof the same way adult plumage is. (Apologies for the wind noise, and also because the roads were wet after the hailstorm there's a lot of road noise from the traffic on the bridge over the canal. I tried some software to compress the video that would have taken the sound out, but I didn't like the result).

Look at them on their journey through the irises growing along the bank - sometimes they were pecking up at the vegetation.

Sunny Monday Morning ...

...meant a walk along the canal to get bread, instead of just walking down the road.
There was so much rubbish floating in the canal, though - I don't know if it's always like that on a Monday morning. It's been a while since I walked along that stretch.

A thrush enjoying whatever pickings were to be found in the grass:

And two swans feeding on some crumbs somebody had left for them under the bridge.

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve night was COLD! We got to Delgany and back safely, although some of the motorway coming home was a bit hairy, and the windscreen washer was frozen up the whole way in spite of the fact that there was quite a high concentration of screenwash in it. Not high enough, obviously. With that cold, dry night Christmas Day was beautiful and frosty and sunny. C was battling with a cold, and we didn't feel like taking the car out, but at some stage he decided he was up for a short walk across the green just to enjoy the scenery. Once we were out, we walked down to the Twelfth Lock and then back along the canal. Boxing Day was warmer, no frost and grey, so we were really glad we'd got out on Christmas Day.

Morning, end of our road

Out walking

Footprints on the canal.

We presumed these were also some type of print, which snow or loose crystals had then drifted around. Except that even most birds don't seem to put one foot right in front of the other, and there were places where we saw a similar formation but just one or two, not a trail.

In the evening the sun tinted all those white trees at the end of the road a lovely pinky/orange.

Canal Walk

Since Farmleigh will close at the end of the month, when today dawned bright and sunny (and frosty) with blue skies we thought we'd try to fit in a trip there this morning. But the car wouldn't start, and rather than spend a long time trying, we went for a walk along the canal instead. It hasn't done my cold any good, but it was better than staying indoors on such a glorious morning. The strange thing is that when C got the battery charger out and tried the car once more before connecting it up, it started perfectly first time and doesn't appear to need charging at all. Maybe we'll get to Farmleigh tomorrow if the good forecast holds. Maybe we just weren't meant to go to Farmleigh today.

Reflections 1

Reflections 2

Bolts and Braces - a new railway bridge

Man was this horse hungry - I was waiting a long time for it to raise its head

Just for fun - ghost bird

We're still trying to identify that bird - I do have a better picture for ID purposes, but this was just as it flew off. We had a delightful time watching a whole bunch of long-tailed tits flitting around  (the first time C has seen any in years), but this bird was too big for that, too long and blocky a tail to be a sparrow, too big for a wagtail, not yellow enough for a grey wagtail. A mystery bird, all in all.

Canal Walk - Men at Work

One day last week I was coming back from shopping, and I just missed getting through the level crossing before the gates came down. With the engine turned off and the window open, I could hear an unusual noise, but I assumed it was someone mowing a lawn or cutting a hedge, until I saw a pedestrian looking down the canal. I asked her was there something there, and she said yes - it was the first time she'd ever seen a boat. So I hopped out to have a look; it was the maintenance barge that we had seen moored further upstream on on of our longer winter walks. Then a train came through, and I had to hop back into the car, so that was that. But on Saturday we saw it in action, just as we were getting to the point where we'd decided to turn back. It was dredging all the algae growing on the surface - and very happy and cheerful the two guys on board looked, too.
 We caught up with them again when they'd turned at right angles to the bank, to unload all the dredged up stuff onto the back. They cover from the Twelfth Lock at Castleknock all the way up to Kilcock, keeping the canal clear and navigable.

Along the walk we passed sites of two or three small fires. This one looks as if somebody had been celebrating the end of their Leaving Certificate by burning at least one of their books! I wonder had they a special antipathy to English as a subject...

 Wonderful, wonderful rain just when I thought I was going to have to go out and water the garden before bed.

C's work colleague for whom I made the wedding cards asked for a Christening card for her 2 year-old grandson. I don't have any suitable stamps or dies, so this is what I came up with. Just as well she likes it, because I don't know what I would have used it for if she hadn't!

Canal Walk - Flora

Plenty of wildflowers out right now too...

Canal Walk - Fauna

No sign of the promised showers today - I shall have to water the garden tonight.
When we woke up, it was sunshine with some clouds. When a quick check of the forecast still said showers, we thought we would get out for a walk while the weather was still good. Lots of birds around - as well as all the pigeons and sparrows we saw some unidentified bird of prey, lots of chaffinches in glorious colour, thrushes and a blackbird, a little baby robin (alas for the ones I was hoping we'd have in the garden), bullfinches and a real treat - a pair of goldfinches.

Diligent thrush collecting worms.

I'd love to know why robins in particular are so fearless - this one was too far from any houses to be much used to people but we met him on the way up the path and back, and both times he sat there till we were almost on him
.

 The goldfinches were an especial treat as we used to have so many in our last garden before we moved here. We could have a dozen or more sitting on the washing line waiting to get at the feeder. And we haven't had one single one since we moved. The photos aren't the best because of the strong sun, but aren't they so pretty. The red and yellow are so bright when you see them properly. I used to spend hours watching them out the kitchen window. In the second one, you can see what looks like thistledown in its beak. I can tell you, I especially let some thistles grow one year, and I never once saw a goldfinch near them. The peanuts were far more attractive. And with a fine crop of thistles to weed out the following year, I decided that town ones were turning their beaks up at their supposed favourite food. But in Corfu one year we saw a field of thistles just full of goldfinches, and in Clare they love them too.

Lots of insects too, dragonflies - normal size and humongous, hoverflies, and a lot of these little butterflies.

Canal Walk

Had yesterday been lovely and sunny as the whole week had been, we were going to go to the Botanic Gardens. The weather didn't seem good enough to warrant the trip, so we settled for a walk along the canal, and Cranberry, Orange and Walnut muffins for lunch when we got back. We were entertained for a good length of the walk by six little mallard chicks (four brave ones venturing ahead, one mother, two laggards pottering along and investigating things along the bank). When he saw the speed the moved at, C realised it wasn't that surprising he hadn't found the ones in town on his lunchtime walk on Friday. And I think he also realised why I had told him where the video setting was on my point and shoot - I got very few shots worth keeping. They just scoot along so fast, and never stop moving. We finally got to a stretch where I could climb down to the canal edge - and the whole family turned back just before they reached it.

We had a lovely light, spicy Hyderabadi curry for lunch today:
Lamb with Onions and Mint  serves about 6
2 lb diced lamb pieces
1 lb onions, peeled, cut in half and sliced thinly
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne (hot chilli powder). I buy mine from Seasoned Pioneers and it is HOT, so I reduced this by half
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 clove crushed garlic
1 tsp turmeric
3 tblsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup / 4 fluid ounces firmly packed fresh coriander (cilantro) and the same again of mint
4-6 fresh green chillies, coarsely chopped
3 tbslp lemon juice.

Put all the ingredients down as far as and including the oil in a large pan, and add 3/4 pt / 2 cups water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for an hour. Remove lid, turn up the heat and reduce the liquid. C likes runny curries, so I skipped this step.
Blend the mint, coriander, lemon juice, fresh chillies and 2 tblsp water to a fine purée. Add to the meat and simmer for about 5 minutes.

This recipe comes from Madhur Jaffrey's A Taste of India.

Acclimatising one of the robins to feeding from my hand proceeds apace. Soon I think I can get C to try taking a photo, as one of them will now perch for over a minute on my hand, nibbling away, before flying off. It's so light that if you didn't feel the claws on your palm, you'd barely know it was there. They're only about 20 grammes according to one source I looked up. That's around three quarters of an ounce! Poor things, one of them looked very bedraggled after a heavy shower today, it made its breast look much more speckled.

Saturday Walk

We took a short walk down the canal to the 12th lock this morning. C has a gig on Tuesday to practice for, and a pile of ironing, so short was the key word;  and down the canal meant that we passed the shopping centre on the way back for essentials like bread and milk.

. More swans - they seem to be out in abundance just now.

A moorhen taking a rest

 

Canal Maintenance (they are doing a lot at the moment. Last week we saw some type of "boat" that is obviously a floating platform for cutting trees from, and a lot of clearing has been done along the banks too. This man was wearing an Irish Waterways windcheater, and was doing some kind of work in the lock. He had a ladder tied to one of the bollards along the quay, for climbing down to the boat. While we were watching him we spotted a grey wagtail - a wonderful splash of yellow.

 

Another splash of colour - these little irises (barely six inches tall) were planted along the bridge.

And another splash of primary colour - large-scale litter, which must literally have made quite a splash wherever it was dropped in. There was a yellow hard-hat floating near it, too.