Easter Greetings

It most certainly doesn't feel like Easter - it's hard even to keep track of what day it is, and that's even though I am still working. But, according to the calendar, Easter it is - so here are my greetings, taken along the canal on Saturday morning.  I believe we saw three different duckling families. Until the little ones are old enough to fly, we'll probably keep on finding them in the same place down near the lock. I'm not sure what the white egg is from - it was at the edge of the path under a tree absolutely wreathed in ivy. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't a duck egg, as it was along the stretch where the canal runs through a cutting and is a lot lower than the path.

Canal Walk

I had a day off on Wednesday, and as it was a beautiful sunny morning, I walked down along the road to post a couple of cards, and back up along the canal.
The first treat was to see a mother duck and what looked like at least a dozen little furballs paddling along madly behind her.  I want to walk back down to the lock tomorrow and see if I can find them again. We're lucky at the moment to have such a pleasant place to walk, almost on our doorstep. The "2 km radius from your home" that we are currently allowed for exercise will take us nicely up or down the canal to suitable points for walking back along the road if we prefer.

A bird of another feather, the chimney cowl on one of the houseboats moored alongside the train station.

And a magpie, taking a quick bath. He then flew up to a branch to sun himself. It was so warm that I could even smell that coconut aroma from the gorse growing along the bank.

And the rest of the photos are just wildflowers and trees. I spotted some early violets, too.

Along the canal

We took a walk this morning down to the chemist to stock up on basics, and came back along the canal. It was much more sheltered walking back, but unfortunately just as I was trying to take photos of the buds in trees the wind picked up even there, and they are blurred. No such problems with one of the houseboats tied up along the bank. It was the painted bit on the roof that caught my eye - I thought maybe it was a chimney and even as we walked I wondered how the decorative paint could withstand the heat; looking at the photo I see it's not a chimney at all. Recently when I was in the off-licence I got chatting to the guy serving me - he was telling me that he and his partner lived in a houseboat moored at the next lock upstream from our one. Like me, he was a reader, but with very limited space he had transferred a large part of his library to Kindle.

I really enjoyed the felted penguins I made at Christmas (thanks, Di), so when ALDI had some kits on offer a couple of months ago, C and I drove over to the nearest store and I bought most of them.  I think I passed on the flamingos, the legs were very peculiar looking. The kits are harder than the penguins in that there's no polystyrene form to base them round, they're entirely felt. And the instructions are minimalist, to say the least. I had started the koala at the time, and got no further than the body. It's been on my bedside table ever since, and I decided it was time to finish it off before I lost not only the instructions but anything else.  I'm quite pleased with him, though I think he could do with claws. 

He's sitting on one of a pair of socks I'm currently knitting. I've just finished a tunic which I also need to take a photo of - but I think I might have to model it to show it off properly as the photo I took flat on the ground doesn't look great...

Adding a card I finished off last night, using one of the images I stamped with milk for the technique challenge on SCS. It took a bit of experimenting, in the end I had the iron turned up as high as I could, and ironed it for longer than I thought I should. It was fascinating watching the images develop from being invisible. It brought back memories of standing in the darkroom beside my dad, watching him develop and print photos. Let's dream of a better tomorrow while we go through this time. 

Canal Walk

We took a walk along the canal the other evening when the sun came out after a shower.
Lots and lots of yellow wild iris, a mother duck with some little ducklings - and some young people swimming in the lock, it must have been freezing!
When the ducklings came over to the side of the canal where we were, they seemed to find great grazing on the algae growing on the houseboat. I was wondering if you could hear them from the inside.

I spotted these flying pigs - just for you, Lorraine. It's an old, possibly Georgian, office building which is being renovated into shared office spaces with a restaurant and bar. The workmen are still beavering away, so the windows are somewhat dusty. I think this is going to be the bar.

Allium time again - as always, they grow in plantings along the roadside, coming up after the daffodils and tulips have gone.

Christmas on the Canal

We went for a walk on Christmas Day morning, to help give us an appetite for dinner after our Pavés à la Canelle for breakfast (Cinnamon Cobbles, I'll try to figure out the recipe well enough to post soon. It's transcribed a long, long time ago from a French magazine, probably Paris-Match, so the measurements are all over the place, some imperial, some metric... ).
 We brought some old stale bread and saw plenty of birds who enjoyed it - apart from the heron who flew off into a tree. It was a surprise to see a wood duck and a pair of mandarins - maybe they had come from the park.

Canal Walk

Thursday was a real summer day here - sunny, blue skies, just beautiful. I was on a day off, too, and if the car wasn't so problematical at the moment I am sure I would have gone to Farmleigh or the park. As it was, I had a lovely walk along the canal enjoying all the birdsong and greenery.

I don't think I've ever seen so many sparrows along there, as well as the usual chaffinches, tits, pigeons, blackbirds and robins. Down by the train station was a hen mallard with one single chick, and on the bank was another hen with an older brood of about five, no longer chick-like. And down at the marina was a swan with two very young cygnets.

Alkanet

Hawthorn

Moorhen

Sparrow

The holiday weekend has at last given me time to read the second chapter in my Elements book, so the next batch of Greek photos won't have crooked horizons!

(The current blog header is a photo from the Bois de Vincennes in Paris last June)

Canal Walk

At  last we had a day with (some) blue skies. Mind you, I think I'd already missed the best of the day by the time I set off for a walk. But it was lovely to be able to go out without a rain-jacket and umbrella, and what sun there was was a tonic.
Even the birds were all out enjoying it!!
Judging by the amount of droppings, whatever board the heron is standing on has been a favourite summer perch for the birds. He flew off very briefly when the dredger came through the lock and up the canal, but by the time I'd crossed at the lock and was walking back up the other side he was back enjoying the sun again.
I had been thinking that maybe the swan was nesting along the bank, since I've often seen it there any time we drive that way, but there was no sign of any sort of nest, and no cygnets either. I saw six on the Liffey earlier on in the week.

Mother duck keeping a good eye out as her young ones rest on the bank. They're beyond the chick stage, but you can see that their wings are still a bit short and stubby - I don't think they could fly yet.

Spring Sunshine

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. I considered going to the Botanic Gardens, but C was heading out on a motorbike run and in the middle of putting the screen back on his bike, a job that sometimes takes two. And by the time he was gone, I know it would have been hard to get parking. So I just went for another walk along the canal, and picked up some chicken carcasses that the butcher had put aside for me on the way back home again. I passed a cat enjoying the warmth of the sun; as soon as I stopped to take a photo he came over, but he was soon happy to lie back down and continue his sunbathing.