July favourites

 Scraping the bottom of the barrel to find any, it was a stressful month with zero creative mojo. 

The get well card was for my brother-in-law after a hip replacement, and I hope it arrived because it's not like my sister-in-law not to mention receiving anything we send. 

I did try to force myself on a couple of outings - one to the Shackleton Gardens and on the day I cycled in to the Oxfam bookshop in town with as many books as I could fit I stopped by the Dog Pond in the park on the way back - but as I had as many books as possible, I only had a standard lens on my camera so that it would fit in my bum bag - so not great photos even though I was lucky enough to see two Little Grebes. 

The fungus (which looks to be an Oak Bracket) is the only one from the park. The rest of the Shackleton Garden ones are available HERE. 

The blog header is from the Shackleton Gardens in August 2025. 

June favourites

 In spite of ongoing stress and a heatwave,  June was quite a productive month.

The first two cards were for a sewing/stitches challenge. I made the Tyvek one and then remembered I had wanted to revisit a challenge where you stitched a grid on some paper with the sewing machine, then soaked it briefly in warm water and then distressed it gently between your fingers till some of the paper came out, leaving a lacy like (more or less according to your taste) panel. I'm still not happy that the purple ink I stamped the sentiment with is a totally different tone to what I used to colour the aquilegia, so I might yet stamp it again in a dark green...

The last two were for a technique challenge - I had decided last year not to feature it myself because the lovely examples I had scene all used scenic DP which is something I have very little of. But I looked through what I had and reckoned this paper pad would work well, just meaning that I had to cut my strips narrower than most people did. And with the wonders of hindsight I realised after I had made them that of course I could have just stamped a scene and used that.  Stress and tiredness are what I blame...

The header photo this month is from when I visited Ballybeg Priory in Cork with my sister last year. I thought I should have had more photos from Doneraile Park, but I know it was a very hot, sunny day and it wasn't the best for photos, and the one I would most like to have used wouldn't really work for a blog header. 

May Favourites

 Exceedingly thin on the ground. We had a guest for a week, I was down cat-sitting for my sister for a week...

Photos are a reflection of bamboo from my sister's backyard in a dish on the kitchen counter, a mural on the wall of a derlict building across the road from her, the nectaroscordum emerging from its sheath (last month's header photo was a picture of it in full bloom in the Shackleton Gardens. I'm glad to say that ours has been attracting bees too), and a field down in county Carlow when we brought our house guest down to visit a friend. That was a rather overcast day by the time we got there, but the morning had been good enough for us to take a long and scenic route for the drive down. 

This month's blog header is a photo of The Lough in Cork, when I was visiting my sister last June while C was over in Thailand. 

April Favourites

 With the Easter break and the longer brighter evenings it seems like I was a bit more productive in April! 

My blog header is from a visit to the Shackleton gardens last May when a friend from the UK was over for a week. It was fabulous weather, we went on two day trips, and another day he and I walked to the gardens along the canal bank while C was working. 

  The plant is Nectaroscordum siculum, and the clumps of it were absolutely thronging with bees. I have some coming along nicely in pot myself this year, I can see the buds developing. 

We have a holiday weekend here and I hope to get time to cull a bulk upload from two outings last week, but here a few as a quick sampling - Farmleigh and the National Bird of Prey Centre.

March Favourites

 Later than normal - it was an exceptionally busy week in work.

Not a lot because of high stress levels, but still a few...

The lion card was for a challenge to use playing cards, and was a great chance to use (when I found it) a postcard with an image by Belinda Northcote which came slipped in with something I ordered at some stage. 

The Woodstock one was to mark the day the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, and was inspired by the following Peanuts strips from March 1981

Life has been busy, I fitted in a trip to my sister mid-March to attend a talk by Sean Ronayne, an Irish wildlife sound-recordist. Apart from that the weather has still not been wonderful. A lot of rain and wind, although temperatures have pretty much remained above freezing. 

The photo header is from the Jardin des Plantes (botanic garden) in Paris last April. We had visited several times, possibly going back as far as our very first trip to Paris together back in the nineties, and while my sister and her husband were always full of enthusiasm for it, we never understood the attraction. Maybe we just hit the sweet spot last Spring, when we walked through it several times. 

February Favourites

 Thin on the ground  - it was a very tough and stressful month on a couple of fronts,  plus we had a houseguest for a week - no stress there.  During that week it rained and rained and rained - we were lucky to get one reasonably fine morning to go for a drive and a walk with him. Even he decided that walking along the canal towpath would be too hazardous and slippy on account of the mud and rain. 

This morning we snuck in a visit to the Botanic Gardens after doing a charity shop and Dog's Trust donation run - it was too beautiful a morning to pass up. A couple of photos attached, the album is HERE. 

This month's header, in a throwback to my first blog post ( April 22, 2009)  is magnolia - this one taken in Farmleigh last March.