Beyond the Park

I've been spotting some new utility box art in Castleknock village recently (Caisleán Cnucha is the Irish for Castleknock). The first one I noticed was someone painting the young fawn, and I meant to be sure to look on the way to work to see what she had done - but it's very discreetly tucked into a corner and I didn't think about it for a few days till I noticed the one with the lamplighter and the badgers, and then I made sure to pay attention to the first one. There's one she's still working on, so far there is a floral background and white spaces for birds to be filled in, so I will keep an eye on that one. It has to be said that incorporating the lock into the deer's nose looks better from a distance, I should maybe try taking another photo from the other side of the road - but it's quite a busy road and it might be hard to get one with no traffic. 

I particularly liked the middle one, with the lamplighter. Until a few years ago I still used to see the two old men who maintained the lights. The actual lighting and turning off had been automated, but as they are old gas lights they still require regular maintenance. At the time I saw them, the two brothers were in their late seventies and late eighties. A couple of years ago I stopped to talk to the younger man who was now doing the job and he said that the Flanagans still helped out in the workshop. There is a lovely book about them and the history of the park - The Lamplighters of The Phoenix Park  I haven't been lucky enough to see badgers, but I know there are some in the park. 

We have finally been having some much-needed rain, and the other morning when I went out to the shed to bring the wash in, there was a classic spider web running from the nectaroscordum to C's bike, which was not in it's normal place, but which made a great backdrop to highlight the web.
 

October Favourites

 There are a few more of these, as work got a bit quieter. I hope to finally see the end of dealing with my aunt's affairs next week, and that will be a great relief. 

The not very good photo of the seagulls was one of several really nice utility boxes I saw today on my way to the solicitor, but the only one I stopped to take a photo of, as I didn't have my camera with me. 

The blog header was a beach in Cork that I visited with my sister two years ago, there was a major shortage of photos from November 2024. 

September Favourites

 Again, not many. Mostly accounted for by the fact that we were away the first two weeks in September; then we came back to a family funeral, a house guest for a week and 3 full work weeks for me. So in fact I only remembered that I hadn't made a blog post when I started thinking about a new utility box cover art I had seen yesterday. It's near the mainline train station, and has replaced the one with two Bernese Mountain Dogs. 

Two cards...

My header is some fallen acer leaves taken in the Shackleton Gardens last October - possibly the first time we visited. 

Utility Box Art

 I have been meaning to upload these and keep forgetting.

C and I spotted the butterfly one when we cycled to the Shackleton Gardens, but at the time I didn't feel like stopping and getting my camera out of my backpack. I chucked over recently too the organic farm shop beside the gardens to get some good floury Irish potatoes for my brother-in-law who was over from Sydney, and since I was stopped at a red traffic light on the way back, that gave me my opportunity.

The second one was near work, and it's certainly relatively new because I used to walk past that spot probably two or three times month, but not since I started cycling to work. I was working off site for a day a few weeks back, and left my bike in work as a safe place for the bike and an easy place to change clothes. So I grabbed a quick snap on my way back to collect the bike. 

February Favourites

 Thin on the ground... we've been short-staffed in work and I've had to do extra days, 

I spent a weekend mid-month with my sister. The weather was pretty dreary, but we went to a forest park beside a reservoir, also the national rowing centre of Ireland - it was a pleasant walk in spite of the misty drizzle, and there was a little van selling hot drinks which was a nice treat afterwards.

An abundance of red berries, which we presumed were not attractive to the birds as there were so many of them. 

I had a rather unnerving experience on Monday when my front brake stopped working shortly after leaving home. I had felt it was a bit loose and was thinking I must book a service sooner rather than later, when it went altogether. I was careful but not overly worried because I knew we had replaced the rear cable just before Christmas, so it was quite a shock when the rear brake too stopped working totally - luckily on the flat, and luckily near work so I didn't have too far to push the bike. And luckily a day C was working at home, and was able to come in at lunch and pick me up.

As I walked I passed this utility box, which has definitely been repainted as used to be something else altogether.

Two  new brake cables and everything is fine again, but especially when one was almost brand new it's a bit of a mystery to everybody how it could have happened.

November Favourites

 Another busy month with not a lot of creating time. I don't have any other photos either - a too-blurred one of an interesting utility box cover which is sadly way off my normal route so I'm not likely to pass it again any time soon. Maybe I'll just share it anyway, blurred or not. There was a lot of traffic on the road so I was probably rushing trying to take it. 

 Being the first of December when this posts, I will include a couple of my more favourite Christmas cards from November - it was my main card-making focus as I tried to catch up with myself. Normally I can create enough during the year that I'm only left needing a half dozen or so.

Rainbow over the entrance to the Phoenix Park during Storm Debi

Poor photo of utility box cover in Donnybrook (actually October)

The header this month is an oystercatcher on the mudflats at Warrenpoint, with a low setting sun reflecting off the sand. 

Along the coast

 I recently had to go for my annual medical check-up for work, and this time I made an afternoon appointment for after work. Knowing that I would have a little spare time I tucked my camera into my bag, and took a few photos on the way.

First up was the changed decor on this utility box - last year it displayed a Viking cycling along, a sheep looking through a porthole and the Pigeon Chimneys (as blogged here). This year it was totally different.

Shortly after that, you reach yacht club land, so I spotted this sign.

After that I reached Bull Island, a bird reserve and two golf links.  I cycled out to it along the second causeway, so between the two I spotted a couple of egrets and some shelduck.

As it was fairly overcast I didn't great photos on the reserve, but here are a couple. It was certainly lovely to feel sand beneath my feet and smell the tang of salt air. 

On the way back I spotted some more utility box art. I'm afraid the close-up didn't turn out well, and I can't remember if at that stage I was just using my phone because I needed to get home and get dinner cooked before going out again...I'm thinking it was just my phone at this stage. In any case, I also took a long shot to depict the setting, because just beyond the road is St. Anne's Park, and in fact there was a heron in the little pond/lake.

Since Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning with blue skies, and we were both awake early, we took a trip to the Botanic Gardens and I'll be along shortly with a recap of that. We were delighted to see a mandarin duck (they've been gone from the park for several years now) and a little grebe, plus a swan family with very young cygnets. 

Canal Ride

 I had my annual medical checkup last week, and since driving aggravates my shoulder, I decided that it was withing cycling range given a good weather forecast. It was a nice combination of into town along the canal, and then a short part through the city before I was back out on the coast road with a cycle lane all the way. Now I know that I can plan around tide times and take a trip to the North Bull Island nature reserve with my camera some time. Last week, though, I just had my phone and I was a bit pressed for time on the way out because C was wrong when he told me I couldn't miss a particular turn. I had spotted this utility box on the way out, and was glad to have time to stop and take a couple of pictures on the way back. The two striped chimneys are a classic Dublin sight - Poolbeg Power Station, and there is a strong Viking heritage in Dublin. In fact the Battle of Clontarf (this area) in 1014 resulted in the victory of Brian Boru and his Irish army over an Irish-Viking alliance, and came to be seen as a battle that marked the end of the Viking domination of the country. 

Many people enjoy sitting along the canal side - but only the famous get sculptures to commemorate the fact. Here on the Royal Canal we have the poet  Brendan Behan sitting just above the 2nd lock. The Grand Canal plays host to another poet, Patrick Kavanagh. 

And at the 10th lock is a sculpture of a lock keeper. While most of the locks along the River Shannon are now automated, we did pass through one old one on our holiday last summer, when we detoured down the Camlin River, which had to be opened manually by the lock keeper just as represented here. 

I had plenty of choices for this month's header. Originally I had a swan, but in the end I decided to go with this chick - I think it's a coot. And I'm also adding a just for fun card. The rat had been floating around my desk since last November when C took his trip to Maine. Being on mineral paper he wasn't as substantial as all the other bits and pieces that float around indefinitely, so I was keen to use him up.