Country harvest

Last weekend we went on a local blackberry-picking outing and came back with a small amount of sloes - but enough for C to decide that he'd take his last day of annual leave (which had to be taken by the end of the month) and take a day trip to the Burren yesterday and see if we could get more sloes in either of the places we've had good pickings before.

It wasn't the sunniest of days, so not good for photos but we had a lovely day out and did get a good harvest of sloes, and enough blackberries for one more batch of jam. As an extra bonus, it felt like Saturday so we have the Saturday feeling all over again today.

September Favourites...

We marked the last day of the month by going out and picking blackberries yesterday, and even a few sloes for some sloe gin. It was a lovely sunny morning, but the harvest wasn't great. Enough to freeze two 2lb bags for jam, and some for a crumble, with some kept out for a crumble today.

Here are my favourite cards for this month - including, as we're now into the last quarter of the year, the odd Christmas card.

inside of previous card

On second thoughts, that's enough cards for one post, so maybe I'll post a few Christmas cards later on in the week.

Autumn in a frame....

I was a little later than usual in getting a sampler made to switch out my summer-themed one...

A Miscellany

The Art Neko blog and website are still down for a revamp, so instead of posting on the blog, I thought I'd add another card here this week, although I can't provide any links.  The metallic tissue background was created for this week's TLC challenge on Splitcoast.  I used two different stamps from Art Neko, the still life with grapes and wine, and I stamped and cut a couple more leaves from the grapes and leaves with tendrils stamp.

A long-empty site near the bus stop has been opened up for work, and in the process has acquired a new hoarding.

And another utility box - very suitable for our climate, this one.

Utility Box Art

This barrister dog appeared outside the Law Society some day last week, unless I have been very unobservant.

The Viking invasion has taken place at the corner of Ellis Quay, but it's not an easy place to take photos with all the traffic.

And a couple of matchbox projects which I didn't include with my favourite cards last week. The Sizzix matchbox die creates a box about 3 1/2" by 2 1/2" by 3/4".  I'd like to try making a suitcase again with a couple of modifications to this prototype, but it was fun to make.

Birds and a Birdhouse

I took a few photos of a heron on the way to work the other morning. It was low tide, and the particular place the heron was standing meant that I could take photos where it didn't look as much as if I was in the centre of the city.

And here is my card for this week using images (and paper) from Art Neko.  It's a shaker card, using what I imagine to be a birdhouse from the Flowers and Whimsy sheet, along with butterflies from the same sheet, a vertical birthday sentiment and some ATC collage paper.  The base has some coarse mesh stitched to it, and I added some leaf ribbon trim with lots of Liquid Pearls to suggest flowers. I can't remember what die I was using, but the shaker element was all the little pieces popped out from it, they've been sitting in a little pot on my desk ever since.

August Favourites...

August appears to have been a creative month even though it didn't feel like it, lots of cards I was very happy with...

This next one was for the mixed media challenge on SCS; we were to be inspired by the artwork on the cover of a favourite book. That required some thought - not all my favourite books have very inspiring covers (To Kill a Mockingbird, for example). And while I love Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, the covers are a mile away from my own style. As I thought about books, my mind went back to Paul Gallico's The Man who was Magic, one of my favourite of his books. My copy has long ago lost its dust-jacket, but I had memories of it, and was able to confirm them by checking the book out online.

Juvenile goldfinches

I always think they look so different before that vivid red comes in. We seem to have several young ones around this summer.

Cards

A couple of cards featuring Art Neko stamps - both were made for the recent Dare To Get Dirty challenge on Splitcoast.

One will be a birthday card for my brother, since I bought the cog dies, along with a few other things, using the Amazon voucher he gave me for my birthday. I used the Steampunk Clock with Bird for this one, along with a discarded Brusho background from my scrap box.

The second one uses a flower from the Flowers and Whimsy sheet, and a very different colour palette to my normal.

The last card isn't really a card - it's in memory of my father. The last time he was well enough to visit the hens and not-hens (ducks) in the community garden was back in March, before he fell and broke his hip. On Tuesday I went to pay them one last visit and to say thank you to the hospital staff for their great care and kindness over the last year of my dad's life. "Amazing" was one of the few words left in his vocabulary as it diminished over the last months.

Birds of a feather...

A few bird photos... a rare sighting of a bullfinch making the most of the rowan berries - on a rare sunny morning. And since the buses are all arriving early these days with school still off, I'd missed one bus and knew I had plenty of time to get the camera out.

Just the day before we had seen such a fat and red-breasted chaffinch on the niger seed feeder ( a first to see one there, they're normally ground-feeders) that we spent a long time looking at him to make sure he was a chaffinch.

We went for a walk in St. Catherine's Park on Friday afternoon for some time out, and spotted these little ducklings still growing into their adult plumage. I thought their tails looked so funny too, all fanned out. They swam over to us obviously hoping for some treats, but we had nothing to give them.

And lastly a very scruffy moulting robin I spotted this evening; he looked a little piratical with that black patch under his eye.