Bare

I walked over to the sorting office this afternoon to pick up a package. It was a cold, clear sunny afternoon, and all the bare trees looked just wondeful. As I was coming back there were plenty of red clouds, and a rising moon. My camera isn't good at capturing sunset colours, but at least the moon picture turned out alright.

Not bare - I'm not sure what sort of berries these are, but I was surprised to see them in blossom as well as berry. We've been hearing about flocks of waxwings being seen on rowan trees around Dublin, and cotoneasters, so I'm going to be keeping my eyes skinned. I was hoping to go and scout out the park tomorrow because the weather forecast was good, but I have an extra day in work so that idea is a no-go.

Our robin is still singing away when I go out to put seeds in the feeders. And we have some regular goldfinches again.

Quick Snaps...

around Heuston Bridge. I like the black-headed gulls in their winter plumage.

October Cards

Looking at the watermarks, all these were made for the Hope You Can Cling To challenges last month over on SCS. I guess between being away and having one cold after another for the first half of the month, that pretty much was my card-making for October. It was certainly the first time in three years that I didn't meet my quota of 5 Christmas cards for the month. The sheep one was for a challenge to feature humour and stitching, and was one of the hardest for me. Being more of a word person, once I had a pun to work with I was able to start from there.

On the Way to Work

We've been having an unexpected mild spell and even a little sunshine this week. But in spite of the change in the hour, the mornings have still been fairly gloomy and overcast.

Most of the leaves I see floating down the river have been there a while and are flat in the surface of the water, but this one was still dry enough to have kept its curl; however the current was taking it so fast that it was hard to get a decent photo of it.

Lights reflected in the water 

I liked this crow perched on a still-lit spotlight on top of a derelict building. I'd first seen him in front of it, and with the lit lamp it almost looked as if he were looking in a mirror. I still like the way this photo came out, though, even if it didn't capture what I first saw.

Another electricity box cover. Anybody know what the actual correct term for those grey boxes is? I need to check back too to see if I've uploaded the bookshelf one from the end of Capel Street. This one is at Christchurch Cathedral, and it was one of the guys in work who put me onto it, since he has this as his avatar and screensaver at the moment.

Birds

It's harder to take good photos of the birds since we've had to move the feeders - it either has to be through a window or I have to go and stand beside the house. But our current robin is becoming less timid, and a couple of days last week I even heard him singing away and not just making his territorial call.

Walking along the canal one morning last week I was thinking I had seen no wildlife at all, and then I spotted a grey squirrel, and a couple of minutes later, a grey heron.

Not a great photo, but probably the best I've managed yet of a wagtail. It was funny to see three pied wagtails flitting around along the Liffey one morning - usually it's grey wagtails I see there. And another heron, town cousin to the first one!!

Coole - the lake

Some photos of the turlough and lake at Coole.

As far as I can recall there's always been a reasonable amount of water in the actual lake at the end of the property any time we've been there. But the bottom  pictures show the difference between the turlough part now, and in March 2010. It appears that most of my other photos are pre-digital, but I'm glad I found some that weren't. Quite apart from the difference in how green it was, the variation in the water levels is quite something. There's a moss on some rocks that marks the maximum water level.

October 2012

March 2010

March 2010

Coole - the woods

I love Coole Forest Park. I'd thought that maybe we'd visit it on the day we were driving home, but Sunday morning was beautiful and Monday was not, so I'm glad we went for a more leisurely walk on Sunday. I've divided the photos between the woods and the lake - I'll post the woods first. That will give me time to find a couple of older pictures of the turlough area. While Carran turlough this time was very low, the one in Coole was pretty full - I'm not sure I've ever seen it higher except during actual floods.
The woodlands are so lovely - down near the lake where they can get flooded they have almost a primeval look.
We were fascinated by the tree growing over one of the big rock. And the guelder roses were covered in berries and looked just wonderful. While C was off investigating a covered shelter in the woods I found traces of a pine marten - I only wish I'd been able to actually see one!!

North Clare

On Saturday our drive took us through the Burren heartland and up to the north Clare coast. On the way we passed through Carran, where the turlough was very low indeed, just looking like lightly flooded land.

The following two photos were taken from exactly the same spot (within a few metres!) in September 2008, when the turlough was quite full.

We managed to get just about 3/4 lb of sloes, which was not very much at all. But the views from round there are so good that C is always happy to go there anyway - and we do still have some sloe gin left from two years ago when there was a bumper harvest. The blackberries were pretty miserable too - I think it hasn't been a good year in the wild any more than in peoples gardens.

From there we went on our usual drive/walk around the Finvara area. The high point of the whole weekend for C was seeing this sparrowhawk as we drove slowly along the coast road. It stayed there for ages - I was able to get out of the car and get quite close, while C managed to balance the spotting scope on the car window for an even better view.

In the field beside the Martello tower we spotted a late Red Admiral in remarkably good condition for this late in the year. I think I've read that a lot of butterflies have been late this year...