Spring Dress

I was watching the cormorants down at Heuston station yesterday morning - back in breeding plumage ready for the Spring. This morning was beautiful, but by the time I'd done a big supermarket shop and unpacked it, the day was already changing to the usual dull gray.

Farmleigh

As promised, a few photos from Farmleigh last week:

It was a beautiful morning, but bitterly cold. The witch-hazel smelled just beautiful, as did the wintersweet growing against the outside of the walled garden. And the birds were in full song...

This last photo is obviously not Farmleigh at all - it's a reflection (and reflection of the reflection) of a sculpture outside the civic offices in Blanchardstown. On another lovely sunny morning...

January favourites...

It just occurred to me this morning, when I was thinking that I'd be pressed to find any photo-editing time this weekend, that I still haven't uploaded my favourite cards from January, so here goes...

I spy with my little eye

Something beginning with B -  a hen blackbird in a tree above me on a visit to Farmleigh yesterday. She was tucked away inside, and I'd never have seen her if I hadn't looked up to see the robin singing its heart out at the top of the tree. And since I'm going with B, I might as well add in a black-headed gull from the way to work the other day. Too windy and rainy for any photos this morning.

More photos tomorrow - I hope!

Tails you lose...

Tails from the zoo...

And from the garden (head and tail), we seem to have more visitors again; the long-tailed tits are back from time to time, and yesterday I spotted this lovely female blackcap. Just as well C cleaned the windows recently!!

Heads You Win

I was treated to a trip to the zoo the other day with friends. I can't tell you the last time I was in Dublin Zoo - over thirty years ago, I'd say.
More photos to follow, but here are a few head-shots.

December catch-up

The first week in January has just flown by.
Nothing else to post, so I'm just going to share my favourite non-Christmas cards from December!
Along with my new header photo - a robin singing in the garden last January.

I made the seabird notebook for Lorraine, and liked it so much that I made similar ones  for my sister (who paid me a great compliment by saying she couldn't quite decide whether I'd covered it myself or bought it), and one for my Dad who can't even remember seeing his - so much for using "Carpe Diem" as the sentiment on his.

Christmas Catch-Up

 I was making dessert for dinner at my aunt's house on Christmas Eve. Plan A was icecream (Baileys with praline and chocolate chips, in this instance) since I was using up a surfeit of egg-yolks after having made an angel cake. My sister put in a request for a Bûche de Noël - since she furnished the holly leaves for it, this is in its earlier unadorned state.

I was a bit annoyed, after carefully choosing a meringue recipe that gave the weight of the egg white to use (since I was using one that was left from a broken egg, and wasn't sure if it was all there!) to have my first lot of mushrooms come out so chewy that I just threw them straight out, and made another batch ignoring the fact that my weight of whites was higher than it should have been according to the first recipe.

For Christmas Day we had Paul Flynn's Rum & Raisin Panacotta.

Rum & Raisin Panacotta:

Serves 4

450ml cream

two-and-a-half leaves of gelatine, soaked until soft in cold water

55g caster sugar

dark rum to taste

50g blonde raisins

For the caramel sauce 100g caster 110ml approx water

Bring half the cream to the boil, take off the heat and add the sugar and the gelatine. Whisk in thoroughly. When they are dissolved, add the rest of the cream and the rum, pour into moulds and chill overnight.

For the caramel sauce, dissolve the sugar with 80 millilitres of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Wash down the inside of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water to prevent crystals from forming. Cook until the sugar turns a deep amber colour. Take off the heat and whisk in another 30 millilitres of water bit by bit. This will splash a little so be careful. Add in the raisins. Allow to cool. To serve, dip the pannacotta moulds into hot water to loosen the pannacotta and tip it out onto plates. Spoon the caramelised raisins around the pannacotta and serve

Another proportional dilemma here, because I have two types of sheets of gelatine, and one is about twice the size of the other, I used two and a half sheets of the large one, since I knew that's all I had when I first tried this several years ago, and it came out fine.

Favourite Christmas cards - since I make these all through the year but don't like posting them on my blog unseasonably early!

Joyeux Noel

Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

November cards

Late getting to pick these out - and there aren't very many as November was such a busy month...