Botanic Sunshine

 We woke in good time on Saturday morning and enjoyed a breakfast of cinnamon buns. I need to translate and write out the recipe because I have lost my original translated version; though it's tagged as "American", it's from a long-ago French magazine, let's hazard a guess at 40 years or so. I still have the original file card from the magazine. Plenty of maple syrup along with the butter, sugar and cinnamon. We'll be finishing them off for breakfast or morning coffee tomorrow. 

And since it was a beautiful clear blue sky with sunshine, and we were still early enough to get to the Botanic Gardens before the car park was full, we made the effort and were glad we did. The greenhouses are still all closed, but there was plenty to see and enjoy. 

Loved seeing all the little treasures some boy had found it worthwhile collection in the back of his bicycle.

One particularly fearless squirrel scrambled up C's legs in the hope of finding some food, but unfortunately he considers them to be rodents and shook it off before I could take a photo. 

August Favourites

 ...are very thin on the ground! But I loved how the "watered garden" card came together - I had coloured the umbrella girl a couple of months ago whilst talking on the phone, and she always needs a bigger card. Choosing the verse to use with her prompted me to add the outsize flowers behind her. And I also love how the Paris canvas (it's about 10" x 8") came together. I'd originally started it last year.

The header photo is Chinese Lanterns from the garden - and this year's crop is just about ready to harvest,

July Favourites

Are very thin on the ground, for various reasons including the week away in Clare. 

I had pulled a card from my stash for my brother-in-law's birthday, but when his gift was a book on Japanese architecture, I thought I'd make a card to go to with it. 

This month's header photo was taken in the Arboretum in Fota last August, when I  spent a night with my sister and we took a trip there. It was a toss-up between this photo and one of a butterfly on some yellow kniphofia.

I've had to turn on comment moderation due to an increase in spam comments - sorry about that! But I have found out how to receive email notifications, so I can approve comments quickly. 

One Sunny Day

When we were driving home from Coole, the skies cleared to a lovely blue. And the next morning we had another window of good-weather opportunity. It hadn't been in the forecast, so we weren't prepared for a longer drive but we took an outing to a lake that was not too far away. With the sun out, it was quite warm on the limestone once we were out of the wind. We saw plenty of wagtails, a female chaffinch and some unidentified small brown birds.

More of Clare

Our second outing was to Coole, one of our regular places to visit. I still remember the time we went over a New Year, when there had been heavy flooding in the locality followed by some freezing weather. Some of the paths were inaccessible, and some had a layer of ice over shallow water. That was a much abbreviated but memorable and enjoyable walk. 

The first two photos are part of a series, a facsimile copy of one of Yeats' poems. 

No swans (or hares, we've seen those here before) to be seen - all I found was three swan feathers. And despite the fact that apparently it has been a very dry summer down there, the lake was quite full, and towards the end of it there were parts where the narrow trail was submerged. 

There was an amazing thicket of wild raspberries - ripe, juicy, sweet. I wished I'd had something to collect some in. As it was, we just enjoyed a passing snack. 

Plenty of assorted fungi - and a young frog who still seemed to have part of his tail. 

A brief interlude

in the country. We were able to go to Clare for a few days last week. C had to take 10 days compulsory leave before the end of August, and I couldn't take any time off after July 20, so we got away while we could. The weather was mixed, but it was a really nice break. I'll share a few photos here and maybe in another post - there is an album with 58 photos HERE. 

The photos here are from Dromore Wood Nature Reserve, with the last two being the lake beside the cottage we stayed in, and the view over the lake from the house. 

July snaps

July started out raining...

and it feels as it has pretty much continued that way, although fortunately not on Saturday afternoon when I visited my sister. I had taken a couple of photos of this utility box last summer, but that was the time my memory card got corrupted, and I wasn't able to download any of the photos from that day. The last couple of times I was there were over the winter on dull grey days, but as Saturday was bright, I was able to snap it again. Just with my phone - knitting, chocolate mousse and assorted other things meant that I didn't actually pack my camera that day.

And never, in all the times I have visited the English Market, has it been so empty. However, I didn't wish to stand about in the way in the entrance blocking other people, so I only took one quick shot of the lovely Art Deco heron fountain; usually it's so crowded that it's not possible to get a full view of it.

I shared a couple of closer shots last summer. In case you missed them, here they are again: