May Favourites

 Despite working several extra days, May has been a better month than most recent ones. Perhaps with the brighter evenings I've felt more like making something in the evening after dinner.

The header photo is from the Bambouseraie in the Cevennes last June. I was finding it hard to choose between that photo and one of a frog on a lily leaf, so perhaps I'll add the frog one at the end here. Choosing the dragonfly was dictated by my last card, where the dragonfly was created with fantasy film. The lizard and the card underneath it were both attempts at stencil rubbing with crayons. 

Catching up

 Before it gets to be time for a May Favourites card post, I am badly behind with regular photos. 

From the bird reserve: 

There was a large assortment of bird houses installed in the trees. I'm not sure how many of them birds actually nest in , but they were certainly very picturesque, and no two the same. 

There are a few more in the small album I uploaded from that visit - https://photos.app.goo.gl/vJ2abze7sbmw8Vb56

Mid month I went down to my sister for a weekend. She works a half day on Friday, so in the afternoon we went to visit a military fort which had recently re-opened. It was interesting - a large part of it is underground - partly because it was a safe environment for storing the gunpowder. A lot of the original floors were wood, for the same reason. The volunteer who led us through the tunnel part said that as far as they know, the horses bringing the gunpowder from Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills would have been unshod, to avoid the risk of sparks from shod hooves on the road, so they were then rested for a day or two before their return journey back to Ballincollig. 

We had a great view across the bay to my sister's office, and also to Cobh, which was the last port before America for  many trans-Atlantic ships including the Titanic and the Lusitania .

https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/visitor/camden-fort-meagher

I'll only add a few photos here, but again I have a full album from my weekend trip if you have time and interest. On the Saturday we took a picnic lunch to The Lough - a small lake right in the centre of suburban Cork. I've often heard of it as C and a good friend he visits often go walking there, but it's the first time I've been and it was such an unexpected sight. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PSa6TfN9fDmfsjAY6

April Favourites

 My bad - here we are the 4th of May already and I've only just realised that I didn't update my header (now a mandarin duck from the Botanic Gardens last April) or share my favourite cards from April.

I had a blitz at using up bits and pieces from my desk, so several of the cards are using up "fragments that remain". The first herringbone card uses all sorts of mixed media backgrounds, gel prints, stencilling etc. I can throw scraps of patterned paper out without a backward glance, but tend to save all the offcuts from my own backgrounds. So when it came to the second herringbone card (a rainbow without a bow), I did actually have to cut all the strips I needed. 

We took another trip to Farmleigh last Sunday, but it was a busy week and I haven't yet had time to do anything with the photos. Today, after a quick visit to my aunt's house, we went on the the bird reserve not too far from her. It was of course the wrong time of year to see much, but the sunshine and the sound of birdsong was so peaceful and relaxing. I'll try to get along with a few photos from there too. 

Farmleigh in March

 Saturday was a sunny and bright morning. It would have been lovely to go to the Botanic Gardens, but Farmleigh is much near and meant we could be there and back in an hour - especially as the path along the far side of the lake was closed for maintenance.

You can see the full album HERE, but I'll put some highlights in this post. We saw one (or two) little grebes, a heron was on point duty when we arrived and still there when we left, and we saw a lovely chaffinch in full Spring plumage.

Happy Easter

 Some Spring bunnies...

And just a couple of other favourites from March.

And a lovely stone bench made from old stone capitals - my sister and I went for a walk to this little park on St. Patrick's Day.

St Patrick's Day

 My bad - I meant to schedule this before I went down to visit my sister, but there was a lot going on last week. 

The greeting says "Happy St. Patrick's Day to you", and is the traditional old Irish script which went out of use in the mid twentieth century. 

The same chestnut tree in the park which was the first to green up last year is already green.  The forsythia is in my sister's garden - it was exceptionally good weather for St. Patrick's Day. 

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.