A Munificence of Magnolias

I started my blog one year ago, with a photo of magnolias taken in the Botanic Gardens on Easter Sunday.
When I went to Farmleigh last week they were in full bloom, but I saved the pictures to share today to mark one year. Sorry there are so many - I could easily have uploaded twice as many. C suggested I needed to do some editing - I'd already deleted about sixty photos before he saw them.  Because he was out on a motorbike run, I could take my time more than if he had been with me.

And a card I made on Saturday, using one of the photos.

I have just got a lovely light carbon-fibre tripod which will be a welcome upgrade from my very good but VERY heavy old Uni-Loc tripod. Plus this new one fits into the backpack C gave me for Christmas.

Self Service at the All-Day Breakfast Bar

I was hanging the wash out yesterday when I heard some rustling from the back porch. A quick peek, and the two robins were in there helping themselves - and making an almighty mess spilling worms all over the place while they were at it. They hopped out when I went to get the camera, and then obligingly hopped back in again.

 

Escaping with the spoils

After seeing them so fearless in the porch, and not even startled when I used the flash, I decided to experiment today by holding my hand out with worms in it - and one of them, after a bit of hopping around, decided that it was safe! And not just once or twice, but several times. The other one is a bit more timid - I'm guessing it's the one we've been feeding all winter who was the braver one.

We had the most delicious pineapple sorbet tonight. I can't remember what put it into C's head a while back that he would like some. It was just when the greengrocer ran out really nice pineapples, but he had some good ones back in again and I bought two on Saturday.

We will most definitely be having this again. We do have an icecream maker - not the one of my dreams, but one where you pre-freeze the bowl and then churn it on the counter. It was a wedding anniversary present to ourselves a few years back. But I used to make icecreams and sorbets even when we didn't, just giving them a good vigorous stir every half hour or so till they were too frozen. And a tiny amount of gelatine can be a big help, too.

Pineapple Sorbet:

12 ounces fresh pineapple, chopped roughly

Juice of one lemon

5 ounces sugar (just over half a cup)

2 egg-whites.

Blend the pineapple till smooth. Add the sugar and lemon juice and blend again. If you're able to use a liquidiser with a large bowl, add the egg-whites and blend again for a couple of minutes. Otherwise lightly whisk the whites and fold them into the pineapple purée in a bowl. Chill for about half an hour and then churn till thick and creamy and ready to freeze.

Sunny, Sunny Day

Sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine. C went on the motorbike run that the guys had to call off last time they tried going it because it was so misty. Not a chance of that today, they had their full Irish outside when they got to Laragh.
I spent part of the morning in Farmleigh, and most of the rest of the day in the garden.  C decided he wasn't hungry enough for roast chicken and lemon sponge pudding, so we had pizza instead. A good excuse to use the fresh yeast someone kindly gave me.  I just need to make sure I don't mix up the spare pizza dough that went into the freezer with the Naan bread dough.

 
 The robins again made hay while the sun shone, scavenging everywhere I had dug to see what titbits they could find. C said he saw them seeing off an interloper - they know where they are well off. In fact, I saw them fly out of the back porch yesterday - I think they had made a unilateral decision to raid the tub of mealworms. I also had a dove in the back porch - I think it might have been hoping to forage in the sack of seeds, but then the door blew shut.

Some poor bird is homeless  - I found this nest on the path in Farmleigh. It was ever so soft to feel, and as light as a feather. Looking at the feathers in it, where they are coloured at the tips, it could possibly be a chaffinch, or even a robin. It was mostly moss and lichen, and about four to five inches across.

Gardening with the birds...

I've been trying to dig part of the border at a time, so as not to end up too stiff. You can see I haven't quote got as far as where the little robin is in the first picture. I am not sure what it was up to, it was peering around and then flapping it's wing. A bit the way some birds to to act as a decoy when a predator is too near their nest. In this case, as the second robin appeared in no time, it was almost as if it was signalling. Surely not, though!

 I love this upward shot - I was lying on the grass waiting for the robin to land in my bowl of compost, but took this while it was perched on the wall above me.

Checking the weed container out for any tasty titbits...

I was honoured to be invited as April Guest Designer for Mami Doodles by Elisa. I love Elisa's style - if I scrapped, I'd like my pages to look like hers. We informally swap ATCs and cards from time to time - I have an ATC with a predecessor of the little Midori girl sitting under my monitor right now.
I am not a big fan of digital images - mostly because they don't seem to work well with watercolours. But I had great fun with the images Elisa sent me - I've liked Asian style images as long as I can remember. As soon as I saw the paper piecing image, I wanted to make a little paper doll you could dress.
There are tabs on her dresses, but then I also used Sailor two-way glue as repositionable glue, so that I could "hang" them in the wardrobe. And although originally I was going to just pop the little girl up on thick foam dots, I realised that she'd be easier to dress if you could remove her altogether, so I used a Basic Grey magnetic snap to attach her to the card.  Then all my ideas of how to make a suitable background were too complicated, so I just used some fancy textured Bazzill and a little cloud of butterflies.
Kimono papers were downloaded from the Canon Creative website, scaling them down. I reckon the whole card could be tied with nice ribbon or else a belly band in more of the chiyogami paper to keep it closed - it would sort of tie in with the little obi.
Apart from the wardrobe and the interchangeable dresses, it doesn't bear a whole load of relationship to my original concept, but I certainly had fun.

What's in Your Kitchen?

I had no problems at all with the SCS photo challenge this week. Well, I shouldn't have! Angie was looking for someone to cover for a couple of weeks, so I set the challenge of showing something from your kitchen. I started adding up all the kitchens I've worked in professionally, and on a volunteer basis for camps - it came to a lot of kitchens.
For my photos I used an old Springerle rolling pin. I am sure we used to have two - this one and a bigger one with red handles. But this is the one that ended up in my possession. When we were little, it did NOT have woodworm, I don't know at what stage that happened to it.

A new Joseph Joseph citrus reamer. I have an electric juicer I use if we are having juice to drink, or if I need more than two or three oranges and lemons squeezed. Sometimes I do rolled-up chicken breast fillets with a fresh mint filling and an orange sauce, I definitely use the electric juicer for that. And then I have little ones suitable for a wedge for pancakes or whatever. And then there's a stainless steel one, which is my regular one. But for half an orange, or lemon, or lime, it's a nuisance to clean, and I thought I'd try out this reamer. I am more than happy with it.

I also took a photo of a slice of the cake I made on Saturday before we went to Farmleigh. We did call on a neighbour to invite her over for some, but she wasn't in...not that we ever have trouble finishing it off ourselves.

We didn't have the same fantastic sunshine today as the last few days, but I was able to get some weeding done, and lovely rich,fresh compost from the compost-maker onto the borders. The little robins were out with me, keeping a close eye out for all the worms.

Everything's a-budding and a-blooming

Another beautiful day of sunshine.
C had training today and got home early, so after a light tea of Summer Tomato Soup with ciabatta, followed by not-so-light rum and raisin icecream we went for a walk in the park.
Summer Tomato Soup
 I often add a bit of balsamic vinegar, and tonight, as the tomatoes are not really the most flavoursome at the moment, I added some sugar too.

Have to get out my tree books to try to identify this one. I thought maybe it was Linden, but I can't find that it flowers before any leaves come out. I spotted it yesterday as we drove past and was sure it was covered in flowers, not leaves.

Where are the pastels...

... when you want them? The SCS photo challenge this week was pastel colours, and I have been looking and looking all week. Someone I know who does a 365 photo journal says who needs desaturation when you have the Irish weather to do it for you, but it was no help to me.
In the end I spotted these paper Cosmos flowers I made a few years back.  They always were pastel, but have probably faded a bit more with time.

This morning was so lovely and bright and sunny that we went for a walk. C was feeling tired and didn't want to drive as far as the Botanic Gardens, or walk as far as along the canal, so we went to Farmleigh. It doesn't open till ten, which gave me time to make a cake before we left.
I am thinking these magnolias might qualify for pastel colours.

But that bright blue sky most definitely doesn't!!

Where Sheep May Safely Graze

This is a card I wanted to post up here as I was so happy with my little sheep. I made it just before we went to my Dad's, for the ODBD Second Anniversary challenges. Being the second anniversary, one of the challenges was to use cotton. I am not a big fan of actually making bullion knots, but I do think you can make so many lovely designs with them that it's worth enduring with it.


Just two bird photos from when we were down in Kerry. Year before last I gave Dad a coconut filled with seeds and suet, and when it was empty he took it down. I think he'd forgotten about it, but when he was worried about leaving the poor birds without any food while he was away for a couple of days, I suggested that fat balls or suet would last longer than leaving just seed. So he found another coconut, and wired them up to his feeder. I just sat on a chair in the garden for about half an hour over the space of the afternoon, and even after weeding out the total duds, I still have over 50 shots I can't bring myself to ditch. I love the ones that show the birds in motion. Really, I should have brought my tripod or seen if Dad had one I could have borrowed. I'll try to edit a couple of the Blue Tit ones - they look so cute tucked right into the shell. But for now, I love the sense of motion with the Great Tits in this one.

And those ever-elusive Coal Tits were not so elusive down there as they are up here.

Showing Off

It's quite funny when the female robin is foraging for her own food at the same time as she makes little chirps to be fed. Then the male comes over with his beak full, and she's gobbling away at her own food. I am so enjoying watching them. I saw this little display on the shed roof this afternoon.

Some welcome light relief after trying to talk my dad through deleting an email on the server that was blocking up his Mac.I can't believe he used to teach programming!!

Colour on a Grey Day

I was thinking that maybe I'd get to upload a few of my action pictures of the birds at my dad's feeders today: it was such a dull, grey wet day that it seemed like a waste of time to have my camera with me in town. Then it was such a rush to get from work to Dublin Castle (where I was meeting C for lunch, as he had the day off today), that there was no time for stopping to take any pictures. But I spotted these buildings just as I got to the Chester Beatty, and as it had stopped raining, almost, when we were leaving after lunch, C said I could have two and a half minutes to take a picture. They look freshly painted, but since the last time I was up that road was in the snowy twilight in January, I could have missed them altogether that evening.
There was fantastic contrast between the dark bark of the cherry trees and the papery white birch bark, but I only had two and a half minutes!!