Along came a Blackbird

and pecked off her no-,  no, that's not right. Along came a blackbird and picked up some worms. I am sure this one has at least two and possibly something else as well. This was on Saturday morning - so far this week the mornings have been bright enough, and then changed rapidly to grey skies and rain.

Pigeon Holes

Now you see me...
                                         ...now you don't.

Wouldn't you just know it. I knew I'd be walking in to town after work, so I stuck the wide-angle lens on the camera to try to take a photo of something I spotted a while back. But while I was walking down along the river in the morning, I saw some movement along the river wall out of the corner of my eye. I took a closer look, and it was a pigeon in one of the storm drains. By the time I had my camera out of my backpack, he'd disappeared back into the drain, but then he popped out again, just like a cuckoo clock! He can't be nesting in there, I often see water coming out after a heavy rain, so it must just have been a peaceful refuge! And I really wished I'd had a zoom lens. But then, the picture showing the whole wall is fun with all the texture and  growth, and I was able to crop in to show the pigeon and his - pigeon hole.

Wedding Trio

A work colleague of C's asked for two wedding cards for her daughter's wedding. I like people who just say "I want a wedding card" and don't say it has to have yellow polka dots and refer to Mauritius because that's where the couple met, or whatever. On the whole, I like making cards for my pleasure and then selling them if anyone wants one.
I'm giving C three cards to take in tomorrow: the one with the embossed acetate on front was made quite a while back, and because the bow made it too big to put in a clear envelope, the image was a bit dirty and I had to re-stamp it. The floral punched card is a re-make of one I made last year for my niece's First Communion.
And for the third one I used Elisa's most recent release available from Mami Doodles. Alas, as all three are non-standard sizes I spent the afternoon making envelopes and a box for the punched one...

  

A Green Thought in a Green Shade

C is getting over a tooth extraction.
I burnt a finger this morning when I was heating milk for his porridge  ( soft diet  for a few days), the worst burn I've had in years.
Then I got an electric shock trying to see why the kettle wasn't working.
So this is the only photo I have uploaded so far from our walk this morning.

And the poem that inspired my title...we did this in school many, many years ago.

The Garden by Andrew Marvell

How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays ;
And their uncessant labors see
Crowned from some single herb or tree,
Whose short and narrow-vergèd shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid ;
While all the flowers and trees do close
To weave the garlands of repose.

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence, thy sister dear!
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men :
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow ;
Society is all but rude,
To this delicious solitude.

No white nor red was ever seen
So amorous as this lovely green ;
Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,
Cut in these trees their mistress' name.
Little, alas, they know or heed,
How far these beauties hers exceed!
Fair trees! wheresoe'er your barks I wound
No name shall but your own be found.

When we have run our passion's heat,
Love hither makes his best retreat :
The gods who mortal beauty chase,
Still in a tree did end their race.
Apollo hunted Daphne so,
Only that she might laurel grow,
And Pan did after Syrinx speed,
Not as a nymph, but for a reed.

What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head ;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine ;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach ;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness :
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find ;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas ;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.

Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide :
There like a bird it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings ;
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light.

Such was that happy garden-state,
While man there walked without a mate :
After a place so pure and sweet,
What other help could yet be meet!
But 'twas beyond a mortal's share
To wander solitary there :
Two paradises 'twere in one
To live in Paradise alone.

How well the skillful gard'ner drew
Of flowers and herbs this dial new ;
Where from above the milder sun
Does through a fragrant zodiac run ;
And, as it works, th' industrious bee
Computes its time as well as we.
How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers!

Star Gazing

I was afraid that my Stargazer lilies hadn't survived the winter, and sure enough when I dug around in their pots about two weeks ago, one seemed to have rotted to nothing, and the other had just started sprouting but all the growth was still down in the soil. I tucked it safely back in and bought two more lily corms to plant to make up for the one I thought was extinct. Somehow something has grown up from the pot where I thought it had rotted  - this is now about ten inches tall, all the recent rain must have been good for it.

Two years ago I left them in their pots, in the hope that when I sat out in the back I could enjoy the scent. Some hope - all the rain that summer meant not much sitting out, and a particularly heavy rain destroyed the blooms. Last year I picked them as soon as they had begun to open up and brought them indoors to enjoy for longer. I am looking forward to the same this year. Except for the pollen getting all over everything...And I can't remember what colours the two new corms are, so that will be a surprise!

Chez ma tante...

I went out to Greystones today, to find out all the things I need to know when we go to dog-sit for my aunt, like how to set her alarm, how much to feed the dogs, what day the bins go out and so on. She was saying that when she lets the dogs out in the night she leaves the door ajar enough for them to let themselves back in, but she wasn't sure how I'd feel about that, especially as we'll be sleeping at the other end of the house to her (it's an old cotttage - you go in the front door, and apart from the front porch and the conservatory, all the rooms are just in a row, one after the other). It didn't bother me in the slightest when I used to mind her dogs all of twenty-something (but not quite thirty) years ago, I'd sleep with the back door open all night. Now I am not so sure.
Anyway, it was a grey, grey, grey day. Bray Head was shrouded in cloud. Even Coolagad was shrouded in cloud, and it's barely a hill. But I still managed a few photos.
Isn't this clematis a magnificent colour.  It's Clematis alpina Francis Rivis.

The SCS photo challenge this week was something alive - animal, insect, people. I couldn't find anything except the robins and C the day the challenge was posted, but today the bees were out in force. One in the clematis, and one in wild garlic. It's not such a good photo (dark cloudy day, OK?), but I like how you can see the little back leg clinging around the petal.

The lichen was growing on the back of a road sign. I hope it's still there when we go out to stay, I think a close-up would make a great tree-line.

Lilac - this garden always looks beautiful, I always stop to admire it when I am walking past.

And finally some pink clematis growing along the roadside.

Long Way Round...

One of C's Christmas present was the DVD of Ewan McGregor's and Charlie Boorman's Long Way Round. This package didn't go right round the world, but I've never seen an Amazon package with so many different postal stickers on it. I ordered it just before the first volcanic ash episode, and it must have been rerouted. The first sticker is Nevada, the second is Kentucky, the third is France and the fourth is UK. Its safe, if delayed, arrival sees me halfway through the Complete Peanuts collection - only another six years to go to complete the whole set!

The leaf made me think of a cello or violin - all the other ones were a more normal leaf shape. I'll have to pay more attention to what tree it came from, somehow you don't expect red at this time of year.


Two photos from today - it had rained heavily overnight and was still raining when I went to work this morning.

It was dry by the time I came home, and I spotted these tiny little mushrooms growing in some old woodchip mulch along the edge of a field. The biggest one is about the size of my thumbnail.

And a card I made with a photo of the lovely bunch of tulips and daffodils my mother-in-law sent me for my birthday when C visited his parents the day before.

Holiday Weekend

Being the start of a new month, I was putting all my April photos into one folder and trying to delete a fair amount of them. I came across this one which I liked - the pottery duck on the wall belongs to our neighbours.

We had Ken Hom's Spiced Deep-Fried Chicken tonight. I was being lazy - we had jam doughnuts for afternoon tea/our evening meal on Saturday (and for breakfast on Sunday), and fries with our Sunday lunch, so I was getting one more use out of the fryer before straining the oil and cleaning it - we'd orginally been going to have pizza tonight.

Spiced Deep-Fried Chicken
12 oz boneless chicken
3 oz flour (between a third and half a cup)
Marinade:
1 tsp chilli sauce or chilli (cayenne) powder
2 tsp dry sherry or rice wine
1 tsp each light and dark soy sauce
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tblsp finely chopped spring onions/green onions
1 tsp sugar.

Cut the chicken into strips approximately 2" by 1/2", and put into a bowl with all the marinade ingredients. Mixx well, cover and leave at room temperature for up to an hour.
Heat oil in a deep-fat fryer till quite hot. Sprinkle the flour over the chicken and mix. Fry for about 8 minutes and serve straight away.

I also tried out these lovely Peanutty Energy Bars from Charlene's blog. Salted peanuts aren't something I keep in the cupboard, but at last I remembered to buy them when I was shopping. They are just as yummy as Charlene says. I covered the top of mine with chocolate. Well - high energy doesn't necessarily mean healthy. By it's very nature it means either high fat or high carb or both. C says I can make them again any time, but only with chocolate. He went as far as to say that maybe they were even nicer than Mars Bar Squares, and for sure they must be healthier, even with chocolate! We don't get corn syrup over here, and I'd just finished off the last of some C brought me last time I made candied popcorn , so I just used regular Golden Syrup.

Planning for Summer Sun

There certainly hasn't been much sun this weekend, mostly grey skies and some showers. We had heavy rain and hail and wonderful skies when we drove up to Dromore in the North on Friday.

More Mami-Doodles

The first card is another one I made with Elisa's Midori set of images. We have so much gorgeous washi and chiyogami paper that we've bought here and there over the years, but I always find it hard to use any up. And if I am bad, C is ten times worse!  I did use some on this card. She is printed on white card and coloured with H2Os, with Liquid Pearls in her hair.

The second card was made with the Escargot and Champignon set. I like snails on cards, and use them often. I do not like them in the garden - they do so much damage so quickly. And slug pellets are unsightly. We have an engineering friend who put copper strips round all his tender vegetables, and then connected them all up to a battery on a pole, so that a mild current ran through them. It seemed to be sufficient to deter the snails and slugs without killing them, but was quite odd to see.
For my snail-shell and pebbles I used Glossy Accents, and Liquid Pearls on the mushroom. This time I printed the image on watercolour paper, with watercolour pencils and chalk pastels for colouring.

Thank you, Elisa. for inviting me to be your first Guest Designer. I had fun working with these images.