Farmleigh

I never did get round to uploading any more than the pictures of the Solomon's Seal and the blackbird from our last visit to Farmleigh. Time to rectify that...
I mentioned that one day I had seen the orange and pink tulips out together, and by the next time we want, whatever the blue flower is was out in full bloom too.

 

Isn't the colour and gloss in this hortensia magnificent!

 

Assuming that the volcanic ash doesn't impact flights tomorrow, we will be out in my aunt's house for over a  week, so by the next time we get to Farmleigh I expect it will have moved from spring mode into summer.

Feeling Blue?

This was another week where I was hosting the SCS photo challenge while Angie is with her folks. When I checked back through all the old challenges, blue is a colour that hadn't been used yet, so I chose that. When I think of blues, I think of all the Greek blues, so strong and vivid. I guess their sunshine helps! For my photo I took a picture of some Lapis Lazuli cufflinks that I bought C one year. We used to work for a company that imported and distributed fine-art supplies. The pigment required for Ultramarine comes from Lapis Lazuli, and pretty much the main source for it is in Afghanistan. At the time when we were working in that company, there was a lot of disruption to the supply because of whichever war was going on at the time, so quite often the artist's quality ultramarine wasn't available, just the synthetic French Ultramarine. According to Philip Ball in his wonderful book Bright Earth, The Invention of Colour, ultramarine was one of the most costly pigments in mediaeval times, along with gold and vermilion. In fact at times it was even more costly than gold. And this is the reason why the Madonna's robes were so often painted in blue - if a patron was paying for a painting, he wanted it to be seen that he could afford the best. With the introduction of oil paints ultramarine became less suitable because of the way it interacted with the oil base. It's a book that is well worth reading.

I had fun making this card over the weekend, using the photo from my blog header. And my wallpaper on C's laptop. It was a chance photo, too - I'd gone down to the marina when I was doing the Saturday morning shopping, hoping to capture something we'd seen the night before just as my battery died. Coming back I walked up past the train station and passed a cluster of poppies with bees and those hover insects hovering all round them. The button was the spare one from a dress I made some years back, red cotton with black edging round the neck and sleeves. I always like to buy one extra in case I need it - but of course I always sew them on so well that I never do.

The first of my Orchid irises burst from bud into bloom over the weekend. I grew them from seed several years ago, not expecting to succeed, so there is still a real sense of achievement every time they come into flower. As there's no sense of scale, these aren't more than about ten inches high at the most.

A Mixed Bag

Alas and alack, we don't see our little robins too much. I think they've moved nest so that they are now nesting at the end of next door's garden, and not ours. And while they do fly in for food, it's when they're passing, not whenever they hear the back door open. And I only just ordered some more mealworms by mail order when I couldn't get them in town. I hope they'll be back soon, I am glad we had the time when they were feeding from our hands before they moved on.
We do have a whole bunch of little baby sparrows - on some of them you can still see a bit of the yellow gape at the corners of their beaks, but not too much on this little one.

 
Still on the wedding card trail, as C's colleague just took the punched white flowers, and said she'd like something plainer for the second card. Vodafone seem to have some issues with broadband in the greater Dublin area. Their website (during the brief time I managed to get online) and their helpline said they were experiencing technical difficulties in the 01 and 046 areas, which they were working on resolving. However, when I asked C to look at  boards.ie, he said some people had posted that they just needed to change their username and password in the modem settings. Sure enough, that got me online again,  but I made the beaded dragonflies in the morning while I was offline and watching The Mikado, which I took out from the library the night before. If she doesn't like the dragonfly card - well, our anniversary is in a couple of weeks!

Seen this morning when I went out to get the paper and meat for the weekend.

We had these potatoes the other night. They are not for those who are worried about calories, but I operate on the all things in moderation principle, and while I do believe in using full cream and real butter when it's called for, we also eat a lot of vegetarian and low-fat food. We eat very little processed food - sometimes two or three weeks can go by without even opening a single tin.
The recipe came originally from Ronald Johnson's The American Table, which is a well-worn and well-used book. The onions are my addition, I like the flavour they add to the cream. We have this with steak or with roasts, usually.

Farmhouse Skillet Creamed Potatoes   serves 4
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
2 tblsp / 1oz butter
4 - 5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4" slices (I feel mine are a bit thicker)
salt, pepper and  nutmeg
1 medium white onion, cut into half and then cut into thin slices.

Put the cream, milk and butter into a large frying pan. Add the sliced potatoes and onions and season to taste. Bring to a simmer, cover and reduce to a very low heat. Cook gently for half an hour. Turn the potatoes over carefully, uncover and continue to cook for another half hour, till the potatoes are tender and the sauce is thick and creamy. Adjust seasoning and serve.

Gone postal

My little nephew is one this weekend. I like giving books as gifts, and all his older siblings got books last Christmas, but he got a little cardigan. And he's getting another one for his birthday. I bought this wool to knit myself a sloppy Aran jumper, but I knew I'd have enough to knit George a little jacket. There was a slight hiccup on the way, when I didn't discover till after I'd knit the hood that I had assembled it the wrong way -  I'd put a front, a sleeve, a back, a front and a sleeve. But even after ripping back, I still managed to get it in the post this morning before work.

 
Because I was in a hurry to get to the PO before work, I didn't get to take any pictures of the lovely reflections in the river - it was a still morning, with some blue sky and cloud. I did get to watch a swan flying down the river - a lovely sight.
Here's George in his Christmas cardigan - he's a real cutie!

And this is the card I made yesterday, to stick in with it. I'm out of practice with cards for little ones now that even the next youngest is seven.

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.