Duck Fest

The mandarins and mallards, with the occasional coot, moorhen and tufted duck. I had to up the ISO almost as high as it would go, since by this time it had got a little overcast and I only had brought my Canon. So the photo quality isn't great...

A Somewhat Sunny Saturday

Friday morning was bright and sunny - and busy. The forecast was for rain on Saturday, but when it too was bright and sunny, we got up and headed over to Farmleigh to enjoy it. It didn't last long - it was already pretty overcast by the time we headed to the duck pond in Phoenix Park, but it was lovely to get out and see the sunshine.

There were a lot of raindrops on all the bare trees - like little shining crystals.

OK, so I took this on the 9th, but photo prompt #10 is rust, and I thought of it when I was taking this photo

They are working on  renovating the yew hedges, so I took this photo of the noticeboard describing the process.

Photo Prompts

Encouraged and inspired by Lorraine, I checked out her link to a photo challenge  - a month of prompts. The list is found HERE; Clare is a blogging friend (as I am) of Lorraine.
I copied the list into a file on my phone, and thought I would try to hit at least some of them.

...
4. New
5. In your bag
6. Broken
7. Upside down
8. Ordinary
9. Makes me smile

The 4th was my first day back at work, so that's when I started - and my photo is a new Christmas decoration this year, from my sister.

In my bag: it's slightly apocryphal, but it's alleged in work that if anybody needs something, it's in my bag. Sellotape, jumbo markers and the map of Dublin are all in my rucksack, but if it's a screwdriver, penknife or scissors, they are all in my handbag. Along with a French translator, my external back-up (spare camera battery and memory card in the case too), bandages, tape-measure and lavender oil for burns. The lavender oil is what kept C going during the more whiffy low-tide estuary parts of our day in the Le Teich bird reservation last summer. Other first-aid basics are there too; pain-killers and anti-histamine.  A sewing needle and some threads are in the same pack as the plasters.

Broken - and new, too. I have a pair of little baking mouse ornaments - one in a mixing bowl and one on a "gingerbread" star-shaped cookie. The one with the bowl fell off the tree and the bowl broke. Superglue didn't do much for it - so I bought a pack of Fimo and made a rough-and-ready new mixing bowl before packing all the decorations away again for next Christmas. It's definitely on the rough side, but at least I still have my pair of mice.

I passed on Upside-down, no inspiration on the day and no time on Friday to catch up.

Ordinary - my ordinary vinegars, flanking two more expensive and special ones. Friday was a busy, busy day so it's just a quick phone-photo.

Makes me smile: today dawned bright and sunny. So did yesterday, but it was, as mentioned, a busy, busy day. Today we visited Farmleigh, and also took a quick walk to the duck pond in the park. The mandarin ducks always make me smile! And...thank goodness for the spare battery in that case that holds my external back-up. Without that, I would have got the photos in Farmleigh but there wouldn't have been any of the ducks. There seemed to be a definite pair-bond between a particular drake and the little female, they were always together.

Old recipes, fresh pictures.

Christmas baking: both recipes have been posted before, but the photos are brand spanking new.

Mincemeat
Pears preserved with ginger

Freshly baked for seasonal treats - one batch on Christmas Eve, one batch on St. Stephen's Day

The tags were also cooked up quickly on St. Stephen's Day morning, along with the mince pies! 

December Favourites

It's January already?!? How did that happen. The weather has been so bad that we have only been out to visit friends and family, and I have totally lost track of the days - apart from knowing that we both start back to work on Monday. It's going to be a shock to the system, that's for sure.

Here are my favourite cards from December... and if the lighting levels stay this bad, I will have to find space to set up my mini studio and two daylight bulbs.
And the blog header is a female blackcap, photo taken in January 2014 as I didn't have a lot in my folder for 2015.

Christmas Wishes

And from our snowy winter in 2010:  it's great that our squirrel-proof feeders really are squirrel-proof, but they don't lend themselves to taking such good bird photos.

Happy Christmas and good wishes for 2016

On the way to work...

After all the rain, wind and what feels like grey skies forever, today was sunny and clear - and even offered a couple of photo opportunities. The three different sizes of truck making deliveries into the brewery made me think of Goldilocks and the 3 bears.

I loved the way colours were reflecting in the sign on the wall down near Heuston station. However, it seemed that when I moved so that the post wasn't in the way, my angle had changed enough that I wasn't picking up the same vivid reds, no matter how long I waited. I couldn't figure out if it was from traffic lights or car tail lights - but it looked great.

November Favourites....

The weather here has been so grey and dull that photo-opportunities are few and far between.
Instead, here are my favourite cards from November...

The sample, once I got over feeling constricted by the 2 1/4" squares, was fun to make - something I've wanted to do for a long time.

A New Leaf

We were dog-sitting this weekend. On our way home from shopping on Saturday morning (during a gap in the rain) we both spotted this unusual leaf fall. So cool the way the rowan leaf was on top of another solid leaf so perfectly. C couldn't believe I didn't have my camera with my - but the one in my phone isn't too shabby in good light.

Infusing

On our first blackberry-picking outing, I found a blackthorn bush tucked away in between all the brambles - and with the most enormous sloes on it. They were so big that I'm sure they were probably sweet and almost edible too, but I didn't get enough to want to even waste one - they are all slowly turning into sloe gin, along with another handful of regular-sized ones that I found on our second outing. After taking this photo, I finally started shaking it so as to let the sugar dissolve, but I always love seeing the colour slowly seeping out of the berries.