Fota Arboretum

 On our second day, we visited Fota Arboretum. I had been there a couple of years ago with my sister, but C had never been. The walled gardens had fewer wildflower beds in them than on my previous visit, but were beautiful, and the shade in the arboretum was very welcome on a hot, sunny day. 

We got lucky with our timing after walking round the walled gardens and the working Victorian walled garden (staffed by volunteers. (I came home with some basil and some lysimachia, which you can see in the foreground of one of the photos of the pond. The lady who sold it to me warned me that it spread, but I knew that already. ) There was no queue at the coffee shop, and a couple of empty picnic benches to sit at. The jam for C's scone came in the neatest little folded paper pot, very eco-friendly. 

Our borage seems to be very late - this was in full bloom, and also in my brother's wildflower bed. Mine is only just barely starting to come into flower. I think it might be swamped by the Chinese Lanterns!

Angel's Fishing Rod

One of the many tree palms

A swamp cypress (taxodium distichum), and it really was vivid green. 

The lake was rather smelly, due to the algal bloom, but still very pretty.

Although I had chosen the day that, from the forecast, looked to be more cloudy and hence a bit better for photography, it was very bright sunshine and a bit too contrasty to be ideal. But a lovely day out. 

A beach - at last

 We took a few days break away from home last week, and camped in my brother's garden so it really felt like a holiday - especially combined with the amazing weather we've been having. 

Our first outing was to a nearby beach, and it was wonderful to walk on sand, paddle (and swim) after barely having seen the sea for over a year and a half.

It wasn't a large bay - but large enough when we walked to one end from the car park, and then to other end and back.

We saw plenty of gulls (mostly black-headed), some oyster-catchers, an unknown little brown bird, and at each end there were sand martins nesting in the "cliff" front. I could swear I heard a curlew too though I didn't see one. It's possible, I used to see them from the train when I was visiting my Dad in Midleton. 

Due to the blogger issues I'm not going to try to sort them all in order. 

Sand martins on fence

Oyster-catcher

Martin nests 

Black-headed gull

I'll be back with some photos over the next few days. We also visited Fota Gardens and Arboretum, and had two forest walks. 

Mostly birds

 I discovered, recently, that there was another pond in the Phoenix Park which I wasn't familiar with, so I took a detour and visited it last week. It's small, very much a pond, but set back a bit from the road and very peaceful. I watched squirrels chasing each other, a young moorhen (I think) feeding, and a thrush bathing. 

I tried to take photos of the thrush bathing, but because it was quite shady - the pond is surrounded by trees, a video was the better option. 

The other photos are just a sparrow feeding a young one, in the garden, and the Highland cattle in St Catherine's Park, which we visited for a walk one evening last week. Hard to get a photo with the lowe evening light and the long growth in the water meadow, but it was lovely. 

June favourites

 June was a very fruitful month on the card-making front, and, even allowing that I don't normally upload Christmas cards, I had trouble winnowing my favourites down to a reasonable number to share.

I also "upgraded" the summer insert for my 12" square frame - the one I made 5 years ago has always been my least favourite of the four seasons. The first card, I made for our anniversary. And then about four days later, when thinking about a Paris-themed stamp and wondering about using it to make my sister's anniversary card, I suddenly remembered that I had made a Paris card back in February intending it to be C's card. So, since it's not suitable for his birthday, he got an extra card a few days late. The glass seahorse is one he brought me back from a trip to Portugal a few years ago. 

(C didn't like the "keep swimming" on this next one, he didn't get it. I've used it in the past when send cards of encouragement to people going through a hard time, and I think it works well. But it was actually detachable, so it's currently detached). 

There is an independent book shop in town called "The Gutter Bookshop", which is what triggered the Oscar Wilde  quote when I wanted to use the rat and dustbin on a card and was trying to think what on earth I could add and still end up with a card I would be happy to send.

Since we managed a trip to Clare last July, this month's header is a photo taken from the shore of one of the Burren lakes. 

Tag, you're it...

 I went for a cycle and walks in the park this morning - yesterday was intermittent rain and positively cold. Today was mostly sunny and warm. I have no idea what order Blogger is going to put the photos in and I'm not going to spend a lot of time rearranging them, so I'll upload them and then add text to each one, in case they're not in chronological order. 

So, definitely nothing like chronological order. This was when I had had my walk in the People's Garden, and was cycling back up the hill towards the Ordnance Survey. I could see a group of people (a bit more than twice this number, maybe) walking through the long grass and weeds, all with big nets. There was another man walking along the footpath with a camera, so I asked him what they were doing. He said that they were trying to find the young fawns, to tag them. Sure enough, the signs asking people to be careful and not to let their dogs loose in the areas of long grass have been up for a while now. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a morning. The photographer said he thought that there were a couple of park rangers but that some of them were students from college.

Before leaving the park, I detoured into the Quarry Pond. As soon as I opened the gate, the less somnolent ducks, along with jackdaws, came over hoping for food. It's mostly mallards there (gone are the glory days of the mandarins, alas), with some coots and moorhens. Last year there were a couple of Muscovy ducks and this looks similar, with the wonderful iridescent green plumage and red beak. He's much larger than the mallards, and was very persistent. As I pushed my bike along the path I could hear a pitter patter of feet in the leaves behind me, and when I looked, it was this one still following me until he realised I obviously didn't have anything. 

Next up, enjoying the sun just as much as the ducks at the entry gate, was this sun-bathing squirrel. I was reluctant to disturb him, but he was lying right across the path - and once he got going, it was obvious that there was nothing wrong with him at all, he was just enjoying the warmth of the morning. 

When I first entered the People's Gardens, I spotted this thrush collecting worms. Once she had a beak full, she took off over the road in the direction of the zoo. 

This was also in the People's Gardens. The coot chicks are growing fast, though I guess it's a couple of weeks since I went in to look. Their wings are no longer the little stumpy things that they were. This one was swimming around and happily diving for food, with a watchful adult escort. The other two (there is in fact another one behind the one you can see) were sitting on the nest enjoying the sunshine and occasionally grooming themselves - which is why I could see how much their wings had grown. No sign of the swans and cygnets.