Canal Ride

 I had my annual medical checkup last week, and since driving aggravates my shoulder, I decided that it was withing cycling range given a good weather forecast. It was a nice combination of into town along the canal, and then a short part through the city before I was back out on the coast road with a cycle lane all the way. Now I know that I can plan around tide times and take a trip to the North Bull Island nature reserve with my camera some time. Last week, though, I just had my phone and I was a bit pressed for time on the way out because C was wrong when he told me I couldn't miss a particular turn. I had spotted this utility box on the way out, and was glad to have time to stop and take a couple of pictures on the way back. The two striped chimneys are a classic Dublin sight - Poolbeg Power Station, and there is a strong Viking heritage in Dublin. In fact the Battle of Clontarf (this area) in 1014 resulted in the victory of Brian Boru and his Irish army over an Irish-Viking alliance, and came to be seen as a battle that marked the end of the Viking domination of the country. 

Many people enjoy sitting along the canal side - but only the famous get sculptures to commemorate the fact. Here on the Royal Canal we have the poet  Brendan Behan sitting just above the 2nd lock. The Grand Canal plays host to another poet, Patrick Kavanagh. 

And at the 10th lock is a sculpture of a lock keeper. While most of the locks along the River Shannon are now automated, we did pass through one old one on our holiday last summer, when we detoured down the Camlin River, which had to be opened manually by the lock keeper just as represented here. 

I had plenty of choices for this month's header. Originally I had a swan, but in the end I decided to go with this chick - I think it's a coot. And I'm also adding a just for fun card. The rat had been floating around my desk since last November when C took his trip to Maine. Being on mineral paper he wasn't as substantial as all the other bits and pieces that float around indefinitely, so I was keen to use him up. 

April Favourites

 It must be the longer evenings, it's certainly not that work has eased up any. Maybe the break over Easter helped too - whatever the reason, I have more favourite cards to share this month than the previous couple. 

The one with the owl was an Earth Day challenge, so for something recycled I used the kitchen towel from the box I use for spraying in. It had a good colour mix for the owl, I just lightened the centres of the eyes a little with a Posca pen. 

The "wishing and dreaming" with butterflies was to use our choice of techniques. The sanded pencil background is one I really enjoy - and this time I also used the stencil with the pencil remaining it to do some stencil embossing/monoprint, giving me another background for my stash.

The diorama was for a song-inspired challenge - I went for a mash-up of Yellow Submarine (obviously) and Octopus's Garden.

The 30th of April already -where has the year gone! I'll be back tomorrow with a few photos from a bike ride the other day and a new blog header. 

Botanic Outpost

 We took a trip today to Kilmacurragh gardens, which is described as an 18th century country estate, part of which officially became part of the Botanic Gardens in 1996. I think all my visits there pre-date that, though I've only ever known the house as a ruin. One of my first outings with a proper "grown-up" camera (an old range-finder, nothing even as fancy as an SLR) was there, so it holds fond memories memory. I still have most of the photos from that visit. 

We had missed what they describe as a carpet of crocuses and other wildflowers in the meadow in front of the house, but were at a good time to enjoy the rhododendrons. 

The "Broad Walk" is described as being wide enough for two Victorian ladies to walk side by side in their hoops and crinolines, and alternates yew trees and rhododendrons - all now massive. I imagine they looked much more orderly 200 years ago.

I had thought this looked very like laburnum, but being now under the auspices of the Botanic Gardens many things are well lablled, and it is in fact a Sophora cassioides.

This old trunk was always a favourite of ours, reminding us of Lucy M. Boston's Green Knowe books.

Someone told us they had seen a woodpecker. Sadly, we didn't see it, but we did see a red kite soaring overhead. 

These and a few more photos (25 in total) are in an album HERE. It also includes a short video snip of a little mallard chick. Last Sunday, or maybe it was Monday, we went for a walk along the canal looking for ducklings. All we found was one single solitary duckling with its mother, which was a little sad really, I'm sure it means the rest of the brood were predated as I've never seen only one before. 

A Miscellany

 I think I might have mentioned last year that a new sculpture was erected near the entrance to the park. I have been meaning ever since to take a photo of it - but in the morning I'm just focussed on getting to work, and on the way home I'm on the wrong side of the road. And when I go for a leisure cycle in the park, I go a different route. But I finally made the effort to stop the other morning, while the daffodils were still in bloom. It was a grey overcast morning - the previous week would have been more spectacular with dense fog and the sun breaking through.

Today was an intermittent bright and showery day. When we were sitting down after dinner and C was wondering if he'd get a break in the weather for a walk, we saw a beautiful rainbow. It got brighter and brighter - sadly was already dimming by the time I got to the front door with my camera. It's hard to get a good photo because of houses all around, so I settled for zooming in.

Since I have been proofing my boules in a glass bowl lined with a floured cloth ever since Christmas, I finally splashed out on a couple of banneton proofing baskets. I didn't attempt yet to make my bread directly in it, but used the lining cloth. Better than chocolate, C said. I also attempted some ciabatta for the first time, which turned out pretty well.

And I'll finish off with three photos from Farmleigh. Sunday was a sunny day if still on the cold side, and I persuaded C onto his bicycle and out to Farmleigh while the bread was rising. 

I forgot to change my header the other day ; that has been updated so we now have a photo of magnolias in Farmleigh from last April.

And now it's time to see if File History is working in Windows 11, so far I have had three failed backups and I don't like being without one. I might have to resort to third-party software.

March Favourites...

 March felt like a long month, and although the longer evenings are certainly an uplift, I only have a couple of cards that I really like enough to post here...My favourite is definitely the Tyvek one with the feathers, but the next one was a fun one to make. The theme was tickets, and I keep turning up train tickets from our second-last visit to Monet's garden in Giverny, so I decided to use one of those. Which turned into using both of them as I didn't consider that they were on thermal paper and would react when I tried some heat embossing. Just as well I had two...

Oswald has flown in to his new roost, so I can share him. Luckily I got the back of the cushion cover finished the day before I sprained my thumb - I haven't done any knitting since then, but hope to get back to it next week. With the weather suddenly turning cold again the latter half of this week, I've been glad of my toasty socks - it's an alpaca mix wool, and with the Aran stitch patterns, they are very cosy. 

Botanic Gardens

 We've had an amazing run of weather the last ten days or so - due to end this week. On the Saturday if the St. Patrick's Day long weekend we went up along the coast, but I have no pictures from that. I do have some from our trip to the Botanic Gardens yesterday - and if you have the appetite for more, the full gallery (approx 70 photos)  is HERE. 

Brief highlights follow. Unedited, due to lack of time.  Plenty of  Spring bulbs...the magnolia patch was fenced off so we weren't able to go into it, the one photo here is from the walled kitchen garden. It looks as if they had cut down several of the established magnolias and planted some new ones.

For the first time since Covid, we were able to go into the glasshouses - and I'd forgotten how quickly glasses  and camera lenses steam up! The strelitzia are in the glasshouse for South Africa and Australia. I liked the dead ones, which made me think of the vultures in The Jungle Book. 

This one was right up at the top of the Palm House - and reminded me of an elaborate fascinator

Enjoying the sun - and I had to look twice to be sure it wasn't another bronze sculpture like the one in the other lily pond. 

This was an intriguing narcissus, with alternate layers of coloured and white petals

And this one made us both think of one of those classic origami flower folds. 

Spring is Springing

 We finally had some bright sunshine weather, so I fitted a trip to Farmleigh in on Thursday morning. Unfortunately the walled gardens were just being closed for maintenance when I got there - if I'd known that I might have waited till today which was also a bright sunny day. But that's life.

My eye was caught straight away by a duck that didn't look like a mallard - and which did indeed turn out to be a shoveler. I have a feeling I might have seen them in the Zoo, which is also in the park, and we have definitely seen them in the bird reserve down in Newcastle, but it was the first time I'd seen one here. I think there was a female with it too - they are very similar in colouring to female mallards, so while I was there I just thought it was a mallard, but when I zoomed in on a couple of photos, I could see that it also had the distinctive long bill.

I also got lucky and was able to grab a few photos of a little wren.

Then we have some backlit magnolia buds and a couple of flowers, and a still life someone had created on one of the picnic tables, along with a glimpse into the walled garden through one of the gates.