Farmleigh in March

 Saturday was a sunny and bright morning. It would have been lovely to go to the Botanic Gardens, but Farmleigh is much near and meant we could be there and back in an hour - especially as the path along the far side of the lake was closed for maintenance.

You can see the full album HERE, but I'll put some highlights in this post. We saw one (or two) little grebes, a heron was on point duty when we arrived and still there when we left, and we saw a lovely chaffinch in full Spring plumage.

Happy Easter

 Some Spring bunnies...

And just a couple of other favourites from March.

And a lovely stone bench made from old stone capitals - my sister and I went for a walk to this little park on St. Patrick's Day.

St Patrick's Day

 My bad - I meant to schedule this before I went down to visit my sister, but there was a lot going on last week. 

The greeting says "Happy St. Patrick's Day to you", and is the traditional old Irish script which went out of use in the mid twentieth century. 

The same chestnut tree in the park which was the first to green up last year is already green.  The forsythia is in my sister's garden - it was exceptionally good weather for St. Patrick's Day. 

February Favourites

 Thin on the ground... we've been short-staffed in work and I've had to do extra days, 

I spent a weekend mid-month with my sister. The weather was pretty dreary, but we went to a forest park beside a reservoir, also the national rowing centre of Ireland - it was a pleasant walk in spite of the misty drizzle, and there was a little van selling hot drinks which was a nice treat afterwards.

An abundance of red berries, which we presumed were not attractive to the birds as there were so many of them. 

I had a rather unnerving experience on Monday when my front brake stopped working shortly after leaving home. I had felt it was a bit loose and was thinking I must book a service sooner rather than later, when it went altogether. I was careful but not overly worried because I knew we had replaced the rear cable just before Christmas, so it was quite a shock when the rear brake too stopped working totally - luckily on the flat, and luckily near work so I didn't have too far to push the bike. And luckily a day C was working at home, and was able to come in at lunch and pick me up.

As I walked I passed this utility box, which has definitely been repainted as used to be something else altogether.

Two  new brake cables and everything is fine again, but especially when one was almost brand new it's a bit of a mystery to everybody how it could have happened.

A Walk in the Park

 I can't remember the last time we went for a walk in the park - a long time. After a couple of days of very heavy rain during the week it was pretty muddy, but Saturday morning was fresh and sunny and we went out to enjoy the weather. Not much to photograph, but we did see a shoveller in the pond. And I noticed newer identity labels on the trees - looks like they've got new identities too as the numbers don't appear to match. 

Off the needles

 My brother had been wanting a new Aran sweater for quite some time - we started talking about it around this time last year. Come his birthday I offered to buy the wool for his birthday present and knit it for his Christmas present. My options were somewhat limited because he specifically wanted both pure wool and for it to be machine-washable. Early last year I had saved something  from an Irish yarn store in my basket, but by August it was no longer available so I had to go back to plan B, which was an English company (Yarn Undyed) which sells an amazing variety of undyed wool - suitable for you to dye yourself. We were both tempted by the merino/linen mix, which is now on my own personal shopping list,  but he stuck with his original wish for pure wool, and I got this finished just in time to send down for Christmas.

As a bonus, my sister-in-law has been doing a textile course in the Crawford College of Art & Design, and has been doing a lot of dying, so I sent her two spare balls of wool to experiment with.

I've been focussing on finishing off old projects, so I finally finished a lace throw that has been on the needles for (gulp) over twenty years. I went off the colour somewhere along the way, but kept going back and plugging away at it whenever I had nothing better to do, and the colour has grown on me again. It was originally a pattern for a baby blanket, but this is more the size of a full length wrap for a woman.

And one last finally-finished project, also on the needles for a LONG time. This was a rainbow cake of wool, and I originally started the shawl pattern that came free with it. However, there was what I considered a very muddy colour transition from purple to green, and I had never liked it. I was at the point of planning to rip it and just give the wool away, but I came across a colour-block infinity scarf on Ravelry and thought it would be a good use for it. I discarded the parts of the yarn with the muddy colour transition, so I had to add in a yellow from my stash which was the closest match in terms of weight in order to get the required length, but I am very happy to have finally got this made up into something. Since it was just a tube knit until the required length was reached, when the ends were grafted together to make a seamless loop, it was the ideal project for this Christmas holiday, requiring no thought or concentration whatsoever. 

Currently working on socks and a scarf design which uses up leftover sock yarn.

January favourites and a beach

 Are very thin on the ground...

I spent a weekend earlier in the month with my sister. On the Sunday morning we went to a beach in West Cork for a walk and a fish and chips (fries) lunch. Although the weather doesn't look great in the photos, it was beautiful for our drive over, and was in fact lovely for our walk. Queuing for the fish and chips was very windy, the beach much less so. 

Long Strand, Castlefreke.

Peaceful Christmas wishes...

 I'm finding it hard to find a lot of merry and happy this Christmas season, peaceful is the way I am going. With my aunt gone, it was going to be my first Christmas Eve with no family gathering as my brother-in-law is too ill for my sister to travel up. But as they accepted our offer to bring a low-key Christmas to them, we will still be having our Bûche de Noël on Christmas Eve. I'll try to take and add a photo while we are down there. I think this one will be mushroom-less, I'm not sure how well they would travel that distance. 

November Favourites

 Another busy month with not a lot of creating time. I don't have any other photos either - a too-blurred one of an interesting utility box cover which is sadly way off my normal route so I'm not likely to pass it again any time soon. Maybe I'll just share it anyway, blurred or not. There was a lot of traffic on the road so I was probably rushing trying to take it. 

 Being the first of December when this posts, I will include a couple of my more favourite Christmas cards from November - it was my main card-making focus as I tried to catch up with myself. Normally I can create enough during the year that I'm only left needing a half dozen or so.

Rainbow over the entrance to the Phoenix Park during Storm Debi

Poor photo of utility box cover in Donnybrook (actually October)

The header this month is an oystercatcher on the mudflats at Warrenpoint, with a low setting sun reflecting off the sand.