Catching up

 Before it gets to be time for a May Favourites card post, I am badly behind with regular photos. 

From the bird reserve: 

There was a large assortment of bird houses installed in the trees. I'm not sure how many of them birds actually nest in , but they were certainly very picturesque, and no two the same. 

There are a few more in the small album I uploaded from that visit - https://photos.app.goo.gl/vJ2abze7sbmw8Vb56

Mid month I went down to my sister for a weekend. She works a half day on Friday, so in the afternoon we went to visit a military fort which had recently re-opened. It was interesting - a large part of it is underground - partly because it was a safe environment for storing the gunpowder. A lot of the original floors were wood, for the same reason. The volunteer who led us through the tunnel part said that as far as they know, the horses bringing the gunpowder from Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills would have been unshod, to avoid the risk of sparks from shod hooves on the road, so they were then rested for a day or two before their return journey back to Ballincollig. 

We had a great view across the bay to my sister's office, and also to Cobh, which was the last port before America for  many trans-Atlantic ships including the Titanic and the Lusitania .

https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/visitor/camden-fort-meagher

I'll only add a few photos here, but again I have a full album from my weekend trip if you have time and interest. On the Saturday we took a picnic lunch to The Lough - a small lake right in the centre of suburban Cork. I've often heard of it as C and a good friend he visits often go walking there, but it's the first time I've been and it was such an unexpected sight. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PSa6TfN9fDmfsjAY6

April Favourites

 My bad - here we are the 4th of May already and I've only just realised that I didn't update my header (now a mandarin duck from the Botanic Gardens last April) or share my favourite cards from April.

I had a blitz at using up bits and pieces from my desk, so several of the cards are using up "fragments that remain". The first herringbone card uses all sorts of mixed media backgrounds, gel prints, stencilling etc. I can throw scraps of patterned paper out without a backward glance, but tend to save all the offcuts from my own backgrounds. So when it came to the second herringbone card (a rainbow without a bow), I did actually have to cut all the strips I needed. 

We took another trip to Farmleigh last Sunday, but it was a busy week and I haven't yet had time to do anything with the photos. Today, after a quick visit to my aunt's house, we went on the the bird reserve not too far from her. It was of course the wrong time of year to see much, but the sunshine and the sound of birdsong was so peaceful and relaxing. I'll try to get along with a few photos from there too. 

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.