Anniversary time...

 I didn't post this card last Friday, as I thought I'd keep it to mark today. It's the first time since COVID that we've been home on our anniversary. Last year we planned to have our celebration dinner in the campsite restaurant the day we arrived - but it turned out to be closed on Mondays during the off-peak season.  I bought a bottle of wine and three eggs in the shop when we checked in and discovered this, and we had an omelette after setting up camp.  So we then planned to have our celebration meal on the last night before we moved on - but they had decided not to open on Tuesday either that week. We'd been out all afternoon after taking the big tent down, and had a long drive in heavy rain on very windy roads  and didn't really feel like driving back into the nearby town to buy anything, so we made do with whatever was easy to find  - I think it was crisps (chips), fruit and some biscuits.  I was a bit annoyed because when I was paying for our stay, I asked did I need to book for the restaurant (we had needed to the previous year) and specifically mentioned that we wanted to eat there that evening as we would have packed everything up.  And nothing was mentioned. There was still a chalkboard outside saying "open Tuesday to Sunday" - although when we went down to try to eat, there was a very small sign in the reception window - and we weren't the only people who had missed seeing it.  At the time of writing this, I'm not sure that we'll be having a fancy meal this year either, as I have to work that day, and I'm also trying to run the fridge and perishables down before our holiday, but I did get this light-up card made for C.

May Favourites

 Despite working several extra days, May has been a better month than most recent ones. Perhaps with the brighter evenings I've felt more like making something in the evening after dinner.

The header photo is from the Bambouseraie in the Cevennes last June. I was finding it hard to choose between that photo and one of a frog on a lily leaf, so perhaps I'll add the frog one at the end here. Choosing the dragonfly was dictated by my last card, where the dragonfly was created with fantasy film. The lizard and the card underneath it were both attempts at stencil rubbing with crayons. 

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.